After going through two managers at the end of last season when they were challenging for Isthmian Southeast promotion, Ramsgate FC have turned to a man who succeeded in that goal of gaining promotion to the Isthmian Premier with his last Club. 

After a period out of the game after leaving Herne Bay, Ben Smith is back in the managerial hotseat and in a two-part interview has been talking about his new challenge at Southwood with KSN… 

“I’m really excited!” he told us. “I’ve had time out and time to reflect, and I’ve come back more determined than ever. I think if I’m being honest, I’ve always had that real hunger and determination to be successful and I think the time out and the way it ended (at Herne Bay) has given me an itch that I’ve got to scratch!” 

“It’s been well documented that it was a last-minute change for me to come to Southwood in the end as opposed to going back somewhere,” Smith said.

“I believe in the Chairman and the people at Ramsgate Football Club – it’s more than that football and what happens on the pitch, it is the Community stuff that we’re doing in half-term, it is the youth teams, it is so much more than just one team – it’s a proper Community club and something like that for a manager is so hard to turn down!” 

“Yes, let’s not kid ourselves and I think I’m a fairly open and honest on a lot of things publically. Yes, I’ve got a good budget – it’s not stupid, but I do have a good budget, and I don’t care – I deserve a good budget!”

“I’ve had crap budgets, been the kitman, had all sorts of dramas behind the scenes that aren’t very well run, so it’s my turn to have the budget and give it a good crack.”

“I think that I will say to the people of Ramsgate is that you’re going to get someone who is very motivated to do well for them.” 

After missing out in the Play Off’s last season, Smith inherited a good squad – “we could have tried really hard to keep that squad together and we may have kept sixty five percent of them.”

“Some will have wanted to go as they may have thought that they didn’t want to play for the new manager – you get that with everyone – we decided to and it’s only right as the Club is paying out good money, so when you look at the money that was being paid for the players that they had, I had question marks!”

“So, it was decided to change it and so we’ve gone full on experience and youth. We’ve signed six or seven players who are in the 19 to 22 bracket and then we’ve got ultra experience in the likes of Lee Martin, Tom Hadler, Joe Ellul.”

“We’ve got a really good blend which is exactly what we wanted – this Club is about youth and Community, so it’s also really important that we’ve got local players with us which we’ve done.” 

“It feels like we’ve done an awful lot of business, but I still think we’ve kept to what we said we’d do at the start, and that was experience with the young lads and hopefully the experienced will help the young ones come on very quickly!” 

In part two of our exclusive, Ben looks ahead to the season and Saturday’s trip to face Sevenoaks Town…