Assistant Manager Chris Beech spoke to Dale PlayerHD about the arrival of Ollie Rathbone, who signed a one-year-deal at the club on Friday…
The 20-year-old joins Rochdale after leaving Manchester United, where has been since the age of 11, this summer.
“It’s a good signing in terms of supporting the first team. He’s got big individual ambitions to do well,” said Beech.
“He’s got a great football upbringing with his father [Michael Rathbone] being a fantastic professional, both as a player and as a physiotherapist, so he understands football.
“He understands that you get opportunities at Rochdale if you work hard, if you’re honest and you progress, and I think that’s why he has come to us.”
He continued: “We’ve got to look after our three points every Saturday to the best of our abilities, and we will not look at anything that weakens that point of maximising our opportunities.
“Because we’re always fighting against the tide in terms of finance, we’ve got to make sure everything we do supports the football work in that direction.
“He’s coming from one of the biggest clubs in the world – so your training grounds, your foods, your travel [will be different], but we work as professionally as we can within our financial restrictions.
“He’ll have to get to grips with that, but he’s a down to earth Lancashire lad and I have no doubt he’ll do that because he’s already on that wave length.”
The full interview is on Dale PlayerHD.