Michael Salako admits it’s an honour to have so many clubs showing an interest in him after a goal-laden debut season at Herne Bay.
Salako only arrived in early September but made quite the impact at Winch’s Field.
He ended the 2023/24 season with 27 goals as Steve Lovell’s eighth-placed side narrowly missed out on the Isthmian South East play-offs.
Unsurprisingly, the exploits of striker Salako caught the eyes of many.
“As soon as the season finishes, managers are trying to recruit players and keep the ones they want to keep,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of interest.
“It’s actually an honour to have so much interest in me.
“I’m still a Herne Bay player at the minute. I still need to look at what other teams have to offer and see if that’s a better fit for me.
“It’ll be an interesting summer for myself. I don’t want to make a sideways move because I’m really happy at Herne Bay.
“But footballers all want to play as high as we can.
“If that chance comes, I will consider it.”
Salako had offers during the season to move on, only to remain loyal to Lovell and his son-assistant Mark Lovell.
He explained: “I started scoring a few goals and then I was getting offers from clubs. But I didn’t want to get ahead of myself.
“I’m the sort of person, if I’m on a mission, I like to see the mission through. I spoke to the gaffer and Mark, and said that I was committing for the season.
“I wanted to prove what I could do and I pushed away those offers, I just focused on playing my football.
“That’s a lot of the reason as to why I did so well. But it’s always nice to have other clubs and people talking about you.
“It’s a great feeling.”
Salako immediately made an impact in his first club game and, although that ended in a heavy FA Trophy loss, he went on to net five times in his first four games and didn’t look back from there.
“My first game for Herne Bay, I was on the bench against Leatherhead in the cup,” recalled 29-year-old Salako, recommended to Bay by team-mate Jack Richards.
“The gaffer (Lovell) wanted to change the system because it wasn’t working and brought me on at half-time. Then 15 minutes later, I tapped one in at the back post.
“We lost 6-1 - that was nothing to talk about too much - but I started scoring.
“I was playing with Kane Rowland and getting on the end of his flick-ons. Even from goal-kicks, I just knew he was going to flick it on and where to be.
“I didn’t know Kane at all before. I trained with him in one session and then played with him a few days later.
“He sort of likes to get involved in all the fighting with the defenders.
“I said to him ‘You do all the fighting, I’ll get the goals’ and he said ‘Yes mate, that’s fine’. He broke his nose at one point in the season - and it was a bad break, as well.
“But he massively influenced the amount of goals that I got.”
While Salako didn’t know much about manager Lovell - a former Wales international striker himself - before joining, he loved working with the 63-year-old.
Salako revealed: “Before I went to Herne Bay, I didn’t even know who Steve was.
“But after my first training session, I looked him up online and saw he played professionally at Crystal Palace. It’s an honour to play under someone who did it in the professional game.
“As a person and as a gaffer, I think he’s unbelievable. He didn’t know me before but just brought me in and trusted me.
“Especially as a striker, sometimes, you need an arm around you and - as a former striker himself - I think he understood that.
“When you’re enjoying your football and being coached and managed well, the goals tend to come.
“He’s a top gaffer and a top person.”
Salako faced a long trip for training and Herne Bay’s home games from Essex but it was a journey he had no problems taking.
He said: “I used to speak to some of the fans. They asked where I travelled from and I said ‘Benfleet’ - and they said ‘Wow, that’s far away!’.
“But even if the club was three hours away, I still would have made the journey. That’s how I felt about the club.
“That’s testament to everyone at the club - from the players to the volunteers and staff.”
The remit for the season at Herne Bay was mostly around establishing themselves again in the division.
Bay threatened to break into the promotion picture, only to fall just short.
“Being relegated from Isthmian Premier, I think the club just wanted to stabilise themselves,” said Salako. “They knew they were not competing with the top clubs budget-wise but that meant we were able to concentrate on our football and pick up points.
“Just after Christmas, we thought ‘Hold on, we’re not far off the play-offs, so why not go for it?’. Then, the ‘pressure’ was on a bit more.
“We went through a period where we lost two games and drew three in a month, and I went a month without a goal.
“It was quite disheartening at times, especially after we knew we couldn’t make the play-offs any more.”
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