Grimsby boss wasn't about to stand in the way of McAtee's move to Luton

Grimsby Town manager Paul Hurst wasn’t about to stand in the way of leading marksman John McAtee’s move to Kenilworth Road earlier this week.

The 23-year-old was snapped up by the Hatters on Tuesday morning, heading straight back to Blundell Park on loan, although could now face ‘months’ on the sidelines if he requires shoulder surgery.

Having worked with the striker over the years at Shrewsbury, Scunthorpe and now Grimsby, Hurst is a clearly a big fan of the forward, who netted 16 goals in the Mariners’ promotion to the Football League via the play-offs last term.

Despite that, he didn’t consider trying to prevent the striker getting his chance to join a Championship club in Luton, telling BBC Humberside: “It's a good deal for everyone and we want to try to be fair to players.

“Part of when John signed we spoke about not standing in his way, giving him the opportunity and clearly he was a big part of helping us get promoted.

“At the same time we have to do what’s right for the football club and trying to balance all of that is the difficulty, but I think on this occasion we've done that pretty well.

“We get him back which is relatively unusual, but he does like it here, I do want to stress that.

"I don't want people thinking he's jumped ship or anything like that, most people understand the opportunity there, but he genuinely likes it here, he really does.

“In his mind, he was conflicted in some regards, in terms of just how to go about it as he likes working with myself, Chris (Doig, assistant manager) and the staff, likes his team-mates and likes the club, so it’s not always as straightforward as it seems, but at the end of the day it's a great opportunity for him.”

When asked if he had tried to persuade him to stay at Blundell Park when the interest was know, Hurst, who was quick to praise McAtee’s commitment to the cause even when he knew the transfer was in the offing, playing through the pain of a dislocated shoulder in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Leyton Orient.

The Grimsby chief added: “I like to be realistic about things.

"He’s seen what we’re about as a club, seen how professional it is.

"He’s had an environment where it’s certainly helped him get better, and the demands that we put on everyone, but certainly him to improve.

"He’s matured enough in terms of understands why things are said to him now and why we asked him many, many years ago to improve his fitness and do his runs, all the things he won’t like doing, and he’s reaping the rewards of that.

"But ultimately I don’t think it’s for me to try and persuade him otherwise.

"I feel like I know him well enough over the years just to have a conversation about the situation in general and how to go about things in the correct manner.

"As Jason (Stockwood, chairman) alluded to, there’s been no problems, there’s been no sulking or not training properly, any of that.

"I think that was kind of highlighted at the weekend, it was obviously going on and to dislocate his shoulder within two seconds, if that, he could have quite easily come off.

"So that was credit to John, he wanted to get back back out there, and I know he desperately wants to play football.

“He will be a big loss for us as he’s done extremely well.”