Joe Shaughnessy did not need his maths degree to work out that everything added up when he decided to join Dundee.
The defender – and Open University graduate – was offered a new deal by St Mirren to stay in Paisley at the end of last season but despite being club captain, he feared his game time would be limited.
The Irishman decided to leave the Buddies but was quickly snapped up by Dundee, with new Dens boss Tony Docherty selling him on the move.
Docherty, who had been Derek McInnes’s long-time assistant, is someone Shaughnessy knows well having worked with him before at Aberdeen.
And the centre-half jumped at the chance to be reunited with him in the City of Discovery.
Shaughnessy admitted: “Last season I didn’t really play as much as I wanted to and that was the main sticking point.
“I kind of felt like I could have stayed there and been comfortable but I might not have played as much as I would like to again.
“I would be another year older and nearly 32 so what do you do then?
“So I maybe took a risk leaving before I had anything agreed anywhere else.
“But then the manager rang me up on the day he got appointed and made it clear just how much he wanted me to come and join Dundee.
“He sold me on his plans for the year and for the club. From then, it was a pretty easy decision.
“There had been quite a few other inquiries and offers but it was the manager who sold it to me.”
Shaughnessy ‘motivated and excited’
Shaughnessy added: “When I spoke to him, I could hear the excitement in his voice about all his plans.
“I know Dundee is a big club anyway but it motivated and excited me to come and work with him again to try to build something really.
“The fact that he was walking away from someone he had worked with for a lot of years in Derek, he must see something in the club that feels it is the right opportunity.
“So that was a big positive for me as well.”
Docherty has made no secret of the fact that one of his reasons for signing Shaughnessy is that he sees him as a role model for the younger players at the club.
The defender also admits that he could see himself handing out lessons on a more formal basis when he finally hangs up his boots and starts using the maths degree he secured through the Open University, combining studying with playing.
Shaughnessy said: “I finished my maths degree after six and a half years.
“It was good because every night I could go home and do my studying.
“I got left out of a lot of conversations in dressing-rooms with the lads playing their Playstations or whatever but that’s something I never did anyway.
“I would like to do something with the maths going forward, definitely when I am finished playing.
“What that will be, I am not quite sure but it is something I enjoy doing.
“I think I would be a good maths teacher so that’s something I might look into in the future.”
