Lee Radford signs deal to coach Hull until end of 2019
Friday 29 April 2016 10:10, UK
Hull coach Lee Radford has signed a new deal to remain in charge of the Super League club until the end of 2019.
Radford, a former Black and Whites player, took charge in 2014 and has overseen the emergence of several young players since then.
His contract was due to run out at the end of the current season.
"It was an unbelievably easy decision for me," Radford told the club website. "The support the owner [Adam Pearson] has shown since day one has made my job so much easier.
"He has strengthened my drive to be successful with this club for the fans and for him personally as I know it means an awful lot to him.
"The squad needed remoulding when I took over. Back then, I didn't think we were getting value for money from our squad.
"My mantra has always been to bring through home grown kids for the first-team and surround them with international class players. That's starting to come to fruition and now we want to really push for some silverware."
Pearson said: "I've worked with a lot of managers and head coaches in my twenty years in professional sport and never met an individual more committed to a club as Lee, who puts the club first before any personal interests.
"He was handed the complicated challenge three years ago to lead a complete root and branch overhaul of the club in difficult circumstances, which was always going to take some time and bring significant pressures on him.
"He has taken that challenge head on and handled it with great professionalism and the maturity of an experienced coach, whilst at no point safeguarding his own future or making public complaint on the scale of the task at hand."
Hull are fourth in Super League after 12 games, four points behind leaders Warrington.
