Dundee announce Neil McCann as new interim manager

Neil McCann arrives at Dens Park to be unveiled as interim manager. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

McCann, 42, has been charged with saving the club’s top-flight status following a run of seven defeats in a row which cost Paul Hartley his job.

Dundee have five games left to rescue their season.

A club statement read: “Dundee Football Club is delighted to announce that Neil McCann has been appointed interim manager until the end of the 2016/17 season.

New Dundee interim manager Neil McCann. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

“Neil enjoyed a successful playing career which both started and ended at Dens Park. He played north and south of the border, winning all the major domestic trophies in Scotland.

“The new interim boss holds his Uefa Pro Licence and has coaching experience from his time at Dunfermline, he has also has obtained a great knowledge and experience of the game and the current Dens squad through his work with Sky Sports.”

Dundee currently sit second bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership, five points above Inverness and two points behind Hamilton and Motherwell.

The bottom side is relegated automatically, with the 11th-placed club going into the two-legged play-off final with a club from the Championship.

Hartley was sacked on Monday after just over three years in charge.

At a press conference at Dens Park, McCann admitted that Dundee have taken a risk with his appointment.

The former Rangers and Hearts player, who said he took the post “with Sky’s best wishes and approval”, said: “It is not a big risk for me, it is maybe a big risk for the club because I have not been in the job before.

“But I appreciate the opportunity. I am not going into anything lightly.

“I have been doing the job with Sky for a number of years now.

“Most people know the type of person I am, the type of character, the standards that I liked to have when I was playing and training and certainly through my Sky job, the standards that I have tried to keep up. Those qualities I would like to think I will bring to the football club.

“Yes, we are in a poor position at the minute but equally we are not far off Kilmarnock.”

The Dens Park side have five post-split fixtures remaining, the first of which is against Motherwell on Saturday week.

McCann began his career with Dundee, serving the club with distinction during the early to mid-1990s, helping them reach the Scottish League Cup final in season 1995-96.

He later played for Hearts, Rangers and Southampton before making a fleeting return to Dens to play for Dundee when they were in administration in 2011.

He has coaching experience from a spell at Dunfermline but has most recently been working for Sky Sports as a pundit and writing a column for The Scotsman.