Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Goldie says Tangerines’ young guns will play a key role
DUNDEE United academy director Andy Goldie was delighted to see kids Kai Fotheringham and Kerr Smith make their firstteam debuts and insists there are more to come.
Attacker Fotheringham and defender Smith are the latest budding talents to come off the Tangerines’ production line, with Lewis Neilson, Kieran Freeman and Darren Watson also making top-team bows this season.
Fotheringham, 17, got 45 minutes in the recent 5-1 defeat at the hands of St Mirren, his league debut, while 16-year-old Smith made his first-ever United appearance with a cameo in Sunday’s 4-1 loss at Rangers.
Smith, in particular, has been one of many young Terrors to attract the interest of clubs down south in recent times, having had trials at Manchester United and Aston Villa.
However, youth chief Goldie hopes his rising stars are here to stay and says more kids will follow their lead into boss Micky Mellon’s plans.
“We’ve got an unbelievable amount of talent coming through just now in the 2003, 2004 and 2005 groups,” the 35-year-old said.
“We have three 2005s who’ll sign full-time contracts this year and some 2006s further down the line so it’s an exciting time.
“Some of these players are attracting big interest from down south, and in Europe as well, and some will maybe move on because we can’t keep every single player.
“We will have a number of players breaking through into the first team, and the next stage for us is building on the likes of Kai’s 45 minutes against St Mirren.
“We want to see boys getting sustainable runs in the first team where they’re actually impacting in the starting XI on a regular basis.
“Kerr’s not the only one who had interest from down south. He rightly grabbed the headlines, but there were other ones like Lewis.
“They’ve both made the transition from central midfielder to centre-back and that’s coincided with a sharp acceleration in their development and, therefore, in the interest they were gathering with some of the biggest clubs across Europe.
“This is happening behind the scenes with our players on a regular basis. People are asking questions about what we’re doing and a big part of that is because they are getting that opportunity.”
Goldie laid down the gauntlet to his fledglings, challenging them to turn cameo appearances into a regular run of games as a bona fide Tangerine.
He continued: “We won’t settle for sitting on the bench for four or five games or playing 15 minutes here or there. We want these boys to really make an impact on a consistent basis.
“We always look to excel and it’s been great to see some green shoots come through from the hard work and the quality our staff are putting in but we want more. We’re third in the number of minutes in the Premiership for U/23 graduates this year but we want to be top as well as being top six, qualifying for Europe and competing for cups as well.
“That’s our standard and the level we aspire to be at.
“That’s a process. It doesn’t just happen overnight, so we’re comfortable that we’ve had some boys make debuts this year and so on but we’ll never settle for that.
“Ultimately, that’s up to the manager and even more so the players to continue to work hard and impress when the opportunity arises.