Elgin City manager latest: Chairman Graham Tatters steps up hunt for next Borough Briggs boss and Ross Draper doesn't rule himself out of role in new management team
Guaranteed League 2 football next season, Elgin City are stepping up their search for their next manager.
Chairman Graham Tatters paid tribute to the efforts of interim trio Ross Draper, Charlie Charlesworth and Stevie Dunn who stepped in following Gavin Price's sacking last month.
Draper said he was relishing his playing role with the team next season and hinted that his caretaker role had given him a taste for coaching and management.
"I have enjoyed it. There is stuff that comes with the job that you don’t realise," he said.
"I’ve had to go away and watch games and I’m not familiar with teams at this level so I’ve had to go and watch a lot of games in the week and see how teams play.
"I’ve enjoyed that side, it’s been good and Charlie and Stevie have been really helpful to me."
On being linked with becoming part of the next management team, Draper added: "I would like to be involved in some capacity whether that’s coaching, I still want to play and that is the be-all and end-all because I feel really good.
"This time two years ago I might have been looking to call it a day and go into coaching but I’m far from that right now.
"That is something that needs to be discussed. Hopefully it is sorted soon, whoever comes in or whether it is myself or anyone else at the club already, it is a big season ahead of us.
"The club needs to bounce back from this year, it’s been a frustrating season and I don’t see any reason why we can’t be a lot further up the table.
"I don’t see why we can’t be there or thereabouts, up there a lot more next year. "
Tatters spoke about Draper's work alongside Charlesworth and Dunn in securing City's safety with a match to spare.
"It was a really good decision bringing Charlie in before Gavin left, he took care of the team quite a few times when Gav and Jim couldn’t make it up and the guys all felt comfortable with him.
"To bring somebody in who didn’t know the squad might have been a difficult scenario with just a few games to go.
"We thought it would be better to talk to Ross who has ambitions to be a manager one day and he has taken his UEFA B and he is also coaching at Ross County so it was a bit of a no-brainer to take him in with Charlie and Stevie Dunn has been around the squad for long enough now.
"They knew exactly what was needed to be done and they did that and did a fantastic job."
tatters added that the quest to appoint the next manager begins now.
"We will sit down, we have a board meeting and we will draw breath and see where we go from there.
"There’s been quite a few applicants and we have a little bit of time though not an awful lot of time when the cups start early on now, and we need to get a pre-season done with the next manager to make sure the guys are fit to play in the cup.
"We will make the decision as soon as we are comfortable, we have checked most of the applicants and we will make a decision once we are comfortable to make a decision."
The club will also negotiation with out-of-contract players like Darryl McHardy, Russell Dingwall and Angus Mailer about signing extended deals.