GLASGOW CLAN owner Neil Black has set out his vision for the club over the next 10 years and is confident winning silverware is not too far away.

Black also owns Clan’s EIHL rivals Nottingham Panthers, which has meant he has often been reluctant to talk publicly about his “other team”, but he remains positive about the Clan's progress.

“I don’t think winning a trophy will be long in coming,” he said. “We’ve been close, certainly the season in 2015 when they almost won the league, springs to mind, but we could always do better in the cup competitions and the play-offs.

“In the 10 years, we’ve had a few lows, but I would say the highs far exceed those every single year in terms of their reach, what they are doing in the community and I would say it’s been a great success. All it’s missing is that little bit of silverware and I know everyone’s desperate to achieve that.

“The last decade has flown by from my point of view. Time moves on and evolution is part of that. For the next decade, with a bit of luck, we’ll look to start to develop generational fans and once the club gets to that stage, they generally have a long and hopefully healthy existence. We’re into that phase and I hope we can talk about that 10 years from now.

“But it’s important to use the time we have to review what we’ve done right and where we can do better as we negotiate through his season without any hockey. There’s also the issue with our landlords so this is a good opportunity to take stock and look at the next decade in terms of the team and the structure.

“Hopefully there might be some positive improvements to the arena and we have to look at junior development. I think that’s an important part of what we want to do in the next decade, bringing through local players and getting more local talent involved.”

Thursday marks 10 years to the day when Bruce Richardson’s Braehead Clan played on home ice for the first time, defeating Newcastle Vipers 3-2 after penalty shots and from there, the Purple Army were born and have grown to play a huge part in the club’s story.

Black recalled how the Clan came to be and told of how a businessman from London, with ownership of a team in Nottingham, came to be behind restoring the culture and heritage of ice hockey in the West of Scotland.

“I used to be involved with Masters football tournament for former footballers at Braehead Arena so over the years, I got familiar with the arena and the management,” he said. “I’d also seen the terrific success the Ayr Scottish Eagles had in the late 90s, at a time when I’d got involved with Panthers.

“The whole project took about a year and it involved working closely with the arena and making sure they were very happy to get on board. Secondly, we had to get the right people in place from that area. There were some great people who took the club forward in those early days.

“We knew there was an established fan base in Ayr, but I’d thought all along there wouldn’t be a reason why there wouldn’t be a good support coming from Glasgow and the surrounding areas and looking at the last 10 years, that’s exactly what’s happened.”