It’s time for McCann to prove he is a real asset

FOOTBALL management is no place for a dilettante. Nor does any good come from appointing a head coach who feels, with however much justification, that he’s too good — too smart — for his surroundings. No one is yet suggesting that Neil McCann fits the description outlined above. He’s got work to do, however, in order to convince everyone that he’s absolutely serious about giving his absolute everything — heart, soul and, as is often required in this dirty business, dignity — to drag Dundee up the table. That’s unfair, of course. But football being somewhat less than even-handed in its distribution of fates will hardly surprise McCann (below), whose playing and punditry experience have given him an enviable insight into the inner workings of the game. He will understand, certainly, that having to be persuaded to take the job — you’ll remember the whole ‘will he, won’t he’ saga in the summer — meant the first sign of trouble would prompt questions about whether he really wants to be there. And, while again this may be a tad harsh, there has always been a certain swagger about McCann — a cocksure streak that served him well as a swashbuckling winger and that can be misinterpreted by those who don’t know him. As so many budding tacticians have discovered, there is no such thing as a plan that survives even the first two games of a season. With injuries mounting and no points on the board, Dundee’s plight would be worrying for a proven boss. The presence of a rookie at the helm is just one more problem. Unless and until he can prove he is a genuine asset — wholeheartedly throwing himself into the mincing machine, doing whatever it takes to pick up points — and not worrying about how it impacts on his reputation as a deep thinker.