The Inconvenient Truth

Strange Vibes

I can't be the only one who feels a wee bit unsure of things at United at the moment? 

On the one hand, we are currently sitting with 11 points from 9 games which in my opinion, is pretty decent. To be honest, if we repeat that in each of the first three rounds of games then win another 6 points post-split, then we will stay up comfortably, a feat which most of us would have taken at the start of the season.

I don't know though, it just feels that something isn't quite right at Tannadice just now. On the surface, everyone appears to be open, honest and transparent but, everything feels artificial.  It's like there is something, something that we are not being told. Communication is always the most difficult thing to get right in employment. Dundee United's communication really could be an interesting module for Media Studies students. Over the long spring and summer period though there have been some really strange periods at the club and some communication issues that have had me shaking my head at and left me speculating and even at times worrying about what is going on at Tannadice. Our communication appears to involve either long periods of total silence, vague, non-commital answers or highly scripted commercial puff pieces which continually seem of go out to the Scotsman or the Herald and would be better placed in the business section rather than the sports pages.

1. Injuries

This is the obvious one. Over the past 9 months there have been four significant injuries to first team players: Paul McMullan, Nicky Clark, Lawrence Shankland and Liam Smith resulting in long lay-offs. Injuries are part and parcel of football. The thing that links three of the four cases together is the lack of information about the nature of their injuries i.e. what the fuck is actually wrong with them and secondly, a rough idea of how long they were going to be out for? 

If I start with McMullan, he got injured around the Partick Thistle game at the new year. I seem to remember Robbie Neilson saying he was having bother with something (his groin?). However, McMullan then appeared a week later against Hibs in the cup and was on the bench for the replay which left you thinking maybe it wasn't that bad. This pattern continued for the next month, at a time when we looked completely devoid of ideas due to injuries to Nicky Clark and Louis Appere. Oddly enough the communication regarding Clark's injury was really good and there were regular updates about his recovery. However, in McMullan's case no-one ever seemed to even clarify what was wrong with him, how he was fit enough to be on the bench week after week, but was never actually fit enough to start games. Finally in the summer, a good few weeks into pre-season training (in fact around when Micky Mellon was finally appointed) it was announced that he needed a hernia operation. I can only assume that because of the pandemic this operation couldn't have been done but it seems strange that the club allowed this to go untreated for the three months of lockdown then got the operation when we were close to starting the season.  We've never had any sort of update as to why this decision was made. The first we heard about McMullan was when he himself did a really good co-commentary on the Ross County game. As it stands, McMullan has been fit for several weeks but has barely been seen on the pitch even though the team has sorely lacked creativity in some of those matches. Maybe Micky Mellon just doesn't rate him? Who knows. It not as if we've replaced him with a boy who can cross the ball better than McMullan either (not hard granted), because the boy Bolton hasn't put a decent cross in since the Motherwell game. 

Shankland is the biggie of course. Naturally when he swivelled and scored that absolute peach against St Mirren all those weeks of silence and evasive answers were forgiven. But for me, it's not forgotten. On the surface, Micky Mellon's, "HE'S BACK," comment in the presser seemed quite funny but when it was followed up by a, "You can all stop asking every week about him now," comment it also felt like he was having a wee dig as well. I'm not sure at who though: the press or the fans. Sorry Micky, but maybe if you'd gave a straight answer when the injury actually happened then people wouldn't have kept asking about him. Even if the club had held their hands up and said that they were not exactly sure what the problem was or how long he'd be out for people might have stopped asking quite so much. However, it appeared that we instead got several weeks of silence and evasive non-answers leading to inevitable speculation about Shankland being sold. Of course attention really focused on the club when the Scotland squad was announced with the club firstly saying they'd give him every chance to make the squad followed by him being pulled out just before the squad were meeting up (and he would have been assessed by the Scotland medical team) bear in mind at this stage (a month after the St Johnstone game) fans still didn't have a fucking clue what his injury was or even what bit of his body had been injured. His cock could have been chopped off and chucked out the car window by his missus John-Wayne Bobbit style and we'd have been none the wiser. Feel free to correct me but the first time there was any word of what his injury was occured when Shankland himself did an interview for kids at his old school in Glasgow which was then picked up by the national media. Even then neither the official website or Club tv said anything on the subject. There was a lengthy interview with him a few weeks later (when he was virtually back fit). Given that this guy is by far our best player, I don't think it is unreasonable to want a wee update as to what was actually wrong with the boy and some updates during his recovery process.

