Grimsby Town chairman Jason Stockwood went into detail on why the club chose David Artell to be their new head coach, as someone they picked out from the start of the recruitment process.
The Mariners co-owner revealed that Artell was always one of the top choices from the start of their month-long recruitment process with the pair’s first meeting together driving home why they took an interest in the 43-year-old from the start.
Addressing local media at a press conference held at Blundell Park, Stockwood touched on the recruitment process and why the former Crewe Alexandra manager Artell stood above the rest.
READ MORE: David Artell unveiled as new Grimsby Town head coach
“Dave was identified from the moment the last manager left us,” Stockwood revealed in his opening statement. “We wanted to make sure that we’d thoroughly scoured the market and made what was a long-term appointment for us.
“Joe [Hutchinson] did the initial screening for us with the Twenty First group to make first contact and then Andrew [Pettit], Debbie [Cook] and I took over the entire process but we’d like to thank Joe for those early stages in the process.
“Dave was always our first choice and was in the frame, but I’d never met him at that point but when we finally did meet, it was more impressive than we saw on paper. Possession-based football with a focus on youth is what we want and we look at David’s track record, with the ability to improve teams as a coach.”
As Stockwood explained, this is a long-term appointment for the club with Artell committing initially until the end of the 2025/26 season, but in the short term, then Grimsby chair hopes that the new man can enforce his preferred play style quickly to get results and push up the table.
He added: “We’ve spoken before about playing attractive football in the ‘Grimsby way,’ and we believe that we have secured a Head Coach who can work to produce that for our fans.
“The table doesn’t lie, but it’s not consistent with where this club should be at the moment and I think what has been missing is a clear identity with a strong coach in there and that is no disrespect to anyone we’ve spoken to over the last four weeks or who came before.
“We need someone with the experience and the battle scars to say, this is what we want to represent as a club, and this is how we’re going to play. There’s quality in our squad but definitely room for improvement.”
Original story at https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/