Neil Young admits the next 12 months will be the ‘most difficult’ Chester have faced since the club reformed.

The legendary Blues boss – who guided Chester to three successive promotions before departing in January 2014 – has returned to the club in a voluntary advisory role after answering an SOS call from current manager Marcus Bignot, who has lost the majority of his support staff and several first-team players as a consequence of Chester’s dire financial circumstances.

The Blues, who have seen supporters rally round to raise nearly £100,000 to help stave off a second insolvency within eight years, look almost certain to be relegated to National League North given they are eight points adrift of safety and rapidly running out of time to save their season, and Young accepts things could get worse before they get better.

“Looking at it from the outside I’ve been getting wound up myself if I am brutally honest,” he said.

“I’ll help and advise with people who are working hard behind the scenes, in terms of how we go forward as a football club. We’ve had a difficult few months with the finances, but the next 12 months is going to be the most difficult since the reformation of the club.

“As you well know, I’ve got a rough idea in terms of liabilities for next year and I’m a big believer that we’ve got to try and make the expectations of the Chester fans a reality, doing the best with what we’ve got.

“There’s a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes. Over these next six to eight weeks it’s about getting us on a firm footing not just for the rest of the season but making sure going forward we give ourselves a best chance whichever league we’re in next year.”

“Where are we going? What are we doing? People say why are you doing it, but I’ve got an affinity to the football club, I’ve been here since it started and quite regularly as a supporter.

“If I’m inside, I get a better knowledge of what is going on. Hopefully the club will use me, not for what I’ve achieved before – that’s the past, history – but from what I know on the business side.

“People have to realise when we kicked Chester FC off in 2010, from the football side we put all the contracts, deals, players together ourselves. It’s one of the skills I have, I’m more of a general manager than a football manager and I suppose a lot of that comes from being in the industry.

“We’ve got to get this club back to positivity again. It might get worse before it gets better but it will get better. Until we get the numbers, I don’t know how long that will take, but there has to be realism.

“We’ve got to paint a picture that is true. I know the Chester public, they will back the football club. If they see a way forward, people wanting to get into the trenches, then they will support the football club in whatever way they can.”

Young, who has had spells at Stockport and Altrincham since leaving Chester back in 2014, aims to ‘ease the pressure’ on Bignot, who has lost the majority of his support staff since the club’s dire financial situation was fully exposed.

“It’s all come around quite quickly,” he explained. “I’ve tried to assist the club before externally, but I got a surprise call last week off Marcus Bignot. I thought he must’ve pressed it by mistake or something – we’ve all got each other’s numbers and I’d rang him when he took the job to tell him what a good club it was, I don’t think he’s forgiven me for that!

“I came up and met him and I think my main role is going to be first and foremost to take some of the pressure off Marcus, to let him to look after the football club and to make sure the team on the day is best prepared to win football matches.

“Can I add anything from the playing perspective in terms of networking and bringing players in? That’s a lot about what we can do financially but I hope to get my teeth into that this week.

“If anything needs to be done from the situation with the players’ point of view, let’s take Marcus out of that completely and let him get on with what he’s paid to do.”