FALKIRK's board of directors begin the search for a new manager when they meet tonight, with Steven Pressley expected to be one of the candidates under consideration along with a potential joint management team of senior players Jackie McNamara and Neil McCann.
Pressley retired as a player after being an unused Falkirk substitute in the Scottish Cup final, and said last week he believed he was ready to go straight into management. With their first-ever game in European football coming up in the middle of ne
xt month, Falkirk need a new man in place quickly, and would ideally not waste time haggling about compensation.
"With our first Europa League qualifier on 16 July, we will want to have our new manager in place as soon as possible," said Falkirk chairman Martin Ritchie after it was announced John Hughes had left to join Hibs.
Ironically, Pressley might already have been in office had the board listened to a small group of supporters. With just half-a-dozen games to go and Falkirk in danger of being relegated from the SPL, some fans demanded that Hughes be sacked.
Pressley and other experienced players were mentioned at the time as potential replacements, albeit perhaps only as stand-ins. The board held their nerve, however, and under Hughes, Falkirk finally secured their SPL status on the last day of the league season with victory at Inverness Caley Thistle.
McNamara and McCann have been jointly in charge of the Falkirk reserve team since Russell Latapy left to take up a coaching position with Trinidad & Tobago. It is understood that the duo have made their intentions clear to the Falkirk board already. Latapy himself would be a popular appointment with Falkirk supporters but it is unlikely he would be willing to leave his current post after only a few months in the job.
Other potential candidates include former managers Jim Jefferies and Ian McCall, currently with Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle respectively, and Bobby Williamson, manager of the Uganda national side.
Speaking on his club's website, Ritchie expressed his confidence that a lot of people would be interested in the vacancy. "This will be a very attractive position to many people in football," he said. "We are now an established SPL side, we have an excellent infrastructure in place to support a new manager as well as an academy and training facilities which are second to none in Scotland. We have our first foray into European competition to look forward to."
The full article contains 423 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
