Robbie will depart the club later this year after spending more than five years as the club’s manager. Robbie initially joined Chelmsford City as a player in the summer of 2019. His reign as manager started on an interim basis, following the departure of Rod Stringer in January 2020.
After eight games as interim manager, Robbie was named as the club’s permanent manager, during which time he has led the club to back-to-back play-off finishes and the club’s best ever National League South season. Up to now, he has taken charge of 218 games as the club’s permanent manager and has accumulated a 41% win ratio.
Robbie said: “I feel now is the right time to make this announcement. This has been a really emotional decision for me to make but in reality I’ve known for some time as the season progressed, and the thoughts towards next season and talks towards next season became more frequent and more in-depth.
“I want to firstly make clear that this decision has nothing to do with the current group of players or the club because in actual fact I think that the current squad and the club are really going to go places in a football sense. It seems like a crazy time to step down with the positive moves the club is making to step forward.
“So, the reasons for this decision are purely personal and down to my family life. I promised my wife when I retired from playing professional football that we’d get our weekends back and we’re nigh on six years later from me retiring and I’ve still not given her our weekends back.
“The reason why we decided to start a family so late on towards the end of my professional football career is because the school calendar for kids and the football calendar really don’t go together very well at all. I really am desperate to be present for my kids.
“I also have other business interests away from football, one in particular is growing at a quite rapid rate. I think in the summer it will get to a stage where the time that I feel is required to match up with where the football club is going to progress to isn’t aligned, and I won’t be able to give this football club the time and the commitment it deserves from the summer onwards.
“So they’re my decisions, they’re my reasons for this decision, I’ve known it was coming. It’s very emotional for me because football has been a part of my working life really since I was 16 years old and I don’t know how I’m going to be without football, who knows, but I’m certainly excited for my future without football.
“I want to give thanks to everybody at Chelmsford City. You’ve made me a better person, the fan support and the club support with me being a brand new manager after not really thinking about ever being a manager has been unbelievable.
“Since coming in, Spencer [Gore] has been unbelievable with me and the future is really bright for the Clarets. I’ve got incredibly fond memories of my time at Chelmsford City that probably can never be replicated. And that’s something to be very proud of, but also fearful that I’m going to miss.
“This is probably too long a quote already. And I just want to reiterate that hopefully there’s more memories to come. I remain fully committed for the rest of this season. If not more, if anything, releasing this news has re-energised me and given me even more drive to fulfil the club’s ambition of getting promoted.
“I feel like we’re at a stage where we’re mid-table with the second half of the season to come. We’re determined to go on a run and make it a real successful season and still achieve what we want to and I really believe we can do that.
“So, I finished my playing career on a promotion and I’m desperate to finish my managerial career on a promotion and I’ll be giving my absolute everything and I know the players will help me achieve that.”
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