This time last week, Dundee’s manager search was dragging on too long.
Now we are seven days on and don’t seem to have moved on very much at all.
If anything, it looks like things had gone backwards.
It appeared like Shaun Maloney was the man to take over from Mark McGhee.
But that took too long and talks crumbled.
Now it looks like Gary Bowyer could be the man the Dark Blues are turning to for next season.
Steve Kean is also in the running and it’s good to see the club looking for experience.
I think they’ll need that in the new season.
Need to do something
But Dundee need to do something, even if it’s just a statement to let fans know what is happening.
No names need mentioned, just a word on the state of play right now and it would calm any questions flying around.
If you are going to take three weeks between managers, doing it at this time of the
year is the time to do it, to be fair.
Players are away on holiday and enjoying their down time ahead of the new season.
Better that than having players around the stadium because gossip in this sort of situation isn’t a good thing.
They will be starting to think about and preparing for next season already.
Right now, the players are in the same position as fans — they just want to know what kind of direction the club is going in.
Once a man is named, they can start to find out what things might be like from their first day back.
Players will be in touch with anybody they know who has a connection to the manager to find out what to expect.
But, overall, the main thing is that Dundee have a new manager in place for the start of pre-season.
I thought they would have someone in the job already but we’re still waiting.
The right man
It is correct that the club have taken their time, wanting to make sure they have the right man.
They will have spoken to a lot of people, got background on candidates and done their homework.
And the main thing is, no matter how long it takes, they do get the right manager in place.
It is a big season ahead for the Dark Blues and they need to give themselves the best chance of winning promotion.
Though it will be job done if they get a good coach I still feel like the club could do a much better job of telling people what is actually going on.
That would give fans and players an idea that things are moving in the right direction.
Without doing that, all sorts of rumours come about which don’t help anyone.
Mulligan
Meanwhile, it was great to see Josh Mulligan get a taste of international football at the weekend.
When I got into the U/21s while at Dundee, it pushed me on so much.
I’ve no doubt he’ll come back a better player for his experience with Scot Gemmill’s side.
For players like Mulligan, a season in the Championship might just be the making of them.
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