Justin Rees reiterates his desire to do more than save Southend United

Rees and a group of local businessmen stopped Blues going out of business by buying the club last summer.

But the Shrimpers chairman is now switching his sights onto improving the club, on and off the pitch.

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“We’re really happy we’ve got to the position where we’re in control but we know saving the club in July was just the first step,” said Rees.

'To truly achieve what we set out to, we want to improve the club on and off the pitch and let it grow into the potential everyone can see it has.

“Without those external stresses we first faced, with the prolonged takeover, we can get our heads down and get to work.

“We’ve been trying to do that in quiet and modest ways.

“We've laid some good foundations about how we want to operate as a club internally and set out a strategy on how to get there. We’re making improvements where we can but we knew there was no quick fix coming in, in any department.

“We’ll keep doing our best to keep on improving and good things will happen if we do.”

On the pitch, the Shrimpers are sitting 16th in the National League standings.

But Rees fully understands why Blues are not higher in the table.

“The league table doesn’t give context,” said Rees.

“Due to our off-field issues we were under embargo until mid-July I think.

“We didn’t see the embargo coming either so we were a little bit caught off guard.

“It threw off our recruitment plans and we didn’t own the club then so we couldn’t solve it as quickly as you might think.

“As a result we accept we came in a bit under-done and then lost several players for different reasons at a time of year that’s quite difficult to replace them.”

But Rees is also appreciative of what the players have gone through.

“On the pitch I think we need a period of stability,” said Rees.

“There’s a danger you can forget the mental side of it too.

“A lot of the players went through a lot of turmoil last season as did the staff and some of those things can affect performance too.

"Overall we're understanding of the issues the team have had to cope with and are confident that with stability and more support from everyone at the club, results will start to turn around".

Rees remains determined to improve the club’s financial position alongside providing the right level of investment into the team.

The commitment to regenerate Roots Hall and scrap plans to move to Fossetts Farm was a key component of the takeover and Rees reconfirmed those plans remain a priority.

“We have targets at Roots Hall and we’ve increased the useable capacity now,” said Rees.

“We’ve made other improvements around the place, but we’ve got more work we want to do to make it a more hospitable place to be.

And, longer term, the consortium still have plans to build a new main stand.

“We’ve started in terms of the very early planning,” said Rees.

“There’s a lot that goes into it and the main thing we want to do is build a new main stand.

“We’ve got to smarten up all the areas around Roots Hall too and we’re speaking to the right people so we can plan it properly.

“When we start major redevelopments will depend on all kind of things, most notably finances.

“Right now we’ll plan it and that will eventually include getting fans in to have their input.

“It’s very early days but it’s an absolute priority to put a new East Stand in as a minimum but it will be several years even if we go really quickly.”

>Justin Rees was talking to the Luke Walsh Podcast which can be watched here