THE phrase “Elvis has left the building” was first used by the Louisiana Hayride promoter Horace Logan in an attempt to calm down an excitable crowd following an appearance by Elvis Presley during a show in the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in 1956.
Few Dundee supporters were applauding enthusiastically and cheering loudly when the learned that another Elvis - the former Rangers, Coventry City, Dundee United, Hearts, Celtic and Scotland defender Steven Pressley - had entered the building at Dens Park earlier today.
But it is fair to say that quite a number of the Dark Blues faithful are all shook up by the appointment of their new manager.
Comments on social media websites are not always an accurate barometer of how a fanbase is feeling. Generally speaking, the younger and more partisan members of a support post messages online. Their missives are seldom complimentary. But the response to Pressley replacing Tony Docherty on the internet has been almost universally negative.
Very underwhelming. Are season tickets refundable? If he was the standout candidate then who else was on that list? This is disappointing. Is this for real? And those were just the remarks which were printable in a family newspaper.
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Yep, it is fair to say the new incumbent of the Dens Park hotseat will have to win around a few doubters in the stands when the new season gets underway next month.
The statement which confirmed the bombshell news revealed that the 51-year-old was currently on a pre-arranged silver wedding anniversary holiday in the Far East but will be cutting short his break so he can begin his new job as soon as possible. There will be no honeymoon period when he starts.
The outcry is no reflection on Pressley either as a player or as a person. He enjoyed a long career at a high level and won many major honours. He represented his country with distinction on no fewer than 32 occasions. He has worked extensively in the media since retiring and always provides a good insight into the game when he appears on television or radio. He is a popular and well kent figure in the Scottish game.
No, the problem that Dundee fans have with him succeeding Docherty, who led them to a top six Premiership finish two seasons ago and kept them up in the top flight last term, is his less than impressive track record as a coach.
He has had other roles in football since first moving into the dugout. He has been a scout at Southampton and has most recently worked as head of individual development at Brentford. He will have picked up invaluable experience and made numerous useful contacts in those positions.
But the fact that he hasn’t worked as a manager since being sacked by Carlisle five-and-a-half years ago hasn’t exactly gone unnoticed. The last match which he oversaw was way back in the November of 2019.
So why is he the right man to elevate the team to a higher level exactly? Would an individual who has impressed with his work in recent seasons and has something tangible to show for his efforts not be better placed to take them forward?
Docherty’s services were dispensed with last month because his board felt that “results did not match the standards expected”. It was, considering that his captain and standout player Luke McCowan left for Celtic on the final day of the summer transfer window, a pretty bloodthirsty call. But the harshness of that decision has been exacerbated by the choice of his successor.
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Dundee fans will get behind Pressley – who will work closely with his technical director Gordon Strachan, his former manager at Celtic, and new technical manager David Longwell, who has previously worked at St Mirren, Orlando City, New York Red Bulls and Burnley – and hope that he can justify being brought on board.
But at this particular moment in time they are struggling to see why a club which has, despite winning the Championship and promotion and then recording their best Premiership finish in nine years, been through four managers in the last three years has decided to go down this route. Many are already concerned about their ability to stay up in the 2025/26 campaign.
Steven Pressley has much to prove and will be doing well to earn an encore.
