Alan Lewer is excited by the potential at Cambridge United and he feels the club is ripe for a move back to the Football League.
After a playing career in the 1970s and 80s with Bournemouth, Woking and seven years with Aldershot when they were in the Football League, the 51-year-old started his managerial career at VS Rugby when they were struggling in the old Southern League.
"You don't usually get jobs in football unless a club is struggling but I kept them afloat and kept them in the division and took them to the final qualifying round of the FA Cup," recalled Lewer.
"Then I was approached by Telford in the Conference and went there as Jimmy Mullins' assistant before getting the job myself, saved them from relegation and took them to the semi-final of the FA Trophy. Funnily enough, when I was there we played Cambridge United in the FA Cup at Telford, and Cambridge won and I remember Trevor Benjamin scored."
But events at Telford overtook him and he had to move on: "It was their best season for something like 18 years but they told me I didn't have any full-time experience as a manager and they wanted to bring in someone who had managed full-time.
"So I went up to Doncaster Rovers to be assistant manager to Steve Wignall, and he later went on to manage at Colchester United so we went our own ways and I moved to Chester City to be assistant to Mark Wright."
Lewer helped Wright to assemble the team that went on to win promotion from the Conference in 2004 before being approached by Nuneaton Borough to take over as manager and try avoid relegation from the Conference.
"We didn't quite do it and I managed them for a year in the Doc Marten's League before Mark Wright asked me to go back to Chester City to help them in the Football League, and then I moved on again when Forest Green approached me to take over there.
"They were in a dire situation when I took over, with no points after ten games, but I don't mind saying that Mike Davis and myself did a fantastic job there and we finished third from bottom, although the club got a reprieve from relegation that season because another club went down. We only got beaten ten times in the last 36 games, and there were a lot of draws in those games but when you're struggling it's very hard and we had to change about 20 players during that season, so that was a massive achievement.
"But at the end of the season they decided to take another direction so I went to Crawley with John Hollins and we saved them from relegation, and then we started last season with a ten point deduction because of administration.
"I thought we did a fantastic job there and we soon made up the ten points, but then the owners came in and said they couldn't afford to pay us so we had to move on last October."
Lewer joined Grays early this year and was involved with scouting and recruiting players, but didn't have to think hard about Jimmy Quinn's request to join Cambridge United as his assistant.
"Anyone who knows the Conference knows that Cambridge United has a fantastic fanbase and I just feel that the club is ready to move on and go back into the Football League," he told cambridgeunited.com.
"Jim and I have been in touch for several years although we've never worked together before. He took Shrewsbury up a couple of seasons ago, I was in the background at Chester for the success there, and hopefully that's where we can take Cambridge United.
"The potential is here to go back into the League and this club reminds me of Doncaster Rovers years ago; they were a big club coming down to the Conference and it took a little while to get it moving and get out, but if we do get out of the Conference I think we can kick on further again, and that's what we're here to do.
"There's massive potential here and I feel the club is ripe to move on.
"I know Jim and what he has achieved before, and it's my job to make sure I help him in the right way and try to relieve some of the pressure by taking on some of the little things that he doesn't need to deal with day to day.
"I think once you've managed yourself you know what those things are, and it's a matter of taking a little bit of pressure off at the right time."
Lewer is renowned for his knowledge of players at this level of the game and unsurprisingly knows several of the current squad, while he is also aware of Quinn's top transfer targets.
"Danny Brown is a player I had at Crawley, I've seen a lot of Robbie Simpson and I hope he's still here next season, I've always been an admirer of Rob Wolleaston, I know Courtney Pitt was at Boston and obviously Jim has just brought the lad Gleeson back from Notts County, so I know a lot of the squad already.
"Jim is on holiday this week but we've spoken about the players coming in and we'll try to get those things tied up as soon as possible."
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