Jim McLean made some great signings in the early years of his tenure as manager of Dundee United.
Players such as Paul Hegarty, Eamonn Bannon and Willie Pettigrew came in to the club and immediately made their mark as the Tannadice side improved year on year.
This would culminate, of course, with League Cup successes, a championship title, great European runs and countless visits to Hampden on cup semi-final and final duty.
However, not all of the manager’s signings worked out.
One who got away, literally, was John Bourke.
A cutting, dated October 3, 1978, revealed:
Dundee United striker John Bourke, who walked out on the club before the start of the season, is to become a Kilmarnock player for a fee of £40,000.
This is £20,000 less than United paid for him from Dumbarton a year ago last month.
Bourke travelled through to Kilmarnock to meet Rugby Park manager Davie Sneddon last night.
All in all, it was quite a day for the lanky 24-year-old for, only yesterday, he started a job as a PE teacher at Holy Cross Academy, Glasgow, having given up a similar post in Dumbarton when he agreed to become a full-time player at Tannadice.
As far as Dundee United were concerned, it was a case of cutting their losses and accepting £20,000 less than what they paid for him.
When Bourke first walked out on United, he said he would never come back to Tannadice and he intended packing up the game altogether.
At that time, United were so annoyed at their player’s attitude that they would have been quite happy to see their £60,000 go right down the drain rather than see him get any benefit from his breach of contract.
However, when Kilmarnock came on the scene, they made the decision to relent sufficiently to allow the deal to go through — even at a loss.
In his brief spell with the Tangerines, Bourke played 28 league and cup matches and scored six times over a period where he was very unlucky with injuries, especially cuts to the face and head.
After over four years at Rugby Park, in which he played around 140 games, Glasgow-born Bourke returned to Dumbarton and completed over a century of games for the Boghead side.
Season 1986-87 saw him back in the local area as that season was spent with Brechin City, before he ended his senior career with another stint at Killie.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.