Headlines  RSS feed | About

IAN Harrop has no qualms about being Gigg Lane's supposed Mr Nasty'.

As director largely responsible for footballing affairs, he is forced to put his head above the parapet more than most in the boardroom into the public domain, and as a result is no stranger to the odd disparaging comment from the terraces.

Never was his unenviable position more evident than in the first half of last season, when he came under heavy fire from fans for the poor results on the pitch.

Held culpable by some for the unsuccessful appointment of Keith Alexander above Chris Casper, he admits the grief he received at time was "near the knuckle."

So, having been placed in charge of headhunting the new manager when the board sacked Alexander and Casper back in January, you would forgive him for crowing about the end result. Not that he did.

No-one can argue that the decision to bring in Alan Knill, ratified by a vote of all board members, saved the Shakers season.

Such was the success of his near three-month reign so far, he was voted 13th best manager in the whole Football League by the LMA this week - bettered only in his own division by Graham Turner (Hereford), Darren Ferguson (Peterborough) and Paul Ince (MK Dons).

Harrop admitted the decision was indeed a season-turning one but, as the manager admitted himself last week, the hard work starts here.

"Alan would say himself that his first mission has been accomplished - we survived," he said.

"We have finished the season strongly and looking optimistically into the future, it can only get better.

"You saw by the turnout at the Player of the Season awards, which was as big as I have seen since the Stan Ternent era, that people are getting excited about the club again.

"Anyone can see that Alan has done a fantastic job and as a board, we are delighted with how it has gone so far."

Harrop's brief as managerial head-hunter in January saw him meet with several other managers, some of whom rejected the offer of an interview out of hand when they got down to numbers.

Knock-backs from people like Peter Reid and Paul Simpson did not deter the 50-year-old director, who picked out Knill as a strong candidate early on in his search.

"There was a lot of quality out there," he said. "We did things differently. Instead of waiting for applications to come in we went out headhunting. There was no point getting to the interview stage of people we were not interested in managing the club. They had to know what we could offer, not personally, but in terms of budget and Alan again ticked the right boxes and knew what we were about."

And of the vitriol fired in his direction during the season just finished, Harrop took a pragmatic view.

"I accept it, but don't get me wrong, I don't like it," he said.

"I am big enough and ugly enough not to let it bother me. The only time it there would be a problem would be if my family were brought into it. Then I would walk away and wave goodbye. There is no need for that.

"Every director on the board does his job to the best of his ability for Bury Football Club and I'm no different.

"I was 50 this year and I have supported the club since I was five years old. It's in my blood, so a little bit of abuse won't worry me

4:36pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

Print   Email this   Comment