Known to many United fans as a tough-tackling left-back from his time here between 2003 and 2005, Stuart Bimson returned to the club this pre-season as First Team Coach.

To do full justice to our latest interview I would have to serialise it over several articles, but hopefully this will give you an insight into what Stuart has done since he left, and his aims and thoughts on Cambridge United from the other side of the white line.

As a player, Liverpool-born Bimmo started out in non-league before moving to Conference side Macclesfield at the start of the 1991-1992 season, then into the Football League with a £12,500 move to Bury in 1995. Eighteen months later he joined Lincoln City, where he spent almost six years and made over 170 league appearances up to the summer of 2003.

That summer he was offered a one year extension by Lincoln and a two-year contract by Cambridge United manager John Taylor, who he got to know during the previous two summers as they gained their UEFA 'A' qualifications. Aged 33, and with his wife and two young daughters to consider, he opted for the fresh challenge and greater security at Cambridge United and embarked upon an eventful two years at the Abbey.

Taylor appointed Bimmo as his new captain and it was to be a tumultuous season, with the club struggling financially, the sale of star striker Dave Kitson in December 2003, John Taylor's sacking in March 2004, and the arrival of Frenchmen Claude le Roy and Herve Renard to lead a late escape from relegation to the Conference.

It was even more frustrating for Stuart because a knee cartilage injury forced him to miss the last four months of the season, and the following pre-season, with Renard now manager and making a number of new signings, it became apparent that Bimmo was not part of his plans.

"I wanted to prove my worth to the fans after a disappointing season but Herve thought at 34 I was too old," he recalls without resentment. "I went about my business, kept my head down and kept myself fit, but nothing changed. Then about three or four weeks before Herve got the sack Claude was in England and we had a good chat, and then Herve put me back in the side. I think Claude had told him he needed his experienced players and I'd made sure I was fit and able to do a job if I got my chance."

A few weeks later, in December 2004, the club sacked Herve and appointed Steve Thompson, and the Yorkshireman set about trying to save the club from relegation to the Conference.

"He told me that regardless of what happened he wanted me in the side next season, but we got relegated and he got sacked, and everything changed again," says Bimmo.

With new manager Rob Newman trying to assemble a squad from the bargain basement, Stuart joined Canvey Island and spent a year there, but at the end of that season they resigned from the Conference for financial reasons and owner Jeff King took over at Chelmsford, with many of the players following him there.

Bimmo trained with Chelmsford for four weeks in pre-season and had been promised a contract, but King's plans changed when he signed a young left-back on loan from Ipswich. So late in pre-season, with most teams fixed up with players, Stuart was left without a club.

"I spent a month with Stevenage and played two reserve games, and I was due to play for the first team when my right knee flared up again and I was struggling," Stuart explains.

Leaving Stevenage, he was contacted by a friend from his UEFA 'A' course who was assistant manager at Bedford Town and he played one game for them.

He was offered a contract but his knee flared up again in the warm-up for his second game and he knew he had to seek advice.

Having stayed in touch with our physio, Greg Reid, Stuart took his advice and consulted local specialist Dennis Edwards, who had operated on his knee before. Further surgery was recommended, but after the op came bad news.

"Mr Edwards went in to have a look and a clean inside and found there was only a little bit of cartilage left, plus the bottom of my femur was flaking away so he shaved that a bit, and there was a series of micro-fractures to do with my arthritis. So he fixed me up so I could walk and do the basics, and after the op he and Greg gave me two choices: I could either play on and take tablets for the pain, or call it a day."

He faced the decision philosophically, saying "Enough's enough", and was completing his rehab at Bedford when manager Nick Platnauer quit and Bimmo was offered the job.

"I jumped at the chance," he admits. "It was a struggle because Bedford were near the bottom of the Conference South and short of confidence, and we ended up getting relegated. We'd played well and had a good little spell at the end of the season but just didn't have enough, but it was great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed my year and a bit there.

"There was no money, no training facilities and a lot of young lads, and it was really hard work, but I learned a lot and they were a great set of lads."

Retained by the board to build a squad for this season, Bimmo heard that his old mate Gary Brabin had been appointed manager here and contacted him to wish him well and try to arrange a pre-season game. They had played together at Bury and Lincoln but knew each other as teenagers in non-league with Runcorn (Brabin) and Southport (Bimson), and their conversation ended with an invitation for Bimmo to help part-time with coaching.

"With Bedford being part-time I was property developing during the day, which I'd started doing when I moved here in 2003. That had been going really well, but the property market was starting to change and I was just finishing a couple of houses so I wasn't too busy during the day, and it was OK with the Bedford chairman so I started to help here," he explains.

But as pre-season progressed, and with both Brabin and his assistant Paul Carden agreeing that Carden should concentrate on playing for the time being, Stuart was offered a full-time post and after talking it through with Bedford he left after their last pre-season game.

"I still want to manage at some point, but the chance to get involved with full-time coaching seemed like a step in the right direction and I think it's the right move at the right time," he says.

"I love the day-to-day training and working with a young management team, and it was nice to come back here. It was disappointing to be here when the club got relegated and it's a driving ambition of mine to get this club back into the Football League and onwards, and that's how we all feel as a management team," he adds.

"We're all ambitious and first and foremost we want to get the club promoted, but we don't want to stop there, we want to push the club through the divisions. We're very ambitious and that's our aim for the club, but we can't get carried away. It's coming together nicely at the moment and we're showing good form at the right time, and we have to keep driving on."

Bimmo was delighted to discover that he and Brabin have the same philosophy about football, and have been able to turn their long friendship into a good working relationship where they can bounce ideas off each other and he can help 'Brabs' with the responsibilities of his role.

Brabin, Bimson and Paul Carden clearly make a good team behind the scenes, starting their day with mobile phone conversations on their way to the ground to prepare for the day ahead, although with the current spell of two games a week the pre-match days all involve the same preparations and routines. Wednesdays will see the players who weren't involved on the Tuesday night in for training, and Carden will often take those sessions, whereas for the sessions before first team games Carden has to be on the training pitch in preparation for the game.

"We get a good angle from Cardy's point of view about things that maybe need tweaking on the pitch, while we can see things from another angle on the sidelines," explains Bimmo.

"And sometimes the gaffer finds it useful to let me take part of the session and stand back and watch, so we all have an input, although for now we all want Cardy to concentrate on playing because he's an integral part of things on the pitch.

"Then once we get back in the office we'll all have a good chat about the session and how we feel it went, and Cardy does a lot of work talking to agents and that side of things, watching games, speaking to the players, but we keep the coaching side to a minimum because we want him to concentrate on playing.

"We all speak to the players one-on-one and sometimes they'll need an arm round their shoulder and sometimes a kick up the backside, so we'll all do a bit of that between us.

"It's pleasing that the relationship between the three of us, and the balance with Cardy in the mix too, is getting better and stronger all the time and hopefully we can be successful here," he adds.

"We believe there's a great squad of players here; there are some who haven't played as much as they would like but that goes with every successful side, and we have a really strong dressing room and a good set of lads who all get on well together.

"They all want the same things and drive each other on as well as getting the drive from the management team, and you have to give them a lot of credit," concludes Bimmo.

"We're doing things the right way and hopefully we can push on now for the last nine games of the season and get to where we want to be, which is promotion."

Andrea Thrussell

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