Impressive McInnes a perfect fit: Brown

Nov 30 2007 Gordon Bannerman

WHILE the McDiarmid fax machine threatened to go into meltdown as managerial CVs churned their way into the stadium, chairman Geoff Brown was never looking beyond the Crieff Road in his search for a successor to Owen Coyle.

With candidates from home and abroad, including some with former South American and Middle Eastern national team credentials, trying to catch his attention, they were wasting their time.

Some fans might harbour doubts about the in-house appointment of Derek McInnes on a deal through to 2010 – mirroring the case when Owen Coyle was drafted in – but Brown is adamant that it would have been a far more reckless throw of the dice to have opted for one of the “wild and wonderful” candidates now sharing space with unsolicited junk mail in the McDiarmid bin.

And he was quick to take issue with critics sniping that the appointment of the Perth club’s 22nd manager was a cost saving exercise.

“It is not a cheap option. That just cannot be said. I believe this is the right appointment for the football club. We know what we are getting with Derek McInnes. I have watched him work at close quarters for almost a year and have been very impressed with him as a person and as a football man.

“He is utterly professional. The gamble would have been to bring someone from outwith the club.”

Brown clearly admires the work ethic which took McInnes from Morton to Rangers, skippering West Brom to the Premiership and claiming international recognition. And with experience garnered on both sides of the border, and briefly in France, his contacts book is bulging.

The chairman hinted there could be scope for his new manager to lure loan players from England further down the line. He also indicated McInnes would have freedom to wheel and deal in the transfer market at Christmas, suggesting the arrival of two or three players would see the club well-prepared for the second half of the campaign.

“This was always Derek’s ultimate aim. Management has been in his head for a long time. Maybe the chance has come earlier than he anticipated but I’m confident he will seize it.”

Brown craves a return to the SPL but he wasn’t tempted to place his manager under pressure with a short-term, suck-it-and-see deal.

"We have given Derek a long term contract because you have to be realistic and give a young manager a chance to develop his own ideas,” he said.