Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
COYLE SPRINGS BACK
Experienced Owen returns to football with Ross County determined to make this opportunity more like Burnley than Wigan & Blackburn
OWEN COYLE reckons he can turn Ross County into the Scottish version of Burnley.
Coyle, who guided Burnley into the Premier League in 2009 before struggling at Wigan and Blackburn, believes he has the same offfield formula for success at County as he had at Turf Moor.
The 51-year-old, who left Blackburn in February and moved north of the border late last month, said: “I had a few offers both home and abroad this year but I just didn’t think they were right for me. What you want is an opportunity to work with someone who gives you the support you need.
“Burnley was just the right fit because there was a fantastic chairman in Barry Kilby and a fantastic operational director in Brendan Flood. They were Burnley through and through. There was a real passion and a drive there.”
But it wasn’t the same at other clubs he managed.
“At Wigan I didn’t get on with the chairman Dave Whelan,” Coyle went on. “That is why I thought it was important that I got a good feeling with the club and the owner. I have that with Roy Macgregor here.
“I had played here on loan and kept in touch. I thought ‘I can really work with them and enjoy what I am doing again.’
“It is a big challenge but, if you have that, you have a chance of being successful.”
Coyle took the Clarets from the bottom half of the Championship to the Premier League for the first time via the play-offs in 2009. But his success at Burnley is always coloured by his flit to Bolton in January 2010.
“At the end of the day, we all do different things at different times and make decisions,” he said. “It doesn’t make them right or wrong.”
After twice keeping Bolton up, Coyle lived Fabrice Muamba’s near-death experience at White Hart Lane before suffering relegation on the last day in 2012, ‘Aguero-o-o-o’ day.
Bolton needed to win but were held 2-2 by Stoke City, who enjoyed the benefit of two controversial refereeing decisions. “Two decisions that day at Stoke by Chris Foy were incredible,” Coyle recalled.
Before his first home game at Victoria Park against Hearts on Saturday – County haven’t won at home in the league this season – the garrulous Glaswegian insists he has the same ambition which saw him linked with the top jobs during his three years in the Premier League.
“Of course I have something to prove,” he said. “I have already been successful at a number of clubs and I want to do that again.
“Even in my playing career there were lots of highs and some disappointments and that always happens. That is the nature of the game. But I have to say I am as ambitious as the first day I started. I want to show I still have a lot to offer.”