Appointed as the new Chairman at the end of January, George Rolls talks about his background and his hopes and plans for the future of Cambridge United.

Born and raised in Cambridge, 34-year-old Rolls attended the Priory Junior School and Netherhall, watched Cambridge United from the age of five, and spent three years as a goalkeeper at Leyton Orient before moving into the business world.

Having represented the County, Cambridge & District Colts and East Anglia at youth level, he joined Leyton Orient as a Schoolboy at the age of 12 but bigger clubs soon showed an interest. He had trials with Leicester, Ipswich and most famously Manchester United, who picked him up on his fourteenth birthday to show him around Old Trafford.

However he decided to stay with Leyton Orient as a Schoolboy, apprentice and young pro, and explains: "Leyton Orient was where I felt at home and I was there for seven years in all."

He represented the O's at youth and reserve levels, played for the first team in pre-season games and was included in the first team squad several times, but was released at the age of 19.

"I wasn't good enough," he states. "I carried on playing at Sudbury in the Beazer Homes League, but I realised I was never going to make a living at football so I went to work."

Joining a company in Melbourn on the minimum wage, on his first day he found himself sweeping the factory floor, but over the next seven years he worked his way up to a senior managerial post. After gaining experience in the dispatch, buying, and sales departments, he became involved in designing and manufacturing shop fittings for companies like Tie Rack, Marks & Spencer and Debenhams.

Similar posts followed with a company in London and then Telford before he moved into the recruitment business with Hays Montrose.

Learned the ropes

"They were one of the bigger companies in that field and I learned the ropes there, then got headhunted to run another recruitment company which I built up almost from scratch to an £11 million company in three years, before setting up Trade Recruitment in 2006, and it has become quite a sizeable company already."

George's first involvement with Cambridge United was at the age of five when he first started coming to matches with his father, and it was only when he signed for Leyton Orient at 14 that he had to stop.

"There's always been a family connection to the club," he says. "I only lived around the corner and my Mum worked at the club on the commercial side a couple of times, first in the early 80s and then again in the 90s when John Holmes was the commercial manager.

"When I was young I used to play football on Coldham's Common every weekend, looking up at the floodlights here, and when I got older I used to travel all over to away games as well as the home games."

After several years when his work commitments kept him away from the club, George was invited for talks by former Chief Executive Norman Gautrey and he was impressed by his vision for the club.

"I met the other board members and liked what they had to say and it all happened quite quickly," he says. "I was delighted to join the Board, and now I'm very proud and honoured to be appointed Chairman."

George has thrown himself into his new role and can usually be found at the club, taking a keen interest in most aspects of the business: "I'm heavily involved in overseeing the commercial activities of the club and things like introducing new sponsors, and also on the football side I'm working with the manager and dealing with other clubs and contacts."

Three Chairmen

It has been an eventful period both on and off the pitch since he was appointed to the Board of Directors in November 2007. Off the field, Chairman Lee Power stood down last January and Phil Law took over until September, when Terry Baker stepped in as Acting Chairman.

On the field, last season's exciting campaign culminated in the Play-off Final appearance at Wembley in May, and a change of manager in June

"We've had three Chairmen in the short time I've been involved, which obviously isn't good for a business," says the new incumbent.

"It's been very enjoyable though and there are a lot of good and passionate people at the club, all the way through the club from the boardroom to all the volunteers.

"I'm at the club full-time because I think I need to be here, hands on and getting amongst it, and knowing what's going on at the club on a daily basis. That's the only way you can run a business."

Good Young Manager

But George stresses that his hands on involvement does not include the dressing room: "We employ a manager and he will pick the team and come and have a chat afterwards, as he always does.

"We have a very, very good young manager that I believe will go a long way in the game. This is his first job in full-time football as a manager but I believe he's doing a fantastic job and I hope we'll both be around for a long time."

Looking ahead, and summarising his own vision for the club, George's greatest wish is for stability.

"It's so important that we run the club as a business so that financially it is stable," he states. "At the end of the day we're a limited company and shouldn't need people like Paul and Terry and Adrian and myself to keep it afloat.

