Grimsby Town have opened their January transfer window business with a couple of signings from a rather unusual source for a club in League Two.

Sebastien Ring and Ludvig Ohman have both arrived from the Swedish Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football.

That probably will come as no surprise to those who have been closely following the direction of the club in recent times but it could also turn out to be a very successful transfer policy.

Michael Jolley came to Grimsby with very little management experience save for a spell with Swedish club Eskilstuna and it is during this time that the, now Mariners boss, made some useful contacts.

The latest addition to the squad was Ludvig Ohman, a central defender from IF Brommapojkarna, who joins for an undisclosed fee on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

Grimsby were in desperate need of defensive reinforcement and Jolley clearly sees Ohman as a player who has both the physical ability to cope in League Two and the ball skills to play the style he wants.

Speaking to the club website Jolley said:

“I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with Ludvig again”.

“He performed extremely well for me during our time together in Sweden. As a football club, we have worked very hard over a long period of time to bring him to Grimsby”.

“Like Sebastian, we must give Ludvig the necessary time to adjust to life in England. I am very confident that Ludvig can really help the team and provide great competition in our squad moving forwards”.

The former Sweden U19 defender is no stranger to playing abroad having also had a spell in Japan, an experience the Swede believes has helped become a better player.

“I have played for a number of clubs in Sweden and in between, I played in Japan. That was amazing, it was a great experience,” Öhman told the club website.

“It was completely different from in Sweden but I really enjoyed it. I am now quite far away from home for my family, but at the same time I once lived in Japan so I am actually closer now!”

“As a player, I see myself as a physical centre back, I am strong in the air, pretty good with my feet so that’s how I see myself”.

Despite a difficult start to the season Grimsby have started to show the kind of form and play a style of football that could well get them challenging at the right end of the League Two table.

The project that Michael Jolley is putting together is clearly something the manager sells well when he tries to persuade new recruits to sign and this appears to be the case with the Ohman deal.

“I’m very excited (about joining the club). I have heard a lot about the club from Michael since we began talking, so I have been very excited about joining,” the defender said.

“I was working with Michael a few years ago and the whole project that he is doing here at the moment, it sounds very exciting for me and it’s something that I wanted to do. It’s a move in my career and I see it as a move in my career that will allow me to develop”.

What can Grimsby expect from Ludvig Ohman?

Looking at some of the numbers behind the 27-years-olds recent performances at IF Brommapojkarna a couple of things jump out.

He won more defensive challenges than any player on the team with 119, a success rate of 68% which again was a team best for those players to have played over 1,000 minutes.

He had won the second most aerial challenges of any player on the team but again led the team in percentage success rate (67%) of those contested winning 83 of 123.

He is not a player who likes to dribble out from the back which is something a League Two defender should probably avoid but his ability to read the game appears to be very good.

He made 112 interceptions this season, only two players in the IFB squad had made more.

It may take both of the new Swedish recruits time to settle but Grimsby are clearly a club with a vision and direction that, given time, could well reap plenty of rewards.

words James Richards, D3D4 Football