Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Diamonds chief Tom Wotherspoon reflects and looks forward after a year in the top job at Airdrie
Q. You have been in charge at the club for a year. How have things gone?
A. “It was a very, very difficult first year. Not just because I was new to football but because of some circumstances including having three managers.
“I didn’t push Gary Bollan out the door. Gary decided that he didn’t like the way the club was going and got a job [Forfar Athletic manager] closer to home. Good luck to him.
“Eddie Wolecki Black came in and was doing a great job but then suffers a stroke. We were shell-shocked for weeks. The first game [1-1 draw at home to Forfar] after Eddie took ill, I sat in the stadium and have never felt an atmosphere like it; really strange.
“The league was really tight and I needed to get an experienced pair of hands in which is why Danny Lennon took the team. It was a tough year. Almost all of our plans got scrapped as Eddie was the nucleus of what we were doing. The lesson there is that the burden has to be spread.”
Q. What makes you think Kevin McBride is the right man to take forward the first team?
A. “I looked at what my starting point was, my vision and beliefs. We couldn’t continue to do the same things better. It was never a case of bringing in a manager who had been around the block.
“I looked at the job he did with the under-20s, I looked at what he was like from the day he left the dressing room as a player to where he was at the end of the season and it was night and day.
“He had matured, moved on and become a leader. I was out with Terry Butcher and George Burley on Sunday night. Terry couldn’t say enough good things about Kevin – good guy, everybody likes him, intelligent, likes football played the right way. His assistant is Donald Jennow and the two complement each other with their skills sets.”
Q. What is the situation with Eddie and has a timescale been put on his return?
A. “Eddie is having a phased return to work. Timescales are completely up to him. He will maybe come in two days a week and observe training.
“He is the elder statesman, although he’s only 51, the two younger guys can bounce ideas off. We don’t want to lean on Eddie this side of Christmas but we’re not leaving him out. What we have to do is not put any pressure on him whatsoever. None. His health, and his family, come before the game of football.”
Q. Chief Executive Iain King departed in the summer. Did you want to take control of the off-field operation?
A. “Yes. I thought I could put a vision in place and then stand back from it. I underestimated my own character because I can’t do that. I have to be in front taking my vision forward.”
Q. There has been a massive overhaul in the playing staff. Were there players you would have liked to keep?
A. “Absolutely. I’d have loved to have kept Nicky Cadden. I personally worked on that for six months and at various points I thought we had an