Sol Campbell spoke to the media for the first time as manager of Southend United yesterday.
The Shrimpers have turned to ex-Arsenal and England defender as the man to replace Kevin Bond in the dugout at Roots Hall.
Campbell, who guided Macclesfield Town to safety in League Two last season against the odds, will have to do the same in League One with Southend this term.
They are currently 23rd in the league and eight points from safety.
Campbell has said, as per Southend’s official club website: “It’s a new challenge for sure. That’s obvious.
It’s a step up, but as a step up comes all the responsibilities because you’re in a higher league, on average they’re better players so you’ve got to really step your game up.”
“Me personally with the players I’ve got, we’ve got step up, train hard, do more and overachieve now.
We’ve got a deficit and we have to close that deficit. But the main thing is performances-wise, that’s got to go up another level.”
He added: “We have to go out every single game and go for it. If you’re going into games at 80 per cent you never know your true level in the individual games. And that’s why you’ve got to push yourself and in every game get better and better, fitter and fitter and that’s what we’ve got to do as a team. I’ll definitely be doing that as a manager. We’ve got our work cut out but we’re ready for the challenge.”
