New Manager - the Announcement

Bob Garmory:- "The announcement is being done here in the Jock Stein Suite for a very good reason. We had in the past opportunity to hire a young manager and bring him on board and it completely transformed the future of our football club.

"We would like to think we are doing just exactly that again. I would like to say the Board are absolutely delighted that Allan has seen fit to join us. He is an extremely capable young manager, with a great track record.

Allan Johnston:- "It's a great opportunity, it's a big club. There's no hiding the fact they under-achieved this season and, for me, it's a club that's got to be trying to get back to where it should be and where it belongs, which is obviously in the higher divisions.

"Obviously it's not going to be easy, it's going to be difficult, but you can see with the ambition of the supporters and directors, everyone wants to be successful here and, for me, it was the perfect opportunity to get back into the game."

Clear happy to be given what he sees as one of the prestigious job in Scottish football he added "you just have to look at the way the supporters, the directors and everyone have rallied round the club in the last couple of years. You can see the potential the club has got and that was the main reason for taking the job.

"As a manager, I'm ambitious, as is the club. I want to get as high a level as I can and I think with Dunfermline I can achieve that. We've got players here who are capable of being successful and hopefully we can recruit the right type of players to take us to challenge at the top of the league.

"I've had a lot of success in this league before, with Queen of the South, but it's a lot of hard work. It's not going to be easy, as you saw in the season just gone. It doesn't matter that you're full-time, you can't just expect to go and win games. We have to make sure we get the right quality in to make sure we're successful.

"You're always looking at players. There's a lot of players still under contract and obviously I'll have to review the rest of the players who are out of contract as well. There's a lot of work to be done.

"It was a good opportunity and a club where you've got the chance of being successful. You can see the drive and determination everybody's got to take the club forward, and I want to be part of that.

"It's incredible when you see the number of season tickets the club sold last season and it's important once again that the supporters get behind the club.
"It needs everyone pulling together to be successful.

Ross McArthur added:- "We had over 75 applications for the post. We had done a lot of research before we opened for applications and we spoke to a lot of different people within Scottish football and the name Allan Johnston kept coming up.

"We were all aware of his success at Queen of the South and Kilmarnock, but actually doing your due diligence and speaking to people behind the scenes Allan's name just kept coming up. Again, looking at his track record, it's there for all to see.

"We interviewed Allan and he's a forward-thinking manager, he does a lot of other things that we haven't seen at this football club before, where he thinks he can get more out of the players. We just felt his ambition met our own.

"We've said that we can remain a full-time football club next season but come the end of the season where that takes the club we'll need to wait and see. We could be looking at part-time football but we would prefer to look at the positive at this stage and say we'll be full-time next season.

"There was no point in making a quick appointment if it was the wrong appointment. We had done a lot of work prior to actually asking for applications and we know that everybody around the club is looking for a boost.

"But it was pretty clear from speaking to Allan that we had already identified the right man and that's why we wanted to move quickly. We had a couple of meetings with Allan and thankfully he was very interested in the opportunity here."

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