Interview Part 2: (Part 1 is further down the page).

Wayne Hatswell has revealed that he is at Dundalk to “first and foremost” play football, with the assistant manager’s role an added bonus to his long-term aim of sole management. In Part Two of an extensive and exclusive interview with the central defender, he admitted that he would like to step up to the role of ‘Gaffer’ one day down the line. However, for now, he is concentrating on his own football and looking forward to balancing the jobs he has been given by Ian Foster, even if it may distort his fine head of hair in due course.

‘Here to play’
“Sole management is something that I am interested in but nowhere near at this time, not yet,” Wayne told dundalkfc.com. “I’m realistic, I need to learn my ways, and I’ve got a lot of attributes that I want to get across, and hopefully things can work out here. I want to learn my trade, I want to do it right and then hopefully time will tell when things pop up, but that’s years down the line. I’m taking it one step at a time, really. I want to play first and foremost – that’s why I’m here. That’s my first and foremost point of call. Doing the other roles is an addition for Fozzie probably, and I’m able to do that, but I want to play here.” One thing Hatswell isn’t sure of, though, is whether or not juggling the roles will prove to be a help or a hindrance to him. “Ask me again in six months when I’ve probably got no hair left or I'm going grey even if I do keep the hair that I’ve got, who knows?!” he quipped.

No panic
With the Lilywhites facing their first pre-season friendly on Sunday week (7 February) when Athlone Town visit Oriel Park, Foster faces a race against time to have a confirmed squad in place, although Hatswell is not panicking, viewing the game as no more than a normal part of pre-season preparations. “That’s something we’re working towards,” he said. “It’s a pre-season friendly as far as I’m concerned. It’s an addition to pre-season/fitness to getting where we need to be for March. That’s all I see it as. I don’t see it as a game that we’ve desperately got to win, it’s not all about that. People need to know that it’s a friendly and we’ll treat it for what it is. At the end of the day, 5 March is when it matters.”

Perfect timing
Foster and Hatswell became friends during their days at Chester City and Kidderminster Harriers, and the 34-year-old felt that now was the right time to rejoin forces with his former teammate. “We have known each other for six or seven years now,” he explained. “He’s been a good friend of mine and we’ve always stayed in touch through football and those circles. It’s just the timing of everything, the timing has been good, and it has turned out to be a good opportunity for me. Obviously, I knew that Ian had got the job here and that he had done a good job at Galway last year, and it looked like he was going to move on. That was it, it was just one of those things, you put your name in and say, ‘look, if you need any help I feel it’s the time’. It’s about timing. It could all be so different; I could be still at Cambridge. If that was the case, I’d do it, but I felt it was the right opportunity and the right time in my career to look elsewhere and perhaps get a new, fresh challenge that I needed, and to step in that direction of being on the other side of the fence, I suppose, in a coach and an assistant manager’s role that I’m going to try to do this year.”

Emotional departure
Hatswell, who also played for Forest Green Rovers, Oxford United and Rushden & Diamonds, was most recently with Cambridge United, and it was with a heavy heart that the 34-year-old left the U’s after playing the full 90 minutes in their 1-0 home defeat by York City at the weekend. “I’m disappointed to leave, but that’s because I love the club and I had some really good times there,” he said. “I played really well there and the fans have been absolutely brilliant to me. It has been an emotional weekend for me, really, because I played on Saturday. We lost 1-0 and we played really, really well. I got a fantastic reception going off and it’s something that I’ll never ever forget, and that sticks in my throat a little bit. You don’t get that in football very often, those kind of send-offs, and I’m just glad that they appreciate the hard work that I put in. I just wanted to thank them, really. I am disappointed, but it’s a new chapter for me, I’ve got to move on. My hands were tied a little bit at Cambridge because I wanted to move on and progress myself, but I couldn’t because those opportunities never arose for me there. But hopefully that’s Dundalk’s gain and Cambridge’s loss, but we’ll see.”

Dundalk bound
Hatswell, who is currently staying in a local B&B, has plans to move into the town permanently in the coming weeks. “I’m moving into the vicinity for the foreseeable future,” he said. “I’m obviously just down the road at the moment. I’ll obviously go home at times, but first and foremost this is my job and it’s a full-time job for me, so I will be here as much as I can.” The defender also confirmed that his partner of five-and-a-half years and fiancée, Susie, will also be moving to Dundalk. “That’s the plan,” he said. “She just wants to let me settle in first. She’s obviously still working in Cambridge and she’ll move over once things settle down a little bit.

