WEYMOUTH chairman Ian White has been “blown away” by the standard of applications for the vacant manager job.
The Terras have been without a permanent manager since Mark Molesley left for Southend last Thursday, with Bradley Asagba taking interim charge.
While the club is keeping names under wraps, Echosport understands around 50 candidates, some with international experience, have applied.
Reflecting modern times, up to six have applied due to their expertise in the popular Football Manager game.
“I’m blown away, to be honest,” White told Echosport.
“I’m really pleased. I thought we would get some decent applicants. Obviously we’ve got a philosophy and an idea that we want to try and work to.
“We want to try our hardest to continue the great work that Mark did. I’ve been overwhelmed by some of it.
“I’m not going to name names – that would be unfair – but it proves Weymouth is the club we know it is, and people are interested.
“Not only do we have the philosophy of Mark and what he’s done but the philosophy of the club, doing things within our means and sensibly.
“It’s going to be a tough task and it’s probably going to take us two or three days longer than we hoped.
“We want to try and get somebody in place as soon as we can, although Brad and interim director of football Paul Maitland are doing a great job.”
He added: “We want to keep the Bournemouth link if we can and we’re getting pretty positive vibes – we have been talking to them, they do see what we’ve achieved.
“Of course, we’re in a higher league as well. It’s going to be an interesting week. I’m not going to give a timescale but we do need to get somebody in place and start moving forward.”
White hopes to begin the interview process by Tuesday at the earliest.
He said: “With COVID and the lockdown, everybody’s got used to the Zoom world.
“It’s quite handy and I’m hoping we’ll be in a position by the middle of next week to start (interviewing).
“I’m hoping we’ll whittle the list down to a top 10 – I’m not necessarily saying we’ll interview 10 but there are some quality candidates.
“We need to start the process but obviously we’ve got added worries with COVID and are we going to get supporters in the club.
“Hoping we’ll be able to start making announcements and slowly start putting bits and pieces out through the Supporters’ Club.”
