ADAM Murry believes it is an “exciting time” for women’s football after his new role as owner of Yeovil Town Ladies was announced this week.
The Bournemouth businessman, who is currently based in Tampa, Florida, has taken over the Somerset side, just weeks after they dropped into the third tier having been denied a license to play in the Championship following their rock-bottom finish in the WSL last season.
Murry, who helped rescue Cherries after they sat on minus 17 points in League Two having entered administration and was the man to appoint Eddie Howe as boss back in 2009, is looking forward to his new task.
He told the Daily Echo: “It’s a challenge but I believe it’s certainly a doable challenge.
“It’s a challenge which I’d hope to say is easily manageable, as long as all the procedures are put in place correctly and as long as they now have the support that they need, which is what we’ll give them. It’s definitely a club that can be taken forward.
“Steve Cuss (who works with the Cherries women’s team) from AFC Bournemouth has been tremendously supportive throughout this process.”
He added: “I just think Yeovil is a great club. It’s a good opportunity. I think the heritage of the club is important and it’s definitely worth continuing with the club.
“It’s got a tremendous support. I take women’s football very seriously and I think the progress that women’s football is making now is incredible. I am quite passionate about it now and I just think as with Bournemouth when I took over that, it’s definitely a club with a great heritage, a great feeling about it, wonderful support and it was definitely worth getting involved in.”
One of the first decisions made by Murry was to promote academy coach Jamie Phillip to lead the Yeovil first team, not dissimilar to the choice to hand a 31-year-old Howe the reins at Cherries.
“I’ve recognised Jamie is a quality coach with great enthusiasm,” said Murry.
“He’s got a desire to learn, to progress and I love that about dynamic, young coaches.
“As I did with Eddie for example, you recognise something and you want to give them all the best support and a chance.
“Good, dynamic, young coaches is something that I look for. If they’re open-minded and willing to learn, that’s all good from my side.”
Women’s football has dominated the sports coverage in England this summer, with 11.7million people watching as Phil Neville’s Lionesses lost their World Cup semi-final against USA.
And Murry, who heads up the Elite Soccer Academy in America, feels the women’s game is in a great place as he looks to combine his two roles to benefit young stars of the future.
He said: “I think it’s a massively exciting time for women’s football over in England now. It’s growing daily, especially after the World Cup.
“There’s going to be more for the girls’ pathway from here to the USA and vice versa, so there was a natural synergy there as well. We want to be able to give girls opportunities there, over here and we want to perhaps be able to provide certain levels of scholarships for girls within the team as well.
“It’s kind of like a hand across the ocean scenario, where we want to try and facilitate and work with these girls to develop them and to get them to the highest level. That’s what’s important to me.”
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