Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
United have only – facing Saints in
DUNDEE United full-back Jamie Robson insists he hasn’t given the threat to their promotion a second thought over the summer.
As the bid by Hearts and Partick Thistle to block the Tangerines’ step-up to the Premiership has bounced from the Court of Session to an SFA arbitration panel, Robson and his team-mates has been busily preparing for their opening topflight fixture against St Johnstone at Tannadice a week tomorrow.
That the United squad find themselves so close to their curtain-raiser with their future still officially unresolved is a disgrace and an embarrassment to Scottish football as a whole.
However, the encouraging thing is that the players seem unaffected by the off-field chaos.
Robson said: “I don’t know too much about what has been going on with that. It hasn’t been an issue for me and I don’t think it has affected any of our players. We haven’t been speaking about it.
“We have one thing on our mind and that is preparing for the first game of the Premiership season.
“That is how the situation is for us and until that changes or anything gets said then that’s what we will continue to do.”
Of course, the Tannadice men have had more than the Hearts/ Thistle issue to cope with this summer.
There has also been the coronavirus lockdown and the switch of manager, with Robbie Neilson leaving in dramatic fashion to go to the Jam Tarts and Micky Mellon arriving to take over.
Mellon will now be joined by assistant boss Stevie Frail with just over a week of pre-season training remaining. However, Robson insists the transition has been smooth.
He added: “The new manager has come in under difficult circumstances. We had our previous gaffer leaving very quickly and I didn’t really know the circumstances around that.
“We have a new boss now and he has moved fast to make his wee points about how he wants us to play.
“We were always together as a squad so the change (of manager) has not been a problem.
“We have had a few meetings with him now and he has passed things on to us as defenders.
“He has been slowly but surely putting his message across to the players about what he wants from us this season.
“I have enjoyed working under him over these past few weeks.
“He is just so positive about everything. He wants to win – and he has been a big winner over his career with the promotions.
“We have all been urged to play the game the right way and do