No time to waste for struggling Crawley's new boss
Colin Kazim-Richards won 37 caps for Turkey, scoring twice
- Published
New manager Colin Kazim-Richards is determined to make first impressions count at Crawley Town.
The 39-year-old, who has been involved in the Arsenal youth set-up, takes on his first managerial job with the club fighting to stay in League Two after a 10-match winless run.
"I'm very excited and very ready to make an impact," Kazim-Richards told the club's website, external.
"The reason I'm excited is I believe I can make an impact straight away and start turning non-results into results.
"Yes, the situation in terms of points is not great. But this is the right time for me personally because I believe I can get Crawley out of this situation.
"I understand the impact I need to make straight away. I've never been a head coach so I'm not living off the title of what I've done before. I need to do it now, I need to do it in today's training session, I need to do it tomorrow. Every day is a day I need to make an impact."
He said he believes "some of our players have not been in the position to affect the game with their strengths", adding: "I'm very, very, very confident [of avoiding relegation]. I wouldn't have taken this job if I wasn't confident."
Crawley parted company with Scott Lindsey on Monday with the club in a perilous position, just a point above the relegation zone.
Podcast: Colin Kazim-Richards appointed Crawley Town manager
Kazim-Richards is banking on the emergency nature of his appointment focusing minds with seven matches remaining, starting on Saturday with a home match against 16th-placed Gillingham.
"Ultimately you'd like to come into a new job with loads of time. This makes you appreciate and use up every second you have with 100% of what you have. I ain't got time to mess about," said the Turkish international.
"There's families and futures and careers on the line."
London-born Kazim-Richards, who started his career at Bury, played for 17 clubs and hopes to pass on some of the lessons from the challenging experiences he faced.
"I've been in relegation battles with four different teams five different times from being 18 in my first professional season to being a seasoned pro. I know what it takes. It's not easy but in life nothing's easy," he said.
"What I'm bringing is understanding of what it takes to get out of this situation."
