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GEORGE CRAN: Dundee manager appointment most crucial in years – will investment be there to make it work?

Dark Blues are keen to get out of the yo-yo club pattern and that's the challenge set to their next manager.

Dundee owner Tim Keyes (L) and managing director John Nelms. Image: SNS.
Dundee chiefs Tim Keyes (left) and John Nelms (right). Image: SNS.

We are waiting, waiting, waiting to see the white smoke emerge over Dens Park.

No, it won’t be the crumbling old stadium being fumigated for pests over the summer, it’s only a metaphor for the announcement of Dundee’s newest manager.

We won’t have to wait too long (unless this one pulls out at the last-minute as well).

The shortlist is being worked through, Ian Murray is on there and Tam Courts has been mentioned too.

Plus others yet to be revealed.

Whoever takes it has a big job on their hands.

A complete rebuild of the squad – if desired – and a new culture to instil behind the scenes.

Raith Rovers manager Ian Murray is a candidate for the Dundee job. Image: SNS.

It is a clean slate and should be enticing for any ambitious young manager.

Opportunity

This is also the biggest appointment in John Nelms’ stewardship of the club.

By a distance.

We’ve got used to the club yo-yoing between the top two divisions of late so it would be foolish to suggest any of the managerial appointments since Paul Hartley have been as crucial.

They don’t want to get relegated but Dundee have found a way to get themselves back up.

The question now is how to stay there.

Former Dundee United head coach Tam Courts.
Former Dundee United boss Tam Courts during his spell in Hungary. Image: Budapest Honved FC

Since Hartley and the top-six finish, on the whole it’s been a downward trajectory – flirting with relegation before finally succumbing.

Then back, then down and now back again.

The question for Nelms and technical director Gordon Strachan is whether they can change all that.

That’s the opportunity they have given themselves with their ruthless summer business so far.

It’s the chance to transform the Dark Blues into a different team, one that can compete at Premiership level.

Investment?

How much Nelms – and more importantly Tim Keyes – choose to invest in that transformation will tell us a lot.

Is the football team the key to their business plans or is the new stadium project the real focus?

Remember, if New Campy arrives, then it’s the surrounding businesses and housing where the Americans are likely to make money.

Former Dundee manager Gary Bowyer celebrates with the Championship trophy. Image: PA.
Former Dundee manager Gary Bowyer celebrates with the Championship trophy. Image: PA.

They found out a long time ago that making money from Scottish football is unlikely.

So the question is: will the investment be there on the football side of things to properly compete at Premiership level?

Departed manager Gary Bowyer said immediately after winning promotion investment would be needed. That suggests he wasn’t confident it would be forthcoming.

And the inability to entice certain managerial targets over the past couple of years also suggests the budgets on offer aren’t bulging at the seams.

Whichever manager takes on the job will believe wholeheartedly they can build a team capable of competing in the top flight, they wouldn’t be coaches if they didn’t.

But it is yet another gamble from the Dens chiefs. This one has a ‘Hail Mary pass’ feel to it.

Will it pay off? I’m not convinced.

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