New Whitstable head coach Craig Coles says plenty has changed at the club since his own playing days there.

Coles joined alongside new boss Marcel Nimani this week, having left Isthmian South East Sheppey, after Richard Styles quit at Whitstable on Sunday.

He admits it was a tough decision to make to leave The Ites but the chance to work with Nimani again saw him opt to link up with the Southern Counties East club, as did his previous affiliation with Whitstable.

He explained: “I stopped playing when I was 18, mainly because I got a bad injury so, after playing under-18s, I stopped. But I played for the club from under-10s through to under-18s.

“It’s nice in that way because I do have an affiliation with the club. So when Marcel mentioned it to me [the chance to join Whitstable’s new management team] and said what his plans are, it did appeal.

“It’s a little bit closer to home for me as well, so everything added up.”

Plenty has changed at The Belmont since Coles’ playing days, with the club’s new 3G pitch being put down in the summer.

“It’s changed so much and it’s changed for the better as well,” said Coles who has a UEFA B coaching Licence.

“They still have got plans to do additional things and, if they get done and when they get done, the ground will be absolutely fantastic. But even with the facilities they have got now, it’s superb.

“They have got the 3G and, just being in and around the ground, there’s a really nice feeling. It’s a heck of a lot different to what I expected it to look like.

“Obviously I knew they had the 3G down anyway but, comparing it to what I played on eight to 10 years ago, it’s very, very different.”

Coles admits he may not agree with everything Nimani does while he’s in charge - but feels challenging him will help get the best out of the new manager and, as a result, the team.

“I’m really pleased Marcel offered it to me,” he said of his new role with the Oystermen.

“Obviously we worked together at Sheppey and, to be fair, he was the one that brought me in. We just sort of hit it off with each other straight away - everything was easy.

“Don’t get me wrong, we had our disagreements, but for me, it’s always healthy to have that. If you are in agreement all the time, then it becomes harder to change and improve things.

“It’s nice. We have our own opinions, we see things in different ways, and we challenge ourselves and each other because of it.

“I joined [Sheppey] around November last year and so I was with him for a good six or seven months. It was, obviously, enough time for me to get to know him and we built a really, really good relationship.

“That’s the main reason for me wanting to come over and work with him again.”

Whitstable sit 10th, already 18 points behind early unbeaten frontrunners Erith & Belvedere, after last season being relegated from Isthmian South East.

But Coles, who works for the Total Sports Coaching Football Academy, said: “It’s a huge club and, for me, they are an Isthmian League club.

“They were for quite some time until they got relegated last year and were well established. Personally last year, I did look for the results because I’d been affiliated with the club before so it was disappointing to see them go down.

“But the job for myself and Marcel is to push the team and push the club as high as we can this year.

“Whether we get promoted or not this year, we will wait and see. But our aim is to get as high up the league as we can.”

They are already out of the FA Vase and lost 1-0 to Stansfeld on Saturday in the Kent Senior Trophy.

“We are still in the Challenge Cup," Coles said. "So for me, it’ll be a case of trying to take that cup seriously to try and give something back to the fans."

He and Nimani held their first training session on Tuesday with their new squad.

“We had our first training session with the boys on Tuesday which went really well. We met all the boys,” he said.

“The boys that couldn’t train came down to meet myself and Marcel, which was really nice. It’s just a case of trying to move forward.

“There’s some very, very good players at the club already, but I think it’ll be a few weeks before we can get in all the players that we want and we can put our stamp on it, I suppose.

“Obviously the previous management team had their own way of playing so it’s just about trying to enforce how we want to play. It will be different.

“I feel fans will realise a difference quite quickly but I think it’ll be a few weeks before we get the squad settled and get the players in that we would like to try and get in.

“Hopefully then, we can move forward.”

Explaining his decision to leave Sheppey, after they won a unique quadruple last term, including the league title, Coles said he had made lots of friends at the Holm Park club and wished them well.

He said: “The performance against Ramsgate was fantastic [as they beat the leaders 2-1] and we deserved the result that we got.

“The performances either side of that - against Whitehawk [1-1] and VCD [a 2-1 loss on Saturday] - we didn’t deserve to draw or lose those games. I wish them all the best.

“I do hope the performances the boys at Sheppey have started putting in of late start turning into three points because they definitely deserve it, given the performances they’ve had. It was a difficult decision for me. I said that to Jack [Midson, the manager] when I spoke to him.

“It was really tough having worked with the players. But Whitstable is about 10 minutes from me, 15 minutes at most, so I had to factor that in with running my own business. Then you factor in me having an affiliation with the club, having played for the club for eight years as a youngster, it felt right.

“Obviously working with Marcel was an opportunity I couldn’t miss, as well, especially because he was offering me the opportunity to be assistant manager-head coach so it’s a step up for me in my coaching journey.”

At Whitstable, Coles and Nimani will face a tough first three games. They visit third-placed Stansfeld this Saturday, K Sports on Monday and then their first home fixture is against frontrunners Erith & Belvedere the following weekend.

“I do feel there are a lot harder games in SCEFL now,” said the ex-Canterbury City coach.

“I know Sheppey and Chatham got promoted last year but, just from the squads that are being built in SCEFL, there’s a lot of very, very good teams.

"You have got Erith & Belvedere, you have got Phoenix, Deal are looking really good this year and they have signed some fantastic players so, for me, this year there’s a lot of teams with potential to win it or get in the play-offs.

“I think any first three games we were going to have were always going to be difficult and that’s definitely the case.

“But hopefully, it’s a positive start and then we can move forward from there.”

Striker Matt Gething, who followed Styles to Whitstable from Tunbridge Wells, rejoined the Culverden Stadium side on Wednesday.