Dundee United midfielder John Rankin has called on others to follow in his footsteps after agreeing a new deal with the Tangerines.
Rankin celebrated his contract extension by blasting home a late strike in United’s 2-0 win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Saturday, adding to the first-half goal from Scott Robertson.
He now hopes to blaze a trail that will be pursued by clubmates, like Robertson for example, who are contemplating whether or not to remain at Tannadice next season.
What could help make up minds is the lure of European football, which became ever likelier for United after the victory in Perth. They moved up to fourth spot in the SPL and finishing there would see them clinch a Europa League slot.
The picture would get a whole lot rosier if they could catch third-placed Motherwell, with Champions League football likely to be on offer due to Rangers’ expected exclusion due to administration.
”I agreed the contract last week and I am delighted to stay here,” said Rankin. ”I am enjoying my football and my challenge was to help the club try to get European football and hopefully I can do that.
”When you are offered a contract you do think about who else is going to be here. You ask yourself who is going to be the first one to sign?” said Rankin. ”But why wait and why think about it too much? The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
”So I have decided to take the contract and be happy with that. Hopefully now a few other boys can see that and we can get more signed up. If we can get the bulk of the team to stay together then who knows what can happen next season?”
There could indeed be exciting times ahead but no one at United is getting carried away just because they have made a great start to the post-split fixtures.
”We wanted to get our noses in front of St Johnstone and establish ourselves in fourth spot, although things could change between now and the end of the season,” added Rankin.
”We are not naive so we know that could happen. But it has been a massive turnaround.
”At the start of the season we were struggling and everyone was jumping on the bandwagon and getting on the manager’s back. But we had the confidence and knew it was going to happen for us some time.
”Now we are on a great run of wins (nine out of 12 matches stretching back to January), but we are not thinking about that (catching Motherwell).”