Samuel: Building up Latimer Park will be Jeune’s legacy at Poppies

The bombshell news was revealed yesterday (Wednesday) just days after the Poppies were relegated from the Vanarama National League North.

Jeune revealed he will be stepping away from his role with immediate effect with a new board being created at Latimer Park with the task of running the club and potentially finding a new owner.

Stalwart Samuel, who is now the club president having worked behind the scenes for a number of years, was in the thick of things when Jeune led the rescue mission when Kettering faced financial oblivion while still playing at Nene Park in 2012.

Since then, he has helped oversee a rise back up the divisions but Samuel believes it’s the work to turn Latimer Park into the club’s new home that will be Jeune’s ultimate legacy.

“You have to congratulate Ritchie for what he has achieved,” the Poppies president said.

“When you look back at the situation that he found himself in, dealing with the previous chairman and the temporary chairman at the time and the landowners of Nene Park and trying to overturn a winding up petition.

“As someone who has been in the financial world, I know that is something that is so hard to do.

“But he did it, he achieved it. And he did it against all the odds.

“I know he had support from all the fans who raised so much money and that can’t be underestimated. But, at the end of the day, he put his money in and found us another ground at Corby, which wasn’t cheap either but he found the money to do that.

“Given where we were and given ‘that game’ against Bashley (when the Poppies could only field 10 players and lost 7-0 at Nene Park) and given all the circumstances that followed, to pick the club up by its socks and start again was absolutely fantastic.

“He has got promotions, he set up the academy and brought together the community of junior teams but I think the biggest part of his legacy is the ground at Latimer Park.

“I remember going into the ground when the club trained there when we were full-time in Imraan Ladak’s era and I remember thinking it was a nice little ground that was United Counties League standard at best.

“Looking at what has been achieved there since then is a great tribute to what Ritchie has done and what he has funded.

“To pass the ground grading and have a capacity in excess of 3,000 and making it into more of a football ground is the legacy he’s left for Kettering Town fans.”