FORMER York City academy technical director Adie Costello has admitted Graham Potter’s Swedish adventure has helped persuade him to have a bash at football management in the Scandinavian country.

Potter, who played for the Minstermen from 2000 and 2003 and briefly coached the club’s under-13s, has caused shock waves across the continent having led unfashionable Ostersunds to the last 32 of the Europa League where they will take Arsenal over two legs in February.

Prior to that monumental achievement, he guided the 21-year-old outfit from the Swedish fourth division into the top-flight, where they also won the FA Cup.

Costello, 52, is now relishing a chance to prove his managerial prowess at fifth-tier Ytterhogdals, where he will start work after leaving his most-recent position at Bootham Crescent, as the head of the successful Regional Talent Club girls’ football programme.

Like Potter, Costello has had to look overseas for his first big opportunity in the full-time game and the ex-policeman added that for himself, despite the high-profile examples of Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger, that remains the best policy for those with aspirations towards management, who have not enjoyed careers as professional footballers.

“Although I have my UEFA A licence, it’s even harder now for somebody to get it and land a good managerial job in this country without having had a distinguished playing career,” Costello reasoned. “In fact, even when you look at people who have had relatively good playing careers, like (ex-City defender) Darren Kelly and David McGurk, they’re still having to cut their teeth at step four in non-League with Hyde United.

“For me, though, I don’t know whether a player has had the same experience of managing people as, say, a school teacher and I know, from my own experience, that working in the army and police force gave me good leadership qualities, because I learnt how to get people to do things without actually yelling at them. I’d love for this to lead to me getting a manager’s job in England, but you don’t get anything without proving you can do something.

“They’ll be doubters because, whilst I’ve done a lot of coaching, management is totally different and I’ve also got to prove to myself that I can do this but, if I don’t do it now, I never will and I want to go for it.”

Costello moved to York from Derbyshire as a schoolboy and quickly became a City fan, before going on to watch his brother Nigel turn out for the club five times.

Following a career with the army and police, who he played football for along with local amateur teams, Costello went on to become an academy coach at North Ferriby, Lincoln City, Hull and York, where he has been employed since 2014 after returning from two years as an academy director in Abu Dhabi

In terms of management, he has taken charge of Hull City Ladies, York City Ladies and Garforth Town, but his big opportunity came after he was invited to coach at Ytterhogdals for one week in 2016 by Andy Hardey, who formerly scouted for the Minstermen academy that his son Liam was involved in.

Liam, currently sidelined by cruciate ligament damage, is now on Ytterhogdals’ books and his father is the club’s assistant manager.

Having been impressed with Costello’s coaching visit, Ytterhogdal’s board asked to meet with him in September after the previous manager had moved on.

Costello was promptly offered the job and will start work in the new year, having handed in his notice at Bootham Crescent.

With Hardey knowing Potter’s number two at Ostersunds, Costello is planning to meet up with the only English manager left in European competition at the earliest opportunity.

But, whilst harbouring big hopes for Ytterhogdals, Costello confessed that it is perhaps unrealistic to dream of another Ostersunds fairytale.

Despite the latter being billed as minnows, Costello’s new club are true underdogs, given the respective populations, with recruitment largely dependent on the assistance of English-based agencies.

Middlesbrough-born Curtis Edwards has already graduated from Ytterhogdals to Ostersunds, while former Swindon scholar Aaron Oakley, who has played through the age groups up to under-21 level for Wales, is now on the books.

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s former England number two Tord Grip, meanwhile, hails from the village, owns its one hotel and is also recommending players from Nottingham, having worked at Notts County, while Costello is hoping to maintain links with the Minstermen too.

On his aspirations and the club’s working model. Costello said: “Ostersunds started where we are now, but they play in a big city, with the opportunity to recruit a large number of Swedish players. It’s very difficult for us to do that and we’re having to move the one Swedish player we have got 500 miles from the north.

“People say North Ferriby is a village, but it’s just in the shadow of Hull. Ytterhogdal truly is a village.

“There are only 800 people and we are two hours from Ostersund in one direction and two hours from the nearest town the other way, with nothing in between. There is very little chance to recruit Swedish players of the required quality, so we’ve got 13 English players, two from Wales and a Frenchman.

“We’re looking to have players of the quality you would find in a professional club’s under-21 set-up and the majority are those who have come through a scholarship programme in the UK, but have been released for whatever reason. I’ve spoken to (City youth-team manager) Steve Torpey about potentially taking one or two of the academy players on loan, because it’s full-time football and a great opportunity for them to enjoy that and the great facilities they have there.

“It will be -22 when we start pre-season in February and there will be 6ft of snow, but the club have got a big 3G pitch under a dome and they put a stand up in there if we need to play a game. Then, in April, the weather warms up and we’re back outside.

“It’s a great little club with ambition and I’d like us to go as far as we can, but we’re not Ostersunds. With one more promotion, there would be a change in league rules and we would need to have nine Swedish players in our squad.

“We want to go up and we could get those nine players, although they might not play very often, so I imagine the board would need to look at things then and decide where they want to take things, because we have got a fantastic budget with myself, Andy, a physio and 20 players all paid and accommodated.”

Costello also feels he will benefit from the past guidance of two former Bootham Crescent coaching colleagues in his new position, admitting: “I’ve learnt a lot from (ex-City right-back and academy manager) Andy McMillan and he’s probably one of the best coaches I’ve seen work.

“He came out and coached for a week when I was in Abu Dhabi and, within 20 minutes, he knew every kid’s name, which I though was excellent. I also keep in touch with Darren Kelly for advice on the managerial side.”

Costello is hoping too that the Swedish game will give him the opportunity to tackle management in a less cut-throat environment than is the case in this country, whilst extolling his footballing principles.

“Managers don’t seem to be under pressure if they haven’t won for five games, like has become the norm in England and, knowing somebody who has been as successful as Graham having been given the time to show what he can do, does attract you to give it a try over there,” Costello reasoned. “The style of football is also different.

“I’ve been over and watched lots of games and, even at Sunday Morning level, it’s a very technical game. It’s not like it can be over here, where the ball is hit in the channels and people are smashed about.”