Guiseley AFC are delighted to announce that Joint Managers Russ O’Neill and Marcus Bignot and Assistant Manager Paul Clayton have all agreed contract extensions that will keep them with the club until the end of the 2021/22 season.
Russ, Marcus and Paul joined the club in May 2018, following the relegation from the Vanarama National League, and helped manage the clubs transition into the Vanarama National League North whilst leading The Lions to an Emirates FA Cup second round encounter with Fleetwood Town, beating Cambridge United on route.
This season the managers have recruited a young, hungry squad of players who are improving week on week, and have The Lions sit just outside the play-off positions going into this weekend’s round of fixtures.
Chairman Gary Douglas commented: “I am pleased to announce to you that this week the club has agreed terms to extend, by a further two years, the contracts of our management team.”
“Russ, Marcus and Paul have worked extremely hard in assembling and coaching this young squad of players. I know you will all agree that the future looks exciting for the club going forward.”
Russ added “I’m absolutely delighted that we’re staying, I believe football clubs should be built and not bankrolled, 18 months ago when we came to the club we had a huge job on, the most obvious and overwhelming factor for me was to try and knit the whole club back together from top to bottom. I wanted us as a management team to impose our personalities and give the whole club a DNA that we could all buy into and be proud to be part of, I believe now that from every corner of the club we are pushing in the same direction and when that happens anything is possible.”
“We have a young team that are growing as every week goes by, and they are completely backed by a fantastic support that also continues to grow. It is our view that we want to keep this young hungry team together as much as possible so we can continue to build. We have a thriving academy that are producing good young players and we continue to work closely with Dave and Danny in making sure there’s a clear pathway for these boys to come through and benefit from the opportunity of playing 1st team football.”
