The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Smith, Advocaat and Redknapp to help in fight with relegation
McCann to use influence of former managers as he bids to guide Dark Blues to safety
Neil McCann admits he is determined to be his own man in the Dens Park hot-seat.
However, having worked under a Who’s Who of the great and the good of managers during his playing career, he admits some of their influence has rubbed off on him.
McCann has soaked up knowledge from everyone including Walter Smith at Rangers and Harry Redknapp when they were at Southampton.
Now, the 42-year-old wants to use that insight to help him rescue the Dark Blues from their precarious position at the wrong end of the Premiership table.
McCann, whose enthusiasm for his new job is there for all to see, said: “I think you have to be your own man but your own man is shaped by others that you have worked with.
“You don’t become a manager and suddenly know everything.
“I have worked with Dick Advocaat, I have worked with Jim Jefferies, Gordon Strachan, Walter Smith, Harry Redknapp, Alex McLeish winning trebles at Rangers . . . I have worked with real class managers.
“So you try to look at what they do and there are things you think as a player, ‘I don’t like that’.
“But now that you are finished, you think, ‘I see where he was coming from’.
“This is why players when they are older wish they had their time again as without doubt every player would improve as you see it from a different perspective.
“As a player, you maybe don’t think the manager is right but when you are on the other side of the fence, you know, ‘He was right’, as you are looking for the same things possibly.”
He added: “Advocaat was very disciplined, Gordon Strachan was very disciplined but absolutely hands-on, full fire on the training field.
“Walter had that aura about him but would only get involved when it was down to the nitty-gritty of shape and stuff like that.
“But the one thing that pretty much all of the managers I worked with had was that they seemed to be winners and that ingredient is absolutely vital.
“I will be absolutely hands-on and I have to be – I have five games here.
“So I have to take the majority of the training sessions. I want absolute control because at the end of the day, it is me that has been given the opportunity and the task to get us out of trouble.”