Haverfordwest County have gone continental by naming Nicky Hayen as their new head coach.
The Bluebirds were on the hunt for a successor for Wayne Jones after he tendered his resignation earlier this month.
That search has now been brought to an end and the West Wales club have gone left-field with an unknown name to the Welsh football scene.
Embed from Getty ImagesDid he play? What is his playing background?
A former defender of Sint-Truidense, Hayen played for his hometown team from 1999 to 2008 and made over 250 appearances, coached
He would be at the club at the same time as former Liverpool and Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
Hayen’s nine-year association with the club came to an end and he played for Dutch second-tier outfit RBC Roosendaal.
During his time in the Netherlands, he was on the same team as Cuco Martina, who played as a full-back for Southampton, Everton, and Stoke City.
Financial difficulties at the club though forced him to move back to his native homeland where he would get his first piece of success.
He would help Oud-Heverlee Leuven gain promotion to the Belgian Pro League as a player and in a three-year spell with them would take his appearances in the Belgian top-flight to over 250 appearances.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhat is his coaching background?
He would later wind down his career in the Belgian lower leagues, first as a player coach at Dender before moving on to his first job in senior management at Zwarte Leeuw.
Another opportunity would come to work as an assistant manager under Marc Brys at Saudi Arabian outfit Najran.
Spells at lower league outfits at KVK Tienen, ASV Geel and Berchem Sport would follow before he rejoined his beloved Sint-Truiden.
First working as an academy manager for the 2018/19 season, he would take charge on a caretaker basis before assisting Miloš Kostić.
His big break came last season as he was appointed as manager of Waasland Beveren.
After having a taste for management in the Belgian top-flight in his six games in charge of Sint-Truidense, his new club were impressed by what they saw.
Unfortunately, though he would taste relegation in his first and only season in charge at the Freethiel Stadion.
Waasland Beveren finished second from bottom and lost 6-3 to R.F.C. Seraing in a relegation play-off.
He was later relieved of his duties and has been looking for his next job in management since.
Embed from Getty ImagesHas he coached any notable players?
Last season, during his time in charge of Waasland-Beveren, he worked with Luxembourg international Danel Sinani.
Sinani was loaned to the Belgian club on a season-long loan from Norwich City and made 21 appearances under Hayen’s stewardship, scoring four times and one assist.
The 24-year-old has since joined Huddersfield Town and has already got three goals and two assists during his time at the Terriers.
Another player of note is Swiss forward Michael Frey who was Hayen’s top goal scorer last year. Another loan player, the 27-year-old scored 17 goals in 32 appearances.
Given both players are now at new clubs and playing in a top-flight league, don’t expect them to see them down the seafront in Tenby any time soon.
More than ten players have followed Hayen to more than two clubs and they are; Aboubakary Koita, Mathieu Troonbeeckx, Nelson Balongo, Allan Sousa, Chris Durkin, Facundo Coldio, Stan Van Dessell, Seung-woo Lee, Jhonny Lucas, Tibo Herbots, and Hamza Masoudi.
What other foreign managers has there been in the Cymru Premier?
As it stands, Hayen is just the fourth manager not from the British shores to take charge of a Welsh top-flight club.
The first was Spaniard Lucas Cazorla who managed Llanelli Town for a short period during Nitin Parekh’s reign as chairman.
Then last season we saw the addition of two managers who hadn’t been born in the UK. First Bruno Lopes was appointed as head coach of the Cefn Druids. Lopes left after just seven months after an ill-fated spell.
Step forward then Antony Limbrick who in April succeeded Scott Ruscoe in the New Saints hot seat. The Tasmanian-born defender wasn’t able to guide them to a league title last season but with a 12-point gap over Newtown, they are in pole position to regain their crown.
What kind of philosophy can we expect?
If TransferMarkt.co.uk is anything to go by apparently he favours the 5-3-2 formation.
He would play with either a three-man or five-man defence which could mean that defensive reinforcements are high on the agenda.
Already the club have signed former Newport County youth defender Ryan George and defence is an area they’re not well-stocked in, so attacking full-backs could be the way forward.
In his first interview since his appointment, he’s given us a bit of an insight into what we can expect from his Haverfordwest team.
He said: “My style of play is that I like to build up from behind, I like to play combination football. But, first of all, you need to have the players to play this style of football.
“As I said, I’ve seen a team that when they have the confidence, they can do it, but if they don’t have the confidence they don’t, and won’t do it, because they don’t want the ball, and then this is my first priority, and this is also what I have in my character.
“Mentality is the first thing, you can play nice football to win games, but if you don’t have the mentality, if you don’t fight for each other, if you don’t work for every single piece of ground, then you don’t win games.”
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