Dundee United boss Ray McKinnon has revealed that money wasn’t a motivation for new signing Tony Andreu.
With the one-year loan deal meaning he was still getting paid by Norwich City, it then came down to deciding which club the Frenchman felt could best help his career development.
It was to the credit of United and their manager that Andreu chose the Tangerines ahead of no fewer than five other clubs, whose number was understood to have included Dundee, Aberdeen and Ross County.
The deal went through a few hours before the close of the transfer window, leaving a relieved McKinnon with a highly-rated attacker for the rest of the Championship campaign.
The Tannadice boss said: “We worked hard to get Tony here and I believe there were five other clubs in for him.
“I was sweating all day on it and there were a few points where I didn’t think it would happen.
“He scored a hat-trick against Peterborough the night before the deadline so it was all over Sky Sports and that alerted other people.
“But I’m delighted he made the choice to come here.
“I sold the club to him and it was nothing to do with money because he’s getting paid by Norwich.
“He wanted to come here because of the club and the way we want to play football.
“Tony thinks this is the best platform for him to get back playing football again.
“He’s taken advice from good people and he knows United – that was a big part of his decision.
“He said that he loved playing at Tannadice when he was in Scotland before and knows we’ve got a good fan base.”
The Andreu deal made it a trio of new players in a short space of time for United, with Frank van der Struijk and William Edjenguele arriving earlier.
McKinnon added: “I’m really happy with the signings we have made over the last week, bringing in Frank and William as well.
“The work we have done in this window has been brilliant.
“We have worked miracles to get the players in that we have with little money.”
McKinnon also confirmed that there had been a late, audacious approach from Hibs for striker Simon Murray, which didn’t get anywhere.
He said: “We had an enquiry about Simon but we said there was nothing happening there.
“We were not interested in doing anything with Hibs – it was as simple as that.”
Justin Johnson did head for the exit, leaving yesterday to join up with former United manager Jackie McNamara at York City.
