Long-serving boss Neil Cugley has explained why he has stood down as Folkestone manager.

Cugley was in his 26th season in charge and had been the longest-serving manager in English football since Arsene Wenger left Arsenal in 2018 before Cugley's surprise exit on Wednesday.

He had intended for this to be his final season at Cheriton Road but, with assistant Roland Edge and player-coach Micheal Everitt agreeing to take charge, he has instead left his managerial role with immediate effect.

Cugley believes now is a good time for a transition in Folkestone’s dug-out, rather than waiting until next summer.

He told KentOnline: “You want the transition to be easy for everybody, don’t you?

“They do a lot anyway to be fair. They have always been good with me. They’re good people and, obviously, Mev is a local lad.

“I think the two lads deserve a go. It’s the best time for them as well. It gives them six months to really put their mark on it.

• Shock as legendary football manager quits after 26 years

• Neil Cugley speaking in 2019 to the KM football podcast

“It’s a good time to get the transition done.”

Paul Morgan recently stepped down as Folkestone chairman as well, and Cugley felt - having become involved in those off-the-field talks about how the club now moves forward - it was becoming tougher for him to concentrate on matters on the pitch.

On life behind-the-scenes, the club legend said: “I think that’s where I’m best suited now for the club.

"I can get people in and I’m very lucky. I’ve got some very good friends that rang me and want to help out the club. They’re going to be important.”

Cugley has seen plenty of highs and lows, with his departure even attracting national interest.

Explaining his decision to depart now, he said: “There’s not one major thing really - it’s just loads of little things.

“It’s a bit tiring and I’m really busy with trying to get people involved, which is a lot of meetings and phone calls. I just felt it was very hard to do everything.

“The club has moved on, and it’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It needs people that are going to come in and help the club move on really.

“When you look at the youth teams we’ve got and the Academy, everything is moving on.

“The club is getting bigger and bigger, and too big for me in some ways to do it how I was managing it a few years ago.

“I was going to step down at the end of the season anyway. Leave is probably the wrong word because I’m not leaving the club, just not doing the managing side.”

Among the most recent highs was leading Invicta to the 2015/16 Isthmian South title.

But of the highlights during his time at the helm, Cugley said: “There’s been lots of different things really.

"I think the biggest achievement was helping save the club [in 2010], to be fair, just carrying on and still putting out good sides. That was an achievement.

“But I don’t really look back. There’s been a lot of good things and some not-so-good things!”

Overall, he took charge of 1,299 Folkestone matches - just one shy of another milestone - but Cugley concedes he has never been one to pay much attention to the records he constantly breaks.

“Honestly, I’ve never really been one for statistics anyway or anything like that,” he said. “I only know when people tell me.

“I just go home and move on to the next game. It’s been a privilege really.

“I’m a local person and, having seen so many ups and downs at the club, I think it’s a good club now. I’m proud of that.”

Offers to leave Invicta have come but Cugley has remained since the summer of 1996.

Asked what his thoughts were when he was first appointed, he replied: “I thought, if I do well at Folkestone, I might get a better job! I sort of got offered jobs when we were doing well and I thought ‘No, I won’t leave now. I’m enjoying it because we’re winning’.

“Then when you are losing, no-one wants you anyway! But no way did I think that I’d be doing it for that long.

“I have enjoyed it, most of it’s been very, very good. You get tired of it sometimes but it’s been a privilege.

“It’s a club I played for as a youth-team lad and I was semi-professional at Folkestone. I’m very proud.

“The fans, to be fair, have been brilliant. There’s never been any banners, telling me to get out or anything, it’s been all right.

"They’ve been very supportive.”

Cugley has dealt with a range of players over the years too. The likes of strikers Harry Smith, Johan Ter Horst and Ira Jackson shone at Folkestone before stints in the professional game - although Jackson is back at Cheriton Road these days - while several players, like Cugley, who has agreed to forego his wages for the rest of the campaign, have stayed loyal to Invicta.

“I have had some loyal players and some very good ones as well. I’ve been very lucky like that,” he said.

“I think a lot of them have really enjoyed it, playing for Folkestone, and that means a lot as well.

“But things move on at clubs, they get more and more professional. You just have to move on with it.”

Although there have been plenty of changes in personnel over the years, Folkestone has always had a welcoming feel.

Cugley said: “The people I have worked under have generally left me alone. Okay, the budget sometimes changes, but they’ve always left me alone and I’ve always been able to get on with it.

“So I can thank them for that really. You don’t want the chairman on your back all the time, do you?

“But to be fair since I have been at Folkestone, they’ve all been very supportive.”

Members of the football community in Kent have hailed his longevity following the news with a range of tributes - both to Cugley as a manager and Cugley as a person.

He said: “It’s been a bit manic. I can only thank the people who sent me really kind messages.

“They’re still coming through now! I have met some great people in football, I really have. That’s what’s made it so enjoyable.

“I have got so many friends and still have many friends because of football.”

Former striker Cugley thinks the county should be proud of their non-league clubs and the way they are progressing.

Explaining what he’ll be doing in a football capacity rather than managing now, he said: “I’ll be having meetings all next week and I’ve got one Saturday.

“I had one on Wednesday with someone who has agreed to get involved. It’s all going okay.

“Non-league football is amazing now. You look at the clubs getting new grounds and having this done and that. The whole thing is just changing so much.

“That’s another reason why I think it’s time for me to go. Kent has got to be really proud of their non-league clubs. They’re excellent now.

“Even if I go back 10 years ago and said to all these clubs ‘You are going to get a new ground or this or that’, I think they’d probably all say ‘That’s great’.

“It’s great for non-league football.”

This Saturday’s FA Trophy tie against Isthmian Premier rivals Horsham will be the first in some 26 years when someone other than Cugley will be in the Folkestone dug-out.

But Cugley doesn’t expect things to feel greatly different, saying: “My wife, Pauline, does the bar anyway. That won’t change for the rest of the season.

“It won’t be that much of a change for me. I suppose more at the end of the season we’ll see where we are with everything off the pitch really.

“Hopefully we have progressed nicely and we can all enjoy it.”