Finally, we have Liam Smith. Smith was injured in the Motherwell game, second game of the season. Seven games and one international break later, I still have absolutely no idea what his injury is, how long he is out for or when he is coming back. There is a hint it might be soon, given that Keiran Freeman (his direct replacement) has gone out on loan. Maybe this is actually as much a fault of the press for not asking the question directly as it is the club for not providing an answer but lets face it, if we are relying on the Scottish Mainstream Football Media to ask questions of that nature then we've got no chance given their complete lack of knowledge or interest about anything other than the two erse cheeks. Incredibly, Smith even appeared as co-commentator last week at the St Mirren game and from what I heard (granted I went and did the dishes at half-time) no-one even asked him then what his injury was!!!!!!! (A pissed-up mate told me that night that it wasn't mentioned though). Absolutely astonishing. What is the big secret???? Is this a deliberate strategy/policy of either the club or the new manager that these questions are off limits??? If so, I'd love to hear the rationale behind it. I've admired a lot of things I've seen and heard so far about Micky Mellon; the lack of crowd noise has meant that hearing him during games has been great. His enthusiasm, encouragement ("MIND YOUR SHAPE!") and at times straight talking with players not doing their jobs right (I LOL'd at poor Luke Bolton getting a telling off for not stopping cross first half against Hamilton, given that it was actaully Callum Butcher who had failed to stop it whilst Bolton had tracked a player who had overlapped. To be fair to Mellon, it was on the opposite side of the pitch.). However, at times his interviews with the press have left me a bit cold. If you listen he is actually very guarded and at times talks in clichés and riddles. I don't have a problem with that when it comes to tactics and performance since he clearly is a "What goes on in the dressing room, stays in the dressing room," sort of manager, however, when it comes to injuries as a fan I can't be the only one who'd like a little bit more openess about what is going on.

2. Transfers (or lack thereof)

We've signed three players so far this window (I refuse to count giving new deals to Deniz and Freeman as new signings) with Luke Bolton and Ryan Edwards being the only ones who have seen any first team action. Edwards so far has looked ok at best against Hibs, dreadful against The Rangers but better against St Mirren and Hamilton. He certainly looks better in a back four than a back three but so far hasn't looked like a significant upgrade on what was already here. I'm going to cut Edwards a bit of slack though because in my opinion United supporters are hypercritical when it comes to defenders expecting every centre half to be Narey, Hegarty and Baresi rolled into one. The three experienced centre halves we've got are no better or worse than most of those at the other 10 non-Glasgow teams all of whom have a mistake in them, not just ours so I am willing to give Edwards time to settle in before I demand yet another centre half to be brought in as many have done after the St Johnstone, Killie, The Rangers, St Mirren and Hamilton games (in fact every time we lose a goal). Given that I have seen Marc Cocozza, David Craig, Pavels Mihadjuks, Timothy Van Der Meulen and Julian Alsford all play centre half for my beloved Dundee United I can tell the difference between a defender who is ok for the level we are at and one who is utter pish. 

Luke Bolton looked really good in his first 3 games but has been a victim of being shunted about positionally from right wing to right wing back to more recently, right back and has shaded in recent weeks as a result in my opinion. His best games came against Motherwell and Ross County where, as well as playing right wing in both, he had an orthodox right back behind him (Smith or Freeman). In the games where Lewis Neilson played right back you got a sense Bolton was blunted by his responsibility to protect the young lad who (as impressive as he has been) was playing out of position. At wing back and at right back, Bolton has done ok but not offered enough going forwards. Hopefully Liam Smith's return from the dead will see Bolton return to his early form playing wide right. I'd like to see McMullan wide on the other side, especially if a new left winger isn't recruited. Adrian Sporle has done well recently playing there but never seems to achieve any sort of consistent form (although he never seems to get a run of games either so it's a bit of a chicken and the egg situation).

