Donnelly Resigns

03 Jan 2012

It has been confirmed that Sammy Donnelly has resigned as manager of Horsham YMCA, following what he describes as 'an opportunity he couldn't turn down' to take over the same role at Division 1 rivals Ringmer. Donnelly joined Gorings Mead in May of last year in good spirit, despite taking on the tough task of having to re-build a YM side from scratch, following the departure of former boss, John Cumberbatch, and the entirety of last season's squad. But the veteran boss, who also manages the Sussex Reps side, has lasted just seven months in the job, guiding YM to a lowly thirteenth league position, something he believes hasn't been helped by several off the field 'obstacles' that are weighing the club down. "The club's more about Horsham than YM at this moment in time from the way I'm looking at it. If Horsham weren't there, then the club would run a reserve side. I understand the predicament that they're in, but as an outsider looking in, I can't see how the club can progress. "To me, in football, keeping your identity is so important. It's difficult when you ground share, and I understand the way the committee think, but I've tried it, and it's just not for me." "When I came here, there was nothing to build on - there wasn't one player. People have got to understand where I'm coming from. I've gone to a club with no pre-season friendlies, not one player, I can't use the pitch and the obstacles just kept coming and coming. "I haven't been enjoying it as much really, and I've been repeating myself non-stop, that unless we've got a back up, nothing's going to change and I'm going to be in the same situation next season. I don't do my football for a living, I do it because I enjoy it, and if you're not enjoying something, you've just got to go. It's better really that I make a clean break now, and I've been offered a good opportunity to do what I want to do at a club, and I just can't turn it down." And that opportunity comes in the form of taking the reins at eighteenth placed Ringmer, a side Donnelly's YM lost 2-1 to, earlier in the season. "They [Ringmer] have got a brand new stadium that they're building; the plans have all been approved and the funds are in place. But more importantly on the playing side, I can use the pitch as and when I need it, be it for training, friendlies, anything. "They run a first team reserves, under eighteen's and a veteran side, and it's a football club through and through. What's more, I've literally just got to drive three miles, and I'm there and that always plays a part. The chairman there is their ex-manager and so he knows how I think. totally understand the position at YM, and it's just one of those things, but I don't think that I can do my job properly there, the way it should be done. Unless the club gets back to running a reserves, you're going to lose some under eighteen's. There's a gem already in young Scally [Lewis], and he's going to go higher which is good, but what I don't want them to do, is go sideways. To run an under eighteen's you need to run a reserve side - there's just no point otherwise. "If you're in the Ryman League on the other hand, I'd totally understand it because you can survive with one side. What you can then do is farm your players out to County League sides. I totally understand that YM get a good whack from Horsham [for ground sharing], and so it makes fund raising easy." Assistant manager, Mark Hawthorne, will meet YM chairman, Mick Browning, at the club tonight (3rd Jan) to discuss the possibility of taking over as first team manager, something Donnelly ensures would be a wise move for the club. "I spoke to the Chairman on Saturday, and said that Mark Hawthorne is a readymade replacement. I think the club can start building again for next season. "As for the players, I don't think the system will allow too many of them to leave the club, and you have to remember that a lot of those players are locally based and so they would have to travel. When you look at it in that sort of position, it would be difficult [for players to leave] in the common light of day. "Being a manager and being able to manage are two different things. Any side can have a manager, but being able to manage is what I'm all about. I want to be able to do things, and I don't want to worry that the groundsman says you can't get on the pitch. That to me, carries no weight, and I need the facilities there to work on. "I just can't keep moaning every week. I've been honest with the Chairman all the way through and I spoke to him and I wanted him to come up with something positive like, 'we will run a reserve side', or 'I don't want you to go'. I haven't even touched on the money. It's not about the money, it's that I would love YM to be a football club in every sense. It's a bit like a marriage I suppose. You meet someone and you think it's going to be alright, and it turns out that after six months it's not quite what it's made out to be. "I'm sad to some extent because I've brought that side together, including Hawts [Hawthorne], but the club have now got a basis to build on - they've got the players there, and they've got Mark Hawthorne, so I'm hoping they can push on. "I just felt very isolated in the job, and it was starting to wear me out a bit. I wasn't losing my enthusiasm, because my enthusiasm was making me angry, and I was thinking 'why am I doing this?' "No one comes up and really talks to you and you need to talk to people. I'm too long in the tooth, and I would have loved nothing better than to make YM my last club, and stay there for ten or fifteen years, but I tried it and I have found it very difficult to do my job to my standards here." The club will release an official statement tomorrow (4th Jan), whilst YM chairman, Mick Browning, has already commented on Donnelly's decision to leave. "The story as far as I'm concerned is that he'd been expressing his dissatisfaction with not having a reserve side, but he knew that at the start of the season. He said to me on Saturday that he'd had a couple of offers and I said that if he was unhappy we wouldn't stop him going, because we're not that sort of club, but what I did ask was that he'd give us a fortnight's notice. He said yes OK, but then he rung me on Monday saying that tonight's game (3rd Jan - called off due to weather) would be his last. It wasn't a very satisfactory way of doing things." Tom Norris