Exeter City will have a full coaching team in place by the time the players return from their pre-season training trip to Jersey.

The Grecians head to the Channel Island for a fitness and conditioning week – and to play a friendly – before the real hard work for pre-season commences on July 1.

Manager Matt Taylor has seen a number of staff leave St James Park since the season ended, but has worked hard in the close season to recruit the people he wants to form his backroom team.

“Basically, all positions bar one are filled and I think the club will do an announcement either next week or the first day of pre-season when they can put names to faces and so on and so forth,” Taylor said.

“I am really pleased all those positions have been filled. The last one is dependent on a couple of people who have become available and come out of work in the last week, so I wanted to give them a chance to put their name forward and interview them.

“The last one is Friday, so hopefully by a certain time on Friday, I will have a real clear picture of who is going to be involved.”

This summer, Taylor has had to replace goalkeeper coach Chris Weale, strength and conditioning coach Andrew Wiseman, physio Adey Saunderson, sports rehabilitator Jess Preece and long-serving club secretary Mike Radford. 

The process to find the right people has taken some time, but Taylor is delighted everything will be in place for when the players are back for the main part of pre-season.

“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “The first week or pre-season is a little bit different as we are away in Jersey and the football side of it won’t be too detailed off the back of the facilities we have available out there, so it will be more a fitness, or conditioning, week and a team bonding week.

“But when we are back from the first onwards, and we are at our own training ground, that’s when you want your staff in place because that is when the serious work is done.

“I know the games start pretty quickly with Truro on July 5 then Tiverton and all the way through the non-League teams and a few League teams as well. We have a good schedule ahead of us.”

City's pre-season fixtures:

Fri, June 28 - Jersey (A, 6.30pm)
Fri, July 5 - Truro City (A, 7pm)
Tue, July 9 - Tiverton Town (A, 7.15pm)
Fri, July 12 - Bath City (A, 7pm)
Tue, July 16 - Weston-super-Mare (A, 7.30pm)
Sat, July 20 - Swansea City (H, 3pm)
Thu, July 25 - Taunton Town (A, 7pm)
Sat, July 27 - Torquay United (A, 3pm)