East Fife have completed a stunning coup as John Robertson signed on as manager at New Bayview.
The former Hearts and Inverness Caledonian Thistle boss has joined the Methil club until the end of the season, after a tense day of wheeling and dealing behind the scenes at the second division club.
Robertson, who also accumulated 16 caps as a player for Scotland, will meet the players on Thursday and could even be in line to take charge of first-team affairs for the league game against Dumbarton on Saturday. He will be assisted by former Hearts team-mate Scott Crabbe, who assisted previous boss Stevie Crawford, who resigned on Monday.
The capture of Robertson will be seen as a real statement of intent by the East Fife board, who were being challenged by some fans to bring in a recognised manager following the departure of rookie boss Crawford.
The 46-year-old, whose last managerial post saw him in charge of Derry City in 2007, has previously secured promotion to the SPL with Inverness CT but has more recently been carving out a media career with the BBC.
Fifers chairman Sid Collumbine was clearly delighted with his appointment and believes that Robertson’s arrival at the club will help to right the wrongs of the past two months.
Speaking exclusively to Courier Sport, he said, “I’m much happier tonight than I was this morning.
“John has a great reputation and will not take any nonsense from anybody. He’s been coaching part-time and has a great knowledge of the game as well as great contacts.
“He had to tie up issues with his BBC contract, but now that we have him I’m absolutely delighted.”
Details of the appointment only emerged shortly after 9pm on Tuesday night, as East Fife reserves took on Raith.Crawford resignationRobertson had previously been linked with the East Fife job last April, when Dave Baikie stood down, a vacancy then filled by Crawford. However, after 18 months in charge, the player-manager resigned on Monday with the club sitting eighth in the second division.
Collumbine had earlier revealed, after a board meeting, that the level of interest shown in the post meant there would be no need to advertise.
He said, “We had a positive meeting, although no decisions have been taken yet. We certainly won’t be advertising the post, though. This morning I had six applications for the job and most of them have experience as managers.
“I’m amazed at the level of interest we’ve had already but we have a nice stadium and good players, even if they’ve not been playing well recently.”
Robertson’s brief will clearly be to keep the club away from the relegation zone and possibly even challenge for a play-off spot, although this will be considered a long shot.
Further details of the new manager’s arrival are expected to be announced by the club today.