The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
McCann’s sights on lifting trophy
Dundee boss believes there is much more to come from his team
Dundee boss Neil McCann admits that after his first six months in the Dens Park hot-seat, he still has a long way to go until he realises his ultimate ambitions for the club.
The 43-year-old was appointed as permanent Dark Blues manager at the start of last June.
McCann is the first to admit he still has lots to learn after swapping the Sky Sports studio for the dug-out but that is something which does not faze him as he sets sights on achieving tangible success with the club where he started his playing career.
McCann said: “As soon as I decided to take the job full-time, it was just full steam ahead.
“I have never looked back, to be honest. I have loved it.
“I always thought it might take us a bit of time to get to where I feel we are going now.
“But I think there is an unbelievable amount still to come from this team.
“I have only just started. I am still learning but I am very much open to that.
“I have a contract with the club and I still have so much work to do. I am absolutely just starting.
“I want to win something for Dundee.”
After his first six months in the Dens Park hot-seat, Neil McCann insists his mission as Dundee manager has only just begun.
The 43- year-old had a successful spell as interim gaffer at the end of last season when he was parachuted in following Paul Hartley’s sacking to secure the club’s Premiership safety.
McCann then turned down the chance to become the permanent Dark Blues boss after deciding to return to his job as a pundit with Sky.
However, the former Scotland, Rangers, Hearts and Dundee winger stunned Scottish football at the start of June when he performed a dramatic U-turn and agreed to accept the post of full-time Dens boss.
After that life-changing decision had been taken, McCann immediately set about radically re shaping the team, tactics and the entire mind-set at the club.
However, he candidly confesses he still has much to learn in what is his first job as a manager and a long way to go until he realises his ambition of winning something with Dundee.
McCann said: “As soon as I decided to take the job full-time, it was just full steam ahead. I have never looked back, to be honest. I have loved it.
“The highs are very high and the lows are very low. The in-betweens are kind of strange because you are always searching for the high.
“But I have to admit it has been great because I have seen real improvement in the team. It has been hard work on and off the training field.
“And although the first third of the season did not yield the points I believe our play deserved, there were signs there with the way we were playing that it would bear fruit and we would get points.
“I always thought it might take us a bit of time to get to where I feel we are going now. I think there is an unbelievable amount still to come from this team.
“I have only just started. I am still learning but I am very much open to that.
“I want to become better at my job but I see signs here that what I am trying to do is starting to seep in.”
McCann added: “My job here is to make players better, the team better, get results and make the club better. That is my sole focus. I have a contract with the club and I still have so much work to do. I am absolutely just starting.
“I want to win something for Dundee. “I want to get the club up into the top six where it is challenging for European positions.
“Of course, that is going to take a bit of time but I have an ambition that drives me. I also have a managing director (John Nelms) who likes that ambition and shares it. So that’s where I want to be right now.”
As a former pundit, McCann was paid to give his opinions and as such he knew when he left the TV studio to move into management there would be a large target on his back.
When asked if he felt there were some waiting for him to fall flat on his face, he said: “Absolutely. I think that’s natural.
“There were probably people in the media wanting me to fall flat on my face because I have been up there pontificating, if you like, saying you should do this or that.
“Look, I am not a success yet just because I am still in a job after six months.
“I don’t see that as a success. There has been an element of me trying to implement a style of football which I think has been successful.
“But you can tell with some of the quotes and some of the comments that people make when we aren’t going too well . . . they weren’t taking any great delight in it but it doesn’t matter what other people think.
“I know what I am doing here and only time will tell if that’ s successful. We want to get to a stage where we are winning and playing really attractive football.