This would be the most painful of exit wounds
Adam admits he may be ready to call it a day after howler puts Dundee on brink
IN a career that’s included playing for Rangers, Liverpool and Scotland, nothing has given Charlie Adam greater satisfaction than turning out for Dundee.
Playing for the club you grew up supporting is an indulgence very few get to fulfil, but the stars aligned perfectly for Adam and the Dark Blues following his release from Reading in 2019.
The conclusion to his first season was like something out of a comic book as the midfielder led his boyhood heroes back into the Premiership after a play-off win over Kilmarnock.
A desire to represent Dundee in the top division kept him going but, in hindsight, perhaps Adam should have called it a day once promotion had been achieved.
In contrast to last year’s triumph, this season has been grim both for the 36-year-old and for the team overall.
It will end — almost certainly — with immediate relegation. And how tragic that it was Adam who pushed them to the brink following a disastrous error on Saturday that led to St Mirren’s opening goal in a 2-0 victory.
There will be seismic changes at Dens Park in the summer. Manager Mark McGhee, whose appointment has failed to yield a single victory, will probably move on despite his desire to stay. The rump of an underachieving squad will depart, too.
Should Adam’s face — and wage demands — not fit in with the new regime’s plans, it will mark the end of an 18-year professional playing career that began with a Rangers debut in April 2004.
‘We have a big summer ahead, there will be big decisions to make,’ said the veteran. ‘What way the club will go, I don’t know. We will have to see what happens in the next few weeks.
‘Will I stay on? It’s not my decision to make. 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 is to decide 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.
‘I was lucky enough to get the opportunity from (former boss) James McPake to come in and help the team and we won promotion.
It’s not the way I would like to leave, but we will need to wait and see.’
Adam could still do a job for a number of clubs down the divisions but, if Dundee don’t want him, one of Scottish football’s biggest personalities insists he will hang up his boots.
‘Would I consider playing on anywhere else?’ pondered Adam. ‘No, I don’t think so, not in Scotland. If there was nothing else, I would look to retire and go into coaching or management. I only want to play here, so I have a decision to make.’
Adam’s biggest gripe is that Dundee have been effectively relegated without putting up any sort of fight. They showed promise in flashes against St Mirren but didn’t look like a team battling for their lives when the chips were down.
‘We went down with a whimper. We have played well in spells, but haven’t really had a go. We’ve huffed and puffed all year,’ he confessed.
‘We got a couple of good results here and there, but haven’t been able to put a string of results together.
‘To be honest, I don’t think we’ve been good enough and we deserve to be in the situation we’re in.
‘We haven’t scored enough goals, we haven’t kept enough clean sheets either. That’s down to everyone, not one or two people.
‘We whimpered out the game against St Mirren and that’s so disappointing to see.’
Adam didn’t help matters by passing the ball straight across his own goal to Alex Greive. Perhaps he was unsighted, but it was one of the howlers of the season from a man normally so classy on the ball. That said, his team still had 86 minutes to salvage the situation and never looked like doing so.
When St Mirren’s Curtis Main scored only his second league goal of the season with a spectacular piledriver after the break, it was game over for the Dark Blues.
Could Adam explain what he was thinking when he committed his uncharacteristic gaffe that proved so costly?
‘I have tried to be too clever and play it back to the goalkeeper, but it was never on and I really should have just cleared my lines,’ he admitted. ‘It put us under a lot of pressure so early on — especially with the position we’re in. You need to try and build confidence and to then put your team-mates under that pressure is difficult. I have to hold my hands up. ‘In the second half we looked like a team who were getting relegated — and that’s not acceptable.’