Lloyd Hume will remain in charge at Ashford until he’s certain they have found the right man to take the club forward.
Co-owner Hume named himself manager last week following Danny Kedwell’s departure.
The arrangement is initially until the end of the season but while he is something of a reluctant boss these days, he’ll keep the reins for as long as necessary.
“I didn’t want to take over but I’m comfortable taking over,” said Hume, who led Maidstone to back-to-back Kent League and Isthmian Division 1 South titles between 2006 and 2007.
“What we don’t want to do is jump into hiring another manager that promises the earth and doesn’t deliver an awful lot.
“If there were certain managers working perhaps at the level above us, if they became available and threw their hat in the ring I wouldn’t be the interim manager any more.
“But it’s very rare you get managers that are over-achieving at the club they’re at looking for a new opportunity.
“It isn’t the long-term plan for me to be the manager.
“I’ll be really disappointed if, by the end of next season, I’m still in charge.
“But what I really want to do is bring people in who understand the mechanics and the workings of the club and they show and demonstrate to us they are natural leaders of the club on the pitch.
“When we had the reins over to them, we need to be confident they’re going to do the job that we want them to do.
“If we bring a new manager in now, he’ll bring his own players and he can disband the squad we’ve got, which I don’t want to happen because Danny brought some really good players to this club.
“What I want to focus on over the next couple of weeks and months is tying the lads down we want here for next year on contract, so we’ve got a really solid base to build from and then we only need to add two or three players.
“As you can imagine, the phone rings off the wall when you need a new manager and the problem is they’ll tell you they can bring five or six new players in straight away but we’ve got a really good squad.
“One of the conversations I had with Danny was when we’ve got everyone back, it’s going to be hard for us to sign players who will get in front of them or give them genuine competition.
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“It’s not about high numbers, it’s about quality and we also need to focus on the 23s next year so we’ve got our own pool of talent to dip into when we’re short on numbers.
“We’ve really lacked that this season, and that’s a learning curve for us.
“Talks have started. There’s people who have very much bought into the project and what we’re doing. I want to show them we’re bringing other quality players into the club over the next couple of weeks.
“We’re genuinely looking to build for next year but not at the expense of the games we play this season.
“I want to win every game we play till the last game of the season, I’m not going to accept games where we say we’re building for next season so the result doesn’t matter.
“It matters because people support this club, they’re passionate about it and they pay their money to come through the gates, so we want to do the right thing by them and win every single game of football.
“And if we can’t win, we need to be ultra-competitive in every game.”
Hume’s only management job since leaving Maidstone in 2010 was a brief spell as Rochester boss several years ago.
But he’s stayed around football and while the players may have changed, he hopes to draw on the traits that brought success to the Stones.
“It’s not like I’ve been in the wilderness and haven’t been watching games,” said Hume, a UEFA A Licence coach.
“I’ve not really been away from it and a big part of that is because my son plays football in the non-league arena, so I’ve been watching it for the last eight years following him around and being involved at Rochester.
“So I don’t feel ring-rusty but players’ mentalities have certainly changed a lot since I was previously in this type of job.
“I’d say players these days possibly take it a bit more seriously but I don’t always think that’s for the best.
“I want a team with a good spirit, a good dressing room, an enjoyable environment, but actually at 3pm or a midweek game, as soon as that whistle goes, we all know our jobs and we all know what we’re doing.
“Our success at Maidstone wasn’t done with loads of money, it was done with lots of characters and a bit of quality and that’s really what I want here.
“Obviously it’s about preparation and professionalism but I think sometimes at lower levels that bit can be taken too seriously over the togetherness of the team.”
Ashford visit Herne Bay tomorrow in a 1.30pm kick-off.
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