Dundee treble winner Lyall Cameron insists the Dens Park side are aiming far higher than to merely escape the drop under new boss Tony Docherty.
And the Scotland under-21s new boy revealed he was on the brink of giving up on his dream last season before he transformed his career.
Cameron could make his first appearance for Scot Gemmill’s young Scots on Thursday in a friendly against Norway in Spain and is viewed as one of the most exciting prospects to come out of the Tayside club for years after winning a unique trio of awards.
He became the first ever player in Dundee’s history to win their Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards.
But the 20-year-old admitted he was unhappy for the first half of the season after Gary Bowyer only used him as a bit-part player – until a change of fortunes in a Scottish Cup tie at St Mirren.
Cameron, who has pledged his future to Dundee, said: “It was certainly an eventful season! I had a rough start because I didn’t even get much game time, but I stuck at it, had a few words with the manager and he finally put me in and I kept my spot.
“The turning point for me was when we played St Mirren in the cup and I was meant to be starting, but the manager changed his mind and I was on the bench.
“But there were a couple of early injuries and I got on, played well and was in the team from then on.
“I’m the first ever player at Dundee to win all three awards so that was a nice way to end the season.
“I was top scorer but I was actually frustrated with 14 goals because I feel I would have got a lot more if I had played the first half of the season too. I think I could have easily have got 20.
“At the start of the season, I wasn’t getting any games and I was in the last year of my contract.
“It could have gone one of two ways.
“For a while for me, it wasn’t going well, I wasn’t playing, I was frustrated and thinking about going on loan again or doing something else.
“But I just thought: ‘You know what? I am good enough to be here.'”
Cameron, who was tracked by Hearts before penning his new deal at Dens, now can’t wait to work with new boss Docherty.
He said: I’m looking forward to working with the new manager after the previous one left.
“It’s the Dundee way, isn’t it! I think he got announced as Manager of the Year one day and he was sacked the next day. It was a weird situation.
“But we have got to back the new manager. He’s got a lot of experience and I’ve heard good things about him.
“I’ve not spoken to him since he came in. He’s renowned as a really good coach so we are looking forward to it.
“I have a good feeling about next season. Clubs always go in and say they just want to survive and have low ambitions, but I don’t see why we shouldn’t aim higher.
“I’d rather go into the season with confidence and aspirations rather than all this let’s not relegated stuff.
“We have to win our home games against teams in the bottom six and if you do that you can go on to have a decent enough season.
“The Premiership will be very different because it will be harder to break teams down, but you get more time on the ball, whereas in the Championship, at places like Arbroath and Morton you are just getting hounded by everyone, everywhere!
“So I’m looking forward to a new challenge and I am hoping it will maybe suit my game better too.”
