The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Adam staying true to the Dark Blues
Former Dundee skipper Charlie Adam says he’ll never stop supporting the Dark Blues despite disappointment at the way his time at the club ended.
The 36-year-old revealed he’d been told there would be a contract on offer for next season and that Dundee wanted to keep him.
However, when his two-year deal came to an end last month, “things changed” and his time at Dens Park was over.
And he admits it was a “difficult” way to finish his time with his boyhood club.
“I was told there was going to be another contract offer and they wanted to keep me,” he told PLZ.
“Then things changed at the end of the season, which is understandable.
“It is difficult the way it ended. They’ve moved on and I’ll move on. I’ll never stop supporting the club.”
Despite that disappointment, the former Rangers and Liverpool man looks back on his time as a Dundee player with great fondness.
And he picked out promotion from the Championship and scoring in the derby as real highlights of his two years as a dark blue.
“I looked at it as a positive. It was the illness to my mum that made me make the decision (to go to Dundee),” Adam added.
“I got an opportunity to play for my boyhood club, which I never thought I would.
“I am eternally grateful to James (McPake) and the people that made it happen.
“It’s a shame that it comes to an end. It has come to an end and I’m disappointed with how it came to an end.
“That’s football at times but I look back with great memories. To go there and get promoted from the Championship, play in the Premiership with Rangers and Celtic, scoring in big games like the derby was brilliant for me.”
What happens next for Adam, though, is unknown.
He felt he had another year in him at Dundee and says he is keen to keep playing beyond this summer.
Last month he revealed there had been contact from a couple of clubs but he says he will take time with his family to consider what comes next.
“I have a problem at the moment – what to do. I will wait and see what the next couple of weeks brings,” he said.
“I’ll have a holiday with the family and we’ll make a decision. I am looking forward to the future. My end goal is coaching but I would love to keep playing, if possible.”
Meanwhile, former Dundee keeper Derek Soutar insists Cove Rangers can storm the Championship – and can’t wait to go head to head with his old club.
Soutar is relishing Cove’s upcoming Championship campaign after Paul Hartley’s high-fliers surged to League One glory last season with their third promotion in four years.
Now the ex-Dens Park No 1, who’s the goalkeeping coach at Cove, is confident the Championship new boys can kick on even further as he savours the prospect of facing the Dark Blues.
Soutar said: “Dundee will be huge favourites for the league next season and rightly so after coming down.
“But I’m looking forward to us going up against them and believe we can more than handle ourselves in the Championship.
“We know it will be a tough league. But we can go up against teams confident on the back of what we’ve just achieved and the standards that the manager has set at the
club. Arbroath are a great example of what can be achieved by a part-time club in that league.
“Now we can go up, give it a real go and show we mean business.
“We have a great foundation at the club. Everyone is on a high, so hopefully we can make an impact.”
Soutar was devastated to see Dundee relegated under former boss Mark McGhee and knows exactly the pain associated with going down from his own time at Dens.
He added: “That relegation back in 2005 was the lowest point of my career. The feeling of letting the club and fans down that season weighed heavy
“I feel for the fans massively. Dundee need to appoint a manager who can be left to do the job and build a team capable of pushing for the title.”