Shropshire Star

Micky Moore reveals why he moved to Shrewsbury Town

Micky Moore has been director of football at Shrewsbury Town for just over a year, and he has now revealed how his move to Shropshire came about.

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When he was appointed he became the first person to ever occupy the role at Salop after being offered the post by chairman Roland Wycherley.

And in the most recent episode of the In The Stiffs podcast – hosted by former Town players Dave Edwards, Sam Aiston and Gavin Cowan – Moore revealed: “One or two people had mooted about having conversations with me but I was not looking to leave (Cheltenham).

“Roland (Wycherley) spoke to Cheltenham and said ‘We are looking to go down the director of football route, can I talk to Micky?’.

“I had never met him, I had never spoken to him in my life.

“I think he had seen what Cheltenham were doing and I think some of the selling point was we were making profit because now we were selling players. We were buying and selling.

“He is looking at it and thinking these have gone from being nowhere to being in League One with the lowest budget in the league.

“They have never been in the bottom four, and now they are selling players and making money.

“Cheltenham said to me ‘We have had a phone call from Roland they are interested, but we do not want to lose you’.

“I had always said to the club that if anyone ever approaches you, I will always give them the respect to go and speak to them – even though I have turned clubs down before, I would still go and speak to them.

“I met the chairman and, when you meet him for the first time, he is quite quirky in terms of how he speaks to you, and honestly we just connected.”

Moore was tasked with keeping Shrewsbury in League One last time out – something they did on the penultimate day of the League One season.

The appointment of Matt Taylor last summer did not work out, but now with Paul Hurst in the dugout out, Salop prepare for their 10th successive season in the third tier of English football.

And Moore has spoken about his relationship with Wycherley.

“I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but I just felt a real warmth about him,” he continued.

“We left the meeting, and he said have a think about it, and then we had another meeting.

“After the first one I was thinking first impressions is he going to be the same again?

“And he was unbelievable. To the point I wanted to cuddle him.

“He says I want to offer you the job, and I was thinking I had a really good job at Cheltenham, where basically I had the keys to the place.

“I had full autonomy, the academy is now thriving, we have sellable assets, and we worked hard to get to that point.

“I had turned down a lot of opportunities and I was going to go a club that was very stable, the chairman had a lot of years there, he knows football.

“I spoke to my missus and I said ‘I am going to do it’.

“The negotiations took five minutes and it just felt right. Roland was like I am watching football, I am seeing it evolve and whether people disagree or like the role, everyone is going to have one.

“I needed to come out of my comfort zone, I knew deep down the time was right.”