Yeovil Town: Achieve By Unity

Yeovil Town have become the first club in English football to appoint a woman as manager as the club appointed Alicia Luxon as their manager. The news came through the clubs Twitter as they announced, "We're proud to welcome @AliciaLuxon29 as manager this morning on a one year contract, she'll become the first female to manage in English football."

Luxon will be the second female to manage a club in world football as Helena Costa took over at Clermont Foot in June 2014 however left the club after just a month due to "total amateurism" and "respect for the club" as she stated on the clubs website. Yeovil made a later quote on Twitter saying, "It's fantastic to be able to bring in a female manager - Football is a sport for both genders and we want to see more girls in football, it'll be fantastic for the sport, we're all equal."

There has been an outburst of support on all social media for Bolton born Luxon, with pros such as Jamie Carragher tweeting "Great to see a woman step into management, hopefully this will be the beginning of more women coming into the game." Jamie Redknapp also made a comment of, "Best of luck to the new manager of Yeovil, it's a refreshing sight to see a woman come into the game and again, best of luck to her."

Yeovil, who were relegated to League Two last season after finishing bottom of League One last season meaning they suffered back-to-back relegations, are looking to submit a challenge for promotion in order to "get back to where they belong" chairman John Fry said.


"It was utterly disappointing to be relegated again last season because it was amazing to be in the Championship, for a little club like us to be at those heights was fantastic and it shown that money doesn't buy it all. Now we just want to get the fans hearts back and get back into League One because you never know, it could happen again." He went onto say, "We've invested well and I believe in the new manager and the players to get us up. The quality is there, now we just need to deliver."

I remember Yeovil for their awful away kit at Tranmere a few years back. Good luck, sure you'll do well. I'll be following

Good luck and I will be reading this!

JohnWarrington - Yeovil have had some really bad kits down the years, this years away kit is pretty bad too, but thanks

MJK46 - Thanks!

All my life I'd been the same person, I'd never change for anyone. As a child I enjoyed playing football with the boys on the school yard and then maybe going out with them after school too. I was never one for the typical girly things, it just didn't seem 'me.' I'd followed a dream to one day play football, it was my life, my everything and I was never going to back down from following my dreams.

I never had the opportunity to play football, it was a disappointment but I knew there were other opportunities to get into the sport, so I took courses to become a physio and did so for around two years before getting a job at my local football team, but I just didn't enjoy it. I felt lost, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I felt like I'd wasted two years of my life doing something I didn't entirely want to do. I never really had a back-up plan and it was a real downfall.

At the age of 28, I was working at the tills of Asda, where was my life heading? I'd achieved nothing until one day I gained a huge inspiration from none other than Sir Alex Ferguson, who was heading to the Manchester United game against Bolton in a pre-season friendly and had dropped off for some petrol. I approached him and obviously politely asked for a photo in which he obliged. "I love football and I really look upto you, though I don't really like United." I told him, he smiled at me and told me, "That's wonderful, I love seeing people being inspired by what I do and for a girl like you to say that is fantastic, I take it you have an interest in management?" That's when it came to me. The conversation lasted a while and that's the day a new dream came.

Ever since that day I had worked hard to try and get somewhere in football, managing some smaller teams down in the county leagues around the Bolton area and to fast forward to now I'm the new Yeovil Town manager. How? I don't know myself, my dream is coming true and it's amazing. I wouldn't change it all for the world. I remember the day I had the interview, the email I received from them asking me to attend, it was surreal, it was happening... my dream was potentially coming true.

To put what's happened into words is far too difficult to be honest. I'm determined to not just be here but to be recognised. I want to get my profile raised, I want to get Yeovil into the Premier League one day, though it seems unrealistic, I'm determined and as we all know... anything can happen. Just anything.

Very unique beginning, I'm loving it!

Looks like a great start, your writing style is good too

I used to track Yeovil a little bit back when Kieffer Moore was playing for them (TRURO PRIDE!) I hope you do well with them!

Jack - Thanks, I always try to be different

MeanGreenKillingMachine - Thank You so much!

Griffo - I remember Kieffer Moore, was a good player and Thank You!

Yeovil Town have completed the loan deal of Josh Clarke who will join until the end of the season from Brentford. Clarke will look to be getting first team football at the club, something he hasn't had within his young career so far at the Championship side, making just one appearance back in 2013 and having unsuccessful loan spells at fellow League Two clubs, Dagenham & Redbridge and Stevenage.

The 19 year old said, "I'm looking forward to show what I can do at Yeovil because I've never been given the opportunity to do so so far in my career. I have high ambitions for myself and I'm determined to get my head down and concentrate on my football, making sure I use this opportunity to show off my skills. The manager seems a great person after we spoke to complete the loan deal and she knows exactly what I want, we have the same ambitions for this season which is great."

Yeovil boss Alicia Luxon had this to say on the clubs website, "I'm delighted to be able to bring in Josh, he has a lot of talent and I'm looking forward to see how he does in the Yeovil shirt this season. He's a determined character and I know he will work very hard to help not only his career, but help this club this season."


We also believe Yeovil are close to announcing the signing of Mark Bradley. Bradley left Rotherham at the end of last season after failing to make a single appearance in the Millers debut season in the Championship, he had made 88 starts for the club since moving to them on a free in 2010 from Walsall, where he made 96 appearances for the Saddlers. Bradley, 28 is expected to be joining on Friday.

Get around the Glovers, making moves!

Griffo - They'll be more on the way.

Congrats on the signings I hope they do well for you.

The first few days had been a real realisation. I'm now the manager of a League Two club, who were not that long ago in the Championship, I was now a role model for a lot of people and I had to make sure that I lived upto it. It was very much still surreal, it probably would remain like this for a long time, but I guess it's right for me to feel this way. I mean, my goals have been completed I guess, the only thing I had to achieve now was to get Yeovil to the highest heights of English football.

I'd spoken a lot with players about the upcoming season and we'd shared a few nerves between each other, which is completely normal, when you have expectation put onto your shoulders and you're in the eye of the public to shine and live upto them is always a huge pressure. I was confident in all the players, they had a real enthusiasm for the new season and that's brilliant for me, I want everyone to be confident and be ready for a very tough season, we couldn't afford to finish poorly this season, we needed an immediate return to League One, otherwise the club could struggle in the future, it was part of my plans to get promotion.

I knew I had to recruit well and me and the scouting team had been in close contact a lot recently because we needed to rebuild and with a huge list of injuries for the first few games of the season, we knew something had to done. We managed to come to a conclusion of targets and that brought the signing of Josh Clarke, however we recognised the need for a right fullback and looked to the experienced head of Mark Bradley, speaking to Mark whilst entering negotiations was brilliant, we talked about our aims and goals ahead of the season and how we believed his experience would really benefit the team, in which he was happy with, "I think this is an amazing club with big aims now, I know it's been a difficult few years but you seem to have a really organised restructure going on, I'd be delighted to help this process," he said.

In the signing, I was very happy. We managed to tempt a very capable League One player to come and play in League Two, purely down to how we discussed our aims, we fought off the likes of Colchester of League One to get his signature too, it made it a bit more special I think. Of course, the process has only just begun, the hard work will be a bit later into pre-season, but I know what this job brings now and I very much relish it. I can't wait.

Nice, a first person style story.