Billy Chadwick will bring more flexibility to York City's forwards

The 23-year-old striker became the Minstermen’s first January signing on a permanent deal from Sky Bet League Two side Stockport County yesterday evening, having impressed during the first half of the season on loan at Gateshead.

Chadwick played every minute of City’s festive double with the Heed, catching the eye as a versatile player who can operate along a front three, as well as dropping back into a deeper role and playing off the shoulder.

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With data at the forefront of his side’s recruitment in what is expected to be a busy month, Ardley admits that his newest signing performed exceptionally.

“We’ve tracked him for a while,” the City boss told the club of Chadwick’s recruitment.

“I’ve explained to the fans at forums that we’re putting together a new recruitment team where we’ve got Matt Lever who heads up our recruitment. He’s a data analyst, so we can collect data on all the players.

“Billy, he’s somebody that his data for the type of player that we were looking for when we put the categories we were looking for in a player, was exceptionally high.

“It’s quite ironic that we’ve just played Gateshead twice and actually managed to keep him quiet, but I think that on New Year’s Day, he caused us no end of problems with his movement and his trickery.

“We started the process a while back with speaking to Stockport and speaking to the agency, if there was something there for a permanent transfer, and we’re delighted to get it over the line because we think that going forward, he’s going to be a very, very good player for York.”

Ardley believes Chadwick will complement the style of play of City's forwards, including talismanic striker Dipo Akinyemi (right).

And with the likes of top scorer Dipo Akinyemi, captain Lenell John-Lewis and Will Davies at his disposal in a front three, Ardley is confident that Chadwick’s creativity will complement their style of play and offer his side more attacking flexibility as a result.

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“We were looking at the different types of forwards,” Ardley explained.

“Will Davies, he had some physical attributes that he could play up as a nine on his own, and he had goals in him. Billy’s slightly different, we were looking for the technical element, the creativity, the flair.

“Billy’s so comfortable with the ball at his feet, but yet it’s rare to find somebody who wants to have the ball and who can play like a 10 but who is willing to have great movement to get in behind and do the work off the ball.

“We felt with Billy we got both of them, and that’s the first criteria that we were looking for, that ability to play on the shoulder, play off people and have that movement in behind.

“That’s not to say that we haven’t got loads of options. Billy, he can play anywhere across the line in a front three, he can play as a 10, and when he was at Boston a couple of seasons ago, he played as an eight and scored loads of goals playing as an eight.

“He gives so much flexibility to systems and how you want to play, and there’s no reason that we can’t play Billy in many different ways as well.

“I think that the intelligence, the off the ball movement, we think that he can become an even better goal-scorer than he has.

“I know that he’s scored well at Gateshead, so put it all together and they were the characteristics that he scored incredibly high.

“He’s very intelligent, his movement to run in behind people is exceptional, his technique to come onto the ball and make things happen is very, very good and we believe there’s more to come.

“I think he’ll fit in really, really well. He’s the sort of player that I like.”