This week was a homecoming for Charlie Adam and not just in a football sense.
The 26-times capped Scotland international, who starred for Blackpool, Liverpool and Stoke in the Premier League, signed a two-year deal with the club he grew up supporting on Tuesday.
Dundee is his club but the city is also his home and the desire to be near his family again after 11-and-a-half years plying his trade down south was a big part in the decision to sign at Dens Park.
Particularly after some very upsetting news last week.
Adam said: “I’ve got an issue with my mum. She got some bad news in the last week that she’s got cancer and obviously I’ve to deal with that…
“That’s the realisation of where I am in my life and my career.
“Sometimes you don’t get the opportunity to come back home. Personal circumstances changed and that was a big factor.
“I think the club have played a huge role. The manager was the one who picked up the phone and had the courage to ask me if I’d be interested, I’m delighted he did.
“I want to play and enjoy football. I have played but not with excitement.
“I was travelling a lot last year, my family was at home and it just never felt right.
“This feels right.
“It’s a two-year contract. I keep referring to my age, but age is just a number and it’s important that we can come here and help these young kids play and have security and try and be as successful as we can.”
Adam, who played 27 times for Reading last season in the English Championship, himself broke the news he was speaking to the club about a possible move more than a fortnight ago.
It may have taken a bit of time but the 34-year-old is delighted to finally get the move to Dens Park over the line and he’s looking forward to the pressure that comes with pulling on the dark blue of Dundee.
He added: “I’m delighted. It took a while.
“We had a couple weeks of discussions and toing and froing. You know how it is with contracts, they take a while.
“Eventually we got to a point where I had to make a decision on what I wanted to do and I had the realisation that this is a club that meant a lot to me growing up.
“I stood on these terraces, I’ve been on this pitch, I’ve been in pitch invasions. It’s exciting times.
“It’s a dream because it would have been easy to walk away and go somewhere else.
“But when you’ve got a club like this, it’s been a tough time, and hopefully I can come in and lift it.
“We’ve got some good young players and experience in (Graham) Dorrans and (Paul) McGowan.
“I’m excited.”
Asked whether there was any concern the deal would fall through, Adam replied: “There’s always worry because there are negotiations.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic and there has got to be a realisation from my end as a player.
“I’m 34, I understand what’s going on in the world and the club would never put itself in financial trouble and they aren’t.
“It [this move] is nothing to do with salaries, it’s about coming and playing and enjoying and trying to get promoted.
“It’s about being successful because with United in the Premiership, that’s where we want to be and hopefully we can do that this year.
“I know there is pressure on my shoulders. Everybody will be looking and thinking ‘what’s he thinking?’
“I can handle it. I’m here to learn as well. I want to learn from the manager, I want to learn from people at the club. That’s a big factor as well.
“The experience of coaching and management is something for me in the future, but right now I’m focused on winning every week and that’s how I see it.
“This is a club that needs to be winning games, and if we can win games with supporters back in the door, it will be a tough place to come.
“The pressure is on Hearts. They’ve got the momentum and the big backing, and we’ll just wait for our opportunity to win games.”
Adam propelled himself into the limelight down south with a spectacular free-kick in Blackpool’s play-off final win over Cardiff that earned promotion to the Premier League.
The midfielder’s focus now is getting his team out of the Scottish Championship rather than the English one but he feels getting Dundee back to the top-flight would surpass his achievements at Bloomfield Road.
“It would be fairytale stuff,” he added. “Going back to getting promoted with Blackpool to the Premier League, that’s what I feel it would be like.
“This is my club, this is who I supported. I never ever thought I would get the opportunity because people would always think it was too big a gap.
“But sometimes you have to sacrifice things in life to make things happen.
“It is important that we are on this journey together. This is a project going forward and it is exciting times for the club as well as the city again.
“I keep referring to United and they are in the Premiership. That’s where we want to be and to be challenging them again.
“They have put huge investment in but we just have to go and do our own business.
“Starting with that friendly on Tuesday night we just have to step that mark up and then we go again at the weekend, building up to the games in the cup.”
Adam was pictured in the new Dundee kit this week as his signing was announced but it’s not the first time he’s donned the dark blue.
And he says turning out alongside some of his boyhood heroes for Julian Speroni’s testimonial at Crystal Palace in 2015 played a big factor in his eventual return to Dundee.
“The Crystal Palace game was something I was taken aback by because of the support I got.
“Everybody knows you can get overawed but I was lucky to play with some of my heroes that night.
“The way the fans reacted – and I hope they react the same way when we do get crowds back – was just amazing.
“One of my mates was with me and he was talking about it saying to go all the way to London and have that support just shows what this club is all about.”
Playing – and scoring – with the likes of Speroni, Caballero and Sara that night at Selhurst Park brought back memories of watching Dundee as a youngster.
Adam also revealed he was part of a pitch invasion at Dens Park as a nine-year-old after watching Jim Duffy’s Dark Blues defeat Hearts on penalties after an epic 4-4 draw in the League Cup on their way to the final in 1995.
He was also cheekily in the Dundee end while a Rangers player as the two sides played out the 2003 Scottish Cup Final cheering on his side.
“I was on the pitch when we beat Hearts in the cup,” he said.
“Morten Wieghorst scored an unbelievable goal. I was young but remember it. I was in the Derry then running on here. But that’s what it means.”
Recalling more of his boyhood heroes, he said: “Years ago Iain Anderson was a hero of mine and I was fortunate enough to play with him at St Mirren.
“But the days when Jimmy and Peter Marr were running the club we had some superstars – (Claudio) Caniggia, Juan Sara scoring a hat-trick in a derby, Caballero, Speroni, (Fabrizio) Ravanelli.
“We had some top, top players over the years at this football club.
“I want to try and emulate that, to bring those great days back.
“I remember being employed by Rangers when Amoruso scored in the Scottish Cup Final and I was in the Dundee end hoping my team would win.
“Unfortunately we never but that’s how it goes.
“So I am just looking forward to this opportunity being at Dundee now.
“We are here and we want to enjoy it but the only way we can enjoy it and be successful is to win football games.”
