No half measures from Dyer as Southend flex their muscle

Kieron Dyer is making sure nobody mistakes Southend’s intentions this summer. The ex-Newcastle and England man has brought in two players who have each won the National League -Darren Oldaker from Swindon and Anthony Hartigan from Barnet - presenting the pair to fans alongside the club’s freshly launched 2026-27 strip.

A statement double signing

He framed the double signing as a marker of intent. In Dyer’s view both could hold their own near the top of League Two, and landing them amounted to a major coup that would also help shape the dressing-room standards he is after. Hartigan, a title winner with Barnet in 2024-25 who went on to feature 32 times in the EFL, arrives for nothing after his deal at the Hive ran out.

From Wembley win to a bold reset

Dyer’s own arrival was among the off-season’s bigger talking points. He picked up his first managerial post in early June, stepping in for Kevin Maher, whose dismissal came barely a day or two after he steered the club to FA Trophy success at Wembley. Southend ended last term sixth and bowed out in a play-off eliminator against Scunthorpe, and a fifth season away from the Football League now beckons.

There is real coaching mileage behind him. He served on Paul Cook’s staff at Chesterfield during their 2024 National League title win, and earlier cut his teeth back at boyhood club Ipswich and within England’s youth ranks. His footballing outlook leaves nothing to interpretation. Dyer has called Southend the division’s biggest club, argued they belong in the EFL, and vowed his team will fear nobody, keep the ball and press with intensity.

Big names, big budgets across the division

That mix of a marquee name and a clear plan is fast becoming the division’s signature. Another former England international, Jermain Defoe, is gearing up for a first full season at Woking, while Lee Cattermole has begun his own managerial journey at Gateshead. Increasingly, the National League doubles as a testing ground for ex-pros chasing a route back up ,and for clubs with the means to back them.

Of course, ambition cuts both ways. Southend’s board conceded that moving on a well-liked figure like Maher so soon after a Wembley win was a bold call, but argued the time was right to open a new chapter and assemble a title-capable side.

Recruiting players of Oldaker and Hartigan’s standing suggests they meant it. Dyer’s task now is to fuse a set of seasoned operators into a promotion-winning whole straight away, and to end an exile that, for a club this size, has dragged on far longer than anyone at Roots Hall would like. Pre-season cannot start soon enough.