The great DIY job
McKinnon is preparing to rebuild a Morton side with just four players on its books
We need to get cracking. There’s a lot of work to be done quickly
WHEN his dream job managing Dundee United had collapsed all around him, Ray McKinnon used his plentiful spare time to get the toolkit out and catch up on some domestic DIY.
After seven months out of the game, the 47-year-old is now faced with a serious rebuilding job after being unveiled yesterday as the new manager of Morton.
Succeeding Jim Duffy in the Cappielow hotseat on a one-year rolling contract, McKinnon inherits just four players still in contract — Michael Tidser, Bob McHugh, Jack Iredale and the injured Robert Thomson.
Getting the Greenock club ready for the new Championship season will be a challenge, then, but it is also a chance for McKinnon to immediately stamp his own imprint on the team.
‘I’m delighted to be back in football with Morton,’ he said. ‘I was getting extremely bored. I was just doing a bit of DIY, watching games and recovering from the ordeal (of being sacked by United).
‘I hadn’t applied for anything but then the Morton job came up and I was kind of half asked about putting my CV in, which I did, and I was delighted to get the job.
‘There are only four players under contract and we’ve a short period of time to build a team. Four players? It is what it is and I’m focused on the rebuild job needed here. We need to get cracking on.
‘I’ve done it before at Raith Rovers and at United, but there’s a lot of work to be done quickly.’ Former United player McKinnon was honoured to take over at Tannadice in the summer of 2016 after steering Raith Rovers to the play-offs the previous season.
In his first season in charge of United, he led them to the play-off final, losing to Hamilton via a late Greg Docherty goal.
But he was sacked last October, just ten games into the campaign with United five points behind eventual winners St Mirren.
United won their next two matches to go top of the Championship but the general perception McKinnon’s axing was rash only deepened during a disappointing remainder of the season under replacement Csaba Laszlo.
While he half expects the fixture list to throw up United as his first opponents in the new campaign, he feels he has no point to prove.
‘Was my departure harsh? You can write that if you want,’ he said. ‘But I never felt any ill will towards anyone. Listen, you have to understand, the people who run the club make the decisions. I was frustrated but that passed and I was just waiting for the right opportunity to appear and here it is.
‘Do I feel I have a point to prove? No, I am absolutely confident in what I achieved at Dundee United.
‘I built two teams in a year. When I took the job, everybody was still under contract and we had to move players on and get guys in like Tony Andreu, who was magnificent.
‘There was another rebuild the next year because we lost Andreu, Simon Murray, Thomas Mikkelsen. That was 60-odd goals but I recruited Scott McDonald. And when I left United we were near the top of the table. I was disappointed to be relieved of my duties but that’s football, isn’t it?
‘I wish them well but I have a job to do here. Hopefully we get them on the first day of the season! We probably will now...’
McKinnon plans on working again with the same backroom team he had at Stark’s Park and Tannadice, Darren Taylor and Grant Johnson.
The ultimate goal is to deliver new chairman Crawford Rae’s vision of Premiership football within three years.
‘It was a big draw to me that Morton have ambitions,’ he said.
‘But it’s not going to happen overnight. I presented a three-year plan to the board.
‘We need to build. Morton have a great infrastructure with their community programme and the young kids coming through.
‘We just need to get a team that can be competitive next season and then build on it.
‘I’ve been to Cappielow loads of times as a player and a manager and it’s always been a tough venue for teams to come and visit. Hopefully we can make it that way again next season.
‘As Livingston showed last season (in being promoted via the play-offs), anything is possible.
‘If you get the right squad together, and the right mentality around your squad, anything is possible. What Livvy achieved will give us that wee bit of extra drive this year, definitely.’