Anthony Johnson wants to pack the Chester dressing room with ‘characters’ who are ready for the demands of National League North.

Joint-managers Johnson and Bernard Morley are in the process of finalising their retained list which is set to be released this week, and Johnson – who has just returned from a two-week family holiday – confirmed midfielder Gary Roberts is a player he is aiming to keep hold of, with a deal edging closer between the two parties.

The recently-relegated Blues appointed the management duo a fortnight ago, after they parted company with Salford City by mutual consent, where they won the National League North title last month.

“Gary Roberts is a player we want to keep at the club and I’m hopeful something will be done soon,” said Johnson, speaking to The Standard.

“We want characters in our changing room, we want loads of them, and Gary fits the bill, he’s got something about him.

“We set high standards and we want people who are going to buy into what myself and Bernard demand of the players.

“Gary is also a top footballer let’s not forget. He’s played at a really high standard earlier in his career and he’s someone we want on board.”

Johnson explained he and Morley can be expected to bring in a handful players who have worked under the pair previously, with the former Ramsbottom bosses demanding ‘fierce loyalty’ from the squad they put together at the Deva.

“Expect there to be players coming in, a small core of players, who know me and Bern and how we want to play,” he continued. “Let’s not kid ourselves, there’s going to be a serious overhaul of the squad.

“We expect fierce loyalty from our players and creating a winning mentality helps with that.

“The budget is not bad at all, it’s very decent for this league. We’re not daft, we know what happened with the club back in January, the financial problems the club has gone through and is coming out of.

“But we’ve done our homework and with the budget we’ve got we’ll be able to bring in players to the club for the right reasons.

“I’m on social media as you know, and I see the fans biting their nails about signings but we’re not going to jump into signings for the sake of it. They’ve got to be the right fit for what we want to do.

“But what I can say is you’ll certainly see movement in the coming days.”

Asked whether he’d been keeping abreast of developments over the past two weeks, the 35-year-old said how Morley had taken the lead on Blues matters to ensure the club have targets lined up over the coming weeks.

“This is where the joint-manager situation works so well as we don’t miss anything even when one of us is away,” he added.

“When one of us is away the other is working hard to get things in place. It works perfectly, and we’ve always worked that way.

“When we knew of Chester’s interest we were speaking to players already, you have some in mind and some players who we’d have been interested in at Salford. We’re speaking to players and seeing what they have going on.”