‘I don’t think he will come back’

‘I don’t think he will come back’

Caretaker manager, and Alex legend Dario Gradi has spoken to the official site about the current goings on at Gresty Road.

He told them ‘The board met on Tuesday afternoon and the decision was made to relieve Steve of his first-team duties. The directors asked if I was willing to accept the job as caretaker manager whilst they searched for Steve’s replacement and I accepted.’

‘I am willing to stand in on a short-term basis. If I had wanted to be manager then I wouldn’t have given up the position when I stepped down for Steve to take over a couple of years ago.’

‘I was happy with the system, with me, Steve and Neil working closely together. That has been the case for over 18 years and it has served us well. I was happy with it and so were Steve and Neil. The only real difference was that 18 months ago I had the final say on team selection and then Steve had it. We have always discussed the merit and faults of the players and would get together to decide upon the team.’

‘I’ve never had a better coach than Steve work for me. He put tremendous work and effort into being a success as first-team manager. He certainly put more hours into the job than I ever did or ever will do. He is exceptional and I am sure there will be a lot of interest in him. People in football understand how good he is and he has impressed a lot of people on his courses and for what he has done with our own Academy.’

‘He is always welcome to come back here and all the directors and staff feel the same. He has rightly gone away to take stock of things and if he was to come back here in some capacity then I would be delighted because at the moment we have lost someone very talented.’

‘I don’t think he will come back. He just ran out of time in the end because of the results and it wasn’t easy for him to carry on in the present climate.’

Dario gets his first game back as manager this weekend at home to Stockport, where fans are looking to get behind to team in a big way once again.

Speculation is still rife at the moment as to who is going to replace Gradi in the long term with names such as John Barnes and Neil Cox adding themselves to the list of hopefuls.

Come on The Alex, give us three points tomorrow!