Gary Bowyer says January transfer window was toughest of his career as Dundee boss talks new signings, healthy competition and Hamilton Accies

Dundee boss Gary Bowyer says this season’s January transfer window was the toughest of his managerial career.

However, he is pleased with the work done by the Dark Blues in securing five new signings – and the return of striker Zach Robinson.

Much of the work was done in the final few days of the month, though, with three players arriving on deadline day.

Asked about the January transfer window, Bowyer said: “It’s the hardest window of my career.

“It is all new to me up here and you are competing with all the clubs in England but also the non-league clubs where there is a lot of money.

“It has been tough in that sense.

“The first thing is getting players who want to come to Scotland and to play at Dundee.

“That has been harder than I anticipated.

“But all of these lads, as soon as it was mentioned, they were straight up here.

“We’ve done good business but we need to see the results on the pitch.”

‘Real healthy competition’

Robinson has returned to a different squad with the likes of Kwame Thomas, Barry Maguire, Ryan Clampin, Luke Hannant and Lorent Tolaj having arrived during his time back at AFC Wimbledon.

And Bowyer is pleased with the options now at his disposal.

He said: “I think we’ve done well. We’ve had to be creative and as a result certain people have moved on to free up funds and places.

We are delighted to announce the signing of Luke Hannant on loan from Colchester United until the end of the season #thedee https://t.co/nDj8Q38Tjf

— Dundee Football Club (@DundeeFC) January 31, 2023

“I think we’ve done some good business but the proof of the pudding is in the eating as they say so we’ll know come the end of the season how successful this window has been.

“Ryan Clampin made a great debut last week, he has settled in brilliantly. It happened very quickly that we got Luke Hannant in as well.

“He can play on the right, left and in the centre and every time I’ve played against him in England he’s always been one that’s caught our eye.

Zach Robinson

“Then there’s the return of Zach Robinson. Wimbledon were great with us, they did say there was a possibility come the end of the window he might come back but I didn’t think they meant the very last day!

“We’re delighted to have him back. Obviously there is expectation for what he did with us earlier in the season but we have to remember he didn’t play in December and he’s barely played in January.

“We are assessing him to see where he is at, fitness-wise.

“Lorent Tolaj can play down the middle, that’s his preferred position, but he can play off the left and off the right.

“I’ve been impressed with him, he has settled very quickly. he offers us something different.

“He’s shown in training already that he’s a good finisher and knows how to put the ball in the back of the net.

“We have people to provide options and provide competition, that’s what you want.

“We have to score goals, we’ve spoken all season about the chances we created but now we have real healthy competition which is good.”

Hamilton

Whether that sees many changes to the starting XI on Saturday at Hamilton Accies remains to be seen.

The Dark Blues head into the clash on the back of an impressive 3-0 win over league leaders Queen’s Park last time out.

Shaun Byrne and Paul McGowan have returned to training but are unlikely to be ready to play this weekend while Jordan Marshall has been ruled out for two weeks and Max Anderson is struggling with a hamstring issue.

Hamilton, meanwhile, also come into the game in good form having won their last two league games 1-0 and knocked Premiership Ross County out of the cup in between.

“That’s not a surprise to me with the way they play. And you saw that at Partick Thistle,” Bowyer said.

“It’s not a big league and you are only talking about 10 teams so people naturally go ‘they are bottom of the table’ but the league is so competitive…

“If they were bottom of a table of 24 then you could say that.

“But there’s only 10 teams.

“They have recruited, taking a couple of players from Stoke through the connection with Alex Neil.

“All the games we have played against them this season have been difficult and we expect the same this Saturday.”