WILLIE McSTAY admits he was stunned to be offered a return to football by Dietmar Hamann, the Champions League winner and World Cup runner-up with whom he had no contact before they first discussed working together at Stockport County.
Five months after his being sacked by Ross County, the former Celtic coach is now working with Hamann as the former Liverpool and Bayern Munich midfielder begins his career in management. The German was on the coaching staff at Leicester City before Tony Evans, Stockport’s new millionaire owner, selected him to lead the Lancashire club back to the Football League after their relegation to the Blue Square Conference.
Hamann, who was player-coach at Milton Keynes Dons after leaving his last Barclays Premier League club, Manchester City, in 2009, has appointed 49-year-old McStay as his assistant manager, even though the pair had never met.
“I was really surprised because we had never crossed each other’s path before,” said McStay. “He just saw my cv and liked that, so he got in touch.
“Didi is a young manager who is looking for someone with a bit of experience at management and coaching to help on the training ground.
“I met him last week and he was easy to talk to. It is good to be wanted again after what happened at Ross County. I had three years in English football as a player and it will be good to go back.”
McStay was dramatically sacked by Ross County in February after only nine games in charge of the struggling first division outfit, none of which were won. The Dingwall club had recruited him from his long-time role as Celtic’s reserve team coach.
McStay, who played over 60 times for Celtic, spent 16 years on the Parkhead backroom team, as youth and reserve coach, before a season in charge of Hungarian side Ujpest – Celtic’s partner club – revived the taste for management after his early career success in Ireland with Sligo Rovers, where he won a first division title at the end of his playing days.
“Ross County was a great opportunity and then that was taken away from me,” said McStay. “Stockport are a club with huge potential. They regularly had 5000 here last season despite being relegation candidates, but the club has been in decline because of money problems.
“The new owners believe they can revitalise things and Didi and myself have to get us out of the Conference, which is a tough league with so many former Football League sides all bidding for promotion.
“I have spoken to people like Owen Coyle at Bolton and Davie Moyes at Everton and they will try to help with loan players. They said the north-west of England is a great football region to work in and to attract players.”
Stockport spent 14 months in administration after the club’s previous owners could not pay a £250,000 tax bill in 2009, which prompted then-manager Jim Gannon to move to Motherwell.
“I know what it is like to work under a strict budget because that was the scenario at Ujpest, so that just means you have to be more creative in your scouting options,” added McStay.
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