Exclusive sit down with ex-Kilmarnock captain Gary Dicker

Anybody who buys the party line that the first objective was about staying in the league for Killie this season is kidding themselves. Top six was clearly the aim for Derek McInnes & Co. from the very get-go last August, and I was thrilled to see the team get over the line after a well-earned draw at Tynecastle.

Considering the sense of doom around Rugby Park just two years ago when an extended stay in the Championship was a very real possibility, securing top-six status with games to spare is a solid achievement – one that should be widely recognised. The focus shifts to consolidating fourth spot now. With seven games to go, one final push before everyone goes on their holidays is required.

As promised, it’s now time to release the second half of my recent interview with Gary Dicker. I’m truly grateful for the lovely feedback I received from last week’s piece, so I’m hoping you enjoy the second installment, where there’s more discussion about his time at Killie. Enjoy!

How closely do you work with Roberto De Zerbi?

It’s really well structured here so the club will always have its own academy programme. That will always happen through the chairman, the director of football and the academy manager. It’s all about how the chairman wants his teams to play, so that will be structured the whole way through from Under-9s, to 18s, the whole way up. It all fits in with the manager’s style. All the managers we’ve had recently have been possession-based coaches. The beauty of the club is that every time a manager comes in, it isn't about ripping it up and starting again. For us at U21s, no matter who the first team manager is, we’ll still follow our programme. We take snippets out of the first team though so that when the lads go over they’ve got it. The manager has been brilliant for me here. He’s never said ‘You’ve got to play like me,’ but you’d be a silly person not to take some of his stuff. So, the 21s will try to implement some of the stuff from the manager, but the academy programme will always stay the same. The good thing is it isn’t always changing with every new manager. You see some managers go into clubs and they’re taking reserve and academy managers with them. Here it’s quite structured and stable where all of that stuff doesn’t change. We all want it to be the same, because there’s nothing worse than for a young player when you say to them ‘We’re not doing that now, we’re doing something different’. His detail, the way he wants to play, his understanding of football and what he wants it to look like is top quality. We’re really lucky to have him to be honest.

McInnes has done everything asked of him so far. Are things on the up again?

He’s done a good job. It would’ve been difficult going in near the end of the Championship and getting them up and stabilising the club last year. It just shows you though, you need time as a manager. You can’t always go in and hit the ground running. He’s a really experienced manager and he probably knew that he needed a few transfer windows to get what he wanted in. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer to get what you want. As a fan, it might seem like it needs to be instant, but I think you can see with the job he’s done that he’s got great experience and he knows the league really well. I’ve watched a few of the games and he’s done a good job with Killie. They’ve had good results and it’s great to see. In my last year, we were relegated and it still hurts. It’s the one thing that sticks with you as a footballer. It’s horrible. You can have a load of highs, but the lows – stuff like that – it eats away at you. I still think about it.

I suppose it’s a good thing that it bothers you so much?

I learned more about myself during that period than I did from all the good moments. It’s not a sob story either, I’m not looking for sympathy. As a whole, as a squad, it wasn’t good enough. We should’ve had enough to stay in that league. But we didn’t, for lots of different reasons. It lingers with you, and I hope it lingers with the rest of them. It definitely hurts. When you leave you feel guilty because you’re not there to change the narrative or to flip it back. I was injured in the last game too, which was difficult. The fans from when I was there have always been good, but that was a tough night.

READ MORE: Exclusive interview (Part I) with ex-Kilmarnock captain Gary Dicker

You obviously get stick as a footballer and I’m used to it, but it was always going to be difficult for them. Players come and go, but it’s their club. For the majority of that group, yeah it did hurt, there will be some that didn’t, but most who were in there were good lads. I was that glad to see them go straight back up because you feel guilty when you leave and you’re not there. I was delighted for everyone involved in the club; the owners, the boys that I still know, the staff, the scenes with the fans after promotion. I had great times there, and it finished on a bad note, but I had a really good connection with the people who worked there and the place. It was always good for me, so I have a lot of fond memories. Football is full of good and bad moments, you’ve got to take them both. It’s one that haunts you as it was my last season in football really. It was during Covid and it was the worst time to go out on. Nobody’s dead, that’s football and things bounce back.