Grimsby Town were not the first club that wanted David Artell since his departure from Crewe Alexandra a year and a half ago, but they were the first to win him over.
The Mariners’ new head coach was speaking to other clubs as recently as last Friday, which shows how big of a pull this actually is for the club, who impressed their first-choice candidate with a proper plan of action that is not completely centred around the head coach.
Artell revealed that he turned down several other League Two clubs to take on the Grimsby role, which should in essence perfectly illustrate his commitment to the club already, with the knowledge that he could have gone somewhere else if he wanted to.
READ MORE: Grimsby Town chairman on what ‘impressive’ new boss David Artell will bring to the Mariners
That would have been part of the reason why the club looked at other options even though Artell was identified as a top choice from the very start because they knew he was a wanted man for other clubs with no manager in place.
Now that he is here, the 43-year-old was free to speak about why he came to Town and what about the club was so “impressive” in his eyes, having waited as long as he did for his next coaching job.
“I think [the owners and board] have been so impressive,” revealed Artell. “I’ve met quite a lot of people in these last 12 months and by far this is the most impressive plan outlook strategy that I encountered and I’m excited to take on the challenge that lies ahead.
“This football club is the community’s huge part of saying we’ve got to make sure that we take this whole area on that journey with us. That’s exciting and that’s not something to be feared.
“If I’m going to do this job properly then I want to fill [Blundell Park] out on a Saturday, and I know that’s important, but then we’ve got to have an understanding that we’re going to play the right football.”
Artell brought steady progression and success for most of his Crewe tenure, competing against clubs with a lot more resources and he takes over a club now that are in a similar position in terms of finances compared to the very best in the league.
The most important thing for the new head coach now is establishing an identity, and with that, he has the experience to level the playing field against the strongest clubs and get Town fighting where they want to be fighting in the league table.
He added: “If you finish in the top half of League One with the lowest budgets and then sell half your team into Championship, you know you’re doing something right that’s got to be emulated again and with an even better strategy than what I previously had, and if that happens then I think everyone in this room will be delighted.
“I certainly want us to be possession-based – I think at the minute the lads are crying out for an identity. I’m not sure the team have an identity at the minute and it’s going to be difficult to build that in the middle of a season. It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s gonna take months, literally months, to get it all embedded, but that’s what we’re going to do.”
Original story at https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/
