New signing Jack Hendry has joined Dundee to rekindle a career that, only a couple of years ago, saw him on the verge of joining Merseyside giants Everton.
Hendry came back to Scotland last week to join the Dark Blues after Wigan Athletic agreed to release him from his contract with them two years early.
But in an example of how crazy football can be, he’s revealed when he left Partick Thistle for England in 2015, he thought his destination was Goodison Park and not the DW Stadium.
“I was meant to be going to Everton and I was actually going down in the car when their bid got rejected by Partick Thistle,” explained the 22-year-old.
Wigan had seen an offer accepted and rather than head back to the Jags, where he’d only just broken into the first-team squad, Hendry held talks with them and decided to sign up.
And, while his time at the DW Stadium didn’t go to plan, he believes the decision to move south was the right one.
“I feel going to England was the right move and I feel I’ve learned a lot from going down there.
“It didn’t work out the way I wanted but sometimes that’s out of your hands.
“I gave everything while I was down there and met some good people along the way.
“With my loans (to Shrewbury and MK Dons) I feel I got a lot of experience and I don’t feel you can have any regrets looking back.”
While his two seasons in the English game saw him make just three appearances for his parent club — most of his top-team game time came during those loans — Wigan were happy to hang on to his services for this coming season.
Once Dens boss Neil McCann expressed an interest, however, Hendry’s mind was made up that a return north would be his best option.
“The chance to join Dundee came up, I spoke to the gaffer and I was impressed with his plans for moving forward.
“Straight away I knew it was a good fit for me.
“I could have stayed at Wigan but I just want to play games and maybe that would have been a bit restricted for me there.
“I’ve come up here to be in the first team, play every week. I feel I’m ready for that.
“I want to go out and play football and become a better player. I think that will benefit me and Dundee as well.”
Fans got their first sight of Hendry in action when he played the first half of Saturday’s win at Arbroath.
Generally speaking he did well in what was his first outing for a couple of months.
However, he did concede the penalty for a tackle on Steven Doris that saw the home striker convert to give the Lichties the lead.
And for all his rustiness, Hendry was in no mood to make excuses for that.
“It was difficult for me because I’ve only trained once in eight weeks. I didn’t do much at Wigan when I came back for pre-season and I was basically thrown right in but I should still deal with stuff like that.
“I did OK if you take the penalty out of it and it’s just about getting back to where I can be now at Dundee and, hopefully, I will get the opportunity.
“It was early May since I last played and that would have been a reserve game.
“In terms of a competitive first-team game, my last would have been at MK Dons in January.”
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