Neal Ardley Appointed First Team Manager

Woking Football Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Neal Ardley as its new first team manager.

Neal brings a proven track record of success and experience to Woking Football Club from a long and distinguished coaching career. Highlights include reaching play-off finals with Notts County in 2020, Solihull Moors in 2021 as well as gaining promotion to EFL League One with AFC Wimbledon in 2016.

“We had a list of criteria we would want in various situations, both short term and long term, if a change had to be made,” said Jody Brown, Director of Football.

“We short-listed those who met the criteria, and we are pleased that we were able to act quickly and efficiently to get this done and appoint Neal as our new manager,” he added.

The 52-year-old Ardley enjoyed a distinguished playing career before building his journey into coaching.

“Having coached and developed players at academy level, Neal moved into senior management where he has proved to be able to succeed in multiple scenarios,” said Brown.

“The diversity of his journey illustrates his flexibility, his promotions and playoff achievements tell us that he can take us to where we hope to be one day, and his battles with relegation and team rebuilding processes are all invaluable experiences that he’ll have learned from. Neal has the values we want in our head coach. He brings a pragmatism to improve our current position, but also the principles and coaching philosophy to be able to help us evolve into what we want to be in the future.”

Ardley will announce his assistant in due course. His first game will be on Saturday at home to Altrincham.