Paul Wotton gives his first interview on becoming new Kidderminster manager

Paul Wotton gives his first interview on becoming the new manager of Kidderminster Harriers, replacing Adam Murray.

Just days after winning promotion to the National League via the National League North playoffs, Murray left the club following an approach from another club, which was Barrow, who have been relegated from League Two.

Paul Wotton was most recently in charge of Torquay United, sacked on March 1st after the Gulls had gone winless in five, and dropped from 1st with a 3 point lead, to 4th and 10 points behind the then leaders Dorking.

He spoke of his excitement, feeling privileged to take the job, looks forward to bringing in new players, wants to play beautiful football, for his team to be aggressive, strong, knowing how tough and physical it can be in what is a professional.

Interviewer: Paul, first of all, great to meet you and congratulations. You must be delighted?

Paul: No, thank you very much. I am absolutely thrilled, really excited to be here. It’s a tremendous club and feel very privileged to be the manager.

Interviewer: Presumably when you heard that the opportunity was there, you were in on the radar straight away as they say.

Paul: Yeah. Well, obviously Adam did a very good job and has moved on. You know, I heard of the interest. Obviously very excited, really keen to meet Dean and the chairman and it’s all gone very very well and like I said really pleased to be here. Excited, just want to get going now.

Interviewer: Clearly you’ve got experience particularly in National League South with Truro and Torquay United. That will stand you in a good state really.

Paul: Yeah I’ve got experience National League South, played in the Championship, League One, League Two as assistant manager in League One and league Two for numerous years as well. So I’ve been in football all my life since I left school and yeah plenty of experience. So, you know, I back myself definitely and really looking forward to it.

Interviewer: Any manager coming in at this time has to hit the ground running. Obviously, it’s a very busy time of the year. Perhaps particularly so happens because having gone through the playoffs, of course, they could be seen as being like three weeks behind other sides in terms of recruitment really.

Paul: Yeah, you could say we’re a little bit behind the curve recruitment wise, but you know, the the hard work has already started. There’ll always be loads of players always. It’s just choosing the right ones that that fit, you know, the the personality of the football club, the DNA, the the ethos, the what I’m looking for in players. Like I said, it started, it’s always a really really busy time. Anyway, like I said, there’s lots of players still still available, so it all be good.

Interviewer: Since it became public that you got the job, have you had players contacting you?

Paul: One or two? Yeah, it’s non-stop, you know. It’s funny. Your phone’s quiet and then all of a sudden your phone’s blowing up. So there’s always agents and players contacting you. So yeah, I’m very calm and relaxed about it and I’m sure we’ll pick the right ones.

Interviewer: I know Dean Holdsworth has been doing a lot of work in the background as regards the retained players, the ones Harriers want to keep, would you be able to tell us if you can publish that list soon or I believe that’s getting published on Monday.

Paul: So that’s just around the corner there.

Interviewer: And in terms of your backroom stuff, how you looking on that front?

Paul: Yeah, we’re getting there. Hopefully my assistant will be confirmed today. Negotiations going on as we speak and then there’s already the existing staff that are here which I’m looking forward to meeting next week and get going.

Interviewer: Tell us about your sort of ethos when it comes to football. What style of football you like to play?

Paul: Well, we all want to play beautiful football, all of us. You know, I’m a football purist. I like winning football. Simple as that. I like to be front footed. Like my teams to be aggressive, strong. It’s a very physical league. We’re going to have to be ready for that. I like to play forward, plenty of entries in the box and attacking football and out of possession. I like to go after teams. So, you know, it’s just I like to play. It’s my ethos really. My philosophy is to try and win.

Interviewer: It is a big step up though, isn’t it? From either the north or the south to to the National League now.

Paul: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s pretty much a professional league, isn’t it? So, you know, there’s some massive variation in budgets and so on, but we’re looking forward to it. Ready for the challenge.

Interviewer: And if you look around Aggborough, as you well know, you probably been here before, it’s all here, isn’t it? Really, it’s in place.

Paul: No, it’s perfect. I mean, the ground’s great. You can see the pitch is being relayed now. The training ground’s fantastic. I’ve actually played here in a league game. I played here in FA Cup game as well a long time ago, the atmosphere is great. You know, the fan base is going to be critical to everything we do, they’re really passionate emotional group of fans, which is great. That what I’m like as a person as well. And we’re going to have to make this an absolute fortress.

Interviewer: Yes, they certainly got behind the side towards the end of the season when they’re on that great run through the playoffs. And if you get off to a good start, you’ll get that behind you obviously.

Paul: Absolutely. And that’s, you know, it’s important to get them all on side, of course, you know, like I said, there it’s a tremendous football club. You know, it’s a it’s a really united football club. Everyone’s together and we’re going to have to all be together to to achieve what we want to achieve.

