Romantic Dundee United football supporters will be hoping that Jackie McNamara’s young and vibrant team will stay together for a couple of seasons.
Realistic Dundee United football supporters will be resigned to the fact that a bucket of cold water is coming their way, and it won’t happen.
Now that Stuart Armstrong has joined Ryan Gauld, John Souttar, Andrew Robertson and Nadir Ciftci in extending his contract, it would be lovely to think that they’ve made some sort of Musketeers’ pact to hang around come what may for another year at least.
I can see this next transfer window closing without a departure, but my guesstimate would be at least two will be off in the summer, and if any of the quintet are still wearing tangerine and black when 2015/16 gets underway I’ll be surprised.
And that’s before you speculate about possible attempts to lure McNamara away. You can’t hide from the fact that this is a man who is ticking box after box on the CV for a prospective Celtic boss.
After United’s League Cup exit in Inverness, this season’s Scottish Cup could be the one shot the team being talked about as United’s best since the 1980s has at silverware.
Anybody who saw United at Fir Park (still their best performance in my opinion) or at Tannadice over the last few weekends will know that is a realistic prospect, but all who were at the Tulloch Stadium will know that the fates (or referees) can contrive to make sure cup dreams never get realised.
With or without silverware, United fans will look back on this team as one of the most exciting in the club’s history.
But, without wanting to come over all pessimistic, they may also look back on it as one of those “what if they’d stayed together” sides.
It’s a compliment to a club and its youth development system that fans end up thinking that way, because it shows a crop of exceptional players have come through the ranks. Yet it can also make you feel like the poor couple in Bullseye standing beside Jim Bowen as the speed boat is revealed to the immortal line “this is what you could have won”.
And of that, Hibs are probably the best Scottish example in modern times.
Between around 2004 and 2007 they had players like Scott Brown, Steven Whittaker, Kevin Thomson, David Murphy, Gary O’Connor, Derek Riordan, Ian Murray and Steven Fletcher to call on. Internationals and/or English Premier League players one and all.
And then there were other less heralded SPL stalwarts like Rob Jones, Gary Caldwell, Chris Hogg, Ivan Sproule and Tam McManus.
You could get an outstanding 1 to 11 out of that little lot, and a pretty decent bench as well.
The only position they failed to find a gem was goalkeeper, but Nick Colgan was a 10-cap man for Ireland, and was perfectly capable.
In previous eras when big non-Old Firm clubs weren’t forced to keep selling their best players (like the 80s with United and Aberdeen) you could have seen Hibs mounting a sustained challenge for honours.
Similarly to United under Jim McLean, a number of the players mentioned had a natural affinity with their club and the city, which would suggest that plenty would have stayed where they were.
But this is not the 80s and managing director Rod Petrie had to keep moving players on (and Hibs were well compensated for it).
Across the border West Ham supporters will feel their nostalgic pain.
People talk about the Fergie Fledglings David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, the Neville brothers and Nicky Butt.
But Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe are worthy of comparison.
Unfortunately, it’s only the Manchester Uniteds in the modern game, not the West Hams, Hibernians or Dundee Uniteds who are able to keep a generation together and reap the rewards.
At least Hibs got one trophy the 2007 League Cup while a few of their young stars were still around. But the Easter Road side of the present day shows nothing can be taken for granted.
United will win more honours over the coming decades, the law of averages alone tells us that. But this season’s Scottish Cup may be the only one Jackie’s Juniors get the chance to have a go for, and to avoid this era becoming a “what if” period in the club’s history.
The expectation (and pressure) was pretty big when Dundee United faced St Mirren in the Scottish Cup in 1987. It will be pretty big again when the two clubs meet in the same competition in February.