New Dumbarton boss Stevie Farrell has revealed that he was speaking to transfer targets just hours after being appointed as Jim Duffy’s successor.
The 48-year-old, who was previously assistant manager to Stevie Aitken at the club, inked a two-year deal at the Rock on Saturday morning, leaving Stranraer after more than four years in the dugout at Stair Park.
And with Ryan McGeever the club’s only signed player and pre-season less than two weeks away, Farrell wasted no time in beginning work on building his squad for the new League One season.
He told the Lennox: “I only got the first call from the chairman at Stranraer on Thursday afternoon. I had been in meetings all of Thursday morning and had missed a couple of calls from to say that Dumbarton had asked for permission to speak to me.
“Dumbarton did everything professionally as did Stranraer.
“I first spoke to Dumbarton on Thursday afternoon and between then and Saturday morning we had the final discussions and I agreed to join the club.
“It was a step up from where Stranraer are and the size of them as a club and I just felt that it was the right fit after speaking to Dumbarton.
“Stranraer is a club that means a lot to me. It’s never easy moving on, but football is always evolving.
“When you’re in football you understand that, but it doesn’t make the difficult decisions in terms of leaving a place where you have a lot of affinity easy.
“That’s always going to be the case. But ultimately you always have to make decisions that you believe are right and it’s never personal.
“I felt this was the right football decision for me.”
And with the start of pre-season training less than a fortnight away, Farrell has wasted no time in getting to work on his first goal for the campaign.
He continued: “I think getting more than one player signed would be a good start!
“My major aim at this point in time is to get some players into the football club, but on a serious note we’ll be looking to try and improve on where we were last year.
“Every year at a football club you try and improve. That will be our intention.
“Do I believe we can? I absolutely do. If we recruit the right players and get the right spirit about the club then there’s no reason why we can’t go on and have a good season.
“We’re aiming to start pre-season around June 12.
“We probably won’t have our full squad of 18 or 20 in place, but I’d certainly suggest that over the next two weeks you’re going to see the largest majority in place.
“I spoke to the existing players last night (Monday) to see how they are feeling about things and how I feel about their futures.
“Obviously we’ll try and recruit a few of those players to build on what they have already achieved, and then we’ll be looking to bring new recruits to the club. We’ve already started that process.
“On Saturday afternoon as soon as it was confirmed that I would be taking over, myself and (assistant manager) Frank McKeown had already started engaging with agents and players. That’ll be what it’s like for the next four or five weeks until we have a squad fully assembled.”
