Glebe chairman Rocky McMillan hails Harry Hudson's arrival at Foxbury Avenue as a fantastic appointment for the club

GLEBE chairman Rocky McMillan says bringing Harry Hudson in as manager is a fantastic appointment for the club.

The 32-year-old has formerly managed Croydon in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division and Whyteleafe in the Isthmian League South East Division and fought of over 50 applicants to land the job at the Chislehurst-based club.

Hudson replaces Gary Alexander, 41, who stepped down from the role due to personal reasons on Wednesday 2 June. 

Hudson announced his departure from Whyteleafe on Wednesday 10 March.

“I think Harry Hudson is a tremendous young manager, he’s been a successful manager in the league above for the last couple of years at Whyteleafe,” said McMillan.

“He is a tremendous attribute for the club and I look forward to working with him with immediate effect.

“I think he brings five or six seasons in and around the level. He’s shown that he can bring a Croydon team that’s struggling right up there, joined Whyteleafe two and a half years ago and brought them on to the brink of play-offs.

“He’s really in keeping with what Glebe want to achieve at the moment. We’ve got a fantastic amount of young players that are pushing and I think he’s got the ability to push the guys into the first-team on very quickly whilst maintaining the ethos of the club.

“There’s a couple of fantastic sides in Step Five this year and we go in there and we will do our best in every single game.

“I think it’s the best appointment.”

McMillan and his board of directors sifted through over 50 applications for the sought-after job – some of them already having jobs in the game.

“We’ve had some wonderful applicants over the last week. We had over 50 really good guys, which we cut down. I’ve tried to get back to each and every one so if I’ve missed anyone, I apologise,” said McMillan.

“We took a short list and interviewed all week so we had some fantastic applicants, which I won’t go into as some are still involved with other clubs but Harry stood out, he really stood out.

“He’s quite demanding how he wants the club but we can meet his demands and I think it’s a very exciting prospect for us.”

Hudson has some big shoes to fill in former Millwall ace, former Greenwich Borough and Ashford United manager Alexander, who brought professionalism to Foxbury Avenue.

McMillan said: “I’ve got a tremendous relationship with Gary and I speak to him every day. It’s well documented that Gary’s had some personal issues that he’s been big enough to say that he needs some time away.

“Glebe and myself are demanding, it’s every single day, chairman to manager every single day for the next 10 months and Gary found that he needed to take some time out but as soon as he said it we shook hands and moved on.

“Gary’s brought a huge amount of experience to the club and showed me how professional footballers handle things and made me look at different things in different ways and made me a better chairman.

“I’m sure we will continue to be friends and he will be welcome down here and Gary is going in one direction and now my thoughts are on Harry coming in.

“I’m looking forward to the lads that Harry can bring in whilst maintaining existing players at the club and really looking forward to the new season and it’s great for the league to have a young manager like Harry back in.

“I think the whole world knows we’ve got two excellent team in Sheppey and Chatham plus the periphery teams below that.

“We will go out as we’ve always have done.  I won’t go into the season and say we can’t get promotion, we can’t do this.  We’ll go in as a football club and we will be preparing the manager and the team to try and win as many league games as possible whilst hopefully having a good run in The FA Cup and The FA Vase.

“I’ve seen the ethos that Harry has about discipline and not having any egos and I want him to bring that to the club.

“We’re lucky enough, we must have 120-150 guys who are coming into the club (at under 18s and under 23 level) and first-team places are going to be very, very competed for and I think it’s an exciting time for the club.

“Harry’s still young in years and he’s been around a long time. He knows the league and done well in the league above and wants to and needs to prove himself because he’s a very ambitious young man and I think it’s a fantastic appointment for the club.

“I’m so sorry to turn down so many wonderful applicants but you can only have one guy that can reach the top and Harry did that and it was an unanimous decision by the board of directors at the club.”

The 2021-22 Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division campaign is expected to start on Saturday 31 July 2021.

Meanwhile, striker Charlie MacDonald, 40, has left the club and has signed for Isthmian League Northern Division side Barking, who announced their capture after Glebe announced that Hudson was appointed manager.