AS A full-time salesman for a national timber company, Dean Thomas knows a thing or two about the building trade.
It’s a good job, because this summer, the 16th he’s been involved in his 24/7 football role, has involved a bit of reconstruction.
Hinckley United have only ever had one manager and chairman since they were formed by the merger of Hinckley Town and Hinckley Athletic in 1997.
Thomas, the former Wimbledon, Notts County and Fortuna Dusseldorf player, had spent three years managing hometown club Bedworth United prior to being appointed by Kevin Downes, who’d been chairman of Town.
After finishing in a relegation zone for their first time in their history, the Knitters were handed a Blue Square Bet North reprieve with the demotions of Kettering and Darlington, and Thomas was given a vote of confidence.
Prepared
Downes quit three weeks ago, however, citing unhappiness with the way the rest of the board wanted to take a club that has flirted with liquidation continually for the last three years.
“It’s been another hectic one, hasn’t it?” says Thomas of his summer as he prepared for Tuesday night’s friendly with Nuneaton Town. “It’s been going on for three years now, but in the past I’ve managed to keep hold of an experienced Conference North base to the team.
“This year I’ve got five young lads left, so I’ve had no foundations to build a football team. It’s been mad, because once word gets around that a club has been behind on wages and there’s been unrest on the board, people start to stay away.
“But with each passing game we’re adding more players and although that might continue into the season, I don’t want to look at the team photo next April and see there’s been 25 changes. There will always be additions, but I want to try and make sure that what starts the season sees it through.”
Only Paul Lister, Mark Dudley, Jake Holt, Dan Bragoli and Ben Everton-Richards remain from last season’s playing staff, while ex-Redditch and King’s Lynn boss Carl Heggs has arrived as assistant to work alongside coach Stuart Storer.
The one main, weight-bearing joist remains however, with new chairman Mike Sutton reaffirming the board’s earlier decision to stick with the 50-year-old manager. “The Board are united in believing that they have retained the right man to take the team forward,” read a statement following Downes’ exit.
Thomas says: “Kevin gave me a chance to make a name in Non-League, which I’ll always appreciate. We had 15 good years with some ups and downs, but the board has chosen to move on, which we accept.
“There aren’t many managers who would step into this at the moment and feel comfortable. I’m used to what’s going on. There might be better managers out there, but there are certain things you have to tolerate at this football club, like there are at many clubs.
“It depends what the most important thing is in your life. I know as an individual, every manager wants to improve themselves year in, year out. They always want a bigger budget, they always want to get better players, but certainly at this level, football isn’t like that.
“I’ve had to accept certain things that have taken us backwards. We’ve drifted over the last two or three years and probably my status has gone with that as well, because three years ago we’d just lost in the play-off final and the following year we lost out on the last day of the season.
!My reputation has gone down the pan in terms of success, but I still feel as if I know what I’m doing. I still feel I can bring success to this football club whatever that might be.
“We now need to get a team together that is good enough to make it a big contest this year. I don’t want to get stuck down the bottom of the table again.”
Blemish
As a player, Thomas appeared in all four divisions of the Football League and Germany’s Bundesliga. He has been a manager now for 18 years, having won Southern League promotions and enjoyed lengthy FA Cup runs before last term’s blemish on his CV. Surely he’d like to manage higher?
“I’m 51 in December and I aspire to do better things, but I look around this place and it’s fabulous, one of the best arenas in Non-League football, says Thomas of the eight-year-old Greene King Stadium, where a record 3,411 attended last week’s game against Leicester.
“I’ve got a full-on job away from football. I do over 60,000 miles a year and have a lot of meetings to attend, so sometimes it’s very difficult to tie both in, especially when you’ve got so many internal problems. You never get a second’s peace.
“But once you step out of this level, you are talking about giving up your job because nearly every team in the Conference is full-time. I’ve got a family to look after, a mortgage to pay, and I’m happy doing what I’m doing here. It’s a wonderful club.
“There have been difficult times when I could have jacked it in and said, ‘Let someone else get on with it, I don’t need the hassle.
“But I’m still in here for the long haul. Hopefully the board can get that side of the club right, my staff and I can get it right on the football pitch and we can take the club forward. If we do, it’ll be a great story.”
