Changes inevitable admits Paatelainen

UNITED: Manager recognises need for overhaul of playing staff and other areas at Tannadice as the battle goes on

Manager Mixu Paatelainen admits drastic changes need to be made at Dundee United regardless of where they finish this season.

The Tangerines are hovering over the relegation precipice going into the Premiership’s post-split fixtures.

They are eight points adrift of secondbottom Kilmarnock and face the first of five crucial fixtures when they host Hamilton Accies at Tannadice on Sunday.

Whichever league they end up in, Paatelainen accepted that there must be an overhaul of the team and other aspects of the club.

That reform process has started already, with chairman Stephen Thompson confirming that he will not be drawing his £100,000 salary from United.

Paatelainen said: “There will be changes – absolutely.

“The changes will happen anyway because we need to be better and need to improve things.

“We need to rebuild and work hard to make the club stronger no matter what happens.

“Right now I don’t believe we are as strong as we should be and the league table says that.

“And I’m not only talking about on the pitch but off the pitch as well. “We need to improve things. “The club needs to function much more efficiently in lots of different aspects.

“I am not saying we have poor people in place because we have some excellent people working at Tannadice.

“But we need to improve how efficient we are.

“There are many, many things. I don’t want to go into specifics because that just leads to speculation but we do have loads of work to do in the near future.

“Obviously, the playing side is very important but there are other aspects too.”

It is reasonable to suggest that Paatelainen’s own position will be under threat should United drop a division.

However, he insisted: “I have been making plans for next season.

“Obviously, we will need to know where we are before we start building things for next year.

“But we have looked at things because there are many issues to be addressed.”

Asked if the United job has turned out to be tougher than even he thought, Paatelainen replied: “It has been very difficult, that’s for sure.

“I don’t think anyone was going to believe it would be easy.

“It was always going to be a relegation dogfight. “So let’s just leave it at that.” Meanwhile, Paatelainen will be at Hampden today to answer an SFA charge relating to last month’s Dundee derby.

“We need to rebuild and work hard to make the club stronger no matter what happens. MIXU PAATELAINEN

Mixu Paatelainen: already addressing some of the issues for next season.