Kevin Gallacher spent seven years at Dundee United at a time when the manager had 100 per cent control of how the entire club was run.
That was the Jim McLean edition of Dundee United. Wee Jim, manager, chairman and essentially everything to do with the Tangerines. The term sporting director had never been heard and chief executives were for banks not football clubs. Those days, sadly like the legend McLean, are gone. But as United now hunt for their 21st manager since the man whose statue now stands proudly at the entrance to Tannadice stood down from the manager’s chair in 1993, Gallacher insists a level of control is what is required again for the man charged with replacing Liam Fox.
Craig Levein is the man in Mark Ogren’s sights as United chiefs appear set to travel back in time to solve their manager hunt. Just don’t dare brand Levein as ‘yesterday’s man’. That’s an insult that’s as out of touch as it is lazy according to Gallacher. The Hall of Fame icon reckons the 58-year-old’s credentials stack up against the best of them after more than 20 years at the top of the game in two spells with Hearts either side of Dundee United and Leicester and of course the Scotland national team.
Levein is understood to be mulling over a sensational return to the rock bottom Tangerines with 12 games left of the Premiership season to save their skins. Gallacher is in no doubt that key to his decision will be assurances of outright control of footballing matters with under-fire sporting director Tony Asghar having now exited the club.
He argues Levein’s previous track record at Tannadice - where he led the club to safety after replacing Craig Brewster in 2006 before delivering back-to-back fifth place finishes - demands that he is afforded that autonomy.
That the man currently in Mark Ogren’s sights did it for two years in a dual role as manager and director of football at Tannadice is evidence enough that he won’t operate with interference from above. In that double office he successfully led a revamp of the United structure, including transfer policy and youth set up. With only a third of the current campaign left United need a boss ready to hit the ground running. Gallacher is confident that, given the right conditions, the former boss has the energy to once again lift a the club off the floor.
He said: “I just say bring back wee Jim! In all seriousness that type of character wouldn’t work today. The players would down tools and walk away!
“Modern day players need an arm around the shoulder. I don’t know what the stipulations are for a Dundee United manager or what they want to get. One thing for sure is it’s someone who has to be up for the fight against relegation. It’s a tough one but the board have obviously thought long and hard about it and the situation they are in they want to call in an old hand to dig deep and hopefully salvage something.
“Is Craig up for that? He will want assurances that he will have sole control as a manager. That nobody else is trying to pull his strings and make him change. Craig had game plans when he was a manager before. He has a blueprint of how to win from various positions .
“He will need assurances from that side of it that he can do what he wants to do certainly for the last 12 games of the season then beyond that because they also need stability. People use ageism on managers all the time. I just don’t get it. Roy Hodgson was 74 before he stepped aside for goodness sake.
“Age is a number. Like when you’re a player, if you’re good enough and producing then age doesn’t matter at all. It’s so easy to go down the ageism route and that’s scary. Craig is 58 - well that’s no age at all in the management game.”
Levein might not have managed since his last season at Hearts ended after 11 leagues games in which only one was won. But his top flight record overall stands up strongly to scrutiny. Levein has never failed to finish outside the top six in any of his seven full seasons in charge of either United or Hearts. That includes back-to-back third place finishes with Hearts in 2004 and 2005 and two fifth spots with United.
Gallacher - a 1987 UEFA Cup Finalist with United - said: “I played with Craig for Scotland and against him when I was at United and he was with Hearts and he was a fantastic defender.
“He read the game so well and was a student of the game. He understood the game and worked under some top, top managers which would have served him well it so it was no surprise to see him move into the dug out and having success. As a boss previously he always seemed to be able to get the best out of his players to get results. His record stands up to scrutiny so why not give it another shot? The last couple of appointments have struggled at United so they have to get this one right.”
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