LINNETS LOVING IT
How thinking outside the box is firing the Linnets
Chairman Stephen Cleeve is setting his sights high at King’s Lynn Town
KING’S LYNN Town are one of the unfolding stories of the season. In the thick of the National League North title race, Ian Culverhouse’s side are thriving following on from last season’s promotion out of Step 3.
Off the pitch it’s been a big leap too but there’s plenty going on behind the scenes as they aim to keep up with their high-flying squad.
“We’ve coped well,” chairman Stephen Cleeve says. “We’ve had some ground improvements done and we’ve got more to do. We’re working hard on it.
“The main problem is there are so many different areas and you’re always trying to build on what you’ve got.
“If you look at it that the manager looks after everything on the pitch and the chairman has to look after everything off the pitch.
“Off the pitch there are so many areas – for example, we haven’t got a community scheme, we haven’t got a BTEC scheme – we hopefully will next year.
“We do things for the community. For example, if you can’t afford a ticket, we’ll buy you one. I don’t know if anyone else is doing that.
It’s a self-certification thing, no forms or panels to appear against. You just say you can’t afford it and we have a sponsor who buys the tickets.
“So all of that is very positive. The big jump for me is it becomes, and this phrase isn’t quite right, but it becomes a ‘real football club’ at Step 2. It’s not something you do as a bit on the side, it’s something that is all encompassing.
“I love doing things that are little bit outside the box and looking at all the ideas. Because we haven’t really got a board of directors at the moment – you could argue that’s a positive or a negative and that might change soon – but it enables us to make quick decisions and not have meetings about meetings.”
Cleeve believes the bumper crowd of 4,019 that saw Lynn beat York City shows how far they’ve come.
“Before I got involved Lynn I looked at clubs because I thought there’s no point trying to get involved with a club and then sitting there on my own with a dog,” he says.
“I wanted to make sure it could go on. I’ve always said King’s Lynn could be a League One football club. If you look at the crowd that day it beat six League One and League Two teams.
“Our challenge is to make those people come again next week and converting them into regular fans.”
Against the Minstermen, 700 supporters were Under-16 and scarves and merchandise have been flying out of the club shop, which Cleeve points out as one indicator of their growth.
With Culverhouse’s side forging their way at the top of the division, it’s forcing the club into thinking about the next level, should it pan out that way.
“I would love to go up, if we could, and I’m sure everyone around the club would do,” Cleeve says. “We had to put in two extra turnstiles this season to get the ground grading but we tried to futureproof and we put in four. We’ve got a segregated area in, a new toilet block, a new catering unit.
“We’d need a medical room and one more press seat and that’s it. So from a ground perspective we could do it easily.
Dream
“Everyone thinks there would be more travelling. Going to Torquay would be long distance, for sure, but taking them out of it, we go long distance most weeks anyway. This season we’ve had five overnight trips – that would probably be a similar amount in the National League.
“Obviously players want to get paid more when they go up – I don’t know why that is! But, seriously, the other thing would be the fulltime, part-time, hybrid and all the rest of it.
“That’s something we would have to think about. The manager would decide. There is an argument it’s easier to recruit full-time footballers, especially youngsters, because they want to be in that mould and live that dream. “The biggest problem is where we would train. We’d have to get on the pitch in the daytime, which should be easier, but it’s something we’d have to think about.
“We’re trying to work out how to build a new training complex where we can do a lot more in the community as well as having our own base for the first team. That’s something we want to do anyway.”
Currently there is one 3G pitch in King’s Lynn owned by the council. Often the first team players are waiting for a friendly kickabout to finish before they can get on to prepare for some of Non-League’s biggest names.
Secured
After a brief fall-out, Culverhouse returned to the club last season for a second spell and led them to promotion through the super play-offs. Of course, with their current position the former Norwich City assistant is getting extra attention himself and the club recently secured him to a two-and-ahalf year deal. “Before he came back the second time he said what contract do you want me to sign and I said, ‘You don’t need to sign one’.
“My thing was, we need to get back together and make this work. “There was a bit of confusion before that, really it was nonsense and should never have happened. I said, ‘We’ll get this working properly this time’.
“At the beginning of the season I said if he’d like a contract then I’d be happy to discuss it. He had a think about it – then he told me to sit down when he gave me an envelope with his contract thoughts!
“It’s a terrific thing for the club to have him signed up. He’s a phenomenal coach. The club means a lot to him, the players enjoy being with him, he’s got great ideas.
“There’s no release clause, he didn’t ask for it and there’s no point. At the end of the day, you wouldn’t want to stand in anyone’s way and equally for the club to grow players need to see he’s committed.
“That way they will come and it makes everyone’s life easier and gives us some stability. I would have liked to have signed him up for this life and the next one!”
The Linnets had a break yesterday with scheduled opponents Leamington in FA Trophy action before they hit the run-in starting with Gloucester City on Monday evening.
“Whatever happens it’s been a fantastic season,” Cleeve said. “I’m sure it will be exciting.”