Clive Cook says he is missing football management just over a year since leaving Canterbury City.

Cook quit the Southern Counties East club in December 2019 after a breakdown in his relationship with the board.

The former Hythe boss wants to get back in the dugout and, at 62, still feels he has plenty to offer.

He went close to a job last season but is waiting for another chance to return to management.

It’s perhaps not the worst time to be out of football, given the uncertainty brought on by Covid.

But Cook said: “There’s never a good time to be out of football. It’s been a nightmare, if I’m being honest.

“I love football - I realise it’s not everything because of what’s going on in the world - but I do miss it and I’d be stupid if I said anything different because I’ve been doing it for so long.

“It’s got to be the right opportunity but I always find if you’re out of the game, it’s very difficult to get back in.

“It’s a difficult situation because it always seems like chairmen have already got someone lined up.

“We’ll just have to see what happens when, hopefully, life returns to some sort of normality. You just live in hope that someone gives you an opportunity.

“It was disappointing what happened at Canterbury but I was made promises that were reneged on. You’ve got to have a relationship with the board and if that’s not there, it’s time to move on.

“I was very close to taking a job last season but the club said wait till the end of the season, we’re giving the manager six to eight games and if it’s not working, the job’s yours.

“Of course, the season finished early and the manager hasn’t had the chance to achieve, or not achieve, the results.

“I’m no spring chicken now but I always feel experience is greater than anything else in any business.”

Cook speaks regularly to the likes of Folkestone boss Neil Cugley, along with another out-of-work manager in ex-Faversham chief Ray Turner.

Indeed, Cook fancies the idea of linking up with Turner in the dugout.

“I was talking to Ray Turner the other day and I said, ‘Do you miss it?’ and he said, ‘Yes, I do.’

“If we had the opportunity to work together that would be fantastic.

“He’s a good man, who shouldn’t be out of football, but he is. It’s just waiting for that opportunity and grasping it when it comes along. We’d be a great mix.

“I’ve got a ready-made team of people who’d come straight in. People talk about playing youngsters but you can’t beat experience, if you can get it at the right price.”

Cook had a good spell in the Isthmian League with Hythe and that’s the level he’d like to work at.

He said: “I don’t mind Southern Counties East, there’s a lot of good players there, but my years are running out so really it’s got to be an Isthmian club.

“I know I can piece together a very good squad - I’ve done it everywhere I’ve been.

“I know players want to play for me, I just wish someone would give me an opportunity.

“I love that challenge of building that castle.

“I’ve got unfinished business and I want to win something.

“Football’s always been part of my life, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, and I miss the dressing room, I miss that camaraderie with the players. That’s me and once you’ve had it, it’s hard to let it go.”

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