YORK City's new majority shareholder Matt Uggla has enthused that he wants to give the club a 'golden era'.
After completing the signing of Tyler Cordner on Friday afternoon for an undisclosed six-figure fee, City are looking stronger heading into the new season, with another three or four established players expected to come through the door.
Uggla heaped praise on supporters for being so welcoming to himself and his family, and explained why the new kits had taken longer than originally expected to be announced, confirming they were likely to be revealed tonight, alongside a new signing.
The new City chairman also confirmed that upon taking over the club, he considered replacing Michael Morton as manager, but upon conversations felt that Morton was the perfect man to lead the Minstermen forward.
“I saw in the office today was the 1985 FA Cup semi-final, so that’s probably the benchmark and the golden era." Uggla laughed.
"I said I wanted to create the golden era, so let’s get to the final!
“I’m not going to promise three or four, there will be another for sure that will be announced tonight.
"We’re looking at options. You just look around the city and it’s a fantastic place to be, it’s a club on the up not a club that’s happy just existing in the National League.
"To get players like Cordner you have to sell them the idea that this isn’t where we want to be, we want to go up.
"I’m not promising that that is happening, but clearly players like that buy into it and want to be here, it’s a big club and they see fantastic support and fantastic numbers, and the city just sells itself. It’s not a hard to sell York to people.
“I was transparent with Mikey, I told him I was thinking about bringing someone in.
"We sat, we talked more and more and by the end of our conversation I thought that this guy was incredible.
"He’s exactly what we’re looking for, he’s young, he’s about his statistics and he’s not just going off of a small pool of players who might’ve played for him before, he’s looking in Ireland, Scotland, all over the place.
"We ended the conversation and everything we talked about football wise was completely aligned, the same with David [Stockdale, head of recruitment].
"I said let’s get to work, I told him from the first day that it had crossed my mind but after speaking with him I think that he is by far the best manager I’ve come across in football. I haven’t come across many, but he was just unbelievable.
“The supporters are fantastic and we have to make sure the team matches what the supporters deserve, but with some additions and Mikey getting a full pre-season with his ideas in the team, I’m not promising it but we can start flying.
"I just want to basically create a team that this city is very proud of, you walk around the streets on a Friday night and hear people talking about the game the next day and they’re very excited about it. If we can get to that place, we’re onto a winner.
“It’s been fantastic, I think there were some worries before I did the interview. I think I cleared it up, everyone’s been really welcoming.
"If I’m an honest an open guy, if people ask a question I am happy to answer within reason.
"I want to be a massive part of the community, I got invited to play six-a-side next week by some fans and I’m going to go down and play. I’m unbelievable, I got a few county or district cups, so if they need a ringer, give me a ring!"
Uggla went on to explain why the new kits had taken longer than anticipated to be released, and ensured that they would be by Friday night.
“The problem we had was that we got late notice that the previous sponsor pulled out near the end of our takeover, so we had to scramble a little bit to get a shirt sponsor that we’ve luckily got. It’s getting announced today I believe, so the kits should get announced today unless something has gone wrong whilst we’ve been in here!
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