Dean Edwards has revealed he took the reins as full-time manager at Willenhall after turning down UEFA Cup football in Armenia.
The former Wolves striker will combine his footballing role with his current position of general manager in a full-time capacity at Noose Lane after replacing Mel Eves.
“I went to Armenia recently for three weeks coaching at a club called FC MIKA,” said Edwards. “I was quite interested because they’re in the UEFA Cup, but my family are here and my daughter has returned to Wolverhampton and I always said I wanted a manager’s job as soon as one became available.”
He is happy to combine roles, despite stepping down as Eves’s number two earlier in the season. And he believes he can help recapture the form that
saw the pair transform the Reds into Birmingham Senior Cup winners and play-off finalists last season.
“I stepped down as assistant manager because I didn’t feel it was my role,” he said. “They got off to a great start and were in the top six, but then they drew too many games and the players lost confidence.
“The chairman Paul Garner asked me whether I’d do it a week last Tuesday – four hours before we played the second in the league team!
“I said I’d love to, but it was a bit of a baptism of fire as we lost 6-0 to Sutton Coldfield!”
Willenhall followed that up with a 2-1 defeat by leaders Leamington on Saturday.
After seeing many of the current squad over-achieve last season, Edwards is prepared to give most players time to prove themselves before making a rush of signings.
But he has let three players go – midfielder Adam Cain and strikers John “Flying Postman” Williams and Keith Russell.
“I feel Adam can play at a higher level, but he’s a central midfielder and talking is 70 per cent of the game and I don’t think I’ve heard him say three
sentences in the two years he’s been here,” said Edwards.
“He needs to go somewhere to bring that out in him, because we’ve tried.
“Being an ex-pro, I know what it’s like coming to the end of your career, so I did the amicable thing with John and shook hands with him. He’s 39 and I want to bring younger lads in.
“Keith didn’t even ring me – he just got someone to pass on a message he was injured. But it would have done him good to have had a few training sessions.
Edwards is happy to give the rest of the squad a chance to prove themselves.
“I spoke to Gary Hackett at Stourbridge and he said when they were in the bottom six, he wanted to show his players loyalty – now look where they are.
“Five, six or seven of the current squad got us to the play-off final last season and I want to show them the same loyalty.
“I don’t want to bring players in for the sake of it. I want to coach them to see if they have it in them.
“Last season lads we brought in such as Matthew Barnes-Homer (Wycombe), Dean Coleman (Kidderminster), Lucan Spittle (Bromsgrove) and Sean Platt (Halesowen) all went to clubs in higher divisions, but we can’t keep unearthing diamonds.
“Sean’s now back with us and we have three or four lads we can build a team around.”
One area Eves was keen to address right up to his resignation was to sign a goalscorer.
And Edwards agrees, adding: “I will be looking for a quality goalscorer. There are two or three centre forwards on my radar at the moment.”
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