York name Brass as youngest manager

Alan Nixon
Thursday 05 June 2003 00:00 BST
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Chris Brass, the new York City manager, is confident he can combine his roles on and off the pitch after being named the youngest manager in the Football League.

The 27-year-old captain has been appointed player-manager as a replacement for Terry Dolan, who was surprisingly sacked by the Third Division club last week despite just missing out on the play-offs.

The striker Lee Nogan, who was one of eight players to be released by the club last month in a desperate cost-cutting measure, has been installed as player-coach.

Brass has been offered an extra 12 months on top of the one year he had left on his contract, while Nogan, the former Wales international, has accepted a one-year deal.

Although Brass believes "a few eyebrows will be raised" at the appointment, last season's club player of the year said his form will not suffer. "That was one area that I had to consider, but in order for the team to be successful I still feel I have to be a major player on the pitch," he said. "I'm confident once I get off the field I can do the duties of a manager. On the time scale of things I'm not going to jump in my car and go away from training, but I will have to distance myself in some respects.

"We're in a profession that's totally different from any other. I will make mistakes - but they'll be honest mistakes."

The Aston Villa manager David O'Leary is making a £2m bid to sign Sheffield United's England Under-21 defender Phil Jagielka. O'Leary has contacted the First Division promotion play-off losers with an offer for Jagielka, who can play centre-half or right-back.

Joe Kinnear is in talks about a return to Luton a fortnight after being sacked by the club following their takeover by a mystery consortium. Kinnear and his first-team coach Mick Harford received letters of dismissal from the club on 23 May, three days after the retirement of chairman Mike Watson-Challis. But Luton are now blaming Northampton's commercial director Peter Miller, who signed the letters while acting as a consultant for the consortium for the pair's sacking.

Harford has already been offered his old job back, while Luton have now confirmed that Kinnear could also be reinstated, although they remain committed to allowing supporters to choose who takes over in a telephone poll.

* Outgoing chairman Martin Edwards is to become only the third president in Manchester United's 125-year history. Edwards will follow in the footsteps of John Henry Davies and Sir Matt Busby in taking up the non-executive position.

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