Tam Courts has defended Covid-hit Dundee United 's Christmas outing in Newcastle - insisting a gathering to watch Formula 1 was the extent of the "shenanigans".
The Tannadice club have been rocked by an outbreak in the camp ahead of this weekend's Premiership clash with Rangers.
Their trip to Ibrox is set to go ahead regardless, although Courts will likely be without a number of players.
However, the United boss is comfortable with the decision to let the team travel south amid the increasing spread of the Omicron variant.
He maintains footballers are no longer the "beer monsters" of yesteryear and is confident there was no irresponsible behaviour.
Courts told Sky Sports : "We live in very judgemental times these days because we're two-and-a-half years into a pandemic and what's right for one person is wrong for another.
"I think every single decision you take within a football club just now almost has to have an element of crisis management consideration.
"We're already in that mindset and within that there's obviously mitigating circumstances like 'do we allow them to go?' We allowed them to go, then we actually provided transport to actually minimise mingling on public transport.
"We knew the itinerary of the players, we knew where they were going.
"This is actually a flippant remark but partly true as well - players aren't the beer monsters of 20 years ago.
"I know as a manager I'm not going to get all the reports of what players are up to, but I certainly know there was a congregation watching the Formula One, so I was actually partly disappointed to hear that was as much as the shenanigans they were up to."
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