The thoughts of Joe Comper following the unveiling of Mark Bonner to the media.
Gills Managing Director, Joe Comper, says he is looking forward to working with Mark Bonner and believes he is the right fit for the club.
Comper was heavily involved in the recruitment of the former Cambridge man, however there was a strong feeling from within that Mark was the right person for the role.
Speaking to the assembled media on Thursday, Joe said: “We set about a detailed process but doing it quickly, so we met a lot of people in a very short space of time and initially it was about having a coffee, and meeting the person before we go into too much detail about the Football Manager.
“Firstly, let’s see if he aligns with our culture and what we want to be as a Football Club, we knew that straight away, when we left Mark, we were like “Okay great”, and we went away and did our own due diligence. We met a lot of people who told us we lack goals, we know that, but in my position I can tell everyone that we didn’t score enough goals last year. The reason I’m not the Football Manager and I’m the Managing Director is because I’m not the person who can work out how we solve that problem, so we wanted to hear from people about how you’re going to make us a team that scores goals.
“Mark showed us very clearly, he showed us clips of our team this year, when they have done good things and bad things, things that he would and wouldn’t want in his teams, it was really detailed and you could tell that he had done his homework, and there was also a clear plan of this is what a Mark Bonner Gillingham Football Team is going to look like.
“Ultimately, we believe this is the man that’s going to get us over the line which, over the last few years, hasn’t been the case, and that’s where we want to be, we believe he’s got the experience, his track record shows that he will get a team over the line, and the plan is that this year we can do that.”
Joe admitted that the process to appoint a new Manager was a stressful one:
“I think if you are a football fan you’d think hiring a new Manager is exciting or fun or interesting, and it probably was for about three hours,” he added. “After that it’s actually stressful, a lot of sleepless nights, you’re weighing it all up. What we ultimately have to decide is, who do we think is going to be the leader, who is going to be the leader for us in the club?
“There is a certain type of person that I think the Galinsons are after, their sort of character, and we need someone who is going to fit their character of six and a half thousand people who come and watch this every week.
“We wanted someone that the crowd can get behind. It feels like a nice fit, it feels like we’ve got great characters in the room, collaboration seems to be a word that is used all the time, and I think we are living that at the moment with Mark, Kenny, myself, Brad and Shannon aswell.”
A full interview with both Joe and Mark can be found on iFollow.