Campbell hopes cuts don’t leave Dee in the soup

FORMER Dundee youth coach Stevie Campbell doesn’t want to see his old club throw away all their “brilliant” academy work as the financial implications of the coronavirus shutdown hit home.

With no income since football was brought to a halt in March and no games on the horizon until the autumn, Dens Park chiefs are looking to make savings after managing director John Nelms announced the club had lost £500,000.

Players and staff have been asked to take pay cuts and it emerged this week the youth academy was in the firing line for savings.

And Campbell, who made over 100 appearances for the Dark Blues as a player before joining Ray Farningham and Kenny Cameron as a youth coach at Dens and then leading the successful academy at Dundee United until 2015, says cutting back on the youth set-up will have a long-term effect on the club.

He told Tele Sport: “It is worrying times, I must admit. It’s disappointing to hear they might be thinking of cuts because I have a lot of friends in the academy. I work with some kids who are in the academy and their families have been asking me what’s happening with it but I don’t know.

“I think back to my time at the club with Jinky (Farningham) and Kenny Cameron where we had a great youth set-up maybe 20 years ago now.

“Under (Head of Academy) Stephen Wright recently you could see that coming back with the improvements he’s made and guys like Barry Smith back there, Robbie Raeside and Scott Robertson all coaching.

“And to have Gordon Strachan there, too, one of my heroes when I was growing up, is fantastic. I’ve had the privilege of meeting Gordon a couple of times through the academy and that’s been great.

“There really are a lot of good young players there and who better to learn from than Gordon Strachan?

“I wouldn’t want to see all that brilliant work lost or stall. I guess there will be big decisions in the next few weeks and we’ll have to