An email has gone round to some of you (those who's email addresses I had quickly to hand) stating the same as below...

Mikey has decided not to put his name forward for next season’s management post. I know he’s been thinking things through for a while now and he’s come to the decision that it’s better for him to return to getting the enjoyment out of playing football rather than managing a club.

As we all know, it’s been a bumpy season – from the very start. Bumpy seasons are difficult to manage and require a lot of time and effort to keep things going. Mikey has a young family and a new baby to look after alongside us lot and he feels that all of this together was detracting from the enjoyment he was getting from playing on Sundays.

It’s not an easy job to manage a team on the pitch, and with all the nappy changing and dummy throwing, managing things in the dressing room hasn’t been much easier J. Basically, Mikey wants to get back to enjoying his footy and for that reason has decided not to put his name on the list.

Personally, I need to thank Genghis for stepping into the gap, as I was concerned that the club would stumble on til the end of the season but then break up if I stayed ‘in charge but awol’ – but under him we’ve managed to maintain our position in the league and are looking in better condition for next season than we were doing half way through this season.

If you add into that Smurf’s broken leg, the subsequent goalkeeping nightmares and certain heat of the moment reactions (which happen in every club everywhere between players and managers – everybody wants the best for themselves, it’s only natural) then you can see Mikey has actually coped with a hell of a lot packed into half a season. What’s more, he’s done it with his head held high, no matter what’s been thrown at him.

Given that and all the effort he’s ever put in right from day one, in training through to helping me and other managers out in the past with every aspect of running the club, from taking training to sorting out invoices, friendlies, managing the team in some difficult games both successfully and unsuccessfully, then taking over with little or no notice, he’s Shefford through and through and I don’t think anybody would argue that point.

So I’m glad we didn’t all give him such a rough ride that he decided to jack it all in completely – but I think we’ve seen in the past few months that he’s made of stronger stuff than that by far. I have no doubt that if the club needs him again, he will stand up and be counted again. Tremendous demonstration of dignity from he who was christened Michael but is known as Genghis.

The result of Mikey’s decision is that currently there is just one name on the potential manager’s list, Smurf. We will still need to have a vote, as if more than 50% of the squad don’t want to play under Smurf then there’s no point in continuing as it will be a nightmare season for everyone involved. I will certainly be voting yes.

So people can either email or text me (not you Smurf, but I’ll count Ashley as a “yes” already eh?) to let me know. Smurf obviously has considerable experience of Sunday and Saturday football, is aware of you lot, your strengths and weaknesses and weaknesses, and has been involved in clubs to enough of a degree in the past to understand what running one involves. As far as I understand it, and I might be wrong, he’s not going to be able to do Thursday night training, but some of you have already obviously considered this and one idea is to rotate the coach role each week.

Mikey wanted to get this decision out of the way prior to any end of season drinks, prior to Newquay and prior to the presentation evening so that nothing was hanging over anybody and nobody needed to have any hidden agendas, so that’s why you’re being told this now. As it is now, Mikey and I, as this season’s managers, will preside over the presentation evening – which may or may not involve handing over to the new boss…