BLETHER: Neill was the manager who lured Dundee striker to White Hart Lane

I was stumped by a recent question regarding the transfer of a Dundee player to a club down south.

Mark McLean, of Kirkton, asked me: “Who was the manager who signed Dundee striker John Duncan for Spurs?”

Meekly, I offered Keith Burkinshaw, only to be gleefully given the answer by Mark as “Terry Neill”.

A cutting of events at the time suggested Duncan could have been transferred to Celtic just a month or so previously.

However, when a £140,000 bid by Tottenham was tabled, the former Morgan Academy pupil was off to White Hart Lane.

Read more Blether with Brown here

The cutting also suggested that the transfer came about after “Dundee made a loss on their profit and loss account last season (73-74), and that the transfer was merely a question of the club balancing their books”.

Dundee glossed over this, stating: “We have reluctantly transferred John Duncan to Spurs only because there didn’t seem to be any other way.

“When we gave him a four-year contract last season, which he was happy to accept, we thought that our troubles were over and that the player would be happy with us.

“But it hasn’t turned out that way.

“Within the last two or three weeks, the player let it be known that he would still like to go.

“Our policy is to try to keep the players we need – and we are still trying to sign new players – with the emphasis that they must want to play for Dundee.”