Chalmers plays the waiting game

Chief is taking calm approach

Gareth Chalmers is confident Braehead Clan will continue to strengthen the ranks as they play the waiting game in the transfer market.

The Clan hockey and operations director has been working alongside new head coach John Tripp as the duo look to bring the squad up to scratch.

The Elite League side are just a month away from their pre-season schedule getting under way, but Chalmers admits he is calm about bringing new players in after reaping the benefits of hanging back in the market in previous years.

Cha l m e r s said: “I appreciate everyone has been anxious and looking for updates on recruitment.

“Recruitment is like a game of chess. It’s about making the right moves at the right times.

“As an organisation, we have historically found that tracking the market throughout the summer and signing quality players later works much better for us.

“We don’t have the budget of Cardiff, Nottingham or Sheffield, so we have to be clever with how we bring the roster together.

“As examples, Matt Keith, Stefan Meyer, Kyle Jones, Scott Pitt and Jamie Fritsch were all signed in August.

“We are working hard to put the best possible team on the ice. If that means waiting for the players that we want to become available into the UK market, we will have no hesitation in doing that.

“Ultimately, the season is assessed at the end and not the start. However, the pieces of the jigsaw are now falling into place and we will have some exciting news coming your way soon.

“Personally, I am excited about our future and the plans we have over the next couple of years. We are certainly going through a transitional period as a club with a new head coach, a new assistant coach and a new team, but we have a very exciting seven months ahead of us.”

And Chalmers revealed he was delighted to have finally landed Tripp as his new head coach, as well as welcoming back former Clan man Brendan Brooks as the side’s new player/assistant coach.

He added: “We have being implementing a lot of timeconsuming change around the organisation.

“We took time appointing a new head coach in John Tripp and he ticks a lot of boxes for us.

“He’s someone I have known for a number of years and I am sure fans will join me in welcoming him to the club.

“Also I’d like to welcome Brendan Brooks back to the club in the player assistantcoach role.

“When we appointed John, I felt it was important that we had someone with experience of the EIHL to compliment John.

“Brendan had previously expressed interest to me about moving into a coaching role, so he was a stand- out candidate for us.

“Brendan gets Braehead, and he gets the Purple Army — welcome back.”