DEAN Holdsworth admits a conversation with Neil Warnock convinced Kidderminster Harriers to appoint Paul Wotton as the club’s new boss.
Wotton replaced Adam Murray as Harriers boss in May following the club’s promotion to the National League after the latter made a shock departure to Barrow days after Kidderminster’s play-off final victory.
And Kidderminster’s director of football Holdsworth spoke with serial promotion-winner Warnock about Wotton’s credentials before appointing the latter as Murray’s successor at Aggborough.
Warnock served as football advisor at Wotton’s former club Torquay United during the latter’s tenure in charge of the Gulls.
The 77-year-old, who has managed over 2,000 games and secured eight promotions in a 46-year managerial career, took interim charge of the Gulls after Torquay sacked Wotton in March earlier this year.
And Holdsworth admits the call from Warnock and his own first impressions from meeting Wotton led to the latter’s appointment as Harriers boss.
Holdsworth said: “It’s been absolutely hectic since the jubilation of getting promotion but behind the scenes there’s stuff going on which inevitably will always happen with success.
“There’s always times when success brings stress but it’s a good stress. To lose the manager that quickly with players and contracts, we haven’t stopped since that day.
“We’ve been really patient this year. We’ve had 91 players in two years, that’s a lot of players turning around.
“I don’t expect us to be anywhere near that figure of 48 players from last year.
“If we get a stable squad of 19 or 20 players with some loans, we should be able to go into every game with a chance of winning.
“We’ve got the right manager in. We’re really pleased with Paul and his knowledge and desire to want to be with us. He’s been fantastic and put a squad together.
“I got a call off Neil Warnock about Paul and he said: ‘I can’t recommend him enough’ he said he was unfortunate to lose his job owing to circumstances at Torquay.
“He said he’s a really good guy, a motivator, a winner and he wants to succeed with us. We had some quite high-profile candidates but it’s got to fit with the club.
“When I met Paul I was so impressed with him. He had a list of players who he thought would be the right players for us and his knowledge of the game is fantastic.”
Holdsworth enjoyed a distinguished playing career, featuring for both Wimbledon and Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League.
The striker netted double figures in his first-ever Premier League campaign despite making the jump to the top-flight from the old Third Division.
And Holdsworth believes the ‘us against the world’ mentality, which he applied as a player, will serve Harriers well in 2026/27.
Holdsworth added: “It took a long time to get over the hangover from the final day of the 2024/25 season.
“I felt like I failed in the respect that I thought we should have gone up.
“I don’t want to accept that we go into a new division, I want to aim higher than being one of the minnows in the division.
“I’ve been a minnow with clubs, I know what it’s like to be us against the world and I loved it.
“I went to unbelievable stadiums and won and I want to relay to our manager and our players that us against the world is quite a nice place to be.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion that we’re going to be one of the minnows. I don’t want to be a minnow, I want to be a Goliath.
“Paul has got the same mentality, we want to make some noise and let the players express themselves and become elite players.”
Holdsworth initially joined Harriers as the club’s technical director in December 2023 with Kidderminster relegated from the National League in 2023/24.
And Holdsworth insists the structure at the club has changed since the club’s last campaign in the National League to encourage togetherness.
Holdsworth said: “It’s very varied [my role]. I try to be behind the scenes.
“The good part about my role is that I work closely with the chairman. His trust in me is important to me.
“We’ve got a structure now where when we win the players win. When I joined, it was a case of the players won, because of the terms of their contracts, and the club was relegated.
“I’ve been able to add my experience in changing that so that when we win, the players win so we’re in it together.
“The drive for me is the football and the winning, it becomes an addiction.”
