Ollie Keable has quite an incredible CV.
He’s done almost every role in non-league, be that the commercial manager at Potters Bar Town or King’s Lynn Town, or the media manager at Weymouth.
Keable was even a member of the grounds team at Peterborough when he was younger.
This time though, he’s taking on a very different role: the Tuddenham Rovers manager.
Whilst he says he always wanted to be the one leading a side out to matches and building a squad of his own, he admits he’s surprised the role has come for him so soon.
“I had aspirations to become a manager, I think that was something I wanted to do later on, but to get the opportunity to come in at an earlier age, before my 30s, yeah, it’s an exciting thing for me,” Keable says.
“Being in non-league, I think it’s tailored towards a lot of the work in the boardroom, but it’s impressive.”
The career change has taken many by surprise, including some of Keable’s own friends.
“Three or four people I know in the media industry that have seen me go from media manager to first team manager and want to ask questions about it,” he says.
“I think it’s a fascinating story, I think I must be one of the only managers not to have a sporting background at all.”
He also admits that when he looked back at a photo of his time at Peterborough as a grounds person, that he’d have been shocked to hear that he’d ‘throw away’ all his progress in football to become a gaffer.
One of the main reasons why Keable chose Tuddenham Rovers, a phoenix club founded as recently as 2022, was because of how close to home it is for him.
“I’ve always wanted something that little bit closer to home, don’t get me wrong, anything that gets me away from the kids for a weekend is great,” Keable said.
“But travelling to places like Bradford with King’s Lynn and going out for 10 to 11 hours a day is tough when my oldest is about to start going to school.”
Having been at the club for a month, he’s itching for the season to start already, and he says he’s had good conversations with several players, but has struggled to meet the whole squad just yet.
Inspired by managers he’s worked with in non-league, Keable says his managerial style will replicate an ‘old soul with a modern twist’.
Despite having such a great bank of contacts within the game, he says his priority is to stick by an already successful squad, having won the league and reached a cup final the season before last.
“I’ve reached out to a few people, but my big thing is I don’t want to do an overhaul from the start and bring in 10 to 15 players,” he says.
“I want to work with what I’ve got and improve the players that are there, it’s harder to attract National League level players at the level we’re at too.”
What’s surprised Keable has been the level of responsibility management comes with.
Especially at a lower level, he says, more communication is needed from him to make sure different parts of the club work correctly.
That’s even extended to finding coaches and staff, something he says he’s been on the lookout for recently.
Inspired by Sean Dyche as an Toffees fan himself, Keable says he won’t be paying too much attention to the league table next season, and just taking each game as it comes.
From the outside though, the fortunes of his side will be watched with a keen eye by the non-league community, in what promises to be an incredible season kick started by an unexpected yet exciting managerial appointment.
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