Interviewer: In terms of the retain list, you’ve obviously presumably been through that with Dean Holdsworth, so you know who the club wants to keep. Are you happy with that or are you likely to make changes to that?

Paul: No, I think we’re pretty much there. We’re pretty much there. There’s a few phone calls to be made today. There’s obviously some players under contract as well. So you know, it’s important I bring in the players that I want to bring in as well. And the players who don’t want to be here anymore, then they move on. That’s football.

Interviewer: And inevitably, there’s a cut off point with players who are offered deals presumably, they’ve got a date by which they’ve got to make a decision.

Paul: Yeah, there is. But like I said, that’s all in hand. That’s all in hand. And the retained and release list will go out on Monday.

Interviewer: You probably don’t need me to tell you, but one position you’re going to have to fill now is goalkeeper.

Paul: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s an important position, isn’t it? So yeah, like I said, it’s it’s that’s part of the recruitment, we need a couple of goalkeepers and it’s obviously really critical, you know, Dibble did very very well, he’s good goalkeeper. We’re going to have to make sure we replace him.

Interviewer: What would your aims for next season be? Realistic aims.

Paul: We’ve got to look up, you know, it’s important to… it’s going to be a challenge, you know, we we all know that. But the the the ground here, the the club, the togetherness, a little bit of underdog, it’s a good thing, you know, we’ll go and try and upset a few people.

Interviewer: Yes. Because I always think there’s a danger of some fans saying, “Well, the main aim is to survive.” If you aim to survive, you can fall a bit short, you get relegated. If you aim for mid- table, you fall a bit short, you’re still safe.

Paul: Yeah. Look, you just got to aim to do as best as you possibly can. That’s a really really boring answer, but you’ve just got to go into every game believing you can win it and we will.

Interviewer: And in terms of the sort of players you’re going to be looking at, are they sort of National League, ex-Football League? Where are you looking?

Paul: I think National League experience is going to be really, really, really important. I said it’s a big step up from the league below. Football League as well, you’re going to need some experience. We’re also going to need some young legs as well. So, get a nice blend of all of it.

Interviewer: And you’re the sort of manager who likes to use the loan system. Most managers here have over the years.

Paul: I think it’s critical. I think it’s going to be really, really important. So we need to get the loans right. But those loans won’t happen very rarely at the start of preseason, you know, because managers want to keep their players in for pre-season, for numbers. So, already, you know, making plans for that and they’ll be critical.

Interviewer: And in terms of a scouting system, I only ask this because clearly your career at large has been based in the south-west. Have you got a scouting system, you know, for other parts of the country?

Paul: I know people all over the country. So I live in Plymouth. I haven’t always worked in Plymouth. So it’s, you’ve been in professional football as long as I have, then I know my contact list is is very very big.

Interviewer: I assume you’re not going to commute from Plymouth every day.

Paul: Absolutely not. No, I’m all in. Do you know what I mean? It’s, when you’re a football manager, you have to move. Simple as that. And no, I’m all in and I’m fully committed to Kidderminster Harriers.

Interviewer: And presumably from here on in it’s going to be absolutely flat out as I mentioned right at the start, you know, you’re playing catch-up to a degree.

Paul: It’s not a huge amount, but you are playing catchup to a degree. Catch up to a degree, but you know, it’s for any manager at this stage of the season is full tilt anyway. So it’s you know, it’s that’s it’s what I’m used to. You know, I rebuilt a a squad at when I went in. There was there was one player and I rebuilt a squad at Truro as well. Assistant manager at Plymouth. You’re rebuilding all the time. So, it’s recruitment’s part and parcel of football.

Interviewer: And it’s a project here presumably?

Paul: It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not going to happen overnight. There’s no quick fixes to anything in football, you know, we just work as hard as you possibly can. I’m thrilled that we’ve got the whole pre-season to work. You know, like I said, the training facilities are fantastic, and we just work hard every single day, try and get constant improvement and we’ll give it a right good go on the pitch.

Interviewer: It must have been a benefit having Dean Holdsworth here actually because obviously there’s that degree of continuity to start with. He knows the players but also if you come in and you’re starting cold from the ground up and that would be very difficult.

Paul: Very difficult. You know he’s been great so far, when we met we got on straight away, chairman’s a great guy as well. So now we’re all in.

Interviewer: Final point you know that there is obviously expectation. The club’s on a bit of a high it’s just been promoted. It’s managing that expectation to a degree as well.

Paul: Well, the expectation will always be there in football. It’s part of the game, and I’m not here to dampen expectation at all. It’s, you know, said the fans are the fans, the football club is on and up, you know, because they hey achieved a a fantastic achievement last year. A great achievement and I would never take that away from anyone. So, we just got to try and keep that momentum going.