Tony Asghar appreciates that his son coming on to the Dundee United payroll “puts pressure” on him.
But Adam was the best man for the job of senior academy head coach – and it was the academy director, Andy Goldie, who appointed him.
There have been a number of changes in the United coaching and backroom set-up over the last few months, with the arrival of Adam, David Byrne and Jordan Moore, and the departures of Scott Robertson and Craig Easton, the most recent.
As far as Adam is concerned, his CV immediately disproves any notion of football nepotism.
“I saw some people seemed to think it was abhorrent,” said Tony.
“Ultimately, Andy Goldie made the appointment. Obviously it came to me because I’m the next in line.
“It puts a lot of pressure on me to have my son working here but if he’s the best for the job, that’s what matters.
“He spoke to the owners and spoke to Robbie. It wasn’t a case of me pressing a button and saying, ‘we’re employing him’. It’s gone through a process.
“Even though he’s in his mid-20s he’s been about football a long time. He’s been highly successful with Motherwell.
“The opportunity for him was huge and he says that we have some of the best potential in the country here – and that’s bearing in mind Adam and Andy have worked with players in the Scotland set-up.
“Adam is more hungry because he didn’t make it as a player. He knows the pitfalls. Andy Goldie has worked with him, trusts him and wanted to bring him in. He was offered the chance to replace Andy but wanted to come here.”
Tony stopped short of saying the United academy had been neglected before the recent takeover of the club but there is no denying that investment has risen sharply from the Thompson to the Ogren era.
“The SFA have made it clear that when they created Project Brave and elite status, you need to fulfil a lot of obligations,” he said. “They are huge – facilities, coaches, support staff.
“It is a massive investment but that’s what the owners have wanted to do. They want to put the onus on to the academy.
“We won’t see the fruits of that for a couple of years but what I will say is that some of the players we have at under-19, under-18 and under-16 are good players.
“Neglected is a wee bit harsh but it is tough when a club is under financial pressure and you’re always fighting fires. The academy side of things can get pushed to the margins.
“It’s not been prioritised. We’ve got to get the best coaches in, get the GA Arena working as a high performance centre and get the buy-in from the manager. We need a manager who wants to get young players in the team and with Robbie Neilson that is 100% the case.
“We’ll be giving them the time to develop and if they leave this club we want to make sure they leave as Dundee United supporters.”
With Goldie and Adam Asghar having played important roles in bringing through the crop of Motherwell players now making a name for themselves in the Premiership, the attraction of enticing them to Tannadice was an obvious one.
Tony said: “Andy was at Braidhurst High School, the SFA Performance School at Motherwell. He looked after a number of those players, as did Adam, who worked with him.
“Motherwell and Hamilton clearly get players into their first team.
“What we looked at was the models of these clubs who are fishing on their own doorstep and getting the best players into their first teams as quickly as possible.
“They’re being successful in the first team and the club are getting a return on their investment when they are sold.
“But we’ve got to look at the likes of Hearts and Hibs as well.
“For this club not to do it would be strange. We need the same ideology from top to bottom.
“With the GA Arena we’re in the process of taking it back from other ownership to create a high performance centre which will be a base for young players before they are ready to go to St Andrews with the first team.
“Eventually we’ll get the women’s team involved there as well, and be a community hub.”
