Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Top-class career could be at an end as Adam awaits news of his fate
THIS could be the last week of Charlie Adam’s illustrious footballing career.
His top-class CV includes Rangers, Blackpool, Liverpool, Stoke City, Reading and, finally, his boyhood team Dundee.
More than 200 appearances in the English Premier League and 26 Scotland caps, a League Cup winner on both sides of the border, Scottish Cup winner and Uefa Cup finalist.
And, of course, a promotion at Dens Park a year ago.
It’s a roll-call that would be the envy of the vast majority of footballers across the globe.
But it does look like it could end with disappointment as Dundee prepare to drop back to the Championship after just one season in the Scottish top flight.
They have two games to save their Premiership skins, needing a perfect six points from six and St Johnstone to lose both their own matches. Plus a seven-goal swing.
Adam will be 37 in December and doesn’t know if the Dark Blues manager next season, whoever it may be, will want him around.
If Dundee don’t keep him, Adam says his playing days, in Scotland at least, will be over.
His contract expires after Sunday’s trip to Livingston which could see his career end one day shy of the 18th anniversary of his senior debut for Rangers.
“We have a big summer ahead for our club, there will be big decisions to make,” Adam said.
“What way the club will go I don’t know and we will have to see what happens in the next few weeks.
“Will I stay on? It’s not my decision.
“This is my boyhood club and I would love to be here next season but it’s not about me, it’s about what is best for the club moving forward.
“If that is for me to leave and give other boys opportunities then no problem.
“It’s been a great two years and I have loved it but it is up to the owners and whoever the manager will be what happens next.
“We will make that decision in a few weeks, it’s been a tough season for everyone on and off the pitch.
“It’s so tough to take. “It’s not about me, I have had a wonderful career, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity from James McPake to come in and help the team.
“I was able to do that and we won promotion.
“It’s not the way I would like to leave if that’s what happens, but we will need to wait and see.”
If it was the end of his time at Dens Park, then what?
“Would I consider playing on anywhere else? No, I don’t think so, not in Scotland,” he said.
“If there was nothing else then I would look to retire and go into coaching or management.
“I only want to play here and if that is not to be then I have a decision to make.”