New Solihull Moors boss Jimmy Shan is insisting he's no “football snob” after dropping into Non-League to fulfill his dream of becoming a successful manager.
Shan – unveiled last Wednesday as the successor to Tim Flowers following the departure of the former England keeper last month – told The Non-League Paper on Sunday that he's determined to make the most of the opportunity he's been given.
The ambitious National League club are in promotion contention and are looking to the former West Brom manager, pictured, to lead them into the Football League.
Shan was in caretaker charge of the Baggies for 12 games at the end of last season including their defeat in the Championship play-offs. Having first joined the club's academy in 2006, he'd moved up through the ranks to manage the U18s, U21s and then the U23s.
He left West Brom last summer following the appointment of Slaven Bilic before becoming interim manager at Kidderminster in December, leading them to impressive victories over King's Lynn Town and Guiseley in his 68-day spell at Aggborough.
“When I came out of West Brom I had an immediate offer to be an assistant manager in the Football League,” Shan tells the The NLP's readers this week. “The timing wasn't right for me, I had some personal issues where my son was in a children's hospital.
“I had a couple of opportunities to be a first team coach in the Football League and several really good offers to work at academy level, but I'd made my mind up that I wanted to be a manager.
Blueprint
“To land a managerial job with very little experience would have been very, very difficult. The more the days, weeks and months passed with no opportunity I knew potentially I'd have to do something slightly different.
“The Kidderminster situation was unique. I went there on a voluntary basis knowing, along with the club, that it was never really going to be a long-term position.
“It was a perfect situation for both parties, it got me back on the grass working full-time and it enabled Kidderminster to have a highly-qualified coach come in and help shape things in terms of training schedules, programmes, pre-match and post-match meetings and for them to take a professional blueprint off myself.
“That's why I went into Kiddy and also to show I'm not a football snob, I'm prepared to get my hands dirty. I have a real strong belief in my ability, a big confidence in my ability, not an arrogance, not an ego, hence me stepping outside the Football League to try and fulfil my dreams and ambitions of being a successful Football League manager.”
Shan watched Solihull's 1-0 win over Barnet last Tuesday night – their first victory in eight games, to put them back into the play-off places. Now he wants them to kick on.
“Four points from the last two games is a good return,” he said. “Hopefully it will breed some confidence in the players and give us some momentum.
“I need to access the squad very quickly. We have a full week to work with them and put my stamp on things, without changing too much too soon, too drastically, because there's an awful lot of good things in the team.
“The goal is to become a Football League club. It's down to us to keep plugging away. I'm a competitive individual, I've got a winning mentality,
“I want the players to share that and if we can go into each game with some really good work in the week we can maintain that aim of staying around the play-offs.”
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