Selsey Football Club are extremely delighted to announce that Martin Hinshelwood has agreed to assist the Club in its future development. Chairman, David Lee, has been keen to develop the Club in a certain way for some time now, and he believes that the appointment of Martin will help enormously to achieve this. Lee’s vision has been to continue to promote Football for all at Youth Level, whilst also ensuring that players are given the right coaching to develop their games. Martin, who has had a long and distinguished career in the professional game, lives close to the Club and is a former player. His career has seen him play for Crystal Palace, Coach and Manager Brighton and Hove Albion, Manage Crawley Town and he has been Chief Scout at Portsmouth FC. More recently Martin has been working as a Scout for Stoke City FC where he is currently employed.

Martin played for the Club when he moved to the area in the mid-1980s and has a strong affiliation with Selsey FC. Not only has he played for the Club, he has always shown an interest in the teams and is always interested to find out how the Club is doing. His association with the Club has been strengthened by the fact that both of his boys, Danny and Scott, have also played for the Club. In the early 2000s, Danny even became Manager of the first team, which saw the Club have one of its more successful periods. Martin’s brother Paul has also represented the Club at first team level, together with his sons, Marc, Adam and Paul. Adam, like Danny, also managed the first team.

The Club has a strong Youth section, which will be further enhanced by the introduction of a new Under 18s side this year. Lee says “I want as many players from Selsey representing the Club as possible. I am also keen to invite any young player from outside of Selsey to come to Club. I have realised that, whilst we have many good young players in the village, we do not have sufficient to really challenge in the highest leagues. With the introduction of more players we will be much stronger. As a Charter Standard Community Club, we have a responsibility to ensure football is played by all. However, we also have a duty to players to give them the best coaching that we can. I have spoken to Martin about this and asked him for his ideas. He is of the opinion that we can provide coaching for all, whilst making sure that we develop the better players”. Martin has therefore, agreed to sit down with the Chairman and go through the ideas that he has. Martin said “I am keen to help Selsey Football Club wherever I can. I will happily come along to training sessions, speak to the coaches and even put sessions on when I can. Selsey is a super Football Club and there are a lot of talented young players there. It is only right that they are given the chance to become better players, and who knows, move on to bigger and better things”.

Martin has also spoken to new Manager Daren Pearce and has confirmed that he will help him in any way that he can. Daren is delighted that Martin is prepared to help the Club out. “I am excited that Martin has agreed to help the Club. I will certain learn a lot from him. Any player, be that a youngster or an experienced player with the first team, who wants to better themselves, would be foolish not to get involved with the Club at this time”. To coin an old cliché Daren added “Martin has most probably forgotten more about football than some of us will ever know”.