Steven Schumacher is relishing the prospect of a Championship challenge as the Whites prepare to crank up their preparations for a rise in class.
Wanderers will return for pre-season training next week as a Championship club for the first time in eight seasons following their play-off final triumph in May.
The Whites’ build-up will include a training camp in Slovakia and five warm-up games before their EFL campaign gets under way at home to local rivals Preston North End on Saturday, 16th August. And Schumacher can’t wait to give it a go on the back of his second promotion from League One as a manager at the end of a first full season as Wanderers’ boss.
“It's a huge step up and the challenges can be daunting, especially when you see the fixtures come out,” said Schumacher. “The standard of it is incredible and it does surprise you, especially early on, but us as a coach and staff at least we know what that looks like.
“We understand from a recruitment point of view what types of players and what profiles we're going to need to bring to the club for us to have a chance to compete. But it's exciting. It's a challenge that we wanted, it's what we worked so hard for, to get to this level and have every single game that we go to is a big game at a big stadium.
“Everything's just better about the Championship, so I'm looking forward to it. That’s why we were stressing that to the players all year last year, like ‘come on, work incredibly hard because this next step, this is where it's at’.
“I know the Premier League is the top level over here, but I love the Championship. I love watching the Championship games because you just don't know what's going to happen. There's so many shocks, there's so many twists and turns, everybody can beat everyone and this is what we've worked so hard for, for these huge days and big occasions.”
Schumacher has previously had a taste of management in the Championship with Plymouth Argyle and Stoke City and is working hard – along with sporting director Fergal Harkin and his back staff – to put together a squad capable of competing in the second tier.
The Whites have so far signed former Preston and Rangers defender Ben Davies and Kilmarnock’s attacking midfielder David Watson with more to come. And with the club's existing talent also at his disposal, Schumacher will be looking to build on last month’s triumphant day at Wembley when victory over Stockport County sealed the promotion deal.
“It was a relief, certainly on the day of the final, because the club's been working towards this goal for a long time, for seven years,” added the Whites’ head coach. “It's been trying to get back to this level and failed closely a couple of times and nearly got to the Championship, so I think it was so important as a football club for us to get here this year; for everyone, fans, financially, for the board and everyone else for us to continue to grow and be on this trajectory that we want to get on. We needed to get promoted, so thankfully we managed to do that.
“The main aim, game-by-game, would be let's be competitive in every game. We know we're not going to win every game, and we're not going to control 70% possession of every game like we did pretty much last year, so let's be competitive, let's find a way to not make it easy for teams, especially here.
“Let's be aggressive but also go in with no fear and try not to give teams too much respect and then the overall objective for the club is to try and consolidate. We know financially where we are, we're down the bottom, which is okay, so the expectation level is ‘let's try and stay in the division and then kick on from there if we can’.
“The realisation for next year is there for all to see. But hopefully one or two more of our players will surprise us and step right in and be able to handle the level perfectly and then there's the people who we recruit as well. If we can get some Championship experience from a recruitment point of view, that would be great, and if we can get some little surprise packages as well that people might not have seen before, then that would give us a chance to do well.”
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