Cambridge United director of football Mark Bonner insists ‘exciting season’ is ahead of U’s in League Two

While the disappointment of relegation may still be gripping supporters, Cambridge United’s director of football Mark Bonner has insisted there is still plenty of reason to be optimistic.

The U’s are preparing for their first campaign in League Two since Bonner – in his previous role as head coach – guided the club to promotion during the 2020/21 season.

The boyhood Cambridge fan returned in his new position in February alongside Neil Harris as first-team boss, and the pair are already working behind the scenes to ensure that next term is a success.

Bonner said: “We’ve got an exciting season ahead of us. In many ways people can’t quite move on from the last one yet, but I have.

“What I’m certain of is that we’re going to have really good people driving what we want to do.

“We’re going to have a really good vision and idea, real clarity, real joined up thinking and that is fundamentally the starting point to anything that is successful.

“I’ve missed a bit in the middle, but my understanding of where the club is from where it was, is really clear. We have to move on from that sometimes – our history can’t be a handbrake for us.

“We’ve got think forwards and do better and improve. And what I do know is, we go into League Two next season – disappointingly yes – but optimistic because I know the football club in every single area is so far in advance of where it was the last time we were in this league – it’s frightening.

“It’s so hard to measure and really hard to explain to people how far this club is from what it was then.

“That gives us no guarantee for what happens next, but it gives us incredible stability, incredible strength and incredible optimism that the future can be really exciting.

“While we might have taken a little step back on where we’re trying to get to on the pitch, everything else carries on at the pace and momentum that it has. Part of being in a club like this means one season you might go up and one year you might go down, but don’t let it rock you.

“We can’t guarantee anything other than the fact that we know what we’re doing, we know where we want to go and we’ll work incredibly hard to try and get us there.”

While Bonner is tasked with overseeing how a number of different areas of the club operate, a lot of his work this summer will be on recruitment.

Last week’s retained list (see page 70 for more) revealed a double-figure number of player departures, meaning a host of additions are required.

He added: “You live and die by your recruitment. We’ve got to get really busy on building a squad and rebuilding a squad to be ready for next season.

“Fundamentally amongst all the other bits and pieces that will be announced to improve and make sure we’ve got the right people and the right processes in place as a club, we’ve now got to build a squad and that’s the biggest part of the next three months.

“We know what we’ve got to do following the retained list. We’ll be looking for players in pretty much every position.

“We know what we’re after in terms of position and profile of player and we know how we want to play, so we’re starting with the end in mind. We know what the budget is and we know where we are in terms of finance and what we can do.

“We’re in a really healthy position being able to plan and we feel we’ve got a real solid plan built by myself and Neil on the football side along with everybody else’s involvement. Now it’s about executing the plan the best we can.”