Ken Brooke, the Manager of the Kent Youth League U18 side, will be at the helm of a Welling United side for the final time when the lads face Bromley in thier final match of the season on Sunday.
Ken's resignation was announced on the Welling United in the Kent Youth League website on Sunday and after having spoken to him this morning he has agreed to my reproducing his announcement in its totality on the forum.
"I wanted to take the opportunity of informing any fans that read this website that I will not be continuing as Manager of Welling United next season. I formally gave notice to Barrie Hobbins, and Gary Lisney last Monday (14 May), and I wanted to let you know.
There are many reasons for this, but I feel that the time is right for me to move on. I would like to thank Barrie for letting us use the Welling United name when we joined the Kent League as Under 15's. I would like to thank Ady and his staff for all their help last season which was both invaluable and very important. I would like to wish all Welling first team players huge success in their futures. Many of them kept a strong interest in our performances across the season.
This season we produced for the club 5 boys who represented the Kent County team, 2 players Rishi and Gabriel who made appearances for the first team in the Conference South, and the lads who represented the first team at both Kent Senior and London Senior Cup level.
Highlight of the season had to be the 2-1 win over Cray Wanderers first team in the London Senior Cup, when we had 6 under 18's who started the game.
I have been fortunate to work with some very good young players who in Ady's words have loads of potential. I hope those lads can go on, and turn that potential into becoming very good footballers.
Over the 3 years I have become a supporter of the club, and I wish the club every success under the new first team Manager. My role has always been to develop players each and every season. I feel that I have achieved that and I would like to wish all of my current squad, and those who have played for me at Welling at some point all the very best for the future.
Ken"
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YOUTH are the future
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"The worst thing you can do is make a committment and not meet it and I understand that." Barrie Hobbins 14 August 2010
I would like to thank Ken for all his hard work over the past years. he has put an imense amount of time and effort into the team ensuring that they have every opportunity to progress. He has assembled a very good team that try and play football the right way. There are in my opinion several talented footballers in the team and it will be a shame if they break up at this stage. They have reached the semi finals of two cups and have a league record of played 23 won 13 drawn 6 lost 4 which is even more credable when you consider that all but one of the boys are year 1 players in a very competitive league. It will be interesting to see if they have a real future under the umbrella of Welling or will go off in a different direction. The next few weeks will be interesting.
I know Ken and am aware of the immense efforts he has put into the clubs youth set up to get the boys where they are. His record speaks for itself and when you consider that a number of the boys have made the step up to the first team squad is a credit to him...and there lies the problem
The club cannot go forward with just a first team and a youth team set up. The players cannot be expected to command a first team place when they have just come out of a youth acadamy. We have been desperate for a reserve team for years since we stepped out of the capital league. This would give the younger players a chance and players who are returning from injury-what difference would this had made to say Andrew Sam, Leon etc last season.
I know this type of thing costs money but it is a short sighted approach not to have a structure in place. All we are doing at the moment in effect is to take players up to Youth level and then let other teams take their pick because we have no place for them to go.
A reserve team was always high on Adies agenda during his time at PVR and it would not have suprised me if this was one of the things that made his decision to leave easier.
Thanks Ken for the efforts you have put in and I wish you well in the future
