LLANDUDNO have made a bold move and appointed Iwan Williams as their new manager.

The shock announcement was made on Saturday, November 4 and the former Caernarfon Town boss will take charge of his first competitive fixture this Saturday when they travel to JD Welsh Premier League rivals Barry Town United on Saturday (2.30pm).

The new appointment has strong connections with the club having captained the side during his playing days, and Williams stated it was an offer “he could not turn down”.

He said: “Llandudno is obviously a club that is really, really close to my heart; I played there for a number of years, captained the side, and I have good friends still playing at the club, so on the one hand the decision to come here was perfect, but on the other hand it was very difficult for me to decide to leave Caernarfon.

“I have a fantastic connection with the fans at The Oval, I think we built something pretty special at the club over my two and a half years there, but the deciding factor for me was that Llandudno have European ambitions and they’re in a position to fight for Europe again this year.

“Being as ambitious and as driven as I am, this was just an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down, to be honest, because of that ambition to compete at that level. Yes, you could say that I could be in this league next year with Caernarfon, but there’s no guarantees that’d happen nor that we’d be competing for Europe if it did. It was just too much of an opportunity to turn down.”

The new boss has praised the current squad and has challenged them to return to the top flight’s top six after they have struggled in recent weeks following an impressive start.

“The side is full of quality, and I think it helps when I know the majority of them. I’ve played alongside or captained or coached a lot of these players at some point, so that works in my favour definitely, because I know what they can all give,” he added.

“I’ve looked at the squad, of course, and gauge my thoughts on what I want to do in terms of changing things stylistically, and all I can really say at this stage is that I’ll be making a few tweaks to how we do things – there won’t be a lot of changes straight away.

“I’ve stressed to the board and to everyone that this is very much a process, to get this team to play the way I want it to. I’m all about ball retention, possession, switching play, attacking, expansive football, and it will take time for me to implement that.”