Knill faces a tough choice of assistant

11:46pm Friday 16th May 2008

ALAN Knill faces a choice between three candidates as he looks to appoint a new assistant manager at Gigg Lane.

The Bury boss has been working alone since late January when Chris Brass stepped down from the number two role to concentrate on his work with the Centre of Excellence.

But after agreeing to see out the season alone, Knill now faces a tough choice between three coaches who have expressed an interest in the position.

One is thought to be former Mansfield Town manager Billy Dearden, who left Field Mill in March.

"I'm in a bit of a dilemma now because I can't have three assistant managers," Knill said. "It's just a case now of narrowing it down.

"All three of them are really decent; they have the same work ethic that I have.

"They know this league, which is the most important for me, and they know what it takes to make players better.

"It has taken some time but hopefully we can do that as soon as possible."

Knill is wasting no time in searching for new recruits, meeting with two players last week and another two early next week.

He hopes to have a squad of around 20 in place by mid-June, although the manager admits the job of selling the club is a tough one.

"We can't say that we will give them the most wages; we can say that it is a fantastic stadium," he said.

"We can't say that we have fantastic training facilities but I can tell them that I will guarantee that I make them better players.

"The hardest part is selling the club because we've had three years of struggle.

"It's obviously not the biggest budget in the world, but I knew that when I took over. The good thing is that we finished really well and all of a sudden this is not the Bury that we saw this time last year."

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