BARRY SMITH'S attachment to Dundee is such that he could never stay estranged for too long.
The 39-year-old returned to Dens Park last week for the first time since his acrimonious sacking in February in order to say his goodbyes properly to those he knows from his combined 14 years as player and manager.
As he works towards his A coaching licence at Largs this week, Smith insisted the circumstances of his first coaching job in Scottish football have not soured his view of a career in the dug-out. Moreover, he bears his successor at Dens Park, John Brown, no ill will and continued rooting for the club in their ultimately futile bid to avoid relegation.
"I went back to see the staff behind the scenes," said Smith, whose sacking, little more than a month after being given a public vote of confidence by the board, caused uproar on Tayside. "It was just good to see them and thank them, because I owe them a lot. They keep that club going. I didn't want to go in while the season was going. The new manager was in a job and I felt I should stay away. But I felt once the season was finished it would be fine for me to go in and see everyone because I didn't get that chance when I left."
If there is an irony in the fact that Brown now finds himself in near identical circumstances to those which faced Smith last summer, preparing for a promotion bid from the Irn-Bru First Division, there was an undeniable upturn in the club's fortunes following chief executive Scot Gardiner's decision to change the occupant of the manager's office. Dundee – now subject to takeover interest from Texan businessman John Nelms – won more than half of their eventual Clydesdale Bank Premier League points total after Brown's arrival, a period in which the former Rangers player largely win over the club's fans. We will never know, of course, what would have happened had the club persevered with Smith.
"I have no gripe with John Brown whatsoever," said Smith. "He is a manager who was asked to go in and do a job, which he did. I have no problem with him at all and I'd stress that. As a club, Dundee is a great place. I wanted them to stay up because I'd been there for so long. I would never want anything else."
"I have great belief in my own abilities and I believe I could have turned things around," added the man who oversaw a 23-match unbeaten run following the accrual of a 25-point penalty for entering administration in October 2010. "But it wasn't to be, other people decided that, and we move on. We had a scenario earlier in the season where St Mirren hadn't won in seven or eight games, and we got within a point. I think John got within four, before it ended the way it did. So we were close to it when I was there, and had the club stayed up it would have been a great season for Dundee."
Smith is a quiet, unassuming type but any bruises he sustained in the last few months have done little to dampen his enthusiasm for a return to full-time coaching. "I'm looking to get back in [to management] as soon as possible," he said. "I'll be looking at any job that comes up, I'm not fussy. I feel I've got as lot to offer and I think I proved that during my time at Dundee. When we were in administration we went on a great run to finish second the year later. And it was done with a limited budget – I don't think folk realise the massive cuts that were made during the two years I was there. That came as a result of administration and I never complained about it or even mentioned it."
"Overall I thought I dealt with a lot of things well; other things I could have done better," he added. "At the time I felt I was doing the right things. You learn, and I learned massively during my time, whether it was coaching or dealing with people at the club. But I have no negative feelings about what happened because I'm a positive person and believe you move on. Maybe you learn more from the negative stuff that happens. I'm a trusting person. Maybe I'll learn from that."
n Barry Smith was speaking to publicise the A licence introduction, a key component of the Scottish FA's coach education programme.
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