Jimmy Ghaichem is saddened to leave Liversedge because of personal commitments, but feels excited for the future with ambitious Central Midlands League Premier North Division outfit Dearne & District.
The wing wizard has taken the role of player/assistant manager under Dearne first team chief Keelan Hall – the former Wombwell Main manager – after ending his several years association with Northern Premier League new-boys ‘Sedge.
The ex-Scarborough Athletic man has a lot of affection ‘Sedge and admits leaving was hard.
“Personal commitments have made me come to the decision to leave Liversedge,” Ghaichem told Non League Yorkshire.
“It was obviously a difficult one with us just winning promotion to the Northern Premier League and because it is such a great club.
“They have a great set of lads and a great dressing room.
“The chairman (Trevor Best) and the manager (Jonathan Rimmington) have been fantastic with me and they are two great people who are ambitious and deserve all the success they get.
“Unfortunately for me, commitments outside of football have took precedent and the move to Dearne fits and suits.
“I live in the local area and in terms of the commitment they want from me it suits.
“I’ve known Keelan for around ten years through football and work.
“He’s been successful at some local clubs and he asked me last year if I would help them with training in pre-season.
“I went down and saw the plans he and the chairman (Tony Jamasb) have for the club and the investment they are putting into the facilities.
“It went from there and I continued to help them with the training when I wasn’t training.
“It kind of made sense (that I would join them permanently) when he (Keelan) found out that potentially I would have to leave Liversedge because of the commitments I have got.”
The South Yorkshire-based club – who are situated in Goldthorp in Rotherham – are shooting for the stars and are hoping to win promotion to the Toolstation NCEL in the future.
Provided their ground meets the criteria, winning their league would propel them into Non League Football and Ghaichem says his new club are very ambitious.
“They are investing in a new ground and I’ve seen the proposals,” he said.
“They have just been promoted into the Central Midlands League and the chairman is ambitious.
“I know for a fact Keelan is a winner and everything he has said to me and everything I’ve seen in pre-season so far suggests to me that it (Non League Football) is the way they want to go.
“From speaking to the chairman before I eventually agreed to fully commit, I know he wants to climb the leagues as quickly as he possibly can.
“Winning the league we are in is the first port of call.
“We have a good squad and we have acquired some good players so far.
“I think we will be very competitive, but our goal is certainly to get promoted out of that league in the first couple of seasons and then make our way up to the NCEL if everything goes to plan.”
Initially Ghaichem will combine playing with his management role with Hall.
But at some stage he will stay rooted to the technical bench – something he always envisaged doing.
“Hopefully I’ve got the experience and knowledge to help on the playing side and the assistant manager role I’ve took on,” he said.
“I’ll be doing a bit of both at first and then over the next couple of years hanging the boots up properly.
“Management is something I’ve always been interested in.
“I think I’ve had some great managers in the past.
“Rudy Funk was brilliant for me and I’ve took a lot from his management style.
“More recently Jon Rimmington is a great character and I see a lot of myself in him like his enthusiasm and knowledge of the game.”
The move to Dearne is the latest chapter of a great Non League journey which has taken in spells with Scarborough, AFC Mansfield, Frickley Athletic and a few more.
There’s been plenty of success and Ghaichem looks back with pride.
“We won promotion at AFC Mansfield and we got promotion out of the NCEL at Liversedge, although we didn’t do it in the way you would want due to covid,” he said.
“I remember my days at Frickley when the objective was to avoid relegation and we managed to do that despite the budget the manager had.
“Then Harrogate Town and Ilkeston in the Conference North stand out.
“It has been a successful career. I’ve had a couple of promotions and won some cups and hopefully that will continue (in management).
“I also made a few appearances for Peterborough, one in the league and a couple in the cups.
“It would have been great for it to have continued, but yes it is nice to say I’m in that group of people who have managed to play a game in the League.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams.
Our work is playing an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
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