New Chelmsford landlord ready to review budget for promotion

New owner Spencer Gore is set to review Chelmsford City’s playing budget for the new season in the hope of securing promotion to the National League after back-to-back near misses.

Gore businessman purchased a majority stake of 60% from former owner John Holmes last month and set the goal of achieving English Football League status.

That would require two promotions for Robbie Simpson’s side, who have reached the National League South play-offs in the last two seasons.

“In my business, I set a target and then I reverse engineer it. We will look at the club and say, ‘What is the absolute potential of this club? Now let’s put a plan in place to achieve that,’ Gore he told BBC Essex Sport.

“My mission for the next few months is to get into the club and understand what they are doing and why they are doing it – if they are doing it and it works, let’s do more; If they’re doing it and it doesn’t work, let’s stop doing it.”

The Clarets won 24 of 46 league games last season and finished second behind champions Yeovil Town, but were beaten 3-2 after extra time by Braintree Town in the play-off semi-finals.

This caused manager Simpson to reflect on his situation before committing to the club for another campaign.

“It really hit him hard at the end of last season, especially because it was the second year in a row,” said Gore, who will work with Dan Watkins, who continues to hold a 40% minority stake.

“That was a process he went through and he thinks we can get promotion this year.”

Gore, who first tried to buy the club three years ago after sponsoring Melbourne Stadium during Covid, believes the city has the capacity to support a football club at the top of the pyramid.

“We had a below-average budget last year, a little below the league average, and we finished second, so I think we massively outperformed on the pitch,” he added.

“As a club, could we be doing more? Without a shadow of a doubt. We’re in one of the fastest growing cities in the country and it’s a rich area, not a poor area, so there’s a lot more we can do.

“Due to the timing of the acquisition, budgets were already defined for this season. The budget set for this season was a little higher than last season.

“We’ll look at that and see what we think we need to do to achieve the objectives. But Robbie is more than comfortable with the budget he has to achieve promotion, which is our aim for this season.”

Chelmsford begin the new NLS season with an away game against Slough Town on Saturday before hosting Hampton & Richmond seven days later.