Studying the form
“I’m looking forward to it,” Wayne added, when speaking about entering the League of Ireland for the first time. “From speaking to players and doing my research, I can’t wait, really. I need to impose my presence on the playing field as well as off it, and hopefully I can do both really well, and fitness wise hopefully kick on again. Hopefully, it can be a successful season for us.” Hatswell admits to knowing little about the league before Foster’s call, although he says that he has been researching a lot over the past month. “Speaking to players and managers, and research, has been a big point for me, because it’s important,” he said. “Getting to know players, who’s about, who’s free, who’s good enough and things like that. There’s a lot of research that needs to go in and that’s what has been going on behind the scenes from my point of view. I’ve looked at what the standard is like, I think it’s very good, and we’ve got to be up to that.”

Learning Lilywhite
Also previously unaware of Dundalk, Hatswell has recently been reading up on the Lilywhites and took the club’s history book home with him on Monday for some night-time reading. “I didn’t know anything until Fozzie took over,” he said. “Then you start reading the history and things like that, and speaking to the locals they soon let me know the importance of it, and that’s something that I want to take on board, that that is how much it means. I know what it means to people in their hometown to do well, and with the support here, you’re halfway there. As long as they can stay behind us for the whole season, which I have no doubt they will, hopefully we can give them that bit back. They have got two people who are going to be working hard for the team both on and off the field, and they just need to be a bit patient and be behind us, hopefully knowing that we’re up to the job.”

PART ONE

Wayne Hatswell believes building a squad from scratch could work out better for Ian Foster and Dundalk in the long-term, even if it does leave the former Galway United boss with a tough task over the coming weeks. The assistant manager, who took control of first-team affairs when the Lilywhites returned to pre-season training on Monday morning due to Foster’s wife Portia having a baby in England on Sunday night, played his last game for Cambridge United at the weekend, and he stated that by assembling a brand new squad that Foster will be showing complete faith in the players that come in – something he feels which can only be positive for everyone going forward.

Feeling wanted
“We’ve been left with the task of getting in a whole new team, which is relatively unheard of,” Hatswell told dundalkfc.com in an exclusive interview. “That doesn’t make things easy, but then again you get players in that you want. Everyone will be in the same boat and everyone that turns up here is going to be wanted by the manager. I’ve just left a football club where the Gaffer took over and he technically may not have wanted everybody there, so everyone was unsure whether they wanted you or not. That causes that little bit of friction and puts doubt in players’ minds. You want every player knowing that whoever comes here is because the Gaffer wants them here.

‘Half the battle’
“That’s half the battle sometimes in football,” he added. “Psychologically, they’re right, and it’s down to us then to get the right player and then to get them fit and working to our system of play that we’ve got to go forward to try to win football matches, which is what we’re paid to do.” Hatswell confirmed that despite a number of trialists there were no foreign players at training. “Just myself, as far as I know,” he said. “Obviously, I didn’t really train today, but still, I’ve had my pre-season and I’ve been playing, so I’ll be ahead of the boys that are here. But obviously I’ve been playing so I needed a bit of a rest, so it’s ideal for me just to take a step out of it.

Stuck in
“I just wanted to get my teeth into it straight away, really, which I have done,” Hatswell continued. “I flew in yesterday evening, I was kindly picked up, and then I couldn’t wait for this morning. It has been a bit of a sleepless night, obviously – it’s not worrying but it’s a nervous time for me. I’m coming here not knowing anyone, and the only person that I did know isn’t here. It’s very daunting, but I’ve got confidence in my own ability and confidence that I tend to get on very well with people. Everyone has been fantastic since I’ve come in, which has helped me settle in, for now at least.”

Positive start
Commenting on his first day in training, the 34-year-old felt that it had gone as well as could have been expected, although he will have a clearer picture of where things stand come the end of the week. “It went well,” he said. “Players wise, it went well, fitness wise, we can only gauge that probably, I would say, by the end of the week – who’s level, who’s not, and who’s where they should be. Obviously, that is something that will be ongoing. It’s a running game, you need to be very fit, and that’s one thing that we’re going to have to improve on no matter what. You can never stop improving on your fitness, you need to keep on top of players. But, as the first day goes, I thought it went well. Them getting to know me, a different voice, that’s what I wanted to try to do, get my point across as quickly as I can.

Trialists on show
“But we’ve got to look at the bigger picture,” he added. “It’s going to be a long season, and, at the end of the day, I want them to enjoy it, but it’s going to be hard work. We had a meeting before; we had a little bit of an introduction, a few jokes and things like that. Obviously, there have been a few jokes about me being English. Hopefully, they’ll look after me for the first few days and give me a few tips. We’ll soon see by the end of the week whether they like me or not – they might not be giving me as many tips to do well in Dundalk, but everyone has been very good with me so far. I’ve enjoyed my first day and hopefully that’s a sign of things to come. We had trialists in from other clubs that Ian has obviously worked on. Whether they fit into the budget and the position of the club is obviously the bigger picture that we need to look at over the next week, two weeks or three weeks, who knows. We’re going to be trying to get players in and that’s what we need to do.”

