An update from Manager, Calum McIntyre

Chester FC Manager Calum McIntyre provides the following update…

Firstly, I want to say a genuine and sincere thank you for your support during 2024/25. The support the team received from August to May was incredible and we genuinely gave everything we could to reward you with that Promotion we are all so desperate for.

There were some special moments throughout the season and your support was massively appreciated throughout. The Play-Off games were really special, the scenes when Burkey sealed our first ever Play-Off Win at the Harry Mac end before THAT afternoon in Kidderminster. The scenes at full-time were everything we have been trying to build between the team and the supporters.

The disappointment from losing in the Promotion Final hasn’t gone away for me just yet. The players gave everything against a top side but it just didn’t go our way on the day.

It’s important to congratulate Scunthorpe United on their Promotion and also the Champions, Brackley Town. I was proud of the way our entire club conducted themselves after a disappointing result. Showing a bit of class in both victory and defeat is important for a proper football club.

The reaction from the fans after the final whistle showed a key component for any success at Chester Football Club; a real togetherness between everyone at the club.

The nature of football is that less than 48 hours after the final whistle, we were in the Boardroom discussing next season. Conversations were underway with our squad by Wednesday as we compiled our Retained List. Jordan Hunter, Dan Turner, Jack Lambert, Ollie Heywood, Reece Daly and Adam Bott all left the club at the expiry of their Contracts and we wish all of them the very best for the future.

During my time at the club, the list of Players on the Retained List who are categorised as “Discussions Ongoing” are players that we wish to retain but have not received a formal contract offer yet.

There are a multitude of reasons for this ranging from negotiations being genuinely ongoing to administrative time constraints. I would hope to see the vast majority of players we listed in this bracket remain at the Club for 2025/26.

I am pleased that Tom Peers, Jack Bainbridge, Iwan Murray and Nathan Woodthorpe signed new deals, joining Connor Woods, Dec Weeks and Harrison Burke in being under contract for next season.

Let’s address the Harrison Burke situation.

Harrison has been IMMENSE for Chester Football Club having progressed through the Juniors, the Academy and then developed again within the First Team. There is naturally a massive amount of interest in Harrison and the opportunity may well arise for him to move up the Football pyramid.

He deserves massive credit for the way he has performed but equally the way he has carried himself when naturally there has been speculation about his future. We spoke at the beginning of January where it was explained he would not be for sale during the window and we spoke again in March time over a coffee to discuss what the end of the season may look like.

If the time is right for Harrison to take the next step in his career as a professional footballer, he will do so with the absolute best wishes of everyone at Chester Football Club. He deserves the opportunity to test himself further up the pyramid and has made a massive mark during his time at Chester.

Football Clubs are judged on results and rightly so, but over recent years, real work has been put into our football department to ensure we protect ourselves accordingly, maximise our assets and continue to develop on the pitch by doing things properly on the football side.

We have taken steps to ensure that we would get the correct market value for Harrison to ensure that we can continue to develop on the football pitch. Fees for footballers are driven by a multitude of factors but please also be aware that the word “Undisclosed” is not a code word for “peanuts”.

We are structuring Pre-Season a little differently this year. We have changed the order in which we play certain games with trips to Bury and Runcorn Linnets up first before hosting an EFL club on the 19th. We will visit Colwyn Bay and will finish at home to Carlisle United.

There is obviously a free weekend in there where we are hoping for a slightly different Pre-Season fixture that our fans will be excited about. Hopefully we will be able to communicate this to our supporters very soon.

One key area we are looking to improve on is our Points return in the opening fixtures of the season, particularly those early away games.

I have a plan to improve the Squad and retention is the first key part of that. We have good players and a good changing room and we did to not rip that up and start again. We wanted to add six players to the group and acted quickly to secure the first of those with Tom Leak and then James Jones.

We wanted to add two central defenders having finished the season with only Connell and Harrison with us in that position. Leaky finished the season with us really well and James comes to us at a great age with real experience of what is required to push for Promotion.

I want the players we add to the group to be of real top end quality for the division that improve us in key areas. That is the simple description of what we intend to do. We have targets but we won’t rush our recruitment.

On recruitment, not everything works out and it can be easy (me included) can be guilty of only remembering the ones that perhaps don’t work out! We took an approach last season to cast our net a bit wider and recruit some players outside of the Geographical area and this didn’t necessarily bring the improvements we had hoped for and is something that we won’t be doing this time around.

When assessing our recruitment, we started from scratch in my first season and built a strong core squad before finding recruitment tougher the following season and we were unable to upgrade the group during the season for reasons well documented.

I am generally really pleased with the players we have brought to the club over the previous three seasons. Tom Peers became the second forward we have brought to the club who has scored over 20 goals in a season, with only two players doing so in the last decade.

We acquired Charlie Caton on a free transfer before generating a significant transfer fee within 18 months of bringing him to the club. Slightly differently, we made a decision to offer Wyll Stanway a contract (having been non contract and made just 11 appearances for the club prior to May 2022) before generating a significant five figure fee when he moved into the EFL.

It’s a competitive market but in recent seasons we have been able to sign some players that have taken the club the closest it has been to Promotion back to the National League.

We want a balanced squad positionally but we have to have the right blend of experience, physical attributes and the right characters required to progress out of this division. We have assessed where we can improve from last season to this season and are doing what we can to ensure we have the personnel to do that. We really believe in what we are trying to bring to the club.

Honesty and transparency are really important to me so I want to share something with you.

I have a real regret and frustration from last season and it is that I became another one of those managers that talks about Playing Budgets and resources regularly. This league has become really silly for it, with managers offering a constant commentary around who spends what and I played my part in that last year – perhaps out of frustration – at the nonsense that gets spouted about the Club.

It is remarkable how many teams appeared to have a better season than us while spending more money than us and getting less points than us along the way! There is a perception of Chester, externally, that has not reflected anything like the reality for several seasons now.

We are all united on what the goal is for this Football Club. We want Promotion to the National League and we believe we can do it. We need to do it without boasting one of he biggest budget in the division, without paying 52 week contracts, without having full-time players.

Yes, these are challenges but they need to be embraced by everyone involved and it is vital that message comes loud and clear from me. It’s important that I communicate to our supporters that despite the obstacles in our way, we are united in our belief that our goal can be achieved.

I’ve said my piece on the task ahead and you won’t hear me talking and complaining about budgets, resources and financial constraints during the season ahead, it I can seem disrespectful to our Supporters who finance every single penny we spend on the football team.

On that exact point, I want us to be as ambitious as possible and (like all clubs) I really hope we are able to increase what we can spend on the football pitch this season on the back of last season’s success.

We had 3,500 home supporters in the ground for the Buxton game. A £10 Boost the Budget donation from each of those would give us an additional £35,000 to spend which could’ve got us nearly three players last season.

The funds from Season Ticket Sales, Boost the Budget and even CFU Membership fees all play their part in helping us improve the Football Team. My work is to try and get £2 value for every £1 we spend to allow us to compete at the top end of the division and I am looking forward to trying to do that.

The Promotion Final still seems very raw but lots of work is going on behind the scenes in preparation for next season.

Last season needs to be the starting point for more momentum, for bigger crowds, for bigger revenues and better results. It is all linked.

Once again, Thank You. Thank you for your support up and down the country. Thank you for the miles you do and for the time and money you spend with us.

There will be real highs and lows ahead, like there are in any season, but I will guarantee you that Me, My Staff and YOUR Players are absolutely committed to fighting for Promotion again for ten more months.

Thanks for everything, let’s get ready to do it again, one more time.

Calum McIntyre, Manager.