Achieve By Unity - Reviving Yeovil Town

Chris Ball Takes Over At Yeovil Town

Yeovil Town chairman, Scott Priestnall, has today announced the managerial appointment of Chris Ball. Priestnall confirmed that previous manager, Darren Sarll, had been relieved of his duties with immediate effect after just a year in charge at the club. It is unclear whether there was an internal fall-out at the club or not, but Yeovil fans have been left in shock after the sudden changes at the club.

Plenty of eyebrows have been raised at the appointment, with Chris Ball offering no previous managerial or coaching experience to date. Yes, he may have a few coaching badges to his name, but his playing experience was only at a regional/local level and to most he is an unknown in the game. Many believe this to be an act of desperation on behalf of the Yeovil board and supporters are said to be naturally worried about the future of their team and what the upcoming season has to offer under their new boss. One supporter at the ground today was reported as saying “The board have made an absolute mockery of our club and it's unforgivable”.

Chris Ball will attend his first press conference tomorrow, in order to introduce himself to the fans and outline his vision for the club.

Ball Promises Fans Long Term Success

New Yeovil manager, Chris Ball, faced the media for the first time today as he undertook his first press conference since taking over in his new role. The common theme throughout was the future of the club as Ball promised he would bring long term success.

Ball said that he'd sat down with the board to discuss the club's vision and they'd come up with a 5 year plan together. “In the first instance, it's important that we compete this year. We don't belong in the National League and anything short of a playoff spot must be regarded as failure", Ball said.

The new boss went on to explain that he was targeting 2 promotions in the next 4 seasons as he felt League One is the minimum level the club belongs at, whilst strongly hinting that he will put an emphasis on the youth coming through the club and look to develop their best talent for the first team as much as he can. The conference left majority of Yeovil fans feeling upbeat and there was an air of excitement around the ground afterwards. Not everyone shared the same views though as one fan was reported as saying “This fella is a dreamer. Nothing but a dreamer".

There's no shying away from Yeovil's rapid decline through the English football pyramid over recent years.  Having spent 8 seasons in League One from 2005, finishing in the bottom half in 6 of those, they eventually recorded a 4th place finish and a shock playoff win to see them promoted to the Championship during the 2012/13 campaign. They only managed one season in the second tier though, with only 8 wins from their 46 games and were immediately relegated finishing bottom of the division. A disastrous campaign in League One followed, where they again finished bottom of the table to record successive relegations. Despite being one of the favoured sides to go back up, 4 seasons in League Two followed in which the club struggled in all of them finishing between 19th and eventually 24th to suffer heartbreak and drop out of the football league in 2018/19.  Again, they failed to gain an immediate promotion, finishing 4th during the 2019/20 campaign. It's fair to say that the Yeovil fans really haven't had much to celebrate over the past few years and will certainly be hoping for a change in fortunes.

Cullen Joins Yeovil

I quickly moved to utilize the affiliation we have with Swansea City by bringing in 21 year old striker, Liam Cullen, on loan for the season!

Cullen is a bit of an unknown quantity, having made only 6 senior appearances for The Swans. They all came last season and he managed to bag one goal for the club. His loan move to us will be the first time in his career he has been away from Swansea, but with such strong attributes for a player down at our level, he was well worth the punt. And he isn't costing us anything in wages anyway, due to Swansea being our parent club, so there really is very little risk and it was a no brainer to bring him in.

Cullen has a determined personality and is a tidy finisher, with a good work rate as well. He'll play alongside a target man for us and will hang on the shoulders of the defenders for those telling through balls and knock ons. He has decent heading ability too for when those crosses come in from the wide areas. 

Liam Cullen could well turn out to be a 20 goal a season striker at National League level....we hope!