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LEE WILKIE: Dundee United and Tony Watt are drifting apart – now they should make it official

Tony Watt wasn't part of United's squad for Sunday's season-opening Dundee derby.

Tony Watt, right, and Dundee United gaffer Jim Goodwin
Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin (left) and Tony Watt (right). Image: SNS

A penny for the thoughts of Tony Watt.

The striker wasn’t in the Dundee United squad for Sunday’s derby after being sent up to Buckie Thistle to turn out for the B team in the SPFL Trust Trophy.

Then he deleted his X social media account over the weekend.

I don’t know what’s gone on behind the scenes but it looks increasingly clear his time at the club is up.

I can’t see a way back for him and Sunday’s vibrant attacking display, in the first half anyway, showed me that United have already moved on.

Now it’s time for Watt to do the same.

Tony Watt remained on the bench for Dundee United despite the overwhelming need for goals
Tony Watt rests on the bench for Dundee United in their Premier Sports Cup clash with Buckie. Image: SNS

I just can’t see how he breaks into that team now and boss Jim Goodwin would likely prefer to reinvest the money for Watt’s salary on a different part of the squad before the end of the month.

Now it’s about negotiations between the two parties, it’ll cost both a bit of money but it’s no use to anyone if the player is sat twiddling his thumbs and not getting a sniff.

Watt was a major part of United’s title-winning side last season and deserves huge credit for the way he turned things around at the club after his loan at St Mirren and being quoted saying he wanted to stay there.

It was an impressive season from Watt and that should not be forgotten.

But the step up to the Premiership is a big one and Goodwin obviously feels he needs different players to make that jump.

Kristijan Trapanovski wheels away to celebrate after making it 1-0 to United at Tannadice. Image: Mark Scates/SNS

The writing was on the wall already for Watt but Dundee United’s opening salvo in the derby showed they are going in a new direction now.

I wrote last week that I thought Dundee were going into the game as the more settled team.

That didn’t exactly play out on the Tannadice turf though!

I was pleasantly surprised by how Dundee United took to their task in the early stages.
I felt they got to grips with the game far, far quicker than their rivals.

And going forward there was a fluency we hadn’t seen yet from Jim Goodwin’s team.

Dundee struggled to deal with United early on and tactically the Tangerines won out in the first half.

They had three forwards right up against the Dark Blues’ three-man backline and looked really effective.

In a league where a number of teams play a back three, that could be very fruitful.

All the new signings, too, showed they can handle it in this division.

Guys like David Babunski and Kristijan Trapanovski were involved in all the dangerous attacks, Jort van der Sande did well too.

Vicko Sevelj did brilliantly for the second goal and showed his attacking talents.

All those new signings doing so well bodes well for the season to come.

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