Exclusive Alan Irvine Interview - With Audio

Alan Irvine has revealed that taking on the role as manager of Preston North End was a challenge which he relished and now feels has succeeded.

The Scotsman has exclusively told me that he wasn’t looking to take the step up from Assistant to David Moyes at Everton to a managerial position, but once the opportunity presented itself it was “too good an opportunity to turn down”.

Irvine said that there have been times during his period at Everton where it would have been much easier for him to leave, but he was enjoying the European run which he and his former colleagues were on.

“I wasn’t looking to get into management. At the time I was happy doing what I was doing. I was working for a great club, a terrific man and I was really enjoying the season”.

“I was thoroughly enjoying the European experience and I felt the team were going in an even better direction than it had been in previous years. I thought it was a really hard time to leave”.

The PNE boss has admitted that he has not changed too much during his stay at Deepdale, comment that there are parts of Preston’s play which they were doing before he arrived.

“I didn’t come in and think ‘change, change, change’, I came in the other way thinking ‘let’s have a look at what’s happening at the moment’. I don’t think you should come into a new club and think ‘everything here is wrong and I’m just going to change it all’, because it wasn’t all wrong. There are things we are doing now that were being done when I arrived”.

Although Irvine didn’t get off to the best of starts to his North End career, he was determined not let poor form affect him. He also praised his players for the turn around, which has lead to them reaching the target set in January.

“No [the start didn’t dampen my spirits]. I knew I was coming to a tough job, I knew I was coming to a team who were fighting for their lives. I knew players would be low on confidence and I knew that there would be a lot of work that needed to be done”.

“But that didn’t scare me, I just quite simply got on with it. I kept on working and kept on believing that the things I wanted to do would work”.

“[Our turn in form] is down to a whole load of factors. The players looked as though they were starting to understand what I needed from them and what was expected of them”.

A non-ego-tastic Irvine ended by saying that it has all been a huge learning curve which will stand him in good stead in the future and looks forward to improving next season.

“I’m learning all the time, you by things that you that work, and things that don’t work and you continually try improve as a manager and a coach. I’ve got no problem listening to other people’s ideas, and if I can continue to do that then I can probably continue to improve as a manager”.

Things are now looking up following a difficult season and it would seem that Alan Irvine is relishing the challenge took on six months ago. Don’t be surprised to this Scotsman become just as recognised as his former boss, or maybe even the one in Manchester, as Preston start to reclaim their pride.