Academy is Dark Blues’ ‘lifeline’, insists Smith

Former boss hopes club won’t be forced to make drastic cuts to its youth set-up

Dundee legend Barry Smith hopes the club doesn’t lose “its biggest lifeline” by making swingeing cuts to its youth academy.

Smith racked up 433 appearances for the Dark Blues as a player and led the Deefiant team of 2010/11 after stepping up from his role as U/19 coach.

Lately he’s been back at his beloved Dens, coaching the current crop of youngsters while also helping another Dee great, Jim Duffy, as his assistant at Dumbarton.

But the youth ranks at Dundee will be impacted as the Championship side take cost-cutting measures due to financial hardship caused by the coronavirus shutdown.

However, the club plans to maintain each of the age groups they currently operate while head of youth Stephen Wright and technical director Gordon Strachan are poised to take on greater coaching responsibilities.

For Smith and the other coaches at Dens, though, it is an uncertain time.

He told Courier Sport: “I don’t know what is going to happen, to be honest.

“Stephen Wright and Gordon Strachan have really built up the academy well in recent years following on from the work Jimmy Boyle did.

“That was something the club really needed to do, they needed to get back to the days when Ray Farningham and Stevie Campbell were bringing through lots of young players, guys like Lee Wilkie and Gavin Rae to the first team.

“The academy is the biggest lifeline for a club like Dundee for the future, so I hope they don’t lose all they’ve worked for and built up.

“The club are making some really tough decisions right now after putting academy coaches on furlough and may lose some of them, but it’s the right thing to do for the club if it needs to survive.

“There are a good crop of youngsters coming through and you don’t want to lose them or the coaches.”

Former Dundee defender Robbie Raeside is one of the coaches who has told Dens chiefs they will continue to coach youngsters for free until the club is on a surer financial footing.

Smith – who joined the Dark Blues from Celtic in 1995 before becoming captain two years later and lifting the 1997/98 First Division trophy – says that will be a big workload to bear, but it’s nothing he wouldn’t expect from some of his colleagues.

“There’s a really good unit of coaches who put in a lot of hours and it will be a lot to ask if some of them are working voluntarily,” he added.

“The type of people they are, though, I’m sure they’ll do it.

“Hopefully, there’s a way through that can keep most of the structure in place.

“I know they are trying to keep redundancies as small as possible to keep the club going but also keeping as much of the academy going as possible.

“It’s been good to be back at Dundee, I always want to give something back to a club that’s done so much for me and helped me so much.”

Picture: SNS. Barry Smith has been back doing some coaching at Dens.