Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Chairman Tom: I had to ring the changes
Airdrie chief executive says ‘changes had to be made’
Tom Wotherspoon insists changes had to be made at Airdrieonians as he picked the bones of a turbulent period.
The Diamonds have appointed former Celtic defender Mark Wilson as new head coach, with Gordon Dalziel installed as director of football following Kevin McBride’s dismissal.
In addition, Wotherspoon confirmed that Eddie Wolecki Black — who has been on sick leave since suffering a stroke in March — will not be returning to the club.
McBride, who had been head coach for less than six months, has refused to discuss his situation and rejected an offer to take charge of the Under-20s squad.
Assistant coach Donald Jennow remains at the club but goalkeeping coach Andy Goram has left.
But out-of-favour Portuguese midfielder Hugo Faria, who has been helping out with the running of the Under-20s squad this season, has sensationally been suspended pending a club investigation into an accusation of bullying.
Wotherspoon says the club
will be making no further comment on this matter.
Wilson and Dalziel have taken training this week at the League One club’s Ravenscraig Sports Centre base.
And M& H Logistics supremo Wotherspoon reflected on a dramatic turn of events which comes after Airdrie climbed to fourth place in the table.
He said: “Gordon has obviously had an input and been looking at what we do at Ravenscraig over the last couple of weeks [as part of a ‘football review’].
“We knew we needed to have a look at our whole structure and that all comes from a decision I made — for the right reasons — not to fill Eddie’s role while he was on sick leave.
“We gave Kevin the big opportunity to manage the Ravenscraig operation but we’re clearly not getting a return on the monies we’ve invested in the football club. When it became clear that Eddie would not be returning to the football club, we had to re-evaluate the whole set-up.
“We really are grateful for the job that he has done as we transitioned from part-time to full-time.
“The book hasn’t been written for that and perhaps we could have handled the whole thing better.”
Wotherspoon says Wilson will be in charge of first-team affairs and matters such as team selection, tactics and training. Dalziel will continue to be a pundit on Clyde 1’s Saturday afternoon Superscoreboard programme.
The chairman added: “Mark is in control. His line manager is Gordon and his experience will enable Mark to develop as a coach.
“Mark’s obviously played at the highest level in Scotland with Dundee United and Celtic.
“I think it is imperative that going with an untried coach, he has someone to mentor him.”
Wotherspoon says the decision taken with regards Wolecki Black was a difficult and sad one given events of the past few months and how key he was to the football operation.
“I’m very sorry that this is the case,” he admitted. “The nature of Eddie’s illness means it will be a longer recovery period than we had hoped.
“Perhaps we were a bit optimistic with regards some of the statements we put out in the past.
“We couldn’t, in all consciousness, have Eddie back at the football club in the frontline. It wouldn’t have been fair on him and his family.
“I tried to deal with it the best way I could. I thought Eddie would be back with us at some time late this year.
“We’ve got to set about building a sustainable structure. We’re now six or seven months behind the timescale for the whole project.
“The board have had discussions with Eddie and he is no longer with the club.”