More manoeuvres on the managerial merry-go-round

By Ian Townsend

A new manager for Aveley, and no manager at Brightlingsea Regent or Kingstonian

It's been a peculiar twenty four hours in the world of Bostik League management.

Back in August, when we were celebrating James Webster's 400th match in charge at Brightlingsea- and the fact that he had a better win ratio than Arsene Wenger- the expectation was that he would go on to have further success with Regent. Seven years, four promotions and a first ever Bostik Premier Division campaign just begun, it seemed very much that the marriage between Webster and the club was as strong as ever.

Little did we know that he was experiencing the seven year itch!

On Tuesday morning when Aveley- managerless since the departure of Terry Spillane- announced that they were making a managerial announcement at 10 PM that evening, it seemed likely that the strange timing involved meant that the new manager in question was completing his final match with someone else. Despite this, unless perhaps you were in Aveley or Brightlingsea, there was little speculation that Webster was the person involved.

Yet at 10PM Aveley caught most of us by surprise by announcing the appointment of James Webster- and that his Assistant Chris Smith was also making the move to Parkside.

This, of course, leaves Regent without a manager- but they have been joined in this situation by Kingstonian, who this morning announced that their manager Craig Edwards has resigned from his post with immediate effect- bizarrely, after losing his last match as K's manager against Webster's Regent last night! We don't believe that Craig is about to turn up at the Taydal Stadium, where coach Ryan Salter has been placed in temporary charge!

For the Aveley perspective on the situation, please click here.

For the news from Kingstonian, it's here.

And finally for Regent, it's here.

We'd like to wish James and Chris the best of luck at Aveley, to send our best wishes to Craig, and to wish Regent and Kingstonian luck in their search for replacements.

Where next?

The Prince of Regent becomes the Premier of Parkside We caught up with James Webster, new manager of Aveley, to find out what prompted his decision to leave Brightlingsea Regent after more than seven years in charge. It was rather emotional.
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