The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
United add serious quality, despite age
When Zlatan Ibrahimovic is still strutting his stuff for Milan at the age of 40, Dundee United fans can rest easy at their capture of a striker who’s just a youngster by comparison at 35.
United may be playing catch-up in the signing stakes but in Steven Fletcher and Dylan Levitt they’ve made giant strides in adding serious quality to the squad.
The Welsh midfielder’s star qualities are well known to Arabs and with the capture of the former Scotland striker with more than 250 goals to his name their threat capability has just been raised several notches.
Several more additions are still needed for a season which promises to be more competitive than the last and the calibre of recruit United are aiming for has been highlighted by these two top acquisitions.
With a good European run being targeted, Jack Ross will need players with craft, graft, and guile.
At 35, Fletcher isn’t in the first flush of youth but regular readers know my scathing views on biological-clock worriers.
Modern dietary and sports science advice allied to player aptitude and attitude, along with good fortune in injury absence, make the passing years less relevant than ever, as Ibrahimovic, who turns 41 next October, proves.
Fletcher should provide the ideal physical foil and link for the creative intelligence and running strengths of Tony Watt up front.
Meantime, Levitt can offer another great season and I’d expect United to have built in a big sell-on fee for a sparkling talent
who can strengthen his reputation further in Qatar with Wales, ahead of a big money move back to England in a year’s time.
● I’m hearing impressive things about training, coaching and the overall methodology of Dundee’s new boss Gary Bowyer.
With their season starting this weekend though it’s on the pitch where progress will be revealed. His first signing, wing-back Tyler French from Wrexham, has already played for Bowyer and offers pace aplenty according to his manager.
That quality will be important with the onus on
Dundee to attack against opponents who are likely to sit in and defend deep at Dens.
There’s been limited movement in at Dundee and further strengthening will be required for a season where supporter expectations will be for the Dee to be superior to the competition, and stage an immediate return to the Premiership.
● St Johnstone have been the busiest of the three fulltime teams in this patch and Callum Davidson has made solid signings in Jamie Murphy, Andy Considine, Drey Wright, and Graham Carey.
There’s plenty of experience and know-how in there, but for me there’s one key issue to be addressed, and that’s how to replace Zander Clark.
The Saints keeper has been immense between the sticks for them in a decade at the club but his departure leaves a gap as big as the 8ft-high, 24ftlong measurements of the posts which he’s vacated.
Just as their Tannadice rivals face a major challenge in replacing Benjamin Siegrist, Saints’ dilemma is how to compensate for the loss of their goalkeeping behemoth.