Revenge is not the Dun thing
McCann holds no grudges on club
NEIL McCANN insists there are no thoughts of vengeance as he return to Dens Park as a boss for the first time since Dundee sacked him.
The Caley Thistle caretaker gaffer was relieved of his duties by the Dark Blues two-and-a-half years ago after an 18-month spell that began with him steering the club to Premiership safety.
McCann guided Dundee to ninth place the following season before his departure was confirmed in October 2018.
The former Rangers and Hearts winger is standing in temporarily for John Robertson during his compassionate leave.
Having been tasked with guiding the club back towards the play-off positions, McCann had little interest in his past with tonight’s hosts.
He stressed: “The only thing I am thinking about is setting us up right tactically and coming away with the three points.
“It’s an opportunity to get ourselves up the table but I’m sure Dundee are looking at it the same.
“There is a hungry team here and I can see grit and determination to get going. It’s a big pitch down there and it should allow us to really express ourselves – I can’t wait to get going.
“There’s no extra motivation for me. I have to be thankful to Dundee for giving me the opportunity, first of all, in the first five games where they put their trust in me. Then to have the opportunity to manage a club I started and finished my career with was really special.
“There’s a lot of good people still there and hopefully I might see one or two tomorrow.”
Dundee have gone four games without a win, sliding into fifth place in the table but with matches in hand on teams above.
McCann, again, is focused only on Inverness.
He said: “I’m not really bothered about how Dundee are feeling at the minute. That’s for James McPake and his staff to calculate. I’m just concentrating on my side.
“They’re a good side with a strong squad and James has been able to add quality to his squad. But I’m concentrating on us and we’re in good shape going there.”
McCann felt Friday night’s draw with leaders Hearts kept his squad in a good place.
He said: “We have a chance to make up our games on the teams around us. This gives us a chance to get points and get up the table.
“The way the boys had to adapt to me coming in, it’s tough enough without looking too far forward. If we can be more solid defensively, ruthless in the final third, we’ll start to turn one point into three.”
WHEN Hibs are good they are good – but when they are bad they are bloody awful.
That’s the worry as their pursuit of a European spot continued with a stinkbomb display at the weekend against Motherwell.
Talk of top-three SPFL finishes and Hibs being the best of the rest have produced enough hot air to power a blimp the size of Lochend.
But a reality check is required if big-club ambition is to be matched with action as another balloon was burst on Saturday.
Hibs are nowhere near good enough just to turn up and think they can win. For Motherwell at the weekend, read defeats at home to Livingston and Ross County. Not just beaten by the way, properly turned over.
On Saturday it could have been more than 2-0 – three or four wouldn’t have surprised me.
My belief is that Hibs should be the third biggest club in the country, not just this season, every season, challenging, winning the occasional piece of silverware.
The infrastructure is now in place to push on and displace Aberdeen as the third force, a far cry from my time at the club when we had to hunt for training space and lift dog s*** and glass off the surface before starting a warm-up.
Watching the likes of Frank Sauzee and Russell Latapy climbing into their cars to head around the city looking for somewhere to train – crazy. One of the places we went to was Wardie, a lot of Hibs fans will know it.
It’s a rugby ground and we used to arrive with goals strapped to the top of the mini bus.
After training we would have to climb back into the cars and head back to Easter Road for our lunch. It was criminal for a club the size of Hibs at that time not to have a training ground.
Now there are no excuses, the base at Tranent is first class, the boys have everything at their disposal and there’s no council official telling them they need to get off the park as it’s double booked. That’s what happened in my era.
If you have the right attitude and are willing to work then you will only get better in those conditions.
The squad also needs to be developed and improved over the next three transfer windows and hopefully Jack Ross will be there to oversee it.
Then we will see a really strong Hibs. I’m convinced of it and whether Christian Doidge is a part of that future remains to be seen as he’s currently enduring what was once known at Easter Road as a Tam McManus. As a player I was a six or seven goal a season man, never prolific but when they did come, boy, they were usually wonderstrikes straight out of the top drawer. Google my strike for Colorado Rapids, a 50-yarder with swerve which flew into the net. It was helped by playing at altitude as we were thousands of metres above sea level. A collectors item, as there weren’t many. When I was at Dunfermline I went on a drought which would have made the Sahara blush and it’s hard to break the habit. It was horrible and I sympathise with Christian as the thing which strikes me about him is that he genuinely cares. He’s trying everything, you can see it and he’s working his balls off. There were two good chances he missed against Motherwell and what people don’t see is the mental side of it. As a striker when you are on a horrendous run then the actual goal becomes the size of a match box.
The opposite is true when the goals are flying in, when your confidence is up, you feel as though the goals are massive.
Christian is a good player but he needs a goal badly.
He has reached that 13-game mark without one and there’s no hiding the fact that is a very long time, not since a 2-1 win over Alloa in the Betfred Cup in December has he netted.
Just as scoring goals becomes a happy knack, missing chances can also become a rut you can’t get out of, so Christian needs to work his way out of it.
It’s vital the manager sticks with him, it would be an easy out for everyone if Christian was to drop out of the team which is next up against St Johnstone.
Kevin Nisbet has been waiting in the wings. He came off the bench on Saturday so it will be interesting to see if Jack sticks with Christian.
If he does keep the faith then Christian will need to repay him. A manager can only do and say so much. Keeping him in the team is so important but it can’t go on indefinitely.
Hibs should be the third biggest club in the country, not just this season, every season