YORK City icon Jamie Reed believes that manager Neal Ardley is the right person to take the football club forward.

After a winless start to the Vanarama National League season, newly-appointed majority shareholders Matt and Julie-Anne Uggla made the difficult decision to part ways with boyhood York supporter Mikey Morton, who had helped steer the club to safety in the 2022/23 season. 

In came Ardley, having had previous spells with AFC Wimbledon, Notts County and Solihull Moors, with the City boss managing eight wins, 12 draws and seven defeats in his opening 27 matches. 

Despite the Minstermen sitting precariously above the National League relegation zone by just one point, Reed remains confident that Ardley is the man to drive the football club forward, revealing that the current York boss once tried to bring the City stalwart to AFC Wimbledon.

“He’s done it at other clubs, he’s done it at Wimbledon and I don’t know how true this is, but my agent told me that he tried to sign me whilst he was at Wimbledon," Reed revealed to the Press.

"It was the year I was at York and scored three against them in the FA Cup, he was the manager of Wimbledon at the time.

"It’s something he’s done before, he’s taken clubs up and he’s become known for it.

"From what I’ve heard from the inside, he’s a good guy around the place and isn’t causing any rifts or problems, all I can do is say that I hope he can take the club forward.

"It is still early days, I’m not going to judge a manager after just a few months, I think that’s the wrong thing to do.

"He seems to have steadied the ship and hopefully he can push on, they can start looking up rather than looking down.

“The biggest thing for me is that they need togetherness, having that connect with the fans, not just from the chairman but from the manager, the players.

"I know certain players do have that connect with the fans, that was something I was always quite good at and even now I still speak to a lot of the fans.

"I think that’s massive, having everyone together and wanting to move in the right direction is massively important, it’s something that has been lacking for five to maybe ten years now.

"Having that togetherness is massively important, it’s not an easy thing to do, don’t get me wrong, it’s one of the hardest things to try and do in football.

"The coach will put tactics onto the tactics board and move the counters around as much as he can, but it’s about trying to build that culture and that togetherness.”

Reed also spoke on the impact that the Uggla family had had on the football club, and credited the relationship which Matt had built with the supporters after years of disconnect. 

The York legend also compared City's current season to that of the 2010/11 campaign, with the Minstermen finishing in eighth position of the National League after a late run of consistent form.

“I think it’ great, I did go to one of the earlier games under the old manager and I could see he was stressed, it was make or break.

"They did sack him, but he was a good guy with a decent mentality, and he had the right intentions for the football club.

"For me the only way is up, I said it a few weeks ago that this season reminded me of the 2010-2011 season, a new manager has come in, they’ve gone on a bit of run through Christmas and that’s hopefully what they can go on to do.

"Hopefully they can take the most of these opportunities, a couple more signings but they’ve got a pretty good spine really.

"I like (Tyler) Cordner at centre-back, I like Dipo (Akinyemi). I didn’t think it when I first saw him if I am being honest, I saw him in the Rochdale game and was wondering what everyone was going on about!

"But I’ve seen him since, he’s changed games and strangely enough he reminds me a little bit of me!

"He knows where the back of the net is but doesn’t really offer much outside of the box.

"I think that with a couple more signings then it could be on, it is so tight in that league and it’s just going to take one team going on a run to end up in the play-offs, without even realising.

"We was fighting for the play-offs in that 10-11 season and nobody really expected it, because a new manager and new signings changed that.

"It helped us to kick on for the following year, I’m hoping that it will be the same deal here, I don’t know how much money they have got but they seem to have quite a bit, and they seem quite happy to put it into the club.

"He’s got a good connection to the fans which is a good thing, certainly for York where it is needed.

"There has been that disconnect for so long, that they needed someone to come in and connect the fans. He’s done that really well."