Vance had been planning on taking a break after a gruelling season steering his Guernsey FC side to safety, but the lack of other coaches putting their hands up to lead the senior island squad against Jersey and then next month in the Island Games demanded a rethink. 

A gold medal and putting right the wrongs of the Jersey loss are short-term goals, but ensuring sustained success further down the road is also on his agenda. 

“Absolute drastic changes” were needed, he said, and it was supported by the data. 

He has plotted Muratti results since 1960 to determine trends across senior and age group representative sides. 

“You're probably talking 80% red on my sheet,” he said. 

“It is unfortunately a situation that we need to try and do something about. And it's not a problem that's happened in the last two years or three years.” 

Guernsey’s best period came when GFC was established in 2011. They drew that year and then won three on the bounce. 

“I'm not trying to claim anything here, but what I'm saying is that we were different to Jersey, we stole a march on them for that five-year period.” 

Jersey were envious at the time, but responded. 

Pictured: Jersey Bulls' U18s in action against Raynes Park U18s.

“They've gone out and not only done that, but made it even better by having an under 21 team and under 18 Team. Plus their local structure to backup the Jersey Bulls is far superior to ours. Now they've changed quite a few times, they’ve tried, they failed with certain structures. We've done nothing, absolutely nothing."

Guernsey needs to support its best players in the best possible forum and that was not local football because it is too comfortable, he said. 

If money was no object and people were prepared to buy into it, Guernsey FC should establish an U21 and or U18 side, he said. 

But financing it was a big problem, so football needed to look at what could be done within the current means. 

There were too many meaningless fixtures in local football, he said, when it would be better to have a competitive programme for an under 18 or under 21 side, something which could be on island. 

“Whenever you try and change something in Guernsey football, everyone just thinks of their own ‘that wouldn't work for us because we'd lose X, Y and Z.' But then they're the ones that moan when we lose the Muratti. 

“We need to have a process to support the aspiring top players, the ones that are going to play for Guernsey, ones that are going to go beyond, and also keep a structure for the social base of football as well. That's the missing link in Guernsey football, there isn't that desire to help push the elite players, the better players, now.” 

Coaches can also be added into that equation, he said. 

Vance backs having an open forum on the future. 

“To be fair, the league's managing committee are trying to embrace change, which is good, and I hope it hope it goes the right way. We've had many, many discussions over time many, many ideas we've tried to do which have been stopped.

"The problem I've got is everyone thinks I care about GFC and I'm just thinking about myself. It's not at all, I'm thinking about beating Jersey and being better, creating better individuals so that someone else could do the Muratti, someone else is ready to do the Island Games, and we've got all those structures.” 

You can listen to the full interview with Tony below, or wherever you get your podcasts:

Pictured top: Jersey on their way to a 2-1 win in the 2022 Muratti.