'For me Derry City is the best club in Ireland' - admits former front man Tam McManus

McManus admitted the chance to work with Stephen Kenny again was the reason why he made the switch to Derry City..

The ex-Hibernian front man, who joined the Brandywell men in 2009 still has fond memories of playing for City despite only spending a few months with the Candy Stripes and also remembered Kenny's assistant manager Declan Devine getting him into shape.

"I was playing in Colorado and came back from America in November, so over the Christmas period I was then looking for a club and then Stephen Kenny rang me around February and asked if I would be interested in coming over to Ireland and although my preference was to stay in Scotland, but having worked with Stephen at Dunfermline, that was the big pull for me," he insisted.

"I loved working with Stephen at Dunfermline. I loved the way he went about his business, his man management was second to none.

"I didn't know a lot about Derry to be honest but Stephen was the pull for me, so I spoke to my wife about the move and then I decided to come over around March and I think the boys had played a couple of games.

"The unfortunate thing for me was that I hadn't played for three or four months, in fact probably longer and I hadn't been really training and I was miles off the pace to be honest and it did take me a while to get into the team.

"I remember to get myself fit I had to do a lot of running with Decky (Devine). He ran the backside off me for about six weeks and then obviously I started to get my legs back, so then I got myself in the team."

The 39-year-old like virtually all ex-players who has played under Kenny believes the Dubliner will be a success as the new Ireland boss and if Ruaidhri Higgins joins the Irish back-room team, then he can only see exciting times ahead.

"Listen I played for 17 years and I worked under top managers like Alex McLeish, Tony Mowbray, Alex Smith and Craig Brown, they were all really good managers, but Stephen for me was the best I worked under in terms of man management," he stated.

"He would get you to run through a brick wall for him and I think that's important at international level whenever you have only got the players for a week. It's hard to go through a lot of tactical stuff, you just have to get the boys ready to go out and play for you and run through a brick wall for you and the country and I think it's an inspired bit of business by Ireland.

"I think he'll change the style of play and while Ireland have had decent success from obviously Martin O'Neill and then Mick McCarthy, but I think the style of play for any neutrals they are enjoyable to watch, but I think Stephen will go 4-3-3 and he'll put more trust in his players and I think the Irish fans will enjoy it, I just hope he gets the success along with that in terms of results but I personally feel they'll certainly be infinitely better to watch in terms of how they go about playing football.

"I also think Ruaidhri Higgins has a similar philosophy as Stephen. Ruaidhri was a total footballer who wanted to get the ball down and play, so if he also joins the Irish coaching set-up that wouldn't surprise me.

"To be honest I'm excited to see how Ireland go about it, because I think they'll surprise a lot of people. While Stephen hasn't managed really top clubs, I think he'll surprise people."

The former Dunfermline Athletic hit-man was part of the Derry squad who at the end of the campaign were relegated for 'dual contracts', but despite all the turmoil going on off the pitch, McManus still enjoyed his experience in the Maiden City and concedes that Scottish football didn't really respect their Irish counterparts, but that all changed the night Derry hammered Gretna in the Europa League.

"The only thing I knew about Derry was that they battered Gretna, a couple years before I signed for them," he explained.

"I don't think anybody in Scottish football gave Irish football a lot of respect, particularly Gretna that night and a lot of people in Scotland expected Gretna to beat Derry and I can remember watching the game on telly and Derry absolutely battered them and I remember thinking Derry are a good side.

"Kevin Deery, (Barry) Molloy, Ciaran Martyn were superb and they were still there when I signed.

"Look as I said I didn't have a pre-season and I hadn't played at all for a number of months and I was miles off it.

"I remember going into Stephen's office and he said 'was I eating burgers and hotdogs during my time in America' and he wasn't happy with me, so Decky told me that I wouldn't need my football boots for a couple of weeks and he proceeded to run the arse of me.

"In fairness they had to get me into shape, because the standard I was playing against was good. Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians were very good that season. There were a lot of good sides in the League of Ireland."

McManus, who became a fans favourite when he scored a late equaliser against Linfield, in the 2009 Setanta Cup encounter Windsor Park, keeps a close eye on his old club and hopes to return to the recently 'refurbished' Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium sooner rather than later.

"Despite Decky running the arse of me, I still love Decky, so I always look out for Derry City results," he confirmed.

"For me they are the best club in Ireland, best supporters in Ireland and I would love to see them win a league championship, but yeah as soon as everything blows over I'll get back over to the Brandywell and take in a game.

"I know Paddy McCourt and Deerso are also in the back room team as well, so there's a lot of people there that I know and I'm sure they'll look after me and I would repay them by buying them a couple of pints.

"Actually another reason why I want to get back over is to see the new stadium.

"Listen I have a funny story when I first came to Derry I had come from Denver and Colorado Rapids played in a 20,000 brand spanking new stadium and then I came over with the wife to Derry and she wasn't enamoured with the stadium, compared to Denver, but I told her listen it's getting done up, so they have finally got it done up now about 12 years later and now I tell her, 'look I told you they were getting the ground done up', but listen jokes aside the stadium is looking brilliant now and I hope to get over and see it."

Since retiring the Glasgow native has moved into the Scottish pundit's chair, but also admits that maybe someday he'll come up against his old Derry boss on the touch-line.

"I'm doing a bit of media work over here in Scotland and it's something I enjoy," he said.

"I've always had an opinion and I like to go out and say what I think and I haven't got any allegiance to Celtic or Rangers. You look at guys like Chris Sutton and Kris Boyd and they have got real allegiances to one club, but me myself I just tell it how it is.

"I'm also doing a bit of coaching with the SFA (Scottish Football Association) doing my A Licence, so maybe someday I'll be a manager or a coach whenever we get the football back in the future, so it's important to keep your hand in and keep working away.

"You never know maybe one day I'll pit my wits up against Stephen Kenny on the football pitch, but as I said I'm enjoying what I'm doing at the minute."

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