ONLY a year after departing Eccleshill United, Lee Elam has made his return to the Bradford side’s hotseat after admitting that the time is right for his coaching journey to continue.

In June 2022 it was confirmed that Elam would be stepping down from his role as manager at Eccleshill due to family and work commitments along with his assistant Asif Hussain.

It was a decision that came as a surprise to many following the pair’s success that season (2nd in NCEL Premier Division), with star player Sumaili Cissa particularly hurt by the departure of Elam and Hussain after he’d struck up a special bond with the duo.

Cissa, who was handed the Manager's Player of The Year award by Elam after a remarkable 2022 campaign, said through his Twitter: “I’m gutted to see them leave but all the best to the both of them on their next chapters.”

Ryan Toulson then stepped into the vacant manager’s role at Eccleshill having joined the club from Bradford (Park Avenue) where he coached under the guidance of Mark Bower.

However, after only a season at the helm, last week Toulson took the decision to depart from the club due to personal reasons, as he stated: “It is with regret I have to announce I have resigned as manager of Eccleshill United. This is purely away from footballing matters and due to circumstances out of my control. Thank you to all my staff and players for their support and hard work in my first season of management.”

Speaking to the T&A the returning Elam gave reasoning for his managerial comeback, saying: “I’ve sorted things out personally and I’ve now got the time to do the job properly, so that’s my intention. That’s what I always wanted to do the first time around but I feel more settled in my personal life now and I’m ready to have a real good go at taking this team forward.

Elam added: “The time feels right. I’ve been out of coaching for a year now and that period has allowed me to play the waiting game to see if I could fix a few things behind the scenes, and I’ve now done that. My desire was always to get back into management at some point and with the season ending I’ve been itching a little bit, so when the job was offered to me, it wasn’t that hard of a decision to take it.

“As far as I am aware, there is no obvious decision behind the timing of me coming in and Ryan leaving. They rang me after Ryan had decided to depart the club and I was in no place to reject the offer because I am available, and I had been looking at other management jobs anyway. It’s that time of the year where jobs do become available. I’d been willing to wait around to see what jobs became free but as soon as the Eccleshill job became available I jumped at the opportunity.

“I want to finish the job that I started at the club because we had started something special. I work really well with the owners; I know a lot of the players and I feel obligated to help them and the club. When you know the club inside out, it makes that settling in period far easier to navigate and the location of the club is not too far from where I’m based. So, on that front, it made the decision feel right.”

Giving his thoughts on the current state of the club after they finished in 16th place last season, Elam said: “It’s difficult to say because I’ve not been around the place. I had a good chat with the owners about what has been happening on and off the pitch, and things have been going that perhaps need to be changed. The changes that are going to be made will only help the club to move forward positively with the end result being what happens on the pitch.

“I don’t read into the league standings of last season too much because it was a difficult period. A few players left when I left and that’s what happened when I went into Eccleshill a few years back; it happens because players leave when managers leave. You must start with fresh and new ideas as a manager coming in, and that does take a bit of time. Maybe that transition didn’t go too well, so it’s now up to me to put that right.”

Elam added: “I’m not overly confident about it getting us back to our original standards straight away but I don’t think anybody would be because I do think we overachieved last time out. We obviously wanted a top five or six finish but we exceeded it by getting 2nd. Of course, that will be the plan again because two can go up this time, if not that we will be aiming for the play-offs. I’m looking beyond that though because I’m in this for the long run. I feel we can create a strong and united squad here in the future.

“It feels good to return, I’m happy to back and I’m looking forward to getting started.”