The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Inverness hit out at Dee after Robbo approach
The next manager of Dundee is highly unlikely to be John Robertson after Inverness Caledonian Thistle gave their account of an “unsolicited” approach for their boss.
The statement from Caley Thistle, as well as hitting out at the conduct of the Dens Park club, makes it clear that Robertson is not interested in a switch to Dundee.
From the Dark Blues’ point of view, he was only one of a number of candidates.
The last man to take charge of a Dundee game will be the last man to be interviewed for the vacant post, Courier Sport understands.
James McPake, who was caretaker boss for the final match of the season against St Mirren, will get the chance to impress a four-man panel tomorrow.
The job he did at the weekend and in the days after Jim McIntyre’s sacking has impressed managing director John Nelms.
Also working in McPake’s favour is the fact he is fully behind the move to recruit Gordon Strachan as a technical director, which was revealed in yesterday’s Courier.
McPake would be happy to take guidance from the former Scotland boss and would also hire an experienced assistant manager.
Alloa’s Jim Goodwin has already been interviewed but Dundee may have competition from his old club St Mirren, should he emerge as the number one choice. It is far from certain Oran Kearney will stay in Paisley whether the Buddies retain their Premiership status or not.
Derek Adams and Kenny Miller are other candidates in the running.
The Caley Thistle statement read: “The club can confirm that manager John Robertson was directly approached by Dundee FC on Saturday evening.
“Within minutes of this approach, John notified the club and confirmed to our CEO that he had no desire or intention to speak to Dundee FC about their vacant managerial position.
“He did not reply to, nor acknowledge this approach. To be 100% clear, this approach from Dundee FC was entirely unsolicited and given that it was less than 24 hours after a draining Premiership playoff semi-final defeat, entirely unwelcome.
“The club itself was not formally contacted by Dundee FC until late Sunday afternoon, when a senior member of our club staff was spoken to by the DFC club secretary.
“Following this phone call, he received an email formally asking for permission to speak to John with regards the vacant managerial position at Dens Park. The member of staff contacted our CEO immediately, at which point and with knowledge of the previous day’s direct approach, he immediately contacted and denied DFC permission to have any further contact with our manager.”
It continued: “It is testament to the great work John has done over the last two seasons that he has been targeted by a competitor. The board of ICTFC recognised this and indeed our confidence in his ability, is why John had already been secured on a deal which will see him in charge until at least the end of season ’20-21. This contract had been widely reported on last year and was common and public knowledge.
“John is here to build a promotion-winning side, to hopefully oversee the transition of many our league winning under-18 side of 2018-19 to first team players and to lead the club into our immediate, promising future. He has the full backing of our fans, players, staff and board of directors. Our improvement on the field over the past two seasons is down to the diligence, integrity and football intelligence of John and his staff.”
Meanwhile, Dundee have confirmed that at a shareholders meeting, shareholders voted by majority of around 95% to approve the three resolutions for a new share issue.
A Dundee statement explained: “This will allow the board to offer new shares to FPS so that their shareholding can increase to over 75%.
“In response to inquiries from existing shareholders and others to buy more shares, the board will look into how best this can be achieved and we hope to announce further details of making some shares available for purchase in due course.
“The board would like to thank all the shareholders for their attendance yesterday and for their backing and overwhelming support.”