Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
McPake admits ‘Dark Blueprint’
PREMIERSHIP managers are plotting their players’ return to training.
But Dundee boss James McPake is still wondering when he’ll get the chance to lay out his ‘ Dark Blueprint’.
Amidst continuing uncertainty over when the Championship will get started – and what form it will take – a provisional agreement has reportedly been reached between second tier clubs to kick off a truncated, 27-game season on October 17.
The prospect of a 19-week wait until competitive football begins is far from ideal.
But McPake reckons Championship clubs are becoming so desperate for a speck of light at the end of the tunnel that even an October start date will be gratefully received.
He said: “I have heard bits and pieces but the problem, certainly for me, is that it is not definitive, it is a guide.
“That’s why I am finding it tough and why every other manager, player and staff member in football is probably the same.
“I am very cautious when I say how unsettling or how bad that is for us as there is a hell of a lot more going on in everyday life that means more than football.
“But if that date (October 17) is when we are starting, then that will be a bonus for us. It will be a massive plus that we have something to work to.
“Every manager will probably tell you the same – we need a date for when we are going to go back.
“But, as I said, I am cautious because there is an awful lot going on at the moment, from where you can take your kids to when you can go and meet other people. Everything is changing and I don’t think football will be any different.”
Reconstruction plans have now been run up the flagpole and ripped back down again more than once.
Consensus, as is so often the case in Scottish football, has proved impossible to reach.
Meanwhile, clubs like Dundee, whose business model means they sit uncomfortably in the Championship, have been left in limbo.
It has affected everyone at the club – and their manager is growing tired of the uncertainty.
However, McPake is conscious of the wider issues in today’s world, and his annoyance is tempered by realism.
He said: “There is frustration but, for me, that can’t be taken out on anyone.
“There is a frustration in every industry about where we find ourselves.
“We have never been i n a situation like this before and what that brings is a real level of uncertainty.
“We are looking for answers every day. I would be very reluctant to blame that on a single person or organisation as you can see it right across the world at the minute.
“But, yes, it is frustrating.