Gordon Strachan’s remaining ambition in football is to see Dundee build a new stadium.
A new stadium that can bring new memories for fans of the Dee after remarkably questioning why supporters would miss Dens Park.
Plans to build a brand new home at Camperdown Park continue to drag on with the club’s Planning Permission in Principle application yet to be heard by Dundee City Council.
Issues with access and the impact on the nearby Kingsway have still to be agreed after a remarkable public rebuke was issued by governing body Transport Scotland.
Former Scotland boss Strachan has urged decision-makers to give the Dark Blues owners the green light to get building.
Not just for the football club but to improve outside perceptions of the city.
“It will take the city of Dundee to the next level,” Strachan told the Scottish Sun.
“I was saying to somebody from the council ‘when you watch a game on TV at Dens Park, that’s the image you get of Dundee – derelict, crumbling, lack of ambition, lack of foresight, it’s all there when you watch that’.
“You look at Middlesbrough, Coventry, they have beautiful stadiums but they are not the greