| The former owner still backs the Dark Blues to the tune of five figures through shirt sponsorship and follows the team home and away. He will be in the stand tomorrow to welcome Jocky back.
And, although he defends his decision to replace him with Ivano Bonetti back in 2000, he feels the time is definitely right for the 60-year-old to return.
“If I had been making this appointment, I would have gone for Jocky at least last week and I would have said the time for the change was after the home defeat against Livingston last month,” he said.
“Jocky is a good manager, I have never said otherwise and, even back in 2000 just after he’d left us, when Notts County came on and asked about him, I told them that and they should take him on.
“People are also quick to forget that it was my brother Jimmy and I who brought Jocky back to football when we appointed him and gave him the chance to manage in the SPL again.
“In the circumstances Dundee are in now, he is definitely the best qualified man to take the team up the way.
“He will get them organised and the big thing for me about him is he lives here in Dundee and has Dundee at heart.
“That’s where I think the problems just now started — in the summer we lost boys like Dixon, Robertson and McDonald, who all had the team at heart, and it was the likes of them who carried Dundee last season.”
While it would be wrong to call the pair close, they have buried the hatchet and even worked together for a spell when Jocky returned to Dens to help with coaching.
To this day, Peter does not regret the change he made eight years ago, though it does irk him when words like “sack” are used.
“Jocky was coming to the end of his contract and we asked him, Ivano and (current Real Madrid manager) Berndt Schuster to put forward plans.
“We went with Ivano because we felt it was the best plan and that was that. It was a football decision and, whatever the financial problems we had, I still believe it was the right one. We were trying to take the club forward and enjoy our football, and that’s what we did — we gave fans a dream time.”
Marr, meanwhile, revealed kit manufacturers, his company Bukta, would not make a penny out of Dundee this season.
“We were making good money, but there was not a shirt sponsor so we took that up and, basically, every penny we make now goes back to Dundee. That’s how I want it because I am a fan. I still love the club. I am there every week and that’s why I am happy to see Jocky as manager because he is the right man.
“If I see him tomorrow, I will shake his hand and wish him all the best, because we both want the same thing — Dundee back where they should be.” |
