Tuesday 3 November 2015 18:57, UK
Swindon Town have appointed Martin Ling as their new manager.
The 49-year-old, who was part of the Swindon side that spent the 1993/4 season in the Premier League, succeeds Mark Cooper at the League One club.
Ling has signed a two-and-a-half-year contract and returns to management two-and-a-half years after leaving Torquay, a job which followed previous spells at Leyton Orient and Cambridge.
"It's been too long," said Ling, who had a short period at the County Ground as a player in 1986 before returning for five years from 1991. "The tingle's back in the fingers and the feet, and I can't wait to get going.
"It's a club that's underachieving, and if you're going to take a football club you want one that's underachieving.
"After that I had a good chat with chairman Lee Power about how he wants to move forward, and it's an exciting proposition.
"It's a little bit surreal - it's 19 years since I left and I'm walking round seeing pictures of me. It's a bit like seeing old wedding photos!
"For me it's a club that's got big potential and I'm looking forward to fulfilling that potential. The immediate target is to move them up the league and start to get a winning team on the pitch."
Ling has suffered from depression in the past, and he told Sky Sports News HQ: "It's an illness like any other. I've had depression, I don't any more and I'm a football manager.
"I'm very comfortable speaking about the illness and it doesn't make an iota of difference whether i'm going to be a good manager or bad manager at this football club."
