FARNHAM Town have already started the process of sifting through the first tranche of applications to become the club’s new manager.

Last week in the Herald, Luke Turkington revealed the reasons why he was leaving the Memorial Ground to take over at Wessex League Alresford.

Already, around 27 applications have been received – and some from highly-qualified candidates, according to chairman Paul Tanner.

Some coaches with experience in the Isthmian and Southern Leagues are among them.

Tanner hopes to get someone installed inside the next couple of weeks to give the new manager time to work with the squad before the new season kicks off.

Tanner said: “It’s not going to be easy, because of the restrictions.

“We will have to have a Zoom meeting or something to conduct interviews, but it’s not going to be easy. We can’t purely rely on CVs – we may think someone is perfect, but when we finally meet them down the line, we realise they have a personalty that doesn’t fit in with Farnham Town.”

Tanner admitted he was disappointed Turkington decided to move on – he would have liked to have kept everyone together for one more season, to see if they could replicate the successes of this season.

Promotion to the Premier Division of the Combined Counties League looked all but assured until coronavirus intervened.

“From being a manager myself, I do understand why managers move. But I don’t understand the timing of it.

“But Farnham is a club that wants to have people who want to be here, and deep down Luke didn’t want to be here with the people he was working with.

“If it was me personally, I would have given it one more season to see if we could replicate what we had achieved this season.”

Turkington said he would welcome Town players following him to Alresford, but Tanner said he didn’t expect there to be a major exodus.

“There are no contracts at our level and players are free to do what they do, but I think a little bit of football etiquette has been missed here.

“I wish Luke well – he is obviously very ambitious to have made this snap decision – but I’m not sure about it being the next step up. It’s a division up and there’s probably where he was heading with Farnham. He obviously didn’t think Farnham was the right club, to have waited 12 months to be in that same position.

“As a committee, we have spoken to a lot of our players. We don’t want someone coming in and bulldozing in their own players. We were millimetres away from getting promoted and a lot of that was down to the players.

“We want to give them the best option to stay and they were all positive about Farnham as a club and seem to know where we want to go.

“We have had a massive response so far. I look at where they have been and what they have done. It’s quite a modern situation with lots of people who like to be called coaches now rather than managers, and they’ve coached at higher clubs.

“Some are out of work and some are still in work, but we’ve had applications from coaches in Step 3, and people lower down– and some who have been working with under-23s or reserves, who are ambitious.

“We have to make the right decision. We have a lot going on at the club, and we have a lot of ambition, and we are going to have to think about this carefully.

“But we’ve had plenty to look at – some good names and some ambitious names.

“We want to get things done and dusted. If we get a quick announcement from the government – which personally I don’t think is going to happen – we need to be ready. If we hadn’t had the pandemic, we’d have reporting back for pre-season in a week or so. When I was appointed manager by Geoff Chapple, it was mid-June and I had a rally round and get going – I know what that’s like when you want to prepare.

“Hopefully, we’re a couple of weeks away from knowing who will be coming through the door.

“Bit as chairman, I wish to extend my thanks and gratitude to everyone involved with the club, from supporters to committee members, for their continued faith, support and desire to fulfil our ambitions of developing the club further.

“Looking back over my long association with the club as manager and more recently chairman, I recall the famous words of Bob Paisley: “Mind you, I’ve been here during the bad times too – one year we came second!

“Last season, finishing second and ten points ahead of the competition, will be one we won’t forget.

“Because of the pandemic, our chance of a well-deserved promotion to the Premier ended prematurely. This promotion would have been the culmination of many years of work behind the scenes to progress the coaching and development of the team.

“But thanks are due to Luke and his coaching staff for his work with the team over the past two seasons and I wish him luck with his future plans.

“As a club, we are committed to delivering on our ambitious plans to play at higher levels of football. We need a manager with a clear tactical and coaching mind, prudent budgeting skills and a strong commitment to club values.”

There is still time for applicants to get in touch with farnham to become the new manager or coach. CVs should be emailed to chairman@

ftfconline.com by the end of the month.