Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Boyack quit Gers finish fifth in the
HIGHS and lows in football are no new thing for a footballer – former Dundee midfielder Steven Boyack’s time at Dens Park certainly had that.
After joining for a reported £125,000 from Rangers as a 22-year-old in 1999, Boyack’s arrival coincided with a spark in form that led Jocky Scott’s Dundee to equal the best top-flight finish since the league-winning side of 1961/62.
But less than 18 months later, Boyack wasn’t even given a squad number by incoming boss Ivano Bonetti and knew an enjoyable time at the club was over.
A former Scotland U/21 international, Boyack had been on the fringes of the first team at Walter Smith’s Rangers amid their nine-ina-row successes of the 90s.
Despite making his debut in 1996 alongside the likes of Andy Goram, Richard Gough, Jorg Albertz, Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup and up against Ray Wilkins in the Hibs team, Boyack would eventually move on in search of first-team football.
Dundee came in and family connections made it the perfect move.
“I had been at Rangers a while and it was time to move on,” Boyack told Tele Sport.
“I had family connections to Dundee, my dad was a big fan and was always talking about ducking school so he could go watch the AC Milan European Cup semi-final.
“I think that local connection helped and I was quite happy people knew that. Dundee is a small place and I remember my granny from Broughty Ferry getting on the bus with me and saying to everyone ‘this is my grandson, he plays for Dundee!’
“It was the right move and it was great, for the most part anyway – it ended really badly.
“Things started off great and I loved it at Dens. As much I was on the fringes of the first team at Rangers and playing in the reserves, Dundee was my first real club where I played consistent firstteam football.
“It was exciting times and completely different to reserve football – it’s just not the same pressure as a young guy at Rangers.
“That was boy’s football – I was playing the men’s game at Dundee.
“Suddenly it was a relegation battle and there’s all these experienced guys who are playing for a contract or to avoid a wage cut by being relegated. The pressure was much more, suddenly everything was about 3 o’clock on a Saturday, nothing else mattered.”
The news was out that fans favourite Dariusz Adamczuk was leaving for Rangers in the summer after three years at the club.
“I remember there was a story at the time I was being brought in to replace Dariusz Adamczuk because he was leaving on a Bosman, going to Rangers funnily enough.” Boyack added.
“I think it might have been right after I signed when Dariusz got sent off at Dunfermline and got a six-game ban. That gave me my start in the team. We went on a run after that and won five on the bounce near the end of the season.
“We had a good hard-working