Gillingham Football Club appoints new manager

The Gills have been searching for a new manager after former boss Stephen Clemence was sacked a week ago today.

Transcript

00:00 So, Bartholomew, we've dragged you in on your day off because this is some pretty big news

00:03 for the Gilles. What can you tell us about their new boss?

00:06 Well, what we know about Mark Bonner so far is that this is going to be his second managerial

00:11 job since he took over as the boss of Cambridge United back in 2020. Now, there were some

00:17 questions at the start of Stephen Clements' tenure at Priestfield about how experienced

00:22 he was. Of course, it was Clements' first ever managerial role, but there's less questions

00:27 this time about Mark Bonner. He's had some great experience and some great success when

00:33 he was in charge at Cambridge. He took them up to League One for the first time in almost

00:38 20 years. He had a very famous win over Newcastle in the third round of the FA Cup, where he

00:45 beat them in their own back garden. And interestingly, he didn't have a professional playing career.

00:51 He was a manager of Cambridge United's academy team before falling into the job and leading

00:59 them for three years.

01:00 And how does his appointment fit into the club's wider plans?

01:04 Well, going into the summer window, the club is going to be wanting to make a few changes,

01:09 bring in a few new players. And we were hearing from Brad Gallant, the chairman, just a few

01:14 days ago. One of the reasons why he parted ways with Stephen Clements is because he is

01:20 really wanting to get into a position of pushing for promotion. He doesn't want to sort of

01:25 waste time. And if he was to go into the new season, allowing Stephen Clements to make

01:30 the changes to the club and bring in the players that he wanted and it didn't work out, well,

01:34 then that would have potentially been another transfer window waiting for a new manager

01:39 to come in and make the changes that they wanted.

01:41 So yeah, I mean, appointing him now, it gives Mark Bonner the summer to get his grip, get

01:47 grips with the team, bring in his own backroom staff as well, and really mould the club into

01:54 what he wants it to be going into the next season. We'll hear from him later this week.

01:59 He's expected to be talking to the press. So no doubt we'll be breaking that down on

02:03 the new episode of Invicta Sport this Friday at six.

02:05 Thanks for joining us, Bartholomew. We'll let you get back to your day off now.