“All in all, I have had a number of good experiences."
Morecambe FC appointed Ashvir Singh Johal as their new manager, becoming the first Sikh to manage a professional British club.
At 30, he is also the youngest manager in the top five tiers of English football.
The announcement came on August 19, just 48 hours after investment group Panjab Warriors completed its takeover of the National League side.
Morecambe had been close to expulsion from league competition.
Johal said he wanted to ensure such a crisis “never happens again”.
He said: “I’m extremely proud to be the manager of Morecambe Football Club and I can’t wait to meet the fans and show them what an exciting team we can build that represents them and the town on the pitch.
“The short-term plan this year is to make sure that we retain our place in the National League by playing exciting energetic football and working hard.
“We want to make sure that the situation that happened in Morecambe over the last couple of years never happens again because no club, no town, no people deserve that.”
When it comes to his career, Ashvir Singh Johal had never managed a first team before, but brought strong experience.
He began coaching as a teenager in Leicester City’s schools programme and later managed the club’s under-18 side.
Johal was then appointed as a first-team coach at Wigan, assisting Kolo Toure.
He then joined Como, where he coached alongside Cesc Fàbregas during the Spaniard’s season in charge of the Italian team.
In 2024, Johal managed Notts County’s B team. He also completed his UEFA Pro Licence, making him one of the youngest to do so.
Johal said: “All in all, I have had a number of good experiences.
“I’ve been working hard for the past five or six years to be around the right environments so that when I get the opportunity to be a manager, I’m successful from the start.
“[Being a manager] has been my dream since the age of 14, 15. It’s been my target.
“Now I have a new target to make Morecambe successful as a club. I want to make sure that this year we don’t just survive, we thrive, and that there are moments in games where we dominate.
“I want to make sure the fans have a team that thrives in games.”
Ashvir Singh Johal had been the preferred candidate for Panjab Warriors long before the takeover was finalised.
Reports suggested the group planned to appoint him while Derek Adams was still in charge. Adams was relieved of his responsibilities on August 18.
Morecambe had been suspended from the National League while the takeover process was incomplete. The suspension was lifted once Panjab Warriors completed their deal, though the club were left short of players and their scheduled match against Altrincham was likely to be postponed.
Johal added: “The immediate priority right now is going to be to identify the players that we need in this building to ensure Morecambe Football Club can perform well in the National League.”
Morecambe Chief Executive and Panjab Warriors member Ropinder Singh said:
“We can’t thank everybody here enough because it’s been a difficult and very long journey.”
“The last seven, eight weeks have been horrendous for everybody involved, ourselves included, but it’s shown a lot of collectiveness, a lot of true grit.
“At first, [completing the deal] was a sense of relief. It’s now turned into a feeling of pride, and a sense of gratitude and humility. We feel blessed to be given the role of custodians of this club.
“We don’t want to go too much into how the takeover process [was finalised], but this is a nightmare that has finished. Now we move forward, we don’t look back.”
Panjab Warriors now faced the task of settling debts and creditors to secure Morecambe’s financial future.
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