Gloucester City’s new manager Tim Flowers is a football man through and through.

The former goalkeeper, now 56, played at the highest level for England, Blackburn Rovers, where he won the Premier League, and Southampton among a number of other clubs. He’s also managed at the highest level in non-League football, steering unfancied Solihull Moors to a second-placed finish in the National League in 2018/19.

Football is in his blood so when Gloucester chairman and owner Patrick Chambers offered him the manager’s position, he had no hesitation in accepting it.

“The job appealed to me,” he told The Local Answer. “It’s a good club and a good set-up, I want to work. I love the game and enjoy football, always have done since I was a kid. I live in south west Birmingham so it’s an hour’s drive to the stadium.”

Flowers has taken over from Steven King who guided the club to the end-of-season play-offs for the first time in their history last time out, but whereas King was full-time, Flowers will be operating on a part-time basis.

Simple economics mean the players will be part-time, too – King worked with a full-time hybrid squad – so the team which Flowers sends out for the first league game at Blyth Spartans on Saturday 5^th August will be very different to the one that ended the 2022/23 campaign.

Flowers knows that presents challenges but he speaks with energy and enthusiasm as he looks forward to the big kick-off.

“I know what it’s like in the National League, it’s a tough division and it will be a real test,” he said.

“The club did really well last season but things have changed a bit, we will have nowhere near the same budget.

“The chairman has been really transparent with me. There will be clubs in the division operating on three or four times the budget I’m operating on so you’ve got to be realistic.

“I’m under no illusions, I know I’m going to take some haymakers this season but we know what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to be as competitive as possible.”

And while there are clearly going to be some tough times, Flowers is keen to look at the positives.

“We’ll be working with a small, tight-knit squad,” he said. “Spencer Hamilton, Joe Hanks and Joe Parker have all returned to the club, there will be a much stronger Gloucester feel to the team.

“And the budget will improve as we go along. The chairman wants to build the fanbase in the community, something I very much support.”

Chambers did exactly that during his four-year spell as chairman of Hungerford Town, who play in Division One South of the Southern League, and while it’s early days, he and Flowers have a good working relationship.

“I trust him,” said Flowers. “I’m grateful to have this opportunity and I intend to give it my best shot. There have been periods where I have been out of the game for a year or a year-and-a-half.”

The 11-times capped Flowers, who won the League Cup while he was with Leicester City, has certainly enjoyed a varied career since hanging up his gloves in 2003. He’s been a goalkeeping coach at Manchester City, Leicester and Nottingham Forest, and worked as an assistant manager alongside Iain Dowie at Coventry, QPR and Hull, who were then in the Premier League.

He’s also managed Barnet and Stratford Town – his first game in charge in 2010 was a 2-0 defeat to David Mehew’s Gloucester City – and he says: “There’s a lot more pressure when you’re the manager.

“You want to win when you’re an assistant manager or a coach, of course you do, but the buck stops with the manager. If things go wrong, he’s the one who gets the bullet.”

There are very few managers who avoid being sacked at some time in their career, of course, not that Flowers is thinking about that. Quite the opposite, in fact, he hasn’t got the time!

“My job may be part-time but in essence it’s full-time, I haven’t got another job,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to the new season.”