"Matters on the pitch have a massive effect on that too, but I don't think the fans should just think exclusively about winning games on a Saturday. The books have got to balance.

"The key thing, for me, is stability and continuity and we haven't had that," he says, warning that there could be belt-tightening ahead if promotion is not achieved this season.

"We need to get a board of directors who are going to be here long-term and a manager who is going to be here long-term, because I think all successful businesses work well when there's stability and continuity in place. We recognise that we need to strengthen the Board and we hope to bring some new people in soon.

"We may have to take a step back to take two forward because if we don't go up this year our playing budget next season will be lower, which the manager is already aware of. We've spent over budget this year and heavily backed Gary, but we don't want the directors to keep having to put their hands in their pocket. We want the club to run as a standalone company.

"Yes, we all want success on the pitch and it would be great for us to go up," he adds, "but I want to see the continuity and the stability on the financial side of the club too. We'll be working hard on other revenue streams to bring money into the club, but the rest of the board and the manager is in full agreement that financial stability is key and we want to get to a breakeven position as soon as possible."

Youth Development

The club's once-renowned youth development system is once again producing players for the first team. Resurrected and run for the last two-and-a-half years by Head of Youth Jez George, who joined the Board as Director of Youth Football last month, the youth setup has provided current first team regulars Robbie Willmott and Josh Coulson, as well as Rory McAuley and Sam Ives who made their first team debuts this season.

George believes strongly that the club must continue to produce its own stars of the future and confirmed, "Another big wish is to see the development of the youngsters coming through from Jez George's youth setup.

"It's in its third year now and Jez has done a cracking job. He's a key person to the business and I'm delighted that he has joined the Board. We're still not going to reap the real benefits for another four or five years yet, following the setting up of the Development Centres, but I think we'll see a mass of players coming through in that time.

"It won't happen overnight," he warns. "We'll get one or two coming through each year, but you can't just throw them straight in the first team because they're not ready."

Speaking Personally

Away from football, the combination of his own business and his role at the Football Club leaves him with very little spare time, although he admits that even before taking up his new role at the club he would often work long hours and work on his laptop at home.

Fortunately he has the full support of his wife of almost ten years, Amanda, of whom he says, "She doesn't like football but she's very supportive. We've been together for thirteen years, and she knew of me at school too so she knew I was always heavily into sport."

Unsurprisingly he doesn't have much spare time, although he likes to play some golf in the summer, and spends what spare time he has with Amanda and daughters Isabelle (6 in April) and Olivia (14 months).

He is also pleased that another member of the family, 16-year-old nephew Louis, is among the next generation of supporters and is a regular on the Newmarket Road End and at away games.

"He was coming to games even before I was involved at the club," says George. "He's had a season ticket since he was about five and his natural progression was into the NRE, and he'll probably be singing 'Rolls out' on Saturday!"

Moving on to the support in general terms, George is generous in his praise: "I'm reluctant to say too much because it can sound cheesy when everyone is saying it, but some of the support this year has been amazing - Rushden was like a home game with the noise they made and credit has to go to supporters on all sides.

"Towards the end of last season you could really hear the Main Stand starting to join in as well and the fans are behind the team all the time - they're fantastic."

Great Position

The club's ultimate aim is to return to the Football League, and George echoes the thoughts of the manager, player and fans when he shares his hopes and aims for the rest of the season on the pitch: "Without wishing to put too much pressure on the manager, we'd all expect to get into the play-offs and if we don't we'd be very disappointed.

"We've got ourselves into a great position and it's all in our hands, especially when you look at some of the other results and the games to be played.

"And I'd like to make one more key point about stability," he adds. "I want the fans to know that the manager won't be going anywhere. I hear rumours that he won't survive beyond the summer, but as far as I'm concerned we have to build the whole structure of the club and that means the manager being here long-term."

George concludes with thanks to everyone who has made him welcome in his new role: "I've had lots of offers of help and support from many people, including the Vice-Presidents Club and CFU, and it means a lot to know we can all work together for the good of the club.

"Let's hope we can all march on, united."

Andrea Thrussell

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