WHETHER it be dishing out training bibs for the Under-12s or juggling budgets in the boardroom, there is the same measure of pride in David Flitcroft’s voice as speaks about about his long-term vision for the Shakers.

Enthusiasm might be a harder sell at a football club that has seen its fair share of tough times in recent years and the Boltonian’s exuberance for the “project” can sometimes seem at odds with an environment that has often had to be pragmatic.

But those times, as they say, are a changin’ – as one glance at the league table will tell you.

And you should not mistake Flitcroft’s passion to move on from the austere times he knew as a player at Gigg Lane in the Graham Barrow years for insincerity.

The 41-year-old is eager to “reinvigorate” the football club again and his team are doing their bit on the pitch. The next step, and a big one in his estimation, is to convince the paying public.

“I believe in what we are doing,” he said. “It’s why I’m out on a Sunday coaching the Under-12s and the Under-14s, it’s why I bounce out of bed every day – I want this club to flourish and I feel like it has got a real chance.

“There is an appetite for change. You can sit and feel sorry for yourself, accept you will only reach a certain level, but why should we do that?

“With the right plan we can push on and that’s the message I want to try and get across to people because we do need their help to get there.”

After moving the club out of the bottom division the next step for Flitcroft and chairman Stewart Day is to ensure the Shakers adapt to their new surroundings.

Consolidation need not mean, however, that the upward trajectory comes to a halt.

Investment has sometimes been viewed with skepticism from a Bury public who have been hurt before – but Flitcroft is determined to convince fans that there is a solid base to the current revolution.

“You don’t need to tell me about budgets,” he told The Bury Times. “In this game you get to grips with numbers pretty quickly.

“I ran the family business with my dad and our Gaz for years, so it might be on a different scale but it’s still about making sure things add up.

“At Barnsley we had one of the smallest budgets in the league but we got used to it and made the best of what we had.

“Here, the income stems from the chairman and while it is a passion for him, you can clearly see that, it is obviously a business too.

“There are a lot of emotions in football – you only have to look at what happened to Leeds united, a club with a massive fan-base and European football. The fall out was nothing short of catastrophic.

“The strategy we are implementing here is solid. We are operating within Financial Fair Play and building something that I think will last.”

Taking that next step, and following parochial examples like Burnley or Bradford City for example, may rely on how heavily the public subscribe to the collective vision of chairman and manager. This season’s average attendance at Gigg is up marginally on last season – 4,178 from 3,774 – but more growth is needed if Day is to invest more within the guidelines set out by the Football League.

Flitcroft is keen to see the club become more self-sufficient and has already promoted Matty Foulds, Jack Ruddy, Anthony Dudley, Scott Burgess and Khalid Mohammed to the first team ranks this term.

But with a swell of support the Shakers boss also looks forward to the time he will be able to tempt the likes of Ricardo Va Te – the Portugese striker now on trial at Premier League West Brom – to Gigg Lane.

“We got him in just to have him around the place, to work and train with the squad, and it gave everyone a lift,” he said. “Financially we couldn’t match what a footballer of that quality commands but it’s a little glimpse towards what we could aim at in the future if we can grow in the right direction.”