Nearly 16 months ago after the East Fife game I said on here that we needed a big centre forward and a left winger. When Sam Stanton was allowed to leave in January it quickly became apparent that we also needed a midfielder who could offer something a bit different such as the ability to play in between the lines, carry the ball and score goals. It was also clear when Paul Watson was (unfairly?) released that we also needed another centre half. And yet, here we are with, at the time of writing, around a week left until the end of the elongated transfer window, and we have only addressed one of these issues. There's been nearly 3 transfer windows! Personally, I am thoroughly fed up with a) being fed name after name by Scott Burns (no-one has signed) b) having to wait until deadline day. This is my absolute biggest hate about modern football. I honestly think that people within football (players, agents and managers) actually think that they are being clever and that this is some sort of great theatre when they deliberately stall deals going through because they think it is exciting to for the fans. It's not, its a fucking load of shite. Dafties hanging about outside the training ground, Harry Redknapp in his motor, Jim Whyte, Paul the fucking Tim. Fuck off. I just don't get what the difference is between signing a boy with weeks to go before the deadline and waitng until 11:59pm. Better value? Surely getting players in earlier and putting more points on the board is the best value of them all when it comes to prize money for league placings and trophies won than waiting for months with a mediocre team before you address the issues you have in order to save a few quid on wages. Natalie Sawyer isn't even on any more.

Again, all of these delays has led to speculation about our budget and who is in charge of transfers: Mellon or Asghar? I'm a bit more relaxed about this one than some. My understanding of this is that the manager states what areas he'd like to see strengthened, they both suggest targets, Mellon does this in terms of opponents, ex-players etc as any manager does. Asghar suggests players through his contacts in the game like agents, managers etc. Asghar looks at Mellon's recommendations in terms of value, wages, transfer fee's, availability, Mellon looks at the names Asghar has put forward by either looking at the videos of them (hopefully not just on YouTube a-la Jackie Mac), going to watch them himself or sending the scouts, talking to contacts in the game about them or taking the players on trial to have a closer look (like they did with Flo Hoti). The two then reconcile these names and the manager, as the football person has the final say (I hope) then Asghar goes out and does the deal.

Probably the issue I have is the time it always seems to take us. Are we too choosy? Surely to christ there are target men and left wingers out there? Watching Lyndon Dykes play for Scotland there really pissed me off recently. We could have went for him a year ago and he'd have been ideal for us. The lad Nike Kabamba destroyed us recently and when I realised that he came from English non-league football it also had me questioning our scouting and transfer policy.  Similarly, seeing Jamie Murphy and Drey Wright both signing for Hibs (a team who remember already have two really decent wingers in Boyle and Horgan) was another pisser. 

This again comes back to the honesty factor. If (and it is an IF) it is the case that the pandemic and the court case have hit our finances so hard that the money that was earmarked for signings has had to be diverted into the clubs running costs in order to keep the club afloat then personally I'd prefer it if the club just came out and said it and said that we will just have to dig things out this season with what we have. To be honest, I'd be fine with that. The club is more important at the end of the day. We'd know where we stand and what our targets are (I still think we are good enough to finish top of the bottom 6 which would be a decent first season back) and could get fully behind the current players. The next week will give us the answers on this front but I fear that if there is no movement on that front people are going to react badly and feel like they have been strung along for months. Yeah this is a new beginning for the club for sure, but our support has had the piss ripped out of it so many occasions at this time of the year that it could rip the morale out of the good things the Ogrens, Asghar and Mellon have been trying to build. If it is the case that the money is too tight, we could have been told this weeks or months ago. 

However, I am taking the club at their word just now though that they are working to get a midfielder (Jimmy Fuchs fuchin hates Dundee anyone?), winger (fuck knows who) and a striker (three new targets mentioned, but if I were a betting man, I'd maybe be one of the targets 😜). With the right bodies in, a top 6 place is by no means unrealistic this season.

And that's before we even get to the possibility of Shankland, Benji, Chalmers, Neilson or Butcher being sold. FFS don't do it United. 

The next few days are absolutely massive for the direction of our club this season and beyond.

Lets look up the way for once. He who dares wins.