Chairman Michael Toolan admitted that the position had to be filled as soon as possible following the precarious position the club was left in following the resignation of the former manager and he believes that following a number of interviews the former Newcastle United player is the right man to take the club further .After informing the gathered media of this Toolan handed proceedings over to Mc Donald and he was frank in his opening statements as Sligo Rovers manager

                    “I think that you can admit the fact a manager joins a club with one week to go in the season does not happen very often. But the situation is as it is and as soon as it was clear that Sean Connor due to leave the club I had contact with Gerry Cassidy.I have known Gerry Cassidy for quite a while and I had been previously to see the game Sligo Rovers vs Bohemians and I also saw the game last Saturday .For me it is a great challenge in a way that I wanted to come back to a British style of football.And I know I am going to get some problems for saying Britain because it is Ireland but I think it is a similar style to England and Scotland. 

                    The Englishman is taking up his 3^rd senior managers job having previously managed De Graafschap and Cambuur in Holland and Alax Cape Town in South Africa,each being for a one season period. He revealed he was in contention for jobs around the world before jumping at the opportunity to take on the challenge of being in charge of Sligo Rovers

                     “I missed out on some chances of some good jobs in England and also in Scotland.I just missed out of the Dundee job ,I had an unbelievable offer from Nigeria and I mean huge money but we all know Nigeria is not a place anyone would like to go manage and to be quite honest this was an easy choice.Also the fact that I saw a group of players who had the commitment,effort and personality to prove to me that with my knowledge that I have gained abroad and a combination of the character and personality of the team then it should be a great combianation.”

                  With the promise of adding an even more professional approach than the man he is taking over from Mc Donald revealed that the players will no longer only train once a day. As he unveiled big plans for the future of Sligo Rovers he believes that training twice a day can improve the players without dramatically increasing costs

              “ We are moving over from not just one time a day of training but twice a day training and where we maybe as a club money wise may not be one of the biggest clubs you can not tell me that if the players  train more often they do not get better. I have also got my ideas of how to play. I will certainly be looking at doing a more 4-3-3 formation. I am not naïve and certainly not stupid enough to know that I cant get Sligo Rovers playing like the Dutch national team.Or any of the Dutch teams like Ajax and Feyenoord or PSV where most of my career as a coach has been. But it is a combination of creating situations where I feel that by playing a different way we can play attractive but also effective for Sligo Rovers.”

              He continued by revealing more on his playing career and his plans for the youth set up at the club “ I have had a great career as a footballer. I have played with some great players ,Ruud Gullit.Ronald Koeman.You name all of the great Dutch players and I have played with them.I played with Besiktas in Turkey,Newcastle United, and worked with some very good coaches and taken a lot of things on board. And I know that is all well and good but it is down to getting results . I also really do firmly that something has to be done with the youth system where we have to try and create a way of getting Irish players to come through.And I know there is a certain ruling that you cannot touch them until they are 16 but then after that we can try and attract them to come to our club.And I am willing to go out to amateur clubs and schools and coach the coaches because if it means that we see that the players are not good enough technically we should go and coach the coaches so we know that they have been and are being coached properly”

            He finished  his opening statements as manager by saying this “ I can promise a lot of things and I can certainly promise that I will give everything to the job. I would like to compliment the board for being the first British style club to give me the chance now.The thing that I have always said again what I have learned abroad combined with the character and personality here has got to be success”

Courtesy of Rory Houston.