The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Kerr determined to help club back to better times
The shock of last season’s relegation should be a watershed moment for Dundee as a football club.
That’s the feeling of club stalwart Cammy Kerr.
The long-serving rightback is in his testimonial year at Dens Park and says the meek nature of the last campaign was a culmination of many issues over a number of years.
Now though, despite dropping to the Championship, the club is attempting to reinvent itself to a degree.
Former Scotland boss Gordon Strachan is on top of first-team matters, there is a new manager in Gary Bowyer and a new training facility at Gardyne Campus of D&A College.
Kerr says there is an opportunity now for the club to get things right.
“This is not where Dundee should be and it has been an accumulation of loads of things that have happened throughout the years,” Kerr said.
“It is now time to really strip everything back and say this is Dundee, a massive club in the city.
“Make the community the heart of it and let’s really get back to what the club should be about.
“That’s the main thing and once you start doing that, then things will go in the right direction.”
A local boy, Kerr admits he doesn’t look too far when it comes to targets to aim for.
In his decade at the club, the Dark Blues have yo-yoed between the top two divisions.
Rivals Dundee United have done similar with four years in the Championship, but are now awaiting the draw for a return to European football after a fourth-placed finish last term.
“I always look across the road at Dundee United and that should be who you look at and want to compete against,” Kerr added.
“Right now we can’t say we compete against Dundee United because we are not in the same league – but if you start getting all the other things right, then slowly you can start to bridge that gap.
“Dundee and United should be competing at a high level and it is up to us as players and staff to go and make that happen in the short term, but longer term there needs to be a consolidation of this football club.”
Kerr and his team-mates return for pre-season training on Monday with a new management team to impress in Bowyer and No 2 Billy Barr.
Bowyer has moved north of the border after 10 years in English football management, where he took charge of Blackburn Rovers and most recently Salford City.
His successful time at Blackpool, however, has been Kerr’s focus.
Mainly because he had a former team-mate who worked under Bowyer at Bloomfield Road in Jim McAlister.
Now in the backroom staff at Rangers, McAlister was part of the Blackpool side that won promotion from League Two and he spoke highly of his former gaffer.
Kerr said: “The day he was announced, I spoke with Jim McAlister.
“He said he was one of the best managers he had worked with, a great, honest person.
“I like to think I am quite close with Jimmy and speak to him on a regular basis.
“I listen to what he says because he was a great professional when he was at Dundee.
“Jimmy was someone I looked up to so when he says things like that about the new manager, it bodes well going forward.”