Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Dundee boss Tony Docherty on ‘areas to strengthen’ before transfer window shuts as he explains lack of Burnley loans

The Dark Blues gaffer had limited back-up options in the weekend win over Hearts.

Tony Docherty
Dundee boss Tony Docherty. Image: SNS

Tony Docherty is delighted by the levels he is getting from his Dundee squad this season.

However, he is determined to strengthen his options even further in the final weeks of the summer transfer window.

With injuries to four first-team players for the weekend’s impressive win over Hearts, back-up options were limited.

Docherty made just one change before stoppage time and that was due to injury.

Ziyad Larkeche went off to be replaced by new signing Billy Koumetio as the Dark Blues held onto their first-half lead.

Curtis Main and Fin Robertson would come on to help see out the game after 90 minutes.

Billy Koumetio made his Dundee debut off the bench against Hearts. Image: David Young/Shutterstock
Billy Koumetio made his Dundee debut off the bench against Hearts. Image: David Young/Shutterstock

But it’s clear business will be done by the end of the month.

Docherty said: “On my bench on Saturday, I only had one midfielder and one striker and I had three defenders on it.

“We’ve got another three weeks of the window so we’ll be looking at areas where we can strengthen the squad.

“The core squad I’ve got at the moment, I’m absolutely delighted with what I’m getting.

“Six games we’ve scored 23 goals, so I think we’ve got brilliant attacking options but maybe there are other areas that we can strengthen.

“It’s trying to get that balance of scoring goals, which we’re doing, we’re free-flowing, but making sure we don’t concede as well.”

Burnley

One surprise this summer is that there have been no players coming up the road to Dundee on loan from Burnley.

The two clubs entered a strategic partnership at the start of 2024 and immediately three young talents were sent up on loan.

Owen Dodgson celebrates with fellow Dundee FC loanee Owen Beck at Pittodrie. Image: SNS.
Two of Dundee’s Burnley boys last season, on-loan Dara Costelloe and Owen Dodgson celebrate at Pittodrie. Image: SNS.

Owen Dodgson, Michael Mellon and Dara Costelloe bolstered Docherty’s options without using up his playing budget.

Burnley began their season on Monday night with a superb 4-1 win away to Luton Town in new boss Scott Parker’s first match in charge.

Docherty explained that later start has delayed any loans coming north of the border.

“We’ve still got that relationship with Burnley,” the Dundee boss said.

“We’re constantly working, we constantly get recruitment meetings to identify what we need.

“It’s important because obviously when this window shuts, that’s you until January.

Burnley defeated Luton Town 4-1 on Monday night. Image: Shutterstock
Burnley defeated Luton Town 4-1 on Monday night. Image: Shutterstock

“So this window is really important, you can establish your squad for the season and of course you get January coming up when you can add to it or whatever.

“But we’ll spend the next three weeks until the window shuts on the 31st, just making sure we identify areas that we can strengthen.

“It was Burnley’s first game on Monday night and we’re six games in already.

“So there is an element of that, not just Burnley, because the English league starts later than ours.

“You find at this stage there’s a lot more movement than there had been two or three weeks ago.

“What I will say, though, is we already have great competition for places and that’s really healthy.”

Conversation