Robbie’s ready for the big job ahead

ROBBIE Stockdale provided a welcome breath of fresh air at Rochdale AFC this week with positive talk about his plans for the club.

The new manager signed a two-year deal last week and watched his side take on Luton Town last Saturday.

He took charge of his first game in the behindclosed-doors friendly against Barnsley on Wednesday, a day after meeting the press and outlining his vision for the future – communication with supporters and entertaining the fans featuring high on his list of priorities.

“I think it’s a really exciting opportunity,” he said. “We obviously need to recruit some players to help those already in the building, but I also want to try to align the club – it’s quite unique in that it’s fan-owned so I want to try to make sure that everybody is on board with what we’re trying to do, I want to be accessible to the fans, I think that’s really important and I think if we can get a lot of togetherness and we all have a common goal – which is to be successful – then everybody should be part of the journey.

“It would be unfair for me to speak about things that happened before I came here, but from my meetings with the board and how I feel a football club should be run, the fans are the most important part. They will be here long after any of the players, any of the staff. So what I want to do is give them an exciting team to watch, they’ve been out of the stadium for far too long, so when they come back in I want to entertain them.”