NEW Castleford Tigers coach Danny McGuire admits he was “a bit shocked” when coach Craig Lingard was sacked last month.
But he insists he is ready for the top job and looking to make new signings to strengthen his squad.
Lingard was axed on October 21, after just one season in charge, with his assistant McGuire promoted to replace him.
The former Leeds great concedes he didn’t see Lingard’s departure coming but is confident he can lift the Tigers.
“We had already started planning as if I was carrying on as an assistant,” McGuire told League Express.
“We’d got together and made up plans for preseason. And, yeah, it was a bit of a shock. And obviously the new owner has come in and he decided that he wanted to take things in a different direction.
“I felt like I was in a position to do the job justice. I’d seen what needed to be fixed. After being there for a year, I knew where I could improve the team. It happened fairly quickly but sometimes in sport opportunities arise, and you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time.
“I really enjoyed working with ‘Linners’ last year, and he’s one of the best blokes that I’ve met in the game. But now it’s my time to step up and try to be successful.”
Eight players have departed the club, including veterans Paul McShane and Jacob Miller, with three new southern hemisphere signings in Zac Cini, Daejarn Asi and Judah Rimbu.
And McGuire still has one quota spot still available.
“We’ve got some signings from overseas that are going to improve the squad and, potentially, maybe another one or two on top of that,” he said.
“But I’m happy with the squad that we got, and I really believe that we can improve on this year. We’ve got a quota spot available and we probably need another backrower.
“But strengthening is an ongoing process, which never stops. There are conversations every day and the December 1st deadline is probably going to make the market a little more interesting. But we’re not in a rush.”
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