Wade Elliott: New Cheltenham boss wants to build on club's progress

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Wade ElliottImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Wade Elliott has worked alongside former head coach Michael Duff at Cheltenham since the summer of 2020

New Cheltenham Town head coach Wade Elliott aims to build on the legacy left by Michael Duff after the club produced their highest-ever league finish last season.

Elliott was promoted from first-team coach to head coach following the departure of Duff to Barnsley.

The Robins finished 15th in League One last year.

The 43-year-old former midfielder joined the club's coaching staff in the summer of 2020.

"We've built towards this for two or three years so it would be madness to come in and rip it up overnight and try and do something weird and wonderful," Elliott told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"You naturally put your own stamp on it and personnel will change, players will change, so it will look different at times.

"But the fundamentals, what we've been building over the last couple of years, won't change."

Continuity a 'big thing' for Robins

Former Cheltenham player Duff spent four years at the helm and guided the Gloucestershire club to promotion to League One at the end of the 2020-21 campaign for the first time in their history.

Elliott retired from playing in 2015 and worked as a coach at Bristol City, Forest Green Rovers and Stoke City before joining Cheltenham.

He said the continuity offered by appointing someone from within the club to replace Duff - rather than an external candidate - gave him and the club an advantage going forward.

"We've got a squad that's been built to play a certain way and we've got a structure to do things in a certain way, so having that knowledge and a base to build from is an advantage," Elliott said.

"I'm sure that was a factor in the appointment. I said to the players and the staff the reason I got the job wasn't because of my sparkling personality, it's because of what we've done collectively the past couple of years. So I think that continuity is a big thing."

Elliott's playing career included more than 700 games in the English Football League at clubs such as Burnley, Bournemouth, Birmingham City and Bristol City.

However, he started his career in non-league football with Bashley in National League South and said the fact he'd played across all tiers of the game helped create a bond with players as he moves into his first position in a head-coach role.

"I'm fortunate I played a lot of games, I played across a lot of different levels so with that came a lot of different experiences," Elliott added.

"More often than not I can relate to players and what they are going through and I can relate it to my own experience which just helps me build that relationship with personnel."

More signings to come

Cheltenham have so far signed two new players - former Norwich midfielder Dan Adshead and defender Tom Bradbury who played at Halifax Town - ahead of the new season, while six players have been released or signed elsewhere.

The incoming head coach said he hoped to sign more players before the end of the transfer window.

"We've got a good base of a squad, we've got 14 or 15 and, if the season started tomorrow, we'd put an 11 out on the pitch that I'd be perfectly happy with and that I'd be confident would be competitive," Elliott said.

"We're not going to last a whole season with 13 or 14 players, so the group that we've got will need a little bit of help.

"We need one or two in, but it's more important that we get the right people in rather than rush and sign people for the sake of getting bodies through the door."

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