By Graeme Dey

CRAIG LEVEIN is poised to hand Dundee United and their fans the most welcome of early Christmas presents by committing his future to the club.

Levein’s managerial contract with the Tangerines is due to expire next summer.

But United are set to announce he has signed a new deal.

That news will be warmly received by fans who have revelled in his turning the Tangerines from SPL strugglers into a side challenging for third-top spot and, after leading them to the CIS Cup final last term, silverware contenders.

Levein—who doubles as United’s director of football —was last month linked with the managerial vacan-cy at Watford and the first-class job he has done at Tannadice hasn’t gone unnoticed elsewhere.

So recently-appointed chairman Stephen Thompson’s hanging on to his services for the foreseeable future will please fans.

Levein had a close relationship with Thompson’s late father Eddie, who died of cancer in October.

His signing this new contract is a clear sign that he believes he can work just as successfully with the new man at the helm—strengthening Thompson jnr’s standing among the support.

Levein (44) has been United manager since October 2006 when he replaced Craig Brewster. He was appointed director of football in January.

United number two Peter Houston insisted yesterday that striker Francisco Sandaza will be available to face Inverness on Saturday despite being hit by injury.

“We were forced indoors by the weather today and Francisco didn’t train,” Houston said.

“He’s been training and playing with a foot knock for the past couple of weeks and it’s become a bit tender.

“But we don’t anticipate a problem for the weekend.”

Meanwhile, the United playing staff were yesterday taken through detailed video analysis of the win over St Mirren because boss Levein felt the personnel and system changes he’d made in an effort to render United harder to break down hadn’t worked as well as he’d hoped.

“We were a wee bit disappointed that St Mirren created a decent amount of chances, of the kind which normally we would have prevented, so we’ve taken a look at that because against a Celtic or a Rangers we would have been punished,” Houston added.

“We had been a wee bit kamikaze in previous away games and tried to stifle things a bit on Saturday.

“But we were a wee bit open again as it worked out and that’s something we need to improve upon.”