We are delighted to announce that Cameron James has been appointed club captain whilst Charlie Ruff has been appointed vice captain!
Cameron James returned to the Clarets for a second spell in August 2020, after leaving Colchester United where he made 31 appearances in all competitions, including both League One and League Two. He had previously been on loan at the Melbourne Community Stadium in January 2018 where he made 6 appearances before injury cut his season short. Cameron has been a key figure for the Clarets over the past few years, currently being the longest serving player in the squad with a total of 118 appearances in all competitions for the Clarets.
Charlie Ruff is also in his second spell at the Melbourne Community stadium. Ruff joined the Clarets from Hornchurch in July 2022, after having a successful spell with the Urchins, scoring in an FA Trophy final victory. He went on to play 20 times, scoring 7 goals for the club before he moved to a fellow NLS side, at the time, Havant & Waterlooville. Ruff played 23 times for Havant, scoring 5 goals including one against the Clarets. However, at the end of the 22/23 season, Ruff departed Havant to return to the Clarets. Last season he played an instrumental part in the sides success, scoring 19 league goals as a record highest league finish was achieved, along with a record amount of points.
Manager Robbie Simpson said: “I could not think of anyone better to take on the captaincy then Cam!
He is Chelmsford through and through, absolutely loves the club, he is from the city, he is a great leader in the dressing room and on the pitch he is really vocal in both environments.
He leads by example and he is just someone who is adaptable to situations and adaptable to people, he is there to put his arm round people when they need it and knows when to let people know that their standards are dropping.
He mixes with the young boys really well and interacts with the older, more mature players really well.
I could not think of anybody better than to make Cameron James captain for this upcoming season.
And then with Charlie, he has shown an awful lot of commitment to this football club, he deserves this role.
Obviously coming back after leaving was a big, bold move from him but he done it because he loves the club and loves the environment and totally buys into what we have created.
This summer he has shown a huge amount of commitment by staying here when he had multiple offers of bigger finances than we were able to offer.
That level of commitment alone has proven that he is more than worthy of the vice captaincy role.”
Alongside the captain and vice captain, the Clarets will also have a leadership team. This consists of Jake Hyde, Ryan Blackman, Ruaridh Donaldson and Arthur Penney.
Manager Robbie Simpson continued: “And then on the leadership group, we felt it would be beneficial to have a leadership group itself rather than how we relied on Dave and Jazzi last year.
Dave was a big presence and took on so much in that captaincy role and we felt like it was best that moving forward we had a leadership group to delegate those different roles around.
Cam and Ruffy obviously know all that Dave did last year and how much he did for the group but also setting the culture and they will continue to do that.
With Ryan, Ruaridh and Hydey, they’re the older heads that have been in and around this league for a long time.
Their experience will just be so good for everybody at the club, they have definitely shown the leadership qualities so far in the first 4 or 5 weeks of pre-season.
Arthur came in a bit later and right away he has been a presence in the dressing room and on the pitch.
He is a great talker and he is someone who I really see being a future captain so we wanted to imbed him in the leadership group right from the outset so he can learn what it is about to be a captain and start those interactions now as a leader of the group.”
Congratulations to Cameron for being appointed Captain and to Charlie for bring appointed Vice Captain and we look forward to seeing them alongside the newly formed leadership group out on the pitch in 24/25!
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