New Dens Park manager Gary Bowyer has promised Dundee fans a team that “gives their all” under his stewardship.
The 50-year-old former Blackburn, Blackpool, Bradford and Salford boss was unveiled at Dens Park yesterday and revealed his excitement at taking over the Dark Blues.
Dundee were relegated from the Premiership last season and the pressure will be on to get out of the second tier at the first time of asking.
Bowyer still has time to assess the squad of players he has at his disposal but insists they will know from the first day of training the standards he expects as manager.
“All the teams I have managed I have prided myself on them being organised, fit, strong and competitive,” he said.
“When I meet the players on day one that will be the message they get, the standard will be set on day one.
“We want to work hard, we have to work hard.
“The fans pay good money so the minimum they expect to see is players fighting, closing people down and giving their all.
“That will be the message I send to them.
“Obviously we’ll take some learnings from last season and I’ll take a look at things in the next couple of days in that sense.
“From day one, they will come in and it’s a clean slate.
“They’ve got to show me that they want to part of the team, a part of the squad and part of the club that wants to go and have a right good go at getting out of this league first time.”
‘Stimulating, exciting and challenging’
Though he boasts plenty of experience as a coach and manager across the English Championship and Leagues One and Two, Bowyer has not worked north of the border.
The Scottish Championship will be a new experience for him, a different structure and fresh challenge to meet.
“There will be new grounds, new opponents,” he added.
“I am aware of quite a lot of the players because you look at recruiting from Scotland when you are in England.
“So I am aware of the players and different clubs as well.
“But yes, a different format, a different league, playing each other four times. It is going to be stimulating, exciting and challenging – I can’t wait.
“I’ve done my homework in the sense of talking to people who have worked up here, people who have managed up here this season in the Championship. I’ve spoken to them already.
“What kept coming back was how tough a league it was. I’m fully aware of that.
“Over the next couple of days I’ll be watching games from the season just gone to get my own eyes on it and get a view of that.
“I’m not kidding myself that we’re just coming up here and it’s going to be dead easy. That’s for sure.”
Bowyer revealed some of the people he’d spoken to before taking the job, including a couple of former Dees – and an ex-Dundee United manager.
“I spoke to Ray McKinnon, who I know from our time at Nottingham Forest, Jim McAlister played for me at Blackpool and I had a good relationship with him,” Bowyer said.
“So I spoke to him and several other people as well.
“My father played with Jim McInally at Forest so I spoke to Jim as well.
“Everybody has been brilliant and spoke about the club really positively.
“I am excited to come in with (assistant) Billy Barr and with the help of everybody else at the club, I want to make an impact and a positive impact at that.”
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