Kevin Smith Set For Early Return

Return from Injury

There was good news for United today as striker Kevein Smith confirmed he would be back earlier than expected and possibly by the second week of preseason training.

It was though that Smith had broken his leg as well as disclocating his ankle during a game for Raith Rovers, where he was on loan last season.

It was expected that the striker, who has had spells at Dundee and Hearts, would be out until near the turn of the year but with his injury not as bad as feared, the striker has confirmed he should be fit and ready to play for the start of the season.

The striker is also ready to make his mark on the first team, taking confidence from seeing the progress made by fellow striker David Goodwillie, who also had a spell on loan at Raith.

So the news came as a bit of a surprise and a welcome one at that.  I reckoned that a striker was needed on our summer shopping list, especailly if Danny Cadamarteri was to be utalised as a winger.

With the reurn of Smith, it’s like having a new player on board.  If he can step up and take aany chances in the first team that come his way, he could potentially be an important player for us next year.

Lets just hope he takes his time in coming back and does not push himslef before he is ready.

Zaluska trying to cause a stir?

Lukasz Zaluska’s goalkeepers jersey is still warm after his departure to Celtic and he has tried to stir things up with United gaffer Craig Levein.

Rumours of Levein’s supposed departure from United were finally quashed by Chairman Stephen Thompson yesterday and no sooner has the dust stettled than Zaluska felt the need to say his piece.

Zaluska answered the question of whether he would like to have Levein join him at Celtic Park by saying he would be please if he was to join up with his old manager again.

Hmmmm not much in that really, not like the media to kick up a big storm out of nothing….

It was also slightly amusing to see Zaluska now fears for his place in the team before he has even officially join the Glasgow team.  Like it needed Strachan to leave to put that though in his head.

No wonder he wants Levein at Celtic Park, he might make the bench that way…

Banks Signs On

The Banks deal is confirmed

So after all the guff in the papers over the last few days about where our manager will be moving to it a welcome change to actually get some good news.

As we posted the other week Craig Levein was looking to finalise a deal to get Hearts goalkeeper and coach Steve Banks singed up in a similar role for United.

Well today that deal was confirmed and the manager couldn’t be happier and rightfully so.  I’m with Levein on this one in thinking this is a major coup for the club.

Changes to Tannadice Times

Ok so as you may have read, the survey results are in, have been looked at and taken on board.  As a result of your feedback, there are to be some changes to the site content.

Starting next week we will be introducing regular Player Profiles and Legends Profiles.  The Player Profiles will appear on a Tuesday with the Legends Profiles appearing on a Thursday.

Players and Legends featured will be at random unless anyone has a preference on who they want us to profile.  If you do then it’s a case of letting us know by dropping us a line.

As from July 29th we will be introducing two new features which coincide with the clubs centenary celebrations.  On a Monday we will be featuring a This Week In History article that will take a look at what has gone on during the clubs history over the years for that week.

On a Wednesday we will feature our new readers column, titled Memory Lane (originality ftw!).  This will be a column by one of our readers and can be anything from favourite players to favourite matches to favourite moments, as long as they are United related.

If you want to take part in this, it’s as easy as sending an email titled “Memory Lane” with your article attached.  Publishing of the article will be on a first come first serve basis.  If you submit an article and it is not featured that week, it will be put forward for the following week.

You can start forwarding articles now although they will not be published until July 31st.

Finally as we said earlier, we would be interested in a more permanent contributor for the site if anyone fancies it.  There is the chance that things could get a bit stale with just me posting at the moment so a differing perspective could be good to freshen things up a bit.

Again, if you are interested send us a wee email titled “Write For Us”

The email address can be found here.

So what are you waiting for folks, the content of the site is in your hands, get emailing.

Survey Results

The Tannadice Times survey is now closed and as promised we bring you the results.  The survey was a chance for the readers of this site to have there say on it, what you like, what you disliked and what you would like added.

So a big thank you to all those who took part, your input is very much appreciated.  As I have said before, this site allows me to voice my opinion as a fan, but more so, it is for you guys to see what I have to say and voice your opinions back, as well as keeping you up to date with goings on and such like.  There is not much point in keeping going as we are if the fans don’t think it is working, so your thoughts are valuable.

So lets get down to the nitty gritty.

It’s Rumour Time!

Silly season has officially begun folks and there are some wicked tales of all sorts flying around, so be careful.

As well all know we have had the rumours that Craig Levein was off to Celtic.  That was seen to be nothing more than a pile of good ol’ lies and has now died down.

So what next?

Let us have a look and give the verdict.

Player Profile – Paul Dixon

Paul Dixon

He is a waste of space and Eddie Malone is a much better player.  Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing Paul Dixon.

That is not my opinion of course, that was along the lines of what some Dundee fans chose to utter when they found out he had signed for us.

So last summer Dixon decided to call it a day with his former employees and sign for his boyhood hero’s.

Levein staying put… for now

Craig Levein

Calm down, breathe and relax.  Our best manager since Jim McLean is not set to leave us in the lurch.  Well, not yet anyway.

The odds for Craig Levein to walk away from Tannadice into the managers job at Celtic were slashed to 5/2 this morning by Victor Chandler bookmakers.  Cue wild speculation that he was as good as gone.

What we need is…

Football, it a game of opinion in that everyone has one on every aspect of the game.  As fans, we sit in the stands everyweek or watch from the arm chair and we pick holes in our team managers decisions.

We sit there thinking the formation is wrong.  We wouldn’t have started with striker A up front.  Defender B should never be in the squad.  We all do it, it’s part and parcel of the game.

The thing about that is, it is all to easy to criticise.  When things are going good the manager gets the adulation of the fans.  When things start to go down the pan a bit, we sit there thinking along the lines of “for f*ck sake you idiot, even I could have done a better job”.

So, with out the criticism I am about to go for my attempt at being a football manager, well not the whole hog, and I am having my view on what positions Craig Levein should be looking to fill over the summer.

Banks Set To Sign

Steve Banks

As funny as it would be to report we enticed Gordon Banks out of retirement to be our new goalkeeping coach and back up ‘keeper I’m afraid that, as much as I want to, I cannot bring you that story.  It would just be pure lies.

What I can say though, is that Hearts coach and back up ‘keeper Steve Banks (I dunno if he is a relation, should have checked up on that.  Answers on a postcard, if you can be bothered) is, barring any last minute hitches, set to join our ranks.