Dundee FC Q&A with Barry Smith and Scott Gardiner - Part 2

Last updated : 16 March 2012 By Shaded

Can we be sure of consistency in that policy?

'Well they (the scouts) know, that's the case and they have been told that that's the case.'

How many scouts are out there?

'At the moment we have, it's been sort of left from previous years, and it wasn't particularly looked after. When we went into administration I don't think there were any, and we lost out

on a lot of kids through that, because it just seemed to get put to the wayside. Now I wanted

to bring in, get the youths back to where they should be, and that comes from a lot of hard

work, but we have got to start at the very beginning, and that's getting the right people in as

scouts. I know for a fact that Steve (Martin) had Craig Robertson, who played for the club

last season for a few games, he is looking to become a scout, and he has got a couple of other

guys that are looking to come in and start looking at Sunday boys games, so we are trying to

get it done gradually, but as I say, it was left pretty much for a couple of years, and its hard

to bring it back straight away, so it will be a gradual process.'

Leighton Macintosh has not featured much this season, is there any chance of him going out

on loan to get some experience?

'I don't particularly like speaking about players, Leighton is a young boy who done extremely well last season, and I think the fans expected a lot of him this season, what they

forget is he is only eighteen, and I think folk tend to forget that. Me personally, I would like to

see him out on loan, and hopefully we can do that before the end of the season, but it's not

always possible, because injuries sometimes dictate when you can allow players to go out

and when you can't allow them to go out, so it's a sense of allowing him to go out at the right

time. Unfortunately for him, he has maybe lost a bit of a season, which is just because the

squad we are carrying is a bit light, and I couldn't afford to let him go out.'

Talking about scouts, do you have scouts going to the lower league clubs? Or the Juniors

even?

'We do keep in contact with Junior managers, and if they feel that there is young boys coming through at any of them, then we will have a look at them, but it is impossible to keep track of

every one that comes in, every phone call, or every letter that comes in, but we have contacts

in the highland league, and there are people who go and watch games for us up there, but as

I say, I tend to try to get to any midweek games in the lower leagues, and rely on other

peoples say so at times, which isn't ideal, but it's just the situation the club is in at the

moment, where you are being asked to pay people good money to go and scout, and that is a

wee bit difficult, to say we will use the money for that when there are other things that need

taken care of first and foremost at Dundee.'

United last season invited all the juvenile coaches up to Tannadice to speak to them about

how they wanted to do things the right way, as you have just outlined we will do, but this

maybe gave them the first pick on players, is this something we could look to do?

'I really don't like talking about other clubs, but I think if that's an avenue that we want to go

down, and the club is going to benefit from it then we will certainly look at it.'

Are there likely to be any additions to the squad in the next few weeks?

'As I say, we are always looking, and it's unbelievable, and it frustrates the living daylights out of me that there are guys in the SPL, that are not playing, or maybe coming on for the last

ten minutes of games that are quite happy sitting in a comfort zone, and we have went and

looked at at least five or six SPL players, and asked them, agreed with their club, which to

me, if a club is agreeing to let them go out on loan, then I think that is probably telling them

that they are not wanted there, and the player has decided that he doesn't want to come, for

whatever reason, whether it is to do with kids, or whether it is to do with they just want to sit

on the bench and pick up good money, and it's not through lack of trying that we have not

brought anyone in, and we are still looking

'But you have got to remember this club was in administration a year ago, and we cannot just go out and spend money willy-nilly, and just sign someone for the sake of it, we are trying to

get the right people in, and people who will enhance this club and the football on the pitch as

well, and as I say, it is not through lack of trying, but as I say it is a comfort zone some

players are in, and that's what you are up against.'

Scot then added, 'If I can just expand on this, just explain some of the process. Since January, when we started to look, obviously the January transfer window didn't apply to us, because

we weren't in the market to be buying players. We then found ourselves in a scenario where

we would, having had a good week at it, trying to keep him, we found ourselves looking for a

potential replacement for Gavin Rae. Now what happens just in that process is, just so you

have an understanding of it, is that Barry had a list of names, an A4 list of players, and we

then effectively tried to work our way down the targets, so Barry would contact the club

directly, or contact the manager, we establish whether there is a scenario where that

particular player is a possibility, then are they a possibility within our budget, which is a

whole other question as well, are the club looking to take a contribution towards his wages,

or are they expecting us to pay all of his wages, and ultimately, once the managers have

agreed, once their CEO has potentially agreed, we then have to speak to the player.

'The player does not say yes or no in the blink of an eye, he speaks to his wife, speaks to his family, looks at his scenario, and he decides what to do. If you can imagine that we, unlike

some clubs as Barry has explained, can't afford to make many mistakes, so anyone we are

going to bring in Barry has identified him and said he is the guy for us, potentially, it takes

three, four, five, maybe six days to get a dtecision from the start of the process to get a

decision, now if you think it is only the 28 h of February, so we have had four weeks of

hunting down, and as I have said, I can't tell you how many we have gone through in the list,

but we have actually had agreements with four or five clubs and managers, and for whatever

reason, it has fallen through, and it's a long process.

'We would love to wave a magic wand and say, right, we are going in, we are going to get him, and private jet him up to Dundee, happy days, but we are not there at the moment, but

just by way of explanation, Barry will take a few days, then come to me and say speak to their

CEO see if we can do a deal.