Stanley closing in on new manager (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Stanley closing in on new manager

9:11am Thursday 1st November 2012 in Sport By Chris Flanagan, Sports reporter

ACCRINGTON Stanley managing director Rob Heys hopes to conclude a deal to appoint Leam Richardson as the club’s new manager today.

Stanley’s caretaker boss was offered the job on a permanent basis at the weekend and has indicated that he wants to accept the role despite Paul Cook’s desire to take him to Chesterfield as his assistant.

Negotiations have been ongoing over terms but a deal is now on the verge of being completed and Heys is optimistic that Stanley will be able to appoint Richardson as manager today.

The club is eager to conclude the issue and focus on Saturday’s FA Cup first round tie at non-league side AFC Fylde.

“We’ve been having conversations with Leam and he’s keen to take it up,” Heys said last night.

“It’s just a case of getting everything agreed and tying up the loose ends. Talks are going well.

“We are keen to sort it out on Thursday if possible so we can focus on the FA Cup, which is a huge game for us.”

Richardson may also opt to bring in an assistant manager as he continued planning for Saturday’s game by extending the loan of Fleetwood central defender Rob Atkinson for a further month.

The Reds have received interest in the manager vacancy from a number of high profile figures but Heys stressed that they have never looked further than Richardson, who is popular with players and fans after impressing as caretaker boss on two occasions.

“We’ve had a lot of expression of interest, e-mails, CVs, telephone calls, friends of friends contacting us,” added Heys.

“We’ve had some quite big names interested, even though we never officially advertised the post.

“But Leam has always been our number one choice and hopefully we can get something sorted out.”