McCall confirmed as Tannadice boss

By Sean Saranczuk
January 30 2003

Dundee United have appointed Ian McCall as manager following the sacking of Paul Hegarty.

Dundee United have appointed Ian McCall as manager following the sacking of Paul Hegarty.

McCall has agreed a three-and-a-half-year deal with the Tannadice club after resigning from Falkirk earlier in the day.

He and his coaching staff quit Falkirk after the First Division leaders rejected an approach from United chairman Eddie Thompson.

McCall admits Falkirk's Scottish Cup thrashing of Hearts on Saturday convinced him it was time to move on.

He said: "Falkirk's result on Saturday probably speeded my exit because I think we would have lost two or three of our best players, which would have made the job that much harder.

"It's taken me a long time to get here and I've waded through some really heavy waters.

"I've made mistakes as a player and that is why I am so determined to do well as a manager.

"I'm determined to do my best here - I'm not saying that we can get back to the glory days but I want to get Dundee United back into the higher reaches of the SPL."

Thompson admitted the sacking of Hegarty had been a distasteful experience.

He said: "It is a particularly sad day for me personally to have terminated the contract of Paul Hegarty and Maurice Malpas.

"I have known Paul Hegarty for 25 years and regard him as a personal friend. However managers are judged on results and we have been going backwards recently, only taking four points from our last 10 games.

"For the sake of this club and its fans, I could not allow this to continue. The first-half performance against Hibernian in the cup on Saturday made me decide that this action was necessary."