THE first noticeable thing about Jim Mann is how much he sounds like his predecessor.
But while the middle-class, Ayrshire accent may be similar to Michael Johnston's, the words spoken are very different. In his 10 years as Kilmarnock chairman, Johnston's relationship with the club's supporters grew increasingly fractious the longer his tenure wore on. He spoke of fans groups having agendas against him and described some of their protests as "embarrassing for the club". The feeling was mutual, with many supporters loudly critical of his stewardship while vowing never to return to Rugby Park for as long as Johnston remained in charge.
Mann, officially installed in the post at Thursday's annual general meeting, did not mention the old chairman by name but his tone was noticeably warmer and more conciliatory as he spoke about the need to re-engage with a disenfranchised support base. The 68 year-old has already met with fan groups and there are moves afoot to have a supporter's representative eventually elected onto the board. It is perhaps significant that, while Johnston is a solicitor to trade, Mann's background is in business, having recently retired from a senior executive position with TUI Travel. Without engaged, interested and satisfied customers, he admits, the club is unlikely to flourish.
"I'm taking on the job of being the face for the public and I think I'm reasonably good at communicating," he said yesterday on his first official day in the job. "I've also got pretty good ears in terms of listening to people's views on what we need to get done.
"We can't go on the way we have been going, that's for sure, and that was my call to the shareholders. Previously I've met with the board of the Supporters Association and the Killie Trust just to say I need your help with this so we can attract more people back into the stadium. Core and fundamental to a club like this is what is the income and what are the costs. If the income is subdued because they don't like us any more then we have to deal with that problem.
"I would love to get the club back to being as loved as it was when I was a kid living in Kilmarnock in the late' 60s and early '70s. It was a big passionate thing then and I want make Rugby Park a passionate place again."
Mann already has ideas he wants to implement. He is keen to bolster the club's youth academy and introduce an ethos and a style of playing that runs from the first-team all the way down the system. The hope is that talented youngsters will find their way into the first-team before being sold on to bigger clubs, something Mann believes Dundee United do very well.
"[We need] to create what we describe as the Killie way of playing and developing talent all the way from youth to first team - and the management of the footballing side of the club needs to be committed to that whole structure, not just the first team. If you look at most clubs in the world that are successful they create this conveyor belt of talent and we need to emulate that. It means that players are brought up educated in a way of playing and the techniques of playing in that position so if we then do have to blood a 16-year-old in the first team he knows what he's doing.
"It's important for us as a football club that we recognise that talent will develop to a level where it has to be sold and that's one way we can make ends meet with that conveyor belt, a bit like what Dundee United have done."
Mann believes Kilmarnock should finish most seasons in the top half of the SPFL Premiership but there will be no lavish spending to make that a reality.
"I'm not comfortable just being in the Premiership," he added. "The ambition we have discussed with the management team and the club employees is that we want to be regularly in the top six. I would like us to get pretty quickly to being a powerful force and a place where people don't like coming here to play. It doesn't feel like that at the minute."
One of Mann's first tasks will be to appoint a permanent manager, with Gary Locke in the running following a good run of results in temporary charge.
"We do recognise the urgency of having a manager in situ that is going to take us forward before too long. Because of the results on the field Gary's got to be a key candidate. He's done a fantastic job since he's come in and taken over from Allan Johnston. The results on the park speak for themselves."
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