Former Dundee star Greg Stewart has revealed he took a PAY CUT to join the Dark Blues from part-time Cowdenbeath.
But it was an opportunity he wasn’t willing to let slip by when the chance of full-time football came calling.
And the former Rangers and Aberdeen man was full of praise for manager Paul Hartley and the Dark Blues for giving him his big break in full-time football.
After struggling through his first full-time pre-season, Stewart grew from strength to strength in dark blue as Dundee finished in the top six and he was nominated for Players’ Player of the Year.
A second nomination followed the next season as he continued to shine before Birmingham City took him down south and he’d go on to play for Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and Rangers before heading to India where he now stars for Mumbai City.
“It was somebody taking a chance on you, that’s all it was,” Stewart told the Scots Abroad podcast.
“You don’t see many players with my kind of story.
“But Paul Hartley signed me at Dundee, he took the chance on me.
“That’s where you need wee breaks. Because I could have played in the Championship again and not done that well.
“But they got promoted to the Premiership and I just kicked on again.
“Things happen for a reason.”
Pay cut
Signing for Dundee meant giving up his job at an oil refinery in Grangemouth.
And with it, less money in his pocket each week.
Stewart revealed: “I took a wage cut to become a full-time football player. I had two jobs – getting paid by my work and as a part-time football player.
“I signed for Dundee on less money than I would have got every week.
“I had to take that chance. If I didn’t, at 24 years old, I might not get that chance again.
“At that moment in time there was no doubt I wasn’t taking that risk.
“I knew if I could get myself physically in shape, I could compete with these boys in the Premiership.”
‘Hammering me’
Getting physically in shape to compete at the top level of football in Scotland, however, was easier said than done.
And Stewart admits manager Hartley must have wondered what he’d got himself in for in those first few weeks at Dens Park.
“It took me a while to get used to it, fitness-wise and training every day,” he added.
“Training every day – we started on the Monday, I couldn’t train on the Tuesday! I turned up and went ‘gaffer I can’t train’ after the first day of training.
“I couldn’t do two days in a row, my body was in pain, my legs were in bits, my back. This was for four weeks.
“Zico (Hartley) must have been thinking to himself ‘what have I signed here?!’
“We went to Budapest for a week and I could only train one day then off the next and Si Ferry is taking the p*** out of me. We had funny boys, what a changing-room it was.
“These boys are hammering me.
“But Paul and the fitness coach were really good with me. But once I got into the rhythm, physically good I was thinking I’m just as good as these, if not better.
“It was a really good group of players, brilliant. We finished top six in my first season and I got nominated for Player of the Year – I’m standing up there with Van Dijk.
“That first year was brilliant.”
Scotland call?
Stewart lit up the Premiership during those two full seasons at Dundee, teaming up with his old Cowdenbeath mate Kane Hemmings for the second campaign.
Two Player’s Player of the Year nominations came and went but there was no international call-up.
Something Stewart admits was a disappointment at the time.
“I think (Scotland boss) Gordon Strachan had spoken to Paul Hartley and said ‘I’m thinking about him’ at that point,” Stewart revealed.
“But I think that was as good as it got.
“I’d be lying to say I was disappointed not to get into a squad to see what I’d be like against international players.
“But do I want to be that guy with one cap? Not really.
“I wouldn’t want to be in because someone pulled out injured, I’d want to be in the squad because I deserved to be in it.
“I’m disappointed not to get that opportunity but I’m not that bothered now.
“I look at the team now anyway – I’m not getting close to that!”
‘I signed for the wrong team’
Stewart would leave Dundee after two sensational seasons in dark blue as English Championship side Birmingham City won the race for his signature.
The deal would start at £500,000, rising to £1 million if all add-ons were met.
Stewart revealed Birmingham weren’t the only team in for him and he admits in the end he had to force the move through after a chat with managing director John Nelms.
But Birmingham turned out to be the wrong move.
“There were a few teams in the Championship sniffing about but it was dragging on,” he added.
“Dundee had knocked about four or five bids back.
“Obviously it’s life-changing for me and my family so I went to see the chairman John Nelms.
“I kind of tried to force it through but looking back now, should I have waited? I think I signed for the wrong team at the wrong time.
“I didn’t realise what was going on behind the scenes at Birmingham.
‘I was going no matter what’
“Don’t get me wrong, when I went down there the team was doing really well. I wouldn’t say I regret it.
“I was in a position where I was going no matter what, because of what was in front of me.
“Paul Hartley was brilliant, he would never stand in my way. It was probably him who said to speak to the chairman.
“They had knocked back bids and I said to Paul I couldn’t play the first game of the season, I couldn’t take the chance of getting injured.
“I remember just training on my own at Dens Park when the boys were heading up to Ross County.
“I didn’t know what was happening. But then five or six days later the move happened.
“But Birmingham didn’t quite go to plan, unfortunately.”
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