After being appointed manager of Tranmere Rovers the former Latics boss said, "I'm looking forward to the challenge. I think there's an awful lot of good going to come out of this. We want to start winning games and get the crowd back up to the nine or ten thousand level. This club should be playing in the Championship and hopefully I've come in to give them that. I've got some great memories here. As a player it was brilliant and I had some wonderful years as Assistant Manager to Johnny King.""Tranmere have always had a place in my heart. I lost my dad last year who would have been so proud of me. I had some great times here and I'd really love to be the number one who brings those times back. Last season was a one off. I'd like to think because the season before they only just missed out in the play offs. I watched that game on TV and the crowd were magnificent. To lose out on penalties was a blow to everyone."
"When a new manager comes in your aim is to go as high as you can and obviously the club wants promotion. We want to do well and take the Club forward. There's a lot of hard work to be done as I think there's ten players in contract so it's a matter of bringing in another ten or twelve players on top of that. If you can get them to gel all at once you're in for a wonderful season. We had earmarked a few players we were going to take into Oldham who can play at this level so with a little bit of luck they'll be coming to Tranmere instead of Oldham."
"I like my teams to play football but there's a time and a place for it. You have to be adaptable. You can't say we're going to play 4-4-2 for 46 games. We need players who can go to a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3. We'll be looking to play attacking football."