New Herne Bay boss Liam Friend felt the opportunity to take over a club of such magnitude in his first managerial role was simply too good to turn down.

Centre-half Friend has been named as James Collins’ replacement at Winch’s Field.

While the 37-year-old had considered taking on a top job before, it wasn’t something he desperately wanted to do as he balanced playing with positions in the backroom staffs of Steve Lovell, then Collins, during the 2024/25 campaign.

But the chance to be at the helm of Isthmian South East Bay proved too much of a draw.

The former Folkestone and Ashford skipper said: “I have thought about it and I was a player-coach under Steve, but I’ve not been urgently trying to be a manager instead of a player. I still really enjoy playing.

“But the opportunity at a club of this size, it was too good to turn down and just remain concentrating on playing. It was a no-brainer.

“I did think I would go into it eventually and, obviously, you’ve got to be reliant on opportunities that come up and things like that.

“But I wasn’t desperate to necessarily be a manager. It was more a case of wanting to be Herne Bay’s manager right at this moment.

“I think once my legs go - some would say they might have gone already - but once they fully go, that probably would have been when I would have been more likely to think about it a little bit more.

“I was still learning lots and happy to be a player-coach under Steve and I was assistant-player-manager under James. So, there was a little bit of progression for me there, as well.

“But hopefully, Steve and James will both testify that I’ve sort of still played my part as a player for them.

“I suppose, those people naming me captain for all those teams, it’s nice and it’s a compliment. Hopefully, it does stand me in good stead to manage.

“But obviously, it’s a different kind of leadership, being a captain and being a manager. Hopefully, I will transition from one to the other but it’s definitely going to be different.

“I’m going to be standing in front of the team rather than standing with the team.

"We’ll see how that goes.”

Friend had applied to become Bay’s boss this year and, while they went with Collins on that occasion, he has got the role now, having been in the dug-out for last month’s campaign-ending 3-0 defeat at relegated Steyning Town.

“James left his role on the Wednesday or the Thursday and Matt [Barman, club chairman] contacted me and said ‘Are you able to take the team on Saturday?’,” said Friend.

“I feel like I’ve been at the club for 10 years, not two years but, in football, I suppose two years is quite a long time, isn’t it?

“I just concentrated on the game. It was a bit of a weird day, with not much to play for and quite a young team that we put out and things like that.

“The board met last Monday evening and I spoke to Matt on the Tuesday and was kind of given the role and, then, he announced it.”

Friend has already been hard at work and has put a No.2 in place as director of football Dan Tanner moves away from the dugout.

“I’m bringing in Tom Wynter, who I played with at Margate,” he revealed. “He’s coming in to be my assistant manager.

“I'm hoping to announce a couple of signings next week and one of the signings there will hopefully be quite an experienced player so I suppose he will be part of the management structure, as well. We’ve got Joe Radford, the goalie coach, and Joe Denny so there’s definitely a structure there that’s ready to go.

“I’m not too keen on having too many cooks and things like that, but you definitely need a team behind the team.”

A quick decision by the Bay board means Friend has plenty of time to get things in place ahead of the forthcoming campaign.

Friend said: “I think that was the board’s idea when they gave James the job. They wanted to make sure that we were safe and then start planning early for next season.

“But three days after the season finishes is still very early to be set and making your plans for the season ahead. That’s definitely helped.

“It’s my first role so every little help or benefit that we can get, we’re going to take advantage of.”

While Friend won’t be hanging up his boots, he knows where his top priority now lies.

He explained: “I’m not desperate to pack up. I love playing still.

“But my job is to be the manager first and foremost. If it’s the right thing to do to put me into the team, then we’ll do that. Me and my management staff will make that call.

“The idea is that we’re building towards definitely the first game of the season when the plan is for me to be on the sideline, not in the starting XI. But as you know, with football, anything could happen.

“I suppose it’s handy to have a semi-reliable - I think people have called me before - centre-back ready to go in your squad.

“But the plan is to be manager-player rather than player-manager.”

Ironically, Friend had been given a strong indication on Herne Bay as a club as they earned their inaugural Isthmian Premier promotion with a 2-0 play-off victory at Ashford in April 2022 - with Friend captaining the Nuts & Bolts.

He said: “Thanks for reminding me of that day!

“Final defeats, I've had a few of them but, yeah, they brought a coach-load. It was a big day and it was a good day, other than the result. It's a huge club, on and off the pitch.

“They're sort of building every time you speak to the chairman or to the director of football or to any of the board or any of the other people that work for the club. There's always some new news that has come out, whether that’s ‘Oh, we're doing this’ or ‘the youth section has done this today’ or ‘there's a cup final for this’, or ‘there's a Spurs Legends game.’

“As a club, not just from the top, but even from the people who volunteer or the people that work behind-the-scenes, there's always some sort of positivity or some new project or something that they're aiming for to help the club move forward with.

“Obviously, a lot of people concentrate on the things that go on on the pitch, whereas there's, as you know in non-league, behind-the-scenes teams that can sometimes be 40, 50, 60, 100 deep of people that do different things.

"So, it’s a huge club.”