McCANN WILL GIVE HIS ALL FOR DUNDEE
McCann denies Dundee’s wooing of Ross hastened his U-turn over Dens post
NEIL McCANN last night warned that nobody should interpret his hesitancy before finally accepting the Dundee job as a lack of commitment on his part. Club chief John Nelms flew out to Spain this week in pursuit of St Mirren’s highly rated Jack Ross after McCann had left his role as interim manager to return to his analyst’s role at Sky Sports. However, hours after Ross confirmed he was remaining in Paisley, McCann announced he was doing a U-turn and taking the reins at Dens Park on a permanent basis.
At his unveiling yesterday, he denied the Premiership club’s courting of Ross had hastened his shock change of heart.
And he vowed to give his all for the club that he steered to top-flight survival after replacing the sacked Paul Hartley for the last five games of the season.
McCann said: ‘Listen, I am serious about this job. If anybody is in any doubt over where my commitment lies to this job, they will know I am serious after the first couple of minutes.
‘The players will not have that fear when they start working for me on June 23.
‘How did I feel when John Nelms was moving for Jack Ross? Nothing, honestly.
‘I’d be pretty ignorant if I thought I was the only guy that had been spoken to.
‘Jack Ross was an obvious candidate because of how well he’s done at St Mirren.
‘But it wasn’t like: “Right, someone’s getting interviewed, I’m on my way to Dens Park”.
‘The club always made me feel as if I was No 1 in their mind.
‘And even though I said I had to go back to Sky, John knew that, at the back of my mind, I may change and be the Dundee manager.’
McCann is pencilled in to work at the Scotland-England World Cup qualifier on June 10 for Sky Sports.
But he will have talks with the broadcasters to determine whether or not he fulfils that last commitment before devoting himself to Dundee.
The 42-year-old knows people will view his decision to swap the pundit’s chair at Sky for a managerial hotseat as a huge gamble.
But he does not fear the consequences of turning his back on what is viewed as a ‘safe’ career in TV for the precarious existence of a football boss.
‘The decision was a really difficult one,’ he said. ‘My goodness, it was two good choices. I have spoken to various people who said: “You’ve not really got a bad choice to make there”. And they’re right.
‘Sky have been so supportive and I go with their blessings — but I am a football manager now.
‘It is a precarious position being a manager but I have no fears.
‘If you go into something with a bit of fear, you can get consumed by it.
‘One of the quotes that I stuck up on the wall when I first took over at Dundee was: “The biggest barrier to success is the fear of failure”.
‘If you have that fear, somebody will sniff it out. You will not go into it full-hearted.
‘Of course, with the security of Sky, people say I must be off my head. But I’m not off my head.
‘People might think I’m crazy but I’m not crazy.
‘Sky was a wonderful job but I’m getting a chance at a club I love and know well.
‘They’re in the Premiership, they’ve got big plans and I’m very proud to be given the opportunity to take those plans forward and be successful.
‘I think if I’d not been Dundee’s manager I would have been a bit jealous on the first day of the season because this is such a great job.’
Meanwhile, Dundee chief Nelms denied breaching strict league rules in his failed pursuit of Ross.
SPFL rule D10 states that ‘no club shall either directly or indirectly induce or attempt to induce any manager... to breach a written contract of employment.’
But Nelms said: ‘We had 164 applications and I went to Europe and spoke to candidates.
‘Jack was certainly on our radar but there were five or six others on the shortlist, too.
‘Do I fear being reported by St Mirren to the SPFL? No. I talked to the SPFL before I talked to anyone to make sure I was fine and within the rules.
‘The SPFL rules state you can’t try to entice someone out of a job. I would never do anything like that. We always stay well above board.
‘I can talk to (Jack) as many times as I like as long as I’m not inducing him to take a job. Neil McCann was the only person who was offered the job.’