Maher, a two-time promotion winner who made over 450 appearances for Blues as a player, returns to the club and signs a contract until the end of the 2023/24 season following a rigorous interview process.

Joining him is former Barnet manager Darren Currie as assistant head coach and Mark Bentley, Maher’s former Blues team-mate, as first team coach.

Starting his career as a trainee at Tottenham Hotspur, Maher joined Southend in 1998 and spent 10 years as an ever-present in the midfield during what was one of the most successful periods in the club’s history.

The 44-year-old captained Blues to successive promotions in 2005 and 2006 and a famous League Cup win over Manchester United, also in 2006. Spells at Oldham, Gillingham and Dagenham & Redbridge followed in the latter stages of his career.

Maher’s coaching career began with a spell in charge at National League South side Chelmsford City before he became under-21 manager at Southend in 2015.

After four years, Maher joined Bristol Rovers where he teamed up with Graham Coughlan to form part of the Gas’ first team backroom staff, working under three other managers in that time since moving to the Memorial Stadium.

Maher told https://www.southendunited.co.uk: "I’m absolutely delighted. Walking back in and the familiar surroundings that I’ve been so used to throughout my playing career and also coaching career, I’m delighted to be back and can’t wait to get started and hopefully help the club move in the right direction.

"While it’s brilliant to have the connections as a player, what I’ve learnt throughout my career has been a massive part of that and we had some brilliant times, we want to bring them back.

"It’s going to take time. It’s been a difficult time for the club in the last few years, but everyone is now pulling in the direction that we want to bring success back to this football club.

"If we are all in it together there’s no reason why we can’t start to turn things. Slowly, we will do that, I’m sure of that because there’s a lot of good people at the Football Club and we all want the same thing”.