Southend chairman issues update on club’s progress, restructure, leadership and more

Southend United chairman Justin Rees issues an update on the club’s progress, restructure, leadership and much more.

Rees gave an honest and transparent interview, his explanations regarding the changes and outlook for the future, earning praise from fans left optimistic having check out what he had to say.

A ‘breath of fresh air and the polar opposite to Ron Martin’ fans say, another adding ‘you can’t be anything other than impressed with our chairman’.

Interviewer: So Justin, we’re speaking at the end of the 25-26 campaign and two full seasons since that takeover. What’s your initial reflection on the last 12 months?

Justin: “Yeah, I think the first year from the takeover was easier to bring stability, you just had to do the basics, pay the bills, restore a bit of normality.

“The second year we’ve started to make some changes, difficult changes that that ultimately we think are for the benefit of the club, but but could be more challenging. So, it’s been a the usual season with ups and downs. But hopefully we’re heading in the right direction as a club.

Interviewer: “Looking back 12 months ago in the aftermath of the promotion final, what’s been done to try and capitalise on the momentum that was brought both on and off the pitch?”

Justin: Yeah, on the pitch, yeah, the obvious one is we invested in the squad further as we’ve done year on year. We had a really solid base. Not only did we make the playoffs, but we’re third I think in the form table from sort of Christmas onwards. So we went into last summer despite the heartache against Oldham. We went in in a strong position. We invested on the back of that. Made our signings earlier. You know, no embargos to speak of for the first time sin a while. And you I think if you look back, we we got off to a really good start and sort of August last year.

“Off the pitch, there was wonderful momentum after Wembley. Such a feel-good factor again despite the result, that whole playoff run was just incredible and you saw that in season ticket sales, merchandise sales, etc. So really appreciate the fans getting behind the team as they’ve always done, because everything we do is is built off the back of that support.”

Interviewer: “Like you said, it’s the highest number of season ticket holders for more than 50 15 years with a record number of shirt sales too. How much of a source of pride is it that FL fans are flocking to see their local club and how do we keep growing that number?”

Justin: “Yeah, I mean it’s it’s a huge source of pride. You know, we are you know probably with Carlisle the biggest side in the National League, we’re really well supported. We bring the city together like nothing else does here. And it’s our purpose, you know, we want to bring people together. We want to make them happy through football.

“People, you know, that have been around Southend a lot longer than I have have really talked about how you see a lot more kids these days wearing Southend kit as opposed to, you know, West Ham, Tottenham, etc, so I think that’s a great source of pride for everyone and we want to keep doing better in every single way and keep the community coming down to Roots Hall to support the teams.”

Interviewer: “Yeah. And we capped off the season by winning our first ever domestic cup with the Isuzu FA Trophy. Is that a marker to demonstrate the recent progress that the club has made?”

Justin: “Yeah, to a degree. I think that the trophy can be a little polarising. Of course, promotion is the holy grail. We got to get back in the EFL, but I think it’s certainly a reflection of depth, you know. We have a really strong squad particularly compared to a couple of years ago and I think it’s you more of a marker of depth. You know, you have to rotate the team. Long gruelling season, lots of games and to be able to win. Most of those were on the road.

“I think it really shows the the quality and depth of the squad. Delighted that we won the trophy. You Wembley is bucket list for a lot of us, me included. and to be able to have ticked it off twice in a couple of years. I’m personally very grateful for and I’m sure when you saw how many people were celebrating, I’m sure we’re all grateful for the experience. The ultimate yard stick of progress will be the league table. But for me it was a really joyous moment uh that I’m grateful for. I’m glad the team bought home that trophy.”

Interviewer: “Now there’s been a restructure of both the football and non-football departments. Why did you and the board feel it was necessary to do?”

Justin: “There’s a few different answers based on the different changes at a very high level, most of it was around just we think things were set up incorrectly. There was overworked people, underworked people, leaders with too broad a remit to do the role in our opinion the way it needed to be done. So a rebalancing of tasks, more specialisation, by that what I mean is we got dedicated ops people doing ops, we have dedicated football people leading football. We’ve smoothed the work out and we’ve put more money in the areas that we felt needed investment. Of course, we’ve had to offset that with reducing um some other roles to help pay for it.”

Interviewer: “And starting with the football department, we’ve had Oliver Gage arrive as director of football and Jonathan Ducket as head of recruitment. What about their profiles and ambitions convinced you that they were the right people for the roles?”

