BRAINTREE Town chairman Lee Harding says the high calibre of people approaching the club about becoming the Iron’s new manager has led to their search taking longer than initially expected.

Harding told the Braintree and Witham Times last week that the club were hoping to have their new boss in place by last weekend, but that time frame had been stretched by the quality of applicants.

The Iron are searching for a new manager to take over after the departure of Hakan Hayrettin following the club’s relegation from the Vanarama National League last season.

The Times was told by a source within the club that a former fans’ favourite player was being considered for the post last week, but Harding said he and his fellow directors had been impressed by the stature of those throwing their hats into the ring.

He said: “Interviewing has taken longer than we expected so we are continuing with the interviews.

“As we’ve gone through the process, we have had some very able candidates and are taking longer than we thought we would.

“However, we are hoping very much to be able to make a decision this week.

“It would be great to be able to do that.

“Initially we’d hoped to be able to make an announcement last weekend, but we have taken longer as we like to cross the t’s and dot the i’s and we’ll continue to do it that way.

“It’s because we have had very able and excellent applicants.

“We put out an advert at the end of last week because we were getting so many people coming to us and asking if they could apply.

“There are people currently managing at this level and also below.

“We have got some good people to choose from but we are making sure that we are being cautious with the resources that we have even if that means it taking a few days longer than we originally thought it would.”