IRISH LEAGUE PREVIEW: Rodney McAree insists he 'loved his time' at Glentoran but his full focus is to drive Dungannon Swifts forward

McAree returned to the helm at Stangmore Park in the summer following Dean Shiels’ departure via mutual consent after the Swifts preserved their Premiership status with a relegation/promotion play-off win over Annagh United.

Many eyebrows were raised when McAree swapped European football at Glentoran for the move back home - but it is a decision he firmly stands by.

"Gerard Lawlor has spoken about how the league needs to push forward and I feel since going back to Dungannon it's not a different club but they've made massive strides in terms of facilities, ways to improve and how they can generate more support," said McAree – who has named his backroom team as Dixie Robinson (assistant manager), Terry Fitzpatrick (first-team coach), Ryan Harpur (first-team assistant coach), Alan Cooke (goalkeeper coach) and Stuart Bell (strength-and-conditioning coach). "It has improved in terms of professionalism and there's people around the club who deserve great credit for what they do for trying to drive us forward.

"I loved my time at Glentoran...I was sitting watching the penalty kicks in their European game after our training session and I was hoping they were going to get through the tie, unfortunately, it just didn't happen.

"There's a lot of good people about Glentoran and I wanted to see them progress as it would've been good for Irish League football if they had."

McAree has been busy adding to his squad ahead of the campaign with a number of new players snapped up.

"The recruitment has been good...we lost 10 at the end of the season straight away,” said McAree. "The players have bought into it, they seem happy.

"There's a smile on their faces and we are getting plenty of effort out of them.

"Every manager will say that they would like to add a bit more quality.

"If that right quality comes along and we can do anything, then we will certainly be in the market.

"We can't go out and spend money that some other clubs can.

"But that's the way it is.”

Exciting attacker Darragh McBrien left the Swifts this week to join Linfield – with Ethan Devine moving in the opposite direction in a season-long loan deal.

"Absolutely delighted to be able to bring a player of Ethan’s calibre to the club,” said McAree. “He is technically a very good player who has an eye for goal, he brings a physicality and a presence that will add to us greatly and I’m sure he’ll prove to be an excellent addition to our squad.”

The Swifts start their campaign with an away trip to defending champions Larne on Monday night in front of the Sky Sports television cameras and McAree feels his troops will have to "embrace the challenge".

"It's a tough start," he said. "However, we have to embrace the challenge as we can do nothing about it.

"We have to try and set ourselves up in a way that will make it difficult for Larne.”