The January signing of Christophe Berra showed James McPake that the American owners’ commitment to Dundee isn’t on the wane.
The current Dark Blues boss is the latest in a line of managers who can have no complaint about the support that comes down from the boardroom to the dug-out at Dens Park.
Even though £2 million losses had been suffered off the pitch, McPake was given the go-ahead to bring in Hearts captain Berra on loan in the last transfer window.
“Like any other manager since I’ve been at this club – Paul Hartley, Neil McCann and Jim McIntyre – we’ve all been backed regardless,” he said.
“They would have known what was coming out and I was still backed in January to bring in players of the quality of Christophe Berra.
“From my point of view, nothing’s changed and there’s no need for any concern.
“It goes back to last season and what we tried to do to stay up.
“From day one I’ve watched how they’ve backed managers and every single one has seriously been backed – me included.
“That’s not going to change and that’s a credit to Tim (Keyes) and John (Nelms).
“They give the manager the funds and the budget to go and try to manage and spend it the best way you can.
“They’ve been great with me. I don’t think any manager in the past seven years at this football club can have a moan about the budget they’ve had available to them.”
Big monetary losses haven’t increased the pressure on McPake and his players to get back up to the top flight in one go, he insisted.
“It’s important as a football club we’re in the Premiership, regardless of any financial results,” he said.
“We need to get back to the Premiership, just as a football club in terms of if we’re not we’re missing out on derbies. That’s a big one. Those are the games you look forward to.
“For clubs like us and Dundee United you need to be in the top flight.
“We are under no illusions we need to get out of this league.
“Taking away the financial side, we need to be in the Premiership for footballing reasons – to attract players, to get the revenue and the prestige playing against the likes of Hearts, Hibs, Rangers, Celtic, etc.”
Beating Alloa tonight will take Dundee a step closer to the play-offs, and hopefully a second place finish behind runaway leaders United.
McPake said: “It’s been a while since we played them, 3-0 in October.
“We know how dangerous they are and they’re great on the eye to watch.
“They play some really good football and I like Peter (Grant) for that. He sticks to doing it that way.
“We know what it’s going to take to stop that and, like every game, we need to be at it.
“It’s a completely different test to what Arbroath would bring but, equally, it’s a dangerous one if not done right.
“They’ll be right up for it and are in a position where they’ll want to win games and get away from the bottom of the league.
“They’ll come here desperate for three points.”
The Dundee squad will be the same one that would have been used for Saturday’s game against Arbroath had it not been called off.
“Everybody is available apart from Jordan Marshall (thigh) still but he’s getting better,” McPake reported.
“He’ll get scanned in the next couple of weeks and we’ll step up his rehab and onto end-stage stuff from there.”
