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 United legend Paul Sturrock insists he knows what fans are going through

Paul Sturrock.
Paul Sturrock.

Dundee United legend Paul Sturrock has total sympathy with the fans who have had to watch their team toil in the Championship.

Luggy may be one of the club’s greatest-ever players and a former manager but he also considers himself to be a supporter.

Brought to Tannadice as an adviser to manager Csaba Laszlo, Sturrock is now part of the efforts to somehow reverse the Tangerines’ decline.

The pressure is on United again today as they head to Greenock to face Morton just days after a morale-sapping 1-0 loss up at Inverness.

Victory for the third-placed hosts will see them move four points clear of United, who would also be vulnerable to attack from below.

Sturrock will be at Cappielow to offer his advice and his involvement is evidence that he is just as desperate as the fanbase to see light at the end of what has been a very long and dark tunnel.

He said: “At this minute in time, we are fourth in the Championship and that’s from being potentially a top-four team in the Premier League for God knows how long.

“So I can appreciate, because I’m a fan myself, that people are not happy.

“Everybody at the football club appreciates that.

“No manager or chairman goes out not to win a football game or not to make sure his football club is not going in the right direction.

“The pressure is on the team because we’ve got an exasperated fanbase because of the position we are in the league.

“It’s hard work at this moment in time.

“I hope that my recruitment drive over the summer months – and that’s what I’m really here for – will benefit the football club.

“Hopefully, whatever happens to the end of the season it will be a stronger team whatever league we’re in next season.”

Sturrock’s mention of the recruitment drive is significant because he sees failure in that area as being at the heart of United’s woes.

“I do feel that recruitment has been one of the key reasons why things have worked out not how we would have liked it,” he said.

“A manager turns up at a club with a long injury list, poor recruitment before him and all of a sudden he has to win football games at the same time as revamping his squad.

“Then in comes another one with his ideas, changes everything and has to deal with injuries and revamp the squad.

“I actually took over Sheffield Wednesday at a time when they had been through the same scenario.

“They had had three or four managers, signed the world and it just needed a bit of luck to get into the play-offs, which we did.

“We won our semi-final, got to the final and were 2-1 down with nine minutes to go. We scored to go into extra-time and won it.

“You can also look at Hibs.

“Everybody is saying: ‘Oh Dundee United are a disgrace’. However, Hibs took three years to get out of this league and struggled in the third year as well.

“So it’s not an easy league.”

Like Laszlo, Sturrock insists nothing more should be read into his arrival than the official line, which is that he is there is an advisory capacity.

He said: “I have took a training session the other day and that was very nice.

“I think it’s about freshness and the manager said to me: ‘Do this and do that.’

“I had a wee window of 20 minutes and really enjoyed it.

“However, that’s just what it was.

“I first met him (Laszlo) to help out with the scouting.

“It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that some of the teams in Scotland have benefited from going down to England and bringing players up.

“It’s something that Dundee United hasn’t really tapped into so I was happy to come up and talk to the manager and chairman about doing that job.

“Also, I have watched the training quite regularly and seen a couple of games now.

“There are good players here but I think confidence is a huge thing in football.

“For example, I watched their reaction to losing the goal against Dunfermline last week at home and their body language showed people whose heads are down.

“I think we are a win away from being back on the rails and winning is the key to it all.

“It can be a dirty win as far as I’m concerned. We can be absolutely hopeless (against Morton) so long as we win.”