Fans say Dyer's arrival is 'great news' for club

Southend United fans say the arrival of former Newcastle United and England midfielder Kieron Dyer as their head coach is “great news” for the club.

Dyer – who also played for Ipswich Town and West Ham United – has signed a two-year deal with the National League side.

The 47-year-old takes over from Kevin Maher, who was sacked just two days after winning the club’s first domestic honour in the FA Trophy final at Wembley.

Dyer arrives after leaving his first-team coach role at Chesterfield, but what do Southend United fans make of their new manager?

‘Recognition’

“Oh OK, cool” was Georgie Swan’s reaction when the BBC broke the news to him of Dyer’s appointment.

“The more recognition [for Southend United], the more people are going to know about the team and support them more, you know? It’s good.”

The 46-year-old said Dyer’s arrival might “soften” the departure of former boss Maher, but when asked if Dyer could be the key ingredient which gets Southend promoted, Georgie responded: “God knows.”

Kizzy Perry has had a season ticket for 17 years and said she was “looking forward” to Dyer’s arrival.

“I think it’ll be great for the club – someone fresh, someone new, a new challenge for him,” she said.

“He’s got a lot of experience, and yeah I think that’ll be good for us – a fresh team, fresh manager, hopefully we’ll be on the up.”

Perry added she hoped Dyer would bring more attacking football to Southend, “but hopefully we can still keep the togetherness, because that was a great part of us”.

Promotion

Michelle Cummins, a lifelong Shrimpers fan, described the news as “excellent” and said “any help is good” for the club.

“If he can get the right players and keep hold of them and the management and everything else, we’ll be alright,” the 59-year-old said.

She added she had been upset over the departure of Maher, as well as wing-back Gus Scott-Morriss, but said “if [Dyer] can make the team better, then bring it on”.

Levi Spears, 29, said Dyer’s arrival was “good for the club – as long as the players play well as well… it’s down to them mainly, isn’t it?”.

He added that Dyer could “definitely help” Southend United’s push for promotion.

Raymond Burgess, 40, said he hoped Dyer would be able to bring better players into the club, as well as encourage younger talent through the ranks.

“That’s what they need to progress, and let’s hope that they can do it,” he said.

“I take my kids there all the time,” he added.

“It would be nice to get them back into league football, rather than non-league – hopefully he gets them promotion.”

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• Southend United Football Club