Justin: “Yeah, delighted to have both Oliver and and Jonathan on board, starting with Oliver, he’s absolutely everything we wanted when we defined the requirement for a director of football. He’s strategic, he’s analytical, he’s got views on squad planning, he’s got the tools, I think, that can help coaches win football matches, and you know, he’s fairly young guy. He’s got really good and varied experience, which shows adaptability. He’s worked in different countries, different environments, different leagues which I think shows adaptability of mind but also character and even though he’s only been here for a short time, it’s it’s been a difficult time for him to come into the club and I’ve been really impressed with what I’ve seen from him and I think he’ll bring exactly what we wanted from that role.

“Moving on to Jonathan again, another great appointment. And when you’re hiring people, you’re hiring them for their individual skills, but also for the collective. You know, Oliver for his strengths hasn’t operated in lower leagues of England. Jonathan absolutely brings that and more. You most recently at the club up the road, but that’s really important. You know, operating at League Two, recruiting in League Two means he’s all over the National League South. He’s all over League Two. He’s aware of the under 21’s market. He’s aware of the loan market, he’s got relationships. So with John still leaving, we needed someone to step into that head of recruitment role to support Oliver and you know the coaching staff in picking the team, I think both are young, really dynamic, bought into what we’re trying to do here, bought into the vision of what this club can be, I think they’ll work really well together along with the incoming coaching team, and I think yeah, I think I think they’re a really strong base to take the club to new heights.”

Interviewer: Then the decision was made to relieve Kevin Mayer, Darren Curry, and Mark Bentley of their duties, which has understandably come as a shock to many fans, particularly after that success in the FA trophy. Why did you feel that it was needed for a change of leadership?”

Justin: “Yeah, we understand it’s, you know, probably caught some people by surprise. It’s, you know, we’re in a strong position at the moment as a club. We’re in a much stronger position as a club than we were a couple of years ago. And that is indeed down to a lot of the hard work from Kevin, Darren, and Mark, they’ve stabilised us as a essentially a playoff team. Sixth, seventh, sixth if you look at the last three years. Obviously, you know, discounting the 10 points a couple of years ago, and that achievement, you know, everyone at the club is grateful for and can’t be diminished.

“However, our ultimate aim is to look forward and and decide what we need to get into the Football League, we felt that the plan to get there maybe needed something different than the platform we’ve got today. Uh you know, we’ve got points to make up on the teams that are getting out of this league, and without getting too much into specifics, we felt we needed something different from the coaching setup to be able to achieve what our stated goals are, which is to be a stable and upward-looking EFL club.

“It’s part of the broader changes in the football department. You know, we want to get better at squad planning. We want to get better at recruitment. We want to have different ways of winning football games. So very very tough decision, extremely grateful for the platform that they’ve left behind. We’re not in a bad place. We’re in a really really good place and whoever’s coming in comes in in a much better position than when Kevin came in, so we’re all grateful for their work.

“But ultimately we want to look forward and we just felt now was the right time to make a change particularly as the coaches were moving into the final year of their contracts. So we felt like that might have been a destabilising force if that was left to linger.

“So once we made the decision, we thought we needed something different. With that in mind, as soon as last season finished, we felt was the right timing to make the change and and look forward.”

Interviewer: “In terms of building a squad for next season, retain list will show that there will be a lot of incomings over the summer. How confident are you that you can assemble a team that can challenge at the top of this league?”

Justin: “Yeah, we don’t want to be naive to the transition risk. We’re a little bit late in some aspects than other clubs because our season went longer, and we’ve got incoming people like Jonathan and and Oliver who hasn’t been here that long. So, we’re not naive to some of those risks, but it’s a long season, we’re very confident we’ll build the right team. I know there’s some departures, but we got a good core coming back and we needed some flexibility ultimately. You know, we finished sixth this year and we feel like we want to push up the table, for that almost by definition needs some so there’s a fine balance between too much transition but also the optionality and flexibility it brings. I think we’ll all keep an eye on the summer but I think with the right team working together we’ll assemble a really good squad and the nature of the open transfer window means we can keep building that squad and keep building and keep building, but we should all be confident, I think, that we’re going to have a good season and next year if we get behind all the people that have come in and all the people that will come in.”

Interviewer: And in terms of non-football, looking at that, firstly, a word on Tom Lawrence’s service to the club as he steps down as CEO, but continues as a board member.”

