Shankland offer in but local talent is way ahead
Dundee United are ready to splash the cash on Lawrence Shankland.
But Tony Ashgar insists the Tangerines will always be a selling club.
United are in competition with the likes of Sunderland and Hull City for the ex-aberdeen kid, who bagged 34 goals for Ayr United last season.
Luring the in-demand striker to Tannadice will require a big commitment in terms of wages.
But sporting director Ashgar believes there is potential to be mined in Scotland – and profit to be made down the road. “We’ve been working since January on a number of targets and Lawrence is one,” said the United chief.
“He’s done well in this league, we’ve made an offer and we’re waiting to hear.
“We understand there are a lot of clubs interested, but we’ll see if we can get it concluded. “When you see teams in the Scottish Premiership selling players to the EPL for big sums of money, when you see more Scottish players getting moves, there’s talent here no matter how much some people try to put Scottish football down.
“We want to give people a platform to kick on.” United fans may see a new generation of local talent being given their platform this season.
For Ashgar, that should always be the case for a club of the Tangerines’ size.
“The silver lining in the cloud of being in the Championship is that we maybe have the chance to bring younger players into the team in this division with less pressure than they would have playing against the likes of Rangers and Celtic,” he said.
“Part of the sales process of the club when the new owners were coming in was the club’s capacity to rear its own players locally.
“Ten of the 13 we’ve signed up from the academy this season are from the Dundee area. Every club wants that, and I think the support should demand it as well.”
Ashgar’s “less pressure” assessment is balanced out by the demand for promotion back to the Premiership.
After three successive play-off defeats, a fourth failed campaign would be disastrous. Nobody at Tannadice is hiding from the situation.
In fact, Ashgar insists his recruitment model will continue to be informed by it.
“It’s a fine balance, which is why we’ve brought in some experienced Premiership players,” he conceded.
“Also our recruitment strategy doesn’t just take in Scotland and the lower leagues in England like a lot of clubs do.
“We’ve gone abroad – I’ve got good contacts around the world because of my previous line of work, which is why we’ve managed to get the likes of Ian Harkes from the States and Adrian Sporle from Banfield in Argentina.
“It’s easy to bring in foreign players just because they’re a bit cheaper, but we’ve done our due diligence, we’re not just wanting football jobbers.
“We need people who can come in, do well and that we can sell on, because we’re a selling club like a lot of others, but also who can make the team successful and get promoted.
“Sporle is a great example. He’s played nearly 70 games in the Argentine Premier League, he has a German passport and he’s 23. We see him improving our team and then, hopefully, for the club and the boy himself, there will be a transfer fee at the end of it, which is why we gave him a three-year deal.”
For all the talk of profiting in the transfer market, the club’s major aim is simple – promotion.
“That’s the bottom line,” said Ashgar.
“We said it back in March and April last season, and it hasn’t changed.
“You saw the crowds we had in the play-off games, the fans were fantastic and we want to keep that momentum going for them. “We need the fans, the sponsors, all the club’s stakeholders to be happy – and we need to give the coaching staff the biggest opportunity we can to do that.”