Cherrie excused
Four of the five confirmed signings – Tiarnán Mulvenna, Alan Cawley, Matt Gregg and Hatswell – were at training with Peter Cherrie excused due to personal commitments, and it is unknown whether further signings will be announced this week due to Foster’s absence. “Again, I do not know at the moment,” Hatswell said. “Ian has obviously had probably a bigger problem to deal with at the moment with his wife and baby son, so I think once all that comes out of his head then he can relax a little bit more. Hopefully, it has come at a good time, instead of coming halfway through pre-season and then him worrying about it then. Portia and the baby are OK, that’s the main thing, and he can now look to obviously getting players in, and that’s what we’re working towards. Like I said before, we’ve had to deal with 16 players going and two staying. That’s something that we’ve had to work hard on, it’s not just done overnight. Fozzie has only been in the job six weeks, so it’s not long is it. He’s got another six weeks now. At the end of the day, we’re going to try to get the right players in, at the right cost in the right position for the club to go forward.”

Oriel impression
The squad will train every morning this week with Hiney Park’s grass pitch also set to be used, with Hatswell impressed by the facilities on offer at the border venue. “I came around (to Oriel) last night to have a little look,” he said. “Obviously, I’ve done my research and I seen most things, as you can on the internet now, you’re pretty much there. Everyone coming in this morning and introducing themselves to me, it has been really nice. I’ve met some nice people and that’s what made me feel that it’s a nice place to be. The facilities and the grounds are good, and we’ve got everything here that we need. We’ve got a kitman and a physio. I’ve just left Cambridge and we haven’t got a kitman there, and it’s supposed to be a big club, so this club is very lucky in that respect.

Tough start
“They’ve got behind-the-scenes staff that do a lot, and they’re all trying to strive to push the club forward, which is good. As I said, they’ve all been brilliant with me so far, so it has been a nice first day for me. We’ll be in every day this week. Whether they’ll be in at the weekend, we don’t know just yet. It’s pre-season, it’s going to be tough – the first week is always the hardest, it tends to maybe get a little bit easier on the body after that. There may be a couple of double-sessions involved in the training plan, but you’ve got to be careful with them as well and you need to wrap them in cotton wool a little bit. You don’t want them pulling any injuries. If we’re going to have a relatively small squad of seniors then we want them all to be fit come March – at the end of the day that’s what is more important.”

Artificial advantage
Due to the recent cold snap, Cambridge have been using all-weather pitches to train, and Hatswell feels that Dundalk can use their artificial surface to their advantage this year. “The weather has been horrific in England over the last couple of weeks, so at Cambridge we were training on that,” he explained, “so I’ve been used to it a little bit. My thoughts are that it is what it is, we’ve got to adapt and we’ve got to obviously adapt to the grass as well, because, obviously, we’ll be playing away from home too. It’s going to be one of them things, we’re going to have to split it up as much as we can, day on/day off maybe, but weather is obviously a determining factor to whether we can get on the grass or not. If it rains, we may not be able to, but we’ve always got the luxury of being able to train no matter what, and that’s a nice luxury to have. My thoughts on it are positive and probably not really that negative – you’ve got to just get on with it and turn it into our advantage, as such.”

Tag team
“Who’s he?” Wayne joked when concluding that he is coping fine so far without the assistance of Foster. “I’m big enough and ugly enough to look after myself. As I said to him, I’m a year older than Ian, and if the shoe was on the other foot he’d be the same. He’d be alright and he’d be able to do the job on his own as well, so it’s not a case of me doing the job on my own – I’m doing it because I want us to do really well this year. We want to do things in the right way. He knows that he can leave me in charge and I’ll do everything professionally, like I always have done. That’s why I think he’s probably brought me to the club. It has been different for me, but it’s probably given me a better opportunity to see the lads and for them to hear my voice, instead of perhaps if Ian was here I mightn’t have been doing as much as I have been. I might have been able to just sort of be the quiet one behind Ian, because he would have been the main voice. But, at least I’ve been able to get my voice across, and hopefully the lads will have enjoyed their first day. We’ll see tomorrow if they all come back!” It is as yet unknown when Foster will return to Dundalk, although Hatswell stated that it is likely to be early next week. “Hopefully, he is (back this week),” he said. “How long is a piece of string? Hopefully, he’ll be back towards the end of the week, I’d envisage, but probably being realistic it will be Monday.”