Jackie McNamara’s predecessor at Tannadice has called for the Dundee United manager to be given time to rebuild his squad.
Peter Houston, who led the Tangerines to Scottish Cup glory in 2010 before being succeeded by McNamara, feels the criticism from fans that has followed Saturday’s 4-0 hammering from Hamilton has been unfair.
The Falkirk boss thinks the departures of Stuart Armstrong, Gary Mackay-Steven and Nadir Ciftci to Celtic, Ryan Gauld to Sporting in Portugal and Andy Robertson to Hull City in England should be taken into consideration when judging McNamara.
He said: “If you get your best players sold you are going to have to get a bit of time to build a new team.
“He needs that time now, in my opinion.
“I was doing the radio for the Dundee derby and in the second half they were brilliant at times.
“But I knew Saturday’s game was going to be a tough one because Hamilton played here in pre-season and I thought they were superb against us.
“I saw a lot of people tipping Hamilton to go down but not me, no chance.
“It’s not my business any more but I feel that teams have to evolve.
“Jackie’s got to be given a bit of time.
“Teams change regularly but when you have so many players going out…the guy who always gets the brunt of it is the manager.
“You have to have some people above you who believe you are still trying to go about it the right way, and hopefully Jackie gets that.
“I think it would be foolish for the board (to get rid of him).
“Jackie has got them to two cup finals and deserves the right to try and rebuild a squad.
“Along the way you will take a few knocks and Saturday was one of those knocks.”
Houston left Tannadice in January 2013, claiming he could not see a way of taking the club forward with, as he saw it, so much reliance on young players.
Those youngsters have since earned the Tangerines a lot of money but Houston insists the Hamilton hammering is symptomatic of the unpredictability that comes with youth.
He added: “These young players he’s got will be inconsistent and some weeks will play really well.
“On Tuesday night they were sensational in the second half, although they lost a couple of late goals.
“But they’ve obviously hit a brick wall on Saturday against a really good Hamilton side.
“But who is to say United won’t get a result against Celtic this weekend? That’s what young players are like sometimes.”