Tony Asghar admits he’s disappointed with Dundee United’s January transfer business, but defended the decision to loan Tony Watt to St Mirren.
The striker sealed a deadline day switch to Paisley after not featuring regularly for the Tangerines. Fans were dismayed that the club left themselves with only Steven Fletcher as a recognised centre forward while propping up the Scottish Premiership table, and questioned why Watt was allowed to depart before a replacement had been sourced.
Asghar has admitted that the club didn’t cover themselves in glory when it came to recruitment during the winter window. But he insists the squad is strong despite failing in several attempts to bring fresh faces in, with Huddersfield defender Loick Ayina being the only new face to arrive at Tannadice. "Nobody’s more unhappy at how we ended up coming out of the window than myself,” he told DUTV. “But a transfer window doesn’t just act on the last day of the window. We have a recruitment strategy looking even for next summer.
“In this window, we were hoping to try and recruit. We looked at a number of possibilities. But we’re a different level of club now where we’re trying to sign targets who are firstly, potentially on a financial scale that we can’t reach because of the quality we’re trying to bring in.
“There are other clubs who are competitive with us for these players. So the players we used to pick up in the January window, who are free agents that nobody really wants, we’re trying to go up against other teams. Therefore, things change during it.
“One of the big things was why did we let a striker go out on loan when we didn't replace him? I’ve heard people say that was a gamble. The reality is that if a player is here and he doesn’t want to have game time or not getting it, then we have to make a conscious decision for the good of the group. Tony wanted to go and play football and he wasn't getting that here.
“At the same time, we were still trying to bring players in. Unfortunately we hit the bar with a few and that’s the way it goes. But if you look around every club in Scotland or the UK trying to get a striker in during the window, it was very difficult. For me, it's very disappointing but we never stop though.
‘We’re always looking to see who we can bring in. We feel our squad is strong - myself, the head coach, the owner and the board. Are we light in certain areas? Potentially with injuries, but that’s why we have the structure at this football club. We want young players to be playing and we want to throw them in. Fans don’t want to hear that when we’re sitting bottom of the league.
“But we saw in the game on Saturday against Hearts. We brought back guys like Ilmari Niskanen and Peter Pawlett into the group that made big impacts. We’ve got to look long term but short term we need to get off the bottom of the league. That’s imperative.”
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