Premier League club Floriana yesterday announced that the team's new coach for next season will be Dublin-born Roddy Collins.

In a brief statement, Floriana said Collins, 47, will be arriving in Malta today. He is expected to meet the players and introduce himself to the fans during a rally tomorrow at the Vilhena club at 7 p.m.

The Greens are seeking to put their ship back in order this season after having three coaches at the helm in a poor 2008/09 campaign that saw the team out of contention for the honours.

Antonio Vieira, a Brazilian, was hired to coach Floriana in January this year to replace Serb Zoran Popovic who left his post after a few months to return home for what he termed as family reasons.

Vieira was fired in March after only eight matches on the bench, chalking up just one victory.

Assistant coach Tony Alamango took over for the rest of the season but Floriana never got going and finished bottom of the six-team Championship Pool with seven victories overall from 28 matches.

Collins is a former centre-forward and played for various clubs in Ireland including Dundalk, Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers and Glentoran among others.

He also had stints in the English league with Mansfield before hanging up his boots in 1995 with Bohemians, the club he started with in 1979.

As coach, Collins's career took off in 1994 with Bangor. He moved to Bohemians, Carlisle, Dublin City and Shamrock where his contract was terminated in November 2005 as the club suffered relegation for the first time ever.

His best stint was with Bohemians where the led the side to an Irish league and cup double in season 2000-01. He left after contrasting views with the club's committee.

For the last four years, Collins, whose brother Steve is a former boxing middleweight champion, has mainly worked with the media as a TV pundit and columnist.