Our latest communication to supporters comes in the form of a half-hour-long in-depth video update as BBC Radio Kent’s Charles Webster spoke to the Fleet CEO on a whole range of topics from recruitment and planning to the ongoing stadium and local regeneration development, to the lease acquisition of The Rose, which re-opens this Saturday v York City.

STADIUM
In terms of the stadium development, the club continues to await the Secretary of State’s final review of the borough council’s planning application decision of last year and we are expecting that in the next three months. The interview talks of the huge level of unseen work that has gone into the development and why that cannot be underestimated in terms of its importance to the future of EUFC. 

With the Council, the local MP and vast majority of residents supportive of the scheme, it is clear the club needs it, the area needs it and it fits exactly into the Labour government’s mandate for brownfield regeneration, green belt protection and provision of new homes to meet mandatory targets in future years.

The Harbourside development is key to the sustainability of the football club – we have had great ownership and funding above the natural level of the club for a decade but we know that supporters would prefer to reduce the need for continual funding from private individuals/companies and have a model for self-sufficiency. The ultimate goal is to have a well-resourced club thriving on its own merits and that is why the work that has gone in and continues to go into the project is so vital.

As a result of all the positivity around the development, we look forward to the decision before the end of the season.

TEMPORARY NEW HOME
The club has gone on record as wanting to leave a legacy in the borough for local sports teams and other groups to utilise and we would much rather put relocation funds back into the local area rather than into a groundshare with a club elsewhere, outside our community. 

As Damian Irvine explains in the interview, work to secure our temporary home during the potential stadium build has made huge progress but any announcement on that can only come when any move is confirmed and the necessary agreements reached.

THE ROSE
The club is constantly busy off the field and there is always something going on thanks to our venue bookings and people utilising our services. Securing the lease on The Rose extends our facilities and makes lots of good commercial, community and business sense – the club has done a lot of modelling around that and around the projected turnover and benefits to us. 

From a purely football point of view, fans have missed having access to a local pub, it’s part and parcel of their matchdays, and it will complement our on-site catering and bar facilities at the Kuflink Stadium. We will also have the ability to stream our games there but aside from the football part of the operation, we very much want it to be a local hub operating for the whole community as well – somewhere to eat, drink, work, talk, come together. Having a base at The Rose will also keep EUFC very much central to Northfleet during the time we are away; it keeps us active in our natural home and will benefit from the regeneration activity around the area as well.

RECRUITMENT AND FOOTBALL PLANS
There is plenty of honest discussion in the video, too, around how our approach to the current football season was formulated, with a fresh structure put in place for recruitment that ultimately did not work out.

Head of Football Colin Gordon’s specific role and purpose was to focus on rebalancing the squad and rectify the decisions from last summer, finding new homes for players who weren’t featuring regularly and he will continue in that work on into the summer. It was important we brought someone in from outside, unlinked to the club’s previous processes, to oversee that.

In terms of recruitment going forward, that will be carried out by the manager, coaching and analytic staff. The model served us successfully previously and utilises all the tools at our disposal to aid that process. The interview explains how plans to get the right squad balance from now through to the summer and pre-season is already well under way.

That planning is going ahead at a rapid pace for next season already. We have loanees and new players in now with a firm eye on assessing who will fit our model for 2025/26 and there is a clean-slate on recruitment throughout the squad. The squad size has clearly been too high this season as a result of the recruitment in  the summer, not to mention injuries and the proactive efforts to turn around our form – but much of this has been mitigated by short-term deals or linked to appearances etc to keep the playing budget within acceptable limits.

Josh Wright has made sound choices about player recruitment already and the club has supported him in bringing those players in. While we are fighting for points with every passing game to the end of this season, should we be playing National League South football in 2025/26, it is our intention to maintain a full-time status just as we did in 2020 and just as the majority of clubs at that level – be it traditionally full-time or via a hybrid form – are now doing.

The interview explains that while this season’s results have been disappointing and nobody is sugarcoating that, securing the club’s long-term future is absolutely vital. Much work has been done in that area over the past five years off the pitch. And on it, we are working to ensure we can bounce back once again and return success to our core people – the fans – whose care for the club is felt so keenly by all of our staff and players.

This is a summary of the points raised in our latest video interview but we would urge all fans to watch the complete update below.