Sandro Di Michele: New Swindon head coach has to meet club values
- Published
Scott Lindsey left as Swindon's head coach after only six months in charge
Swindon Town technical director Sandro Di Michele said the new head coach has to be someone who buys into the club's "strategy and the philosophy".
Scott Lindsey left after just six months in charge this week, to take up the vacant managerial post at fellow League Two club Crawley.
The 50-year-old had taken over from Ben Garner in June.
Swindon are eighth in the table and only out of the play-off places on goal difference.
"The most important thing is that we find someone who completely buys into what we're trying to achieve at this football club, the strategy and the philosophy we have," Di Michele told BBC Radio Wiltshire.
"It's not going to change, so we need to find someone who is really aligned with how we want the football club to be and the direction of travel.
"That's someone that plays a certain brand of football, attacking football, possession based football because that's what we believe is the best case of showcasing talent.
"We also want someone who's got a track record of developing talent as well because when you look at the average age of our squad and you look at the players that we've brought in, there's clearly a focus on bringing young footballers to the County Ground, giving them first team opportunities, give them first team experience and giving them the opportunity to move on.
"We want people that can really understand what we're trying to do as a football club, understand what the chairman wants and can come in and deliver that and hit the ground running."
Doing things differently
Swindon chief executive Rob Angus said in an interview with BBC Points West that he hoped the club would have a replacement for Lindsey in "the next week or so".
There was unlikely to be any announcement made before the team's next fixture, however, against Grimsby on Saturday. First-team coach Gavin Gunning and goalkeeping coach Steve Mildenhall are taking charge on an interim basis.
"The reality is it's a very, very attractive job at an incredibly well supported football club, it's a wonderful football club to be part of and I can assure you there is no shortage of people who would love to take over the role as head coach of Swindon Town," Di Michele continued.
Di Michele was appointed in June to oversee football operations at Swindon and said he wanted the club to emulate Brentford in using data to recruit players.
The lack of head coach would not affect the club doing any business during the January transfer window, he said.
"I think we're different to a lot of clubs at this level because of the way that we want to work and the way that we see this football club achieving success," Di Michele continued.
"They've probably got to tick quite a few more boxes than they would need to do at other clubs at League Two. But that hasn't put off any number of people getting in touch and applying for the role."