Grimsby Town Football Club are pleased to announce the signing of midfielder Idris El Mizouni on loan from Ipswich Town until the end of the season.
The 20-year-old midfielder joins the Mariners from the Tractor Boys following an earlier loan spell this season at Sky Bet League Two rivals, Cambridge United.
His loan spell this season was his second at Cambridge, with the midfielder spending the second half of the 2019/20 season at the club before the early suspension of the campaign. During his two half-season spells at the club, El Mizouni made a total of 22 appearances scoring on one occasion against Scunthorpe United.
El Mizouni has also represented Tunisia at Under 23 level as well as a single appearance for the senior team in 2019 when he came on as a substitute in a 2-0 victory over Iraq. During his period with the Under 23’s, El Mizouni was drafted into the countries Olympic squad to prepare for the African Under 23 Cup of Nations qualifiers.
El Mizouni links up again with Paul Hurst, the manager who he worked under for a period whilst in charge of the Championship club, something that he feels was an important aspect of making the move to North East Lincolnshire. “I knew the gaffer from Ipswich, so when he was there and I was in the under 18’s. I know the way he wants to play and I really like that, I think that way suits me and I want to help him and the team stay in the league.
“I really like Paul and Chris’ style of play. I know they like to try and play out from the back and then I loved the fact that they were watching the youngsters in training. Every session they wanted to try and put the youngsters into the training sessions and I think that is really good for players like myself for example. When I was there I remember Doigy and the gaffer were watching the under 18’s train which was good.
“I’m 20 now and I need first-team football. I was at Cambridge last year and I was playing which was decent and then I came back. I have played games there, I know how the league is and I believe that I can help the team. I think I am a more technical centre midfielder, I can play box to box or as a number 10, so I like to carry the ball and make things happen.”
Manager Paul Hurst also spoke to gtfc.co.uk this morning ahead of training to tell us all about his latest recruit. “He’s a young player that in my short time over there impressed us and we wanted to bring into the first-team environment.
“He has lots of energy, a great enthusiasm and he has a little bit of everything really for a midfielder that you could wish for. He’s a good runner with the ball, a good size, he’s competitive and to be honest he has had two loans at Cambridge, one that went obviously better than the other albeit they’re doing incredibly well this season, so perhaps it’s understandable that he hasn’t got as much game time as he would like. He knows the league, there will be no nasty surprises there for him and he is a player that I know can add some quality to the group and the squad.
“I think the fact that he knows me and Chris was comforting for him in regards to going out on loan. When you’re a young player and you go out on loan, you have got to earn the right to be in a team, but I think you can have a thought in your mind on how you expect things to go. If they don’t quite go that way, it can make the next move more difficult to buy into potentially but I think having that past experience with us, he saw we valued him and brought him into the first-team environment for the first time and hopefully that holds some value with him personally and helped the deal get done.
“On Ipswich’s side, they were more than happy to send him and I would like to thank them for their cooperation in this.”
Idris is now available for tomorrow’s crunch clash with Stevenage at Blundell Park for a 3pm kick-off. You can purchase a match pass for the fixture NOW and watch live on iFollow Mariners.
