Imrie plans to stay positive despite rebuilding job
DOUGIE IMRIE has waved goodbye to a host of friends and colleagues from Hamilton this year — but he insists there is no way he will let the spirit that has kept the Lanarkshire outfit in the Premiership against all odds slip away too.
Accies have lost a full team of first-team players over the past six months and face a huge restructuring job, with Imrie admitting that he and fellow midfielder Darian MacKinnon are more or less the only long-term members of the squad remaining.
He is insistent, though, that they will be able to combine with manager Martin Canning to mould together a mix of new recruits and academy graduates before the action gets underway next month and maintain the spirit from boardroom to bootroom that makes the place so special to him.
‘We are in a transitional period with the players that have left the club,’ conceded the 35-year-old. ‘We have a rebuilding job going on and we have to try and gel when we come back.
‘Greg Docherty has gone to Rangers. Ali Crawford, Grant Gillespie and Louis Longridge have all moved on.
‘Mikey Devlin and Lewis Ferguson have also joined Aberdeen. The nucleus of a squad that knew what the club was all about has gone.
‘It is only myself and Darian MacKinnon left who have been mainstays. Gary Woods has been in the last couple of years and is, to an extent, as well.
‘Darian, Woodsy and I have to try to galvanise the new guys coming in and get off to a good start because that has been the platform that has kept us up in recent seasons.
‘I’m sure the manager, chairman and directors have identified players with the same mindset as the guys who have moved on and I’m sure there are boys in the academy who can do a job for us, too.
‘We just have let the new players know what we are all about and how we operate.
‘I have always said Hamilton is the best changing room I have been in. The club has a friendly environment and no one is a Billy Big-time. We welcome everyone into the club.
‘The manager will give them a platform to go and play. This club is all about giving people the opportunity to play with no pressure on them.
‘You want to win games, but you can enjoy your football.’