Paul McMullan expected some stick after crossing the Dundee divide from Tannadice to Dens.
So the 24-year-old winger has been pleasantly surprised by the largely positive reaction to his move.
However, McMullan, who lives in the City of Discovery, admits that may change further down the line – and he joked he might even have to start wearing a balaclava when he is out and about.
McMullan, who joined Dundee on loan this week ahead of his permanent transfer from United in the summer, said: “It’s been OK so far – nobody recognises you when you’re out shopping just now because we’re all wearing masks.
“I might have to get a balaclava once the pandemic is over though!
“It has been fine, to be honest, on social media and stuff folk have been pretty respectful.
“You always get a couple who get excited about things like that but you can understand it and it doesn’t really bother me.”
McMullan, who goes straight into the Dundee squad for today’s game at Raith, added: “Loads of players have gone from United to Dundee and vice versa, so everyone is used to it.
“When I was at United, it was Dundee fans poking fun and me and it will be the other way around now.
“That’s just the way football is, the vast majority of it has been respectful so I don’t have any complaints about it.
“Everyone understands that people move clubs in football, that’s the way it goes and you just move on.”
Move was well-handled
McMullan signed a pre-contract with the Dark Blues earlier this month and was then told by United boss Micky Mellon that he was no longer part of the first-team group at Tannadice.
However, the pacy front man, who started his career at Celtic, admitted that all parties dealt well with a delicate situation and he is just delighted that the two clubs managed to come to an early agreement.
McMullan said: “It’s not great going in training when you know you don’t have a game to look forward to, so to get it done, get here and get going is great.
“It’s what we all wanted to happen so I’m just glad it was able to be sorted.
“Did I know there was a risk of not playing again at United? You don’t know for sure but you do realise that when you’re leaving it could happen.
“And when you are joining the rivals, then you know it’s not going to sit well with everyone.
“Everyone handled it pretty well, the manager spoke to me and said he didn’t think it would be the right thing to keep using me.
“They also said they’d do what they could to get me across to Dundee in this window so thankfully both parties were able to agree.”
Now, McMullan is fully focused on winning promotion to the Premiership with the Dark Blues, who also snapped up former Hibs and Rangers striker Jason Cummings and Tottenham teenager Malachi Fagan-Walcott on Thursday.
He added: “I was coming out of contract this year, we’d spoken a couple of times at United but it didn’t really go anywhere.
“And then the chance to come to Dundee came up, it was something I was quite excited about so I decided this was the best thing to do.
“Coming back to the Championship wasn’t something I really had to think too much about, it wasn’t in my thinking much.
Promotion is the aim
“I looked at the squad we have at Dundee and it’s definitely good enough to get up this season.
“So that’s what we are going to try to do between now and the summer.
“It would be great to get up next season and bring the derbies back.
“It was great playing in them when the supporters were able to get into games.
“We would love to get them again because it’s brilliant for the city, but that’s not something to think about now.
“It’s about getting a run of wins together to challenge for the title.
“Looking at the squad here, we are more than capable of it. I have only trained a few days so far but you can see the quality in the squad.
“We need to turn the draws into wins, the manager has said that, and that’s our aim.”