Garlick backs Flynn to turn Cheltenham around

New Cheltenham Town owner Mike Garlick has backed manager Michael Flynn despite the club falling to its fifth straight league defeat this season.

Garlick completed his takeover of the League Two Gloucestershire outfit hours before the Robins lost 1-0 to Barnet, to leave them bottom of the table and without any points this campaign.

Flynn is taking charge of his second season at Cheltenham but has seen them score just once and concede 11 goals in five games so far in 2025-26.

"I've been in football a long time, I've had other managers that have been beaten five times in a row and we've stuck with them and turned it around – that's what we're hoping to do," Garlick told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"We've got to turn things around, I think Mike's the man to do that. Let's get behind him and make him do that."

Michael Flynn has been in charge of Cheltenham since May 2024

Cheltenham have brought in nine players so far this summer and Garlick said there would be money to invest in the squad before the transfer window closes on 1 September.

"We're hoping to make additions, certainly one or two in the next seven to nine days," he said.

"What we must make sure is that the players that come in improve what we are and make us better."

The former Burnley chairman entered a period of exclusivity with Cheltenham in June and has now acquired a controlling interest in the club.

The 61-year-old, who lives in Hertfordshire, said he first approached the club two years ago but was told at the time it was not for sale, as he looked for another club to work with after leaving the Clarets in 2023 after 17 years of association.

He said there were plans to invest in areas of the training ground in the near future and the stadium, possibly creating a fan zone, in balance with increasing the budget around the playing squad.

Longer term, the goal was to make the club "sustainable" whatever division that might see them in, he added.

"I want to make sure we've still got a club here and it's thriving, it's sustainable," Garlick said.

"If it's in League Two, League One it's not a problem as long as we've expanded the club, people are still coming along to the games and it's part of the community.

"If we get higher than that it would be amazing, but let's go step by step, week by week, season by season."