It is always a little condescending, I find, when pundits tell football fans how they should feel. When a manager loses his job, particularly at one of the Premiership’s smaller clubs, you will often hear the question being asked, ‘Just what is it that they expect?’
So, with that in mind, I have taken a little bit of time before commenting on Tony Docherty’s dismissal as Dundee manager on Monday, which on the face of it when the news broke on Monday morning, looked an absolutely brutal call.
Yes, this season had been a disappointing one for Docherty and the Dee, with a 10th placed finish nowhere near in line with expectations. Still, with the greatest of respect, Dundee aren’t Aberdeen, Hibs or Hearts. They have been something of a yo-yo club, in fact, for years now. And on the back of a top six finish last season, Docherty might have assumed he still had a little credit in the bank.
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With so many similarly sized teams in the division, it can often take not very much at all to nudge that needle towards a disappointing campaign. Docherty still managed to keep his side afloat in the end, and its not like there weren’t any mitigating factors for their underperformance.
The Dundee defenders spent much of this season channelling the spirit of another famous resident of the city, PC Murdoch, in their inability to keep weans out of a close, but there were injuries to key personnel within that.
Even so, Docherty would be the first to admit that the 77 goals his men conceded – comfortably the worst record in the Premiership – was unacceptable. Incidentally, the chopping and changing of Trevor Carson and Jon McCracken in goal in the earlier part of the season hardly helped in that regard, either.
Going the other way though, Dundee scored 57 times, a record only bettered by the league’s top three teams – Celtic, Rangers and Hibs. That was enough to save Dundee from the drop, but it wasn’t enough to save Docherty and his coaching staff.
Given the injuries he had to contend with, the loss of Luke McCowan to Celtic and that Dundee seemed to be on the stinky end of the stick more often than not when it came to big refereeing decisions (the Ross County penalty for ‘handball’ that took their quest for survival to the final day arguably the most striking example), then it does appear to be a harsh call.
Most fans, I think, appear to share the sentiment.
What is done, though, is done, and Dundee must now look to find a manager they can throw their weight behind for the foreseeable future.
This is a club that is crying out for a bit of stability in the dugout, with a managing director in John Nelms and a chairman in Tim Keyes who could do with separating themselves from a burgeoning image as trigger-happy custodians who are rather fumbling about in the dark. They have now burned through nine managers in 11 years, no mean feat.
Since James McPake’s dismissal in February 2022 to make way for the short, disastrous reign of Mark McGhee that ended with one win from 14 games and relegation, another two men have occupied the Dens Park dugout, and the exits of both were curiously timed to say the least.
Gary Bowyer, who led Dundee to the Championship title, was sacked in bizarre circumstances just over an hour after being named as the league’s manager of the year, with relations between the gaffer, Nelms and technical director Gordon Strachan having broken down beyond the point of repair. Nelms delivered the note informing him of his sacking by hand.
That paved the way for Docherty, who has now had his own tap on the shoulder. Time will tell if that was the right move, but it is indeed time that the next man selected by the Dundee hierarchy really needs.
Particularly if they are to go with a young manager like Shaun Maloney or Scott Brown, with the two former Celtic players at the sharp end of the odds to take on the role.
Maloney suffered his own short-term pain when he was sacked by Hibs after just four months in charge at Easter Road, having been lauded by the club as one of the most highly regarded young coaches in the game and given assurances that he would be backed to implement his ideas as a long-term project upon his appointment. He got 18 games, and one transfer window, before the late Ron Gordon decided that his ‘risky’ appointment hadn’t paid off after just six wins over that period.
We reported yesterday that Maloney is the frontrunner for the position and would be keen to speak to Dundee about the role, and it would be interesting to see how he would fare in implementing his ideas and philosophy given the necessary time and support in the transfer market.
Whether Dens Park is the place where he will get such grace, going by the track record of Nelms, Keyes and co, should be his first question when talks do eventually take place between the parties.
I wouldn’t bank on it, but if Dundee are to go with someone like Maloney, they have to give him the support and the space to build something.
Otherwise, they will continue to lurch from one manager to the next, and likely continue to lurch between the Premiership and Championship.
