If there are Championship clubs in England preparing to bring in a new goalkeeper in the summer, you would imagine they will be weighing up whether to go for Zander Clark or Benjamin Siegrist.
Nothing is sure in football but at the moment everything is pointing towards the two men leaving Tayside when their contracts run down at the end of the season.
I rate them both very highly.
Zander is probably slightly better in terms of pure shot-stopping but you’d maybe give Benji the edge for coming to collect more cross balls.
Zander Clark v Dundee United pic.twitter.com/n6e0IrsXCB
— St. Johnstone FC News ★★ (@sjfcnews) October 31, 2021
Scouting of keepers will go into every detail available so a lot will depend on which of those two sides of the game a manager wants to prioritise.
Distribution will come into it as well.
The biggest thing that both men have going for them is they’ve proved over a period of time that they’ve been consistent at a high level.
And if they do move, it’s a huge decision on which club they choose.
They’re definitely good enough to be first choice at a Championship side down side – just look at former Dundee goalie Seny Dieng doing well with QPR.
At 29, they’re in their prime.
Nobody gets guaranteed a start outfield or between the posts but playing regularly is a must at this stage of their careers.
I’m just glad I don’t have to choose which one to go for!
I said at the start of the transfer window that keeping their best players could be more important for Dundee than bringing in new ones.
Shaun Byrne definitely falls into that category.
Extending his contract was a great bit of business at Dens.
He’s a very good midfielder – with the ball and without it.
And he’s exactly the type of character James McPake needs for the second half of the season.
Although he was still on his way back from injury before the mid-season break, I heard he was volunteering to go on the bench when Dundee were short.
James will have loved to see that and having him back on the pitch next week will be huge for his team’s hopes of staying up.
Kerr Smith is set to be the latest young Scot to head to England.
The move from Dundee United to Aston Villa is one neither he nor Tony Asghar could turn down.
You could make a case for him getting more first team experience at Tannadice but there are no guarantees a similar opportunity will come round again.
“He’s only 16. I was in Malia with the lads when he was born in 2004!”
🎥 @charlie_mulgrew interview on @dundeeunitedfc’s teen sensation Kerr Smith only in @thecouriersport https://t.co/uu7HfOnB4Y pic.twitter.com/Rs5bIef3nx
— Ewan Smith (@ewansmithpr) July 5, 2021
And, when you look at the money involved, this isn’t a kid going from one academy to another.
Smith may well be involved on the fringes of the first team at Villa quicker than people might think.
Good luck to Steven Doris in retirement.
He was a great lad in the dressing room and a very good footballer.
It was a shame his move back into the full-time game with Dundee didn’t work out as he would have hoped.
But what isn’t in doubt is that at his peak, he was one of the best part-time players in the country.
