McCann and Foran leave their posts
INVERNESS Caley Thistle and Dundee both launched searches for new bosses last night as the managerial merry-go-round opened for the summer. After steering the Dens Park club to survival, Sky Sports analyst Neil McCann decided yesterday to return to the TV studios rather than become manager on a permanent basis. And in an eventful day in the SPFL, Inverness parted company with Richie Foran after his
disastrous debut season in the dugout ended with the club’s relegation to the Championship.
Former Hibernian manager Alan Stubbs is the early front-runner to take over at Dundee. But
Sportsmail understands that the Dens Park board are big admirers of the job done by St Mirren boss Jack Ross — a former Dundee youth player — after his remarkable feat in helping the Paisley club escape relegation from the Championship.
Jim Duffy, twice a former Dundee boss, is also in demand after his fine season with Morton saw him voted the Championship’s Manager of the Season.
Another candidate likely to be of interest to the Dundee board is ex-Norwich City and Hamilton Accies manager Alex Neil.
Early contenders for the Caley Thistle hotseat are ex-Inverness player Paul Sheerin and a return for Terry Butcher, whose former No 2, Maurice Malpas, was hired by the Highland club to aid Foran’s doomed bid to avoid the drop.
Incredibly, despite having no prior management experience, Foran was handed a four-year contract when he replaced Scottish Cup-winning boss John Hughes in the Inverness hotseat last summer.
After relegation was confirmed on the final day of the season, the 36-year-old Irishman defiantly vowed to remain in the post and weed out the ‘two or three bad apples’ in his dressing room. However, speculation about his position heightened when Caley Thistle chairman and chief executive Kenny Cameron — Foran’s key ally in the boardroom — stepped down in the wake of relegation.
Cameron’s successor as chairman, Willie Finlayson, last night confirmed the club and Foran had parted ways.
Finlayson said: ‘Richie has been a great servant and put 100 per cent into his job as manager and previously as a player.
‘We all thank him for his service and wish him and his family all the very best for the future.’
Meanwhile, Dundee captain Darren O’Dea admitted he had expected McCann to take the Dens Park post.
But the defender denied suggestions the club’s poor last two games — a 2-0 home defeat to Caley Thistle and a 4-0 thumping at Hamilton — had influenced his manager’s decision to head back to the pundit’s chair.
O’Dea said: ‘I was surprised. I fully believed he would still be in charge next year and I’m really disappointed he won’t be.
‘But I completely understand and respect his decision. I spoke to him on the phone a while ago and I thanked him.
‘I don’t think the two results we had at the end of the season affected his decision at all. His reasons are loyalty to Sky.
‘I don’t have a clue who the next manager of Dundee will be. But if you’d asked me this morning, I would have told you it would be Neil McCann.’
In a statement on Dundee’s official website, McCann said: ‘It was an honour to become manager of the club where my playing career started and finished, and I’m very proud I was able to succeed in keeping them in the Scottish Premiership.’