Jim McIntyre insists that if he had been given more time at Dundee, he would have taken the club back to the Premiership.
The 46-year-old was sacked on Sunday after Dens managing director John Nelms returned from week-long crisis talks in the United States with owner Tim Keyes.
McIntyre paid the price for being unable to prevent the Dark Blues’ dropping down to the Championship with the club deciding a change had to be made.
Ironically, the manager’s last game in charge at Livingston on Saturday saw Dundee end a run of 10 defeats in a row thanks to a 1-0 win but it was too little too late to save the manager’s job.
McIntyre took over at Dens last October after the club had parted company with Neil McCann with the new boss radically overhauling the squad he had inherited.
The changes did not have the impact he had hoped but despite that, the ex-Dunfermline, Queen of the South and Ross County manager still believes he was the right man for the Dundee job and would have turned things around at Dens.
He said: “I’m obviously very disappointed because I thought I would get the chance to bring the club back up to the Premiership.
“I knew when I went into Dundee it was going to be a tough job and I felt it would take a couple of transfer windows to fix it.
“In the end, it was just one window and seven months.
“But I didn’t do my bit in the last few months and I have to be honest enough to admit that because that 10-game run was well below what’s expected.”
McIntyre added: “I watched games that we should have won but we were just found lacking at crucial times.
“We were nowhere near consistent enough.
“I’ve done well in the Championship in the past so I know what it takes to get out of that league.
“I would always back myself to build a team good enough, so it’s unfortunate I won’t get that chance.
“It’s just so disappointing that we were unable to get out of it because Dundee is a big club and I know what it means to people.
“I would have liked to have stayed on and brought them back but it wasn’t to be.”
As the search for McIntyre’s replacement begins in earnest, coach James McPake will take temporary charge of first-team matters this week to prepare the team for the final game of the season at home to St Mirren on Saturday.
However, the former defender is unlikely to be considered as a candidate to take the job on a permanent basis after Dundee set out in a recent statement the criteria the club now use to appoint a manager, with experience absolutely key.
Dark Blues striker Kenny Miller, who started the season as player/boss at Livingston, had emerged as an early favourite by bookmakers to succeed McIntyre but it is understood the former Scotland man is not in the running.
Likewise, self-confessed Dundee fan Charlie Adam, who has been released by Stoke and is looking to move to pastures new, can also be discounted because of a lack of experience.
Instead, likely contenders could include the likes of former Dundee player Ian McCall who has performed wonders on a shoestring budget at Ayr, David Hopkin, who won promotion to the Premiership with Livingston, ex-Plymouth boss Derek Adams and John Hughes, who has managed at Hibs, Falkirk, Inverness and Raith.
The new manager appointment is one Nelms obviously has to get right as Dundee face up to life in the Championship but the clock is already ticking.
The Dark Blues will return for pre-season training in just a month’s time and as things stand, only around eight senior players are signed up for the new campaign.
