FORMER Icelandic top-flight manager Gregg Ryder has declared his interest in the York City managerial vacancy.

Ryder, who hails from Newcastle, became the youngest-ever manager to take charge of a team in the Nordic Island’s top two divisions when he assumed the reins at Throttur Reyjkavik at the age of 25 and subsequently gained promotion to Iceland’s first tier.

He had earlier assisted current Iceland national team manager Heimir Hallgrimsson at IBV, before the latter went on to achieve worldwide acclaim after dumping England out of Euro 2016 and masterminding a 1-1 draw against Argentina during this summer’s World Cup.

Ryder, now 30, had plied his trade in Iceland for seven years before resigning in April from his position at Throttur, which he had held since 2014.

He has since made a short-list of three for the manager’s job at Scottish Championship outfit Greenock Morton in May, ultimately losing out to former Raith and Dundee United chief Ray McKinnon, having also applied for the vacancy at National League Gateshead before Steve Watson was appointed last term.

After assisting Hallgrimsson as IBV narrowly lost 2-0 on aggregate in a Europa League tie against Serbian giants Red Star Belgrade, Ryder took Throttur from a position one point above the relegation zone in the equivalent of English football’s Championship to one place below the automatic promotion places the following season before then steering the club into the top flight.

Relegation followed after the club had appointed a Danish technical director to take charge of transfers and Ryder, who was on Newcastle United’s books until the age of 16 and graduated with a football scholarship from Viterbo University in Wisconsin, is now looking to land a job closer to home, meaning he is keeping an eye on developments at Bootham Crescent where Sam Collins has taken temporary charge following the dismissal of Martin Gray.

“York are a big, traditional club and the thing I can bring from my experiences in Iceland is the ability to establish a culture within a club by maximising resources,” Ryder declared. “It’s all about implementing a winning mentality and getting the club back to where it needs to be and getting back its identity, which might have been lost a little bit.”

Making the most of the tools at his disposal was something Ryder picked up from Hallgrimsson, with the former adding: “It was his first job before taking over the national job and it was a great learning experience for me.

“Iceland have done brilliantly under him and he was fantastic at man-management. He got the best out of all the players he had, and he maximised what he had available to him, which is something I have taken on.”

Despite plying his trade solely in Iceland so far and still being based on the North Atlantic island, Ryder also insists he has a sound knowledge of the non-League game in these parts.

“While working in Iceland, I’ve done quite a lot of scouting in England,” he explained. “I watched the Darlington v Blyth game last week and I’ve got a good understanding of that level.

“I even played a few friendlies for Blyth when Graham Fenton was manager and I’ve also taken players from the Northern League before. The Icelandic League is a higher standard than the Northern League, but the lads we brought over were able to step up and compete and I think there is a lot of untapped talent in the north-east – 100 per cent.

“The only reason they don’t play higher is often because of money, as they get more working and playing football on a Saturday than they might do higher up.”

Ryder also believes the achievements of the likes of his old mentor Hallgrimsson and ex-City defender Graham Potter, who guided Swedish minnows Ostersunds to a Europa League triumph at Arsenal last term, have led to a sea change in the attitude of English clubs towards coaches who have succeeded in countries where their efforts might have been previously overlooked or even dismissed.

“With what Iceland have achieved in recent years, people are coming over to have a look at how things are done over there, just like how people sat up and took notice of what Graham did in Sweden,” Ryder explained. “I think lower-league clubs especially are starting to see that ideas can be brought in that are a bit different and there’s an opportunity to do something that other clubs aren’t.”