City bosses tasks not quite the same

ON the surface Dundee and United bosses Neil McCann and Ray McKinnon face very similar tasks this summer.

Both are looking to make plenty signings as they remould their teams for the 2017/18 campaign.

But when you get down to the nuts and bolts of what they’re facing, there are some significant differences.

With Dundee in the Premiership it’s safe to say one advantage McCann has over McKinnon is his budget will be considerably bigger.

And the fact he’s operating in the top flight should make it easier to lure good players to Dens Park.

His profile from working as a pundit for Sky for the past few years will probably be a help as well.

In other ways, though, his task will be more difficult than the one facing McKinnon at Tannadice.

Dundee only have three first-team men out of contract.

That makes it more difficult to move out the players he feels are surplus to requirements.

And, after the season Dundee have just had, there will be a few.

In that respect McCann is where McKinnon found himself this time last year.

He had a lot of players earning better money than they could get elsewhere, so even though they didn’t want to be in the Championship, they were willing to hang on where they were for the final year of their contracts.

With Dundee in the Premiership it could be even more difficult to ship out the surplus straight away.

McCann has, at least, worked with his players for a wee while now and will be getting to know them and judge them.

It takes longer than he’s had to get to know them well but it’s a case of something is better than nothing.

And it might be this time next year before he feels he’s putting together his team.

That’s where McKinnon is right now and, on top of knowing his squad well, he has had a season to look around elsewhere and see who he might be able to bring in.

From the start of the new season he really will feel this is his United team, one he’s brought together and will be shaping into a side that plays his type of football.

The down side of that is if anything goes wrong there are no excuses because it’s your team.

Neil McCann and Ray McKinnon both need to take on rebuilding jobs to best prepare their sides for the season.