Pressley 'in a much better place' to manage Dundee

Steven Pressley is returning to management with Dundee

New Dundee head coach Steven Pressley believes he has come back to Scotland better equipped to succeed than when he left for England 12 years ago.

The former Dundee United defender has agreed a two-year deal at Dens Park and his appointment has had a mixed response from supporters.

The 51-year-old, who wore the Tangerine strip of their city rivals during his playing career, hopes the Dundee fans will give him time.

"It depends what lens you're looking through," Pressley said.

"If you look through a certain lens and you're looking for a manager with history of winning titles, then I'm not your man.

"I've not demonstrated that yet. I hope I can demonstrate that in the future, but as yet I haven't done so."

And he added: "But the type of skill set that Dundee were looking for, then I think I'm very much aligned to that and I've demonstrated that throughout my career.

"Also, I think that through growth, through my experiences at Brentford, through my learning, there's a different type of manager, a different type of leader here."

After a short stint as co-manager at Hearts along with John McGlynn whilst still playing he eventually moved to Falkirk where he ended his playing career. He stepped straight into management with the Bairns before heading south to Coventry.

He also had short spells at Fleetwood Town, Carlisle United and in Cyprus with Pafos.

For the past four years, Pressley has been working at Brentford as head of individual player development.

"When I left this country 12 years ago to go to England, I had an ego huge and I was going to conquer England," he explained.

"Through time, through setbacks, through failures, through growth, I come back with a much smaller ego, but equally I come back with a lot more knowledge, a lot more understanding and a lot more experience.

"I think that I arrived here at Dundee in a much better place than when I left to go down to England."

'Whether I'm popular or not, I have to win games'

Dundee finished sixth in their first season back in the Scottish Premiership, the 2023-24 campaign, but were 10th in the most recent campaign, shortly after which Tony Docherty departed the manager's role.

"If you don't win games, decisions are generally made," Pressley said. "But I think that from a football club's perspective, you've got to be willing to show strength at key moments and key junctures because sometimes the success is just round the corner.

"You don't realise how close you are to it and that's why it's important that we have the correct evaluation models in place, that we can see the progress of the team and plot the progress of the team.

"Sometimes people externally, they're only looking at the result, but there might be real significant improvements in certain areas where we are very close to getting those all important results.

"These things are really important, but again, as I've said to you, 35 years in the game, I know how it works. Regardless if I was a popular appointment or not, I'm still going to have to win games. That's the reality of it."