O’Dea: Boss is back to finish job he started
SURPRISED that the man he calls ‘the gaffer’ had gone, pleasantly stunned by the quickest U-turn outside of a manifesto promise.
To be honest, Dundee skipper Darren O’Dea is just pleased that Neil McCann has — after some deliberation and one public refusal — decided to continue as manager at Dens Park.
And the club captain believes that, despite McCann’s flip-flopping on whether to stay or go, the former fans’ favourite was always planning ahead for next season.
‘I was surprised because I spoke to him on Monday and he was explaining to me why he didn’t take the job,’ revealed O’Dea. ‘And I understood his reasons.
‘So yesterday’s news came out of nowhere. I’ve been speaking to people at the club and it was a surprise to everyone.
‘But I’m delighted because there is a lot of work to be done. The longer you go without a manager, the harder it is to move forward.
‘He could be the best signing of the summer — the most important, anyway.
‘The good thing is we’ve now got someone who, I know for a fact, was working towards next season anyway. Even if he hadn’t taken the job.
‘He didn’t act like an interim boss. He was the gaffer. He never felt like a caretaker.
‘Yeah, he came in for five games — and I thought it would have felt a bit odd, just focusing on getting the job done and moving on.
‘But it never felt like that. In my mind, he was always the manager for next year.
‘That’s why I was surprised when he didn’t take the job, even though I kind of understood. But him changing his mind is great for the club.’
Having accepted the challenge to save Dundee from the threat of relegation, achieving that goal with two games to spare, McCann was moved to fury by the final two performances of the season — tame losses to Inverness Caley Thistle and Hamilton.
When he announced earlier this week that he wouldn’t be staying on for the long haul, preferring to return to his job in broadcasting, it made a lot of sense.
O’Dea insists, however, that he always saw signs of a head coach just itching to ditch the microphone and start putting all those Monday Night
Football theories into practice. ‘To my mind, he has thought about being a manager for a long time,’ said the former Celtic centre-half.
‘He’s done a lot of work with Sky and that’s a completely different thing, analysing games.
‘But he came in and had ideas straight away. This wasn’t just someone who got a phone call and thought he’d give it a go.
‘He had been thinking about it for a good while.
‘He was going to get a reaction just from fans and players seeing him on the sideline.
‘But there was a lot more to him than that. He’ll get the full backing of the club, players, supporters, everyone.
‘The gaffer knows exactly what we need, so I’m quietly confident we can have a good season.
‘His biggest quality is his intensity, even in training.
‘Even doing a cool down, we do little games — just to cool down but there is always a winner and a loser.
‘That rubbed off. If you are a manager coming in for five games, and there was a chance of him leaving, why would you bother even being angry after the last two games?
‘He was angry because he wants to win. Those two games didn’t make a difference to where we finished — but he wants to win every game.
‘That’s what surprised me when he didn’t take the job. He’d acted like somebody who really wanted it.’
At a time when certain other pundits have found the step into management much trickier than passing comment from the booth, McCann has shown some gumption to put his credibility on the line with an extended run with one of the Scottish Premiership’s less well-funded clubs.
O’Dea insisted: ‘I don’t think the players care where he’s come from. Fair play, he’s taking the chance — but the respect was there regardless.’
Darren O’Dea was speaking at the launch of OPEN GOAL, a brand new football site committed to bringing entertaining and original interviews, free to enjoy 24 hours a day. Open Goal’s headline feature, “Si Ferry Meets…” does all of this with Scottish footballer Simon Ferry bringing his own brand of humour to his interviews with some of football’s most well-known players.’