DAVID Sharpe will sit down properly with City boss Graham Alexander tomorrow as he gets down to business in his new role.

The club’s head of football operations has an in-depth meeting scheduled with Alexander, head of recruitment Stephen Gent and chief executive Ryan Sparks.

Sharpe had some brief chats with all of them between games over the Easter weekend. But now he is ready to get straight into the nitty-gritty of plotting the way ahead.

“We need to get working for this summer and for the long term after that,” he said.

“Our thoughts are very similar in terms of the current set-up and what needs to be done moving forward.

 

 

“If those relationships don’t work then it’s never going to work. They are key in getting this football club moving in the right direction.

“It’s a huge help for me with the previous three seasons at Mansfield always in and around the play-offs with Bradford.

“We’ve always been toe to toe to a degree probably looking at similar players.

“I know the level quite well and it will be something that stands me in good stead. But I need to get to know this football club.

“I always have what I feel are good ideas but every football club is different and we all work in different ways.”

Sharpe left the Stags last summer to focus on his family business but admitted he was getting itchy feet around the time of the January window. He was flattered to be head-hunted by Sparks, first learning of City’s interest just 10 days ago.

“It’s nice to be wanted by a club,” he said in an interview with the club website. “Ryan liked the things I had to say.

“I told him what I think we can achieve and told him where we can be better and have to be better, on and off the pitch. I was pretty honest.

“You need to have a long-term plan and project that we have to put in place.

“It can’t just be season by season, we have to think for the next three, four, five years.

“That’s what we did at Wigan and what we did at Mansfield. Obviously, I’m not there anymore but they are going really well and it looks like they are going to go up.

“But it’s three, four, five transfer windows of work. It doesn’t happen overnight.

“You have to stick to your beliefs and not alter from them, otherwise you will end up each season just being judged quite harshly.

“If you have that long-term plan and stick to it, eventually I believe everything will work out.”