McGlynn relishing life in the hot seat

WALKING into the humble manager's office at Stark's Park, it is quite freakish to see John McGlynn ambling around in regalia that isn't embossed with the Heart of Midlothian crest. He comes over to shake you warmly by the hand as a handyman carries out some cosmetic work in the corridor outside.

"It's a bit different from Riccarton but I'm still trying to get things the way I want them here," he says. "I haven't even got this room the way I want it yet." McGlynn has had to hit the ground running in his first managerial job, taking over on the very day of the home draw with Stranraer last month.

An organiser by nature, he is still adjusting to the time-consuming duties that come with being your own man. Consequently, minor tasks are proving difficult to fit in. The notice board on the office wall still contains remnants from the previous era under his close friend, Craig Levein. A "With Compliments" slip reads: "Craig - Fine for getting bus times wrong. Bob." Whoever Bob is, he'd better not repeat the offence while the new manager is attempting to establish his reputation.

McGlynn has taken the single-minded approach to management after ten years with Hearts in various coaching guises. He is determined to repay the faith shown in him by the Raith board, who had their new manager recommended by Levein upon his departure.

But already McGlynn owes Raith a hell of a lot as a club. Everything, in fact. "I came on trial to Raith Rovers when I was 17," he recalls. "Gordon Wallace was the manager at the time and I played in a bounce game against a Fife select side. Kenny Black played in the same game, as did Jackie Miles. I scored two goals from midfield and Gordon Wallace said he would have me back.

"Now, that game was supposed to be behind closed doors but a Bolton Wanderers scout somehow got into the ground. That game was on the Tuesday, and by the Saturday morning I was playing in a trial game for Bolton. That led to me signing my first professional contract with them. They contacted Musselburgh Windsor, who I was playing for at the time, and offered me a contract the following week.

"So Raith Rovers helped me, indirectly, to end up in professional football. There's not many people who would know that."

A return to where it all unofficially began, then. McGlynn subsequently played for Berwick Rangers, Musselburgh Athletic Juniors and Whitehill Welfare before moving into coaching in 1987. It has been an arduous climb into his maiden managerial chair, but he is the first to admit to enjoying plenty of help.

"Craig put my name forward for this job," he says. "I want to actually run a football club and see if I can do it. There was a lot of good groundwork done here by Craig and Gary Kirk [who continues as McGlynn's part-time assistant]. Hopefully we can take that on now, and I'd like to think my teams will be well organised.

"I'm getting to do what I wanted to do for some time, which is structure training the way I want, pick the team how I want and get the team to play the way I want. I've had this desire to be a manager for a while now."

The itch to be number one became ever-more intense during recent months with implosion after implosion undermining the efforts of all at Hearts. McGlynn, along with captain Steven Pressley and numerous others, tried fervently to retain a sense of unity and purpose amid the disharmony but donning a Raith Rovers manager's jacket brings alternative pressures. The difference is, all of them are welcome.

"If you're an assistant it means a lot to you," notes McGlynn, "but when you become number one you're responsible for nearly everything. That brings more pressure, no matter which level you are operating at. The players are looking for leadership, the fans are looking for results and the buck stops with the manager. That was what I wanted to take on.

"Hearts won the Scottish Cup last year, and perhaps I should have left after that because it was such a high. But the excitement of the Champions League was something I wanted to be part of. Unfortunately, that didn't work out and with the UEFA Cup not working out and other things at the club I decided it was time to go."

The Kirkcaldy public rallied admirably last year to save their local club from extinction. The Reclaim the Rovers fans' campaign enlisted the help of none other than Chancellor Gordon Brown, a Raith supporter, and succeeded in securing a £1.2million community buyout. It is the deep-lying affection within the surrounding streets that McGlynn is seeking to tap into.

"I see Raith Rovers as a kind of sleeping giant," he says. "There's a good fanbase here. We are averaging around 1600 people at home games but we need to get that up to 2000 quickly. The stadium is SPL-compliant [it has an all-seated capacity of 10,104 and undersoil pitch protection]. That's all important." Certainly when your ambitions are as lofty as McGlynn's.

"This club involves nothing more than local people wanting their local team to do well. For a year or so now, Raith have been punching below their weight. They should be higher. With the population of this town and its catchment area, the club is equivalent to the Livingstons, Falkirks and Airdries."

Training two nights a week at a blustery Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy is a far cry from the lush synthetic surfaces of Riccarton, but McGlynn has always relished working at the grass-roots levels of football. Nonetheless, he has brought certain modish practices with him from Scottish football's upper echelons, becoming the only man in the Second Division to employ the use of video analysis equipment.

"I'll keep it relatively simple and I don't want to ask things of the players that they aren't capable of," he says. "Over the years a lot of my work was done with the youth teams at Hearts and I think our youth set-up is extremely good." Note the "our". It's a difficult habit to break after ten years.

"I'm no different to a lot of managers. I do like to get the ball down and pass it, but I also want a solid foundation to base it on. I'll probably favour a 4-4-2 formation here because I like to get width in the game and get crosses in to the box for strikers to attack.

"There are only a handful of full-time first-team players so you have to cram a lot into the two training sessions. Hearts can go to five-star hotels the night before games and make sure their players are eating correctly. That's not the case at Raith and you have to rely on your players to look after themselves. Some of them I won't see from a Wednesday to a Saturday."

As one of the genuinely-valued natives at Tynecastle, McGlynn seemed to be relatively safe in his role as assistant coach. Owner Vladimir Romanov wisely accepted that ten years in Gorgie had instilled a wealth of club knowledge in the man from Musselburgh. However, the first thing the promotion to manager gives you is a shelf-life, the only certainty being the sack and all that.

That hasn't gone unnoticed in McGlynn's mind but, if hard work is a yardstick with which to measure success then his stock should be as high as ever. When we conduct this interview the clock has just gone 10.30am. McGlynn has been at Stark's Park for over an hour and won't return to his home for about another 12 after overseeing training that evening.

His introduction to management has been moderately triumphant thus far, the draw at home to Stranraer preceding Saturday's 2-1 win at Alloa when on-loan Hearts striker Hjalmar Thorarinsson scored the winner. The club are presently seventh in the Second Division table, six points off a play-off place, but McGlynn still intends to badger his former employers in January for squad reinforcements.

"We have Hjalmar just now and I would hope that I can go back to Hearts in January because they have a lot of players, and a lot of good young players." He should know, he bred most of them. Hearts aren't averse to farming out their youth, with Jason Thomson currently at Livingston, Craig Sives at Partick Thistle, Denis McLaughlin at Berwick and John Neill at Hamilton.

This week, McGlynn takes his managerial bow in the Scottish Cup when Dumbarton visit Stark's Park in the second round. The draw for the third round will take place in Edinburgh moments after the final whistle and, victory permitting, what odds on Raith securing a plum draw away at Tynecastle?

"I think the club would like that for the financial aspects." The smile on McGlynn's face confirms he would lap it up too.

Taken from the Scotsman