Ex-Chelmsford boss regrets club's full-time move

Harrop said going full-time had some benefits, including helping to build Chelmsford City's profile [Tiego Grenho / Chelmsford City FC]

The former boss of Chelmsford City said he regretted pushing the football club to go full-time.

Angelo Harrop was sacked by the National League South side on 2 April with six games of the season remaining.

The 37-year-old signed a two-year deal in the summer with the aim of promotion to the National League, but he had also touted the Clarets as a potential English Football League side within five years.

He said: "In hindsight, for me, it was the wrong decision. Because, when we did go full-time, we weren't ready for it."

"It was my decision to push it to go full-time... I thought it would benefit the club.

"We wanted to get the crowds up, we wanted to build the profile, which in my opinion we've done.

Chelmsford City chairman Spencer Gore said Harrop is a "lovely guy" [Tom Williams/BBC]

Harrop added that there is "a lot more" to going full-time than just training all week.

He told BBC Essex sports reporter, Warren Muggleton, that the squad changed training grounds three times, switched gyms, and signed 18 new players.

While Harrop had "total respect" for owner and chairman Spencer Gore despite his dismissal, he said that their targets were always intended to be long-term.

"I needed time and I needed patience, and unfortunately, I didn't get that in the end.

"It makes you realise that [in] football management you're only as good as your last few games, and I was very, very disappointed, but I took it on the chin."

Gore said he made the decision using data, and he felt that the team had begun "relying on luck".

"[It] takes the emotion out of it, because if it was down to emotion, Angelo would still be here, because he's a lovely guy," he told BBC Essex sports reporter Tom Larsen-Wright.

"[We said] we're going to make mistakes when we go full-time because we've never done it before, so the sooner we do it, the sooner we make those mistakes."

The club are currently 11th in the table, four points off the play-offs with four games remaining.

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Related internet links

• BBC Sport - National League South table