WEYMOUTH interim director of football Paul Maitland believes interim manager Bradley Asagba is an “exceptional” coach.
Asagba will guide the Terras through pre-season until a successor to Mark Molesley is appointed, the former Weymouth gaffer having left for Southend on Thursday.
Assisting Asagba will be Terras’ captain Josh McQuoid, who has extended his stay at the Bob Lucas Stadium.
Maitland is helping oversee the managerial recruitment process and insisted Weymouth are in safe hands with Asagba, who coached Weymouth Reserves before resigning ahead of their dissolution in September 2017.
“Bradley is an exceptional coach in his own right,” Maitland said.
“He has learnt a lot from the last three years and brought his own ideas to the table.
“Bradley and I have a long history and I’m very comfortable with him being interim manager – I feel that’s a natural progression.
“He’s coached alongside Mark and Tom (Prodomo, now Southend assistant) and been fully involved in a lot of the processes.
“I’m comfortable it’s being left in an exceptional pair of hands to see through the short-term period, however long that may be.
“As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason for anything not to continue on the same upward curve as it has been.”
Commenting on his return to the club, Maitland revealed he liaised closely with Molesley and chairman Ian White this week.
He said: “Mark and I are great friends. He did speak to me earlier in the week and explain where he was at and what the situation was.
“I know it’s an incredibly tough decision for him to make. He said if the deal was right he was going to have to really consider it.
“It wasn’t hard to see from what was going on in the news that he was well linked with the job.
“We spoke about it quite hard and then Ian phoned me and said ‘we don’t know what’s going to happen, but if Mark does decide to go will you sit in?’
“’We just need to keep that sense of stability and calmness around the club.’
“I obviously have a great affiliation with the club and supporters and I’m only too happy to step back in and help them.
“Whether that’s for a week, two weeks or three – as long as it takes to appoint the right person.
“The staff that remain are more than capable of carrying on pre-season preparations and getting the players back.
“It’s more just to have somebody that has that experience just to keep everything ticking along until a new manager is appointed.”