Justin: “Yeah, I mean, similar in some ways, some parallels to Kevin, right? Yeah, Tom has led the club through a unique period of its history and he’s done that you know with grace and you know and with a huge amount of effort and he should be very very proud of leaving the club in a much better position that he found it and again on those foundations we’ll build and we’re starting to look up and and we do so appreciative of the work that he’s done, as you mentioned, yeah he’s not going too far away he’s still a member and on our board so he’s around I’m sure he’ll still be watching games with us but we do appreciate his efforts as CEO and wish him well with his next ventures.”

Interviewer: “And Catherine Honey has been appointed as general manager. What about her experience and skill set made her a good fit for the role?”

Justin: “Yeah. So, when we look at Cath’s appointment, important to remember that with Tom stepping down, part of that was the restructure to split essentially that role in half, Oliver running all things football, and a GM now Katherine running all things non-football.

“So essentially we’re doubling the amount of leadership capacity in reflection of how big a role uh and how big a company it is and the competing priorities of football and non-football.

“Catherine has extensive events operation sports experience uh in all sorts of different venues and places, football, non- football, Olympics, baseball, you name it. But she also brings a very very strong eye for operations. One of the challenges we’ve had is maintaining an old stadium, which brings its own challenges but also offering a really good match day experience uh within the constraints of that stadium. So we think Cath will bring particular expertise there but more broadly she’s got the background, the experience, she’s local girl, plays football herself, so she’ll slot straight in. I think she’ll add a lot of value leading things off the pitch.”

Interviewer: “And a number of other staff members have departed the club. How do you feel the new structure will impact supporter experience?”

Justin: “It should ultimately strengthen it. I mentioned before I think that we’ve had issues with overworked people, underworked people. We needed to invest more in operations, particularly stadium maintenance. We’ve had issues, long-standing issues with the stadium not being ready on day one.

“Basic things that can be embarrassing to talk about. We got pigeons, toilets, soap, those things have plagued us since I’ve been here, so we wanted to invest a little bit in operations. not just Cath with her experience but a dedicated ops manager that we haven’t had in some time, and of course we’ve invested in some of the supporting structures around football as we’ve talked about, we have to offset those in other places uh which we’ve done, but ultimately we hope that any supporter that comes to the Roots Hall has a wonderful experience and we’ve got to start improving proving the basics I think which is the big focus for next year. Cleanliness, service, food, bars, etc, and I think our new structure allows us to do that.”

Interviewer: “And the club has also taken ownership of the Blue Eagle. What have you made of the refurbishments and how do you see it fitting into both the match experience and as a local community pub?”

Justin: “Yeah, I think the refurbishment’s great and a big thanks to the brewery who along with us sort of invested in that. There’s still more to come. We’re trying to put more into the courtyard, big screen in the courtyard, which I think will make it phenomenal for things like the World Cup.

“So we’re really excited about it. We’ve I’ve had a couple of experiences there already after the Wealdstone game. Also the ladies game which was incredible at Roots Hall against Colchester recently. Everyone went there after the game. So I think it’s a wonderful place for people to come together. It’s a more welcoming environment than it was before because of the money that’s gone into it. We hope fans get behind it. Of course the purpose of doing it is to bring people together but ultimately bring in a revenue stream so we can you help the club move forward.

“So, so far the support has been really good from uh the locals uh and we hope that continues and we hope it becomes a real hub of match days and World Cup games, things like that.”

Interviewer: “What upcoming changes can fans expect over the summer ahead of the new season?”

Justin: “The obvious one is is the squad. You know, it is a year where there’s going to be slightly more changes than usual. But hopefully, you know, that can excite us all. You know, football, it’s the nature of football. There’s changes. We want to achieve new things. We’re going to have new heroes come in, so hopefully everyone gets behind those people that come to the club, and I’m sure if everyone gets behind them, we’ll achieve good things.

“Off the pitch. We’ve insourced the club shop. We had some challenges as you know under the previous three years and the stock wasn’t always there and the range wasn’t always there. So, we’re hoping that that’s much different and we get to see lots of people wearing Shrimpers gear around the place.

“As I touched on before, I think next year for a lot of us around fixing the basics, right? Just trying to improve the match day experience.

“We do want to do a lot of work in the west. We’re waiting for planning permission. So, we’ve been a fraction quiet on that because it’s with the council, and obviously we need to get sooner rather than later if we’re going to do some work in the off season. And so we’re going to continue to chip away all in the background. Of course, you know, we’re still planning the larger upgrades at both the training ground and and the east end and and the surrounding car park.

“So there’s always lots going on, but perhaps the biggest change this summer is going to be with the team. And like I said, hopefully it’s a team that everyone gets behind and we come back refreshed and excited and go again in August.”