Dundee boss James McPake admits if the club do miss out on signing Stevie May it will not be for a lack of trying.
The Aberdeen striker looks odds-on to return to the club where it all started for him, St Johnstone.
That’s despite the fact McPake as well as the club’s first-team coach and former team-mate of May’s, Saints legend Dave Mackay, had a productive meeting with the 26-year-old.
The Dark Blues also tabled what the manager describes as a “very good offer” to the player.
However, McPake admits that even if they have failed in their bid to snap up May, Dundee will continue to tread carefully in the transfer market and will not be rushed into any reckless moves.
He said: “We made Stevie a very good offer.
“Me and Dave had a very good chat with him. We put our points across and I like him and his ideas about what he wanted to do.
“We made him a very good offer for this football club but it looks like he is going elsewhere.
“We are working on a number of things and we will never be rushed into signing someone.”
McPake added: “We know we are short and we know we need help up front, higher up the pitch but it doesn’t change when you lose out on one or two.
“I will stick by that. It is frustrating for the fans, it is frustrating for me but we believe in the way we are going to do it.
“If Stevie ends up somewhere else then good luck to him but as I said, we made him a very good offer.”
While May to Saints seems to be a done deal, McPake admitted that until he is officially unveiled as a St Johnstone player he will not give up on the striker.
The manager added: “Look, football’s weird at times and things change but I knew other teams would be interested in him and other teams were making offers as well.
“So it just came down to what Stevie wanted to do.
“Certainly from our point of view, it was as good an offer as I have seen at this football club.
“In my opinion it was also as good as any offer the Premiership teams would have put to him.”
Meanwhile, McPake gave an update on midfielder Jamie Ness’s ankle injury and revealed that another player has suffered a setback in his recovery from a long-term absence.
He added: “We are hopeful Jamie will only be out for a week or two.
“The scan showed there wasn’t a lot of damage and it is just a rolled ankle.
“We are delighted that is all as he has started very well for us and we can see his quality.
“So we will get him rehabbed and back out there as soon as it is safe to do so.
“However, Andrew Davies has picked up a thigh strain so he will be out for a few weeks with that.”
