AFC Totton
Jimmy Ball and AFC Totton agree new 5 year deal to develop the entire football club
Club Chairman Stephen Snow (left) met this week with Jimmy Ball to tie up this significant deal.
AFC Totton manager Jimmy Ball has committed his future to the club by putting pen-to-paper on a long-term contract.
The former Forest Green Rovers boss, who has also coached at Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City, and was assistant manager to Paul Tisdale at Stevenage, arrived at the Snows Stadium in March and achieved a 70% win record in his 10 league and cup games to round-out the 2021/22 season.
Despite missing out on a Southern League Div.1 South promotion play-off spot on the last day of the league season, the Stags were nevertheless quick to taste success under the new manager by winning the Southampton Senior Cup for the first time since 1982 with a 3-0 victory over Folland Sports in the Final at St. Mary’s Stadium in May. And Ball has hardly stopped working since the end of the season, having already brought four new players into the club with others known to be under consideration, as he rings the changes to ready the squad for the upcoming 2022/23 campaign.
The Directors of AFC Totton have made no secret of their ambitious plans for the club both on and off the pitch, and Ball has signalled his intentions to deliver on the football-playing side by agreeing to a five-year contract that gives him overarching control of everything from Under-7s to the First Team until the summer of 2027.
AFC Totton manager Jimmy Ball.
Check out AFC Totton TV's interviews with Jimmy and Stephen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GQq6lR1IfY
https://youtu.be/ZiP_2qk8d7w
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“What drove the decision to sign a five-year contract is to create cohesion and continuity about how we’re trying to do things, to become part of the club’s dream and ambition which was what excited me about taking the job in the first place,” said Ball.
“I didn’t really hesitate. It shows a lot of belief in me and, obviously, my commitment to the football club, as well. The ambition is to win, first and foremost… basically, if you’re winning, you’re succeeding and you’re developing and kicking on… We’re looking to be successful, to climb leagues, to do special things.”
The son of 1966 World Cup-winner and former Southampton player and manager Alan Ball Jr., cites Dorking Wanderers, Sutton United, Barrow and his own former employers Forest Green Rovers as examples of other clubs who have risen up the ranks of non-league football, in the way he wants to see AFC Totton emulate.
He brings with him the experience of having built a football club from the ground-up during several years of coaching in the United States, beginning in 2009, when, working alongside his newly-appointed AFC Totton assistant manager Lewis Fennemore, he established Issaquah Soccer Club as one of the most successful football organisations in the local area of Seattle, Washington. And with the full backing of the AFC Totton board, he is looking to do something similar at the Snows Stadium.
“To have a whole football club is the aim, with pathways in place that can bring young kids from as young as Under-7s, through to our academy and enable them to work their way to the first team. We want to get really good coaching into young players, watch them enjoying themselves, being unafraid to make mistakes – it’s massively important. You can’t click your fingers and have it overnight, but we’re aiming to build a ‘Whole Club’ approach that will reap rewards in the future.”
AFC Totton Chairman Stephen Snow, who was in attendance to oversee Jimmy Ball signing on the dotted line, echoed those sentiments:
“Jimmy wants to have success, like AFC Totton. The immediate objective is to gain promotion to the Southern Premier League. But it’s also the ambition of building a better club and that’s about developing players of all age groups, developing them into being not just better players but going beyond better. And we believe that Jimmy’s got that skillset that will undoubtedly help these players, so we’re really looking forward to his time with us.”
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
