New Margate boss Jamie Coyle has been talking for the first time about the management move that has stunned Kent football earlier this summer as Coyle and his management team left Whitstable Town and headed to Thanet. 

And on the day, he was finally officially cleared to take the reins at Hartsdown Park, Coyle talked to KSN… 

“From the outside looking in it must have appeared a surprise,” Coyle admitted.

“From the outside looking in, we had huge success for the two seasons that we were at Whitstable. The remit when I took the job was to get them back to Step Four (the Isthmian League) and we achieved that as a management team and group of players and added the Kent Senior Trophy and the FA Vase as well.” 

“I will always look back and have huge fond memories of the Club and what we achieved together, but in football, whether playing or managing, it is a very short life span and a new challenge has arisen for me and I am really excited to go and some success at Margate now!” 

“After we signed a deal with Whitstable, Margate came in and made an official approach to them and following that, I had a chat with the chairman there and shared his visions and aspirations for the Club and my management team and myself were all taken aback with it and we all love a challenge.”

“I look at Margate as a Club who have spent an awful lot of their time at Step Two and Step Three, and I feel that with a lot of hard work, there’s no doubt that we can go back to those levels.”

“It’s a new challenge taking out of our comfort zone if you like – taking us out of a Club with the amount of success that we have had to one that missed out on the Play Offs last year and missed out on them the year before, but one that we are looking forward to as a group!” 

“I feel like it was job done at Whitstable achieving what we were set out to achieve and now it’s a new challenge for us all!” 

“I was expecting the comments that have been made and totally understand it as a football fan. After you have had the success that we have had, you don’t want change and I totally appreciate their opinions and views as it is part of football.”

“But as a manager as well as a player, you are only four or five games away from being removed from a football club and as I have said, it is a short life span!”

“So, change does happen especially in non-League, but I do want to put on record my thanks to everyone at Whitstable as we thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Belmont.”

“We totally appreciate the views and the upset that happened and wish Whitstable nothing but success moving forward, but we now have to focus on a completely new job with new targets!” 

“The timing I know isn’t great, but is there a good time for a manager to move on from a Club where you’ve had success, but I do feel as though it is the right time for myself and my staff to do so.” 

“It took a while for the paperwork to be completed to allow me to officially take over at Margate and I think it’s now good for both Clubs as Lee (Martin) can now officially start his role (at Whitstable) recruiting and building his team and we can do the same.”

“It’s good for both clubs now that it’s all amicable and we can all move forward and focus on the job at hand.” 

A number of the Whitstable promotion team have followed the management team to Thanet – Javaun Splatt and Bradley Scaffer to name two – increasing the disappointment level at the Belmont.

When questioned about the movement. Coyle philosophically reflected, “There is two ways that you can look at it. The majority of the players who have come with us we took to Whitstable in the first place and have played for us at other Clubs before.”

“So, there aren’t many who have moved that we didn’t have a relationship with before we started at Whitstable so that’s something that may have been overlooked.”

“A lot of them have also played at the levels we’re trying to get to and have had a lot of success there in the past.”

“It’s nice now to finally be able to concentrate on the job at hand and whilst I haven’t been able to do anything, the rest of my management team – Matt Longhurst, Taylor Cordrey and Dan Eason – behind the scenes have been working really hard where I couldn’t actively do any recruiting or speak to players. They have worked tirelessly whilst I could help out too but now it’s all systems go!”