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BEN GARNER NAMED AS SWINDON TOWN HEAD COACH

Former Bristol Rovers manager Ben Garner has today been named head coach at Swindon Town following Clem Morfuni's takeover as the Robins new owner. Total Sport Swindon's Ryan Walker has more on the latest managerial appointment below.

After a disastrous 20/21 season that saw Swindon Town relegated from League One, Clem Morfuni has made his first managerial appointment since taking ownership of the club with Ben Garner taking the reigns as the clubs new head coach with Ben Chorley being handed the role of Director of Football.

In a statement published on the clubs official website, Morfuni said:

"I am delighted to announce that Ben Chorley will be the club’s new Director of Football and Ben Garner will be the new Head coach.

I want a director of football and head coach model rather than a traditional manager because I want continuity to run through the club. If the head coach moves on, the philosophy of the club carries on and the playing squad does not need to be a complete overhaul. The Head coach will be part of the process of recruiting players.

I want a young, forward thinking, vibrant club. I want the average age of the team to come down, that doesn’t mean every player will be young because you need a balance, but I want a young side that plays an exciting style of football and create a club where top young players want to join because of the environment, the opportunities they will be given. Also, Premier League clubs will be happy to send us their top young players on loan because of this reason.

I have known Ben Chorley for 5 years. Ben had a long successful career as a player and is incredibly knowledgeable about football and has a great knowledge on players. When I came to the club, it didn’t have a head of recruitment or chief scout which I thought was completely wrong. The most important part of building a successful team is recruiting the right players. Ben was actively involved in the recruitment for a couple of years at the club and helped the club make some excellent signings over that period.

I have full faith that, given time and support, he will be able to build and put in place the correct infrastructure at the club and make the correct acquisitions to implement my vision. I’m a football fan at heart who supports Swindon Town and I have very clear vision on what the principles under-pinning the Club are to be, and I have complete faith in Ben that he can and will fully implement this.

I gave Ben Chorley a very clear remit of what I wanted from the Head Coach. I wanted a forward thinking coach, a coach that loves being on the grass working with players and wants to improve players every day, a coach that knows how Premier League clubs operate and what players have to do to get to that level, a coach that wants to develop young players and isn’t afraid to play young players, a coach that is a winner and, importantly one who is also available to start work now. With that remit, Ben Chorley recommended Ben Garner and I am fully convinced that he ticks every box on that list and is the right coach to take this club forward.

Ben Garner is a pro license coach, he has over 20 years coaching experience at every level of the game, he’s worked at Premier League clubs and is an extremely respected coach within the game. He has also assembled an extremely strong back room team.

His assistant coaches will be Scott Marshall and Scott Lindsey who both have fantastic pedigree, and both have reputations as being outstanding coaches. Steve Mildenhall will be staying on as the goal keeping coach and I would like thank Steve and Lee Peacock for taking the team and preparing them for the coming season in such trying circumstances; your efforts have been very much appreciated.

Please support our new management team, I have complete faith that they are people to take this club forward but they’re going to need patience and time because they inherit an extremely difficult set of circumstances. As I have said before, if we stay united, if we all pull in the same direction then together with your incredible support, we will turn this great club around."

Mentored by Jose Mourinho, Garner was sacked as Bristol Rovers manager last November with the club in 18th position of the League One table and three points above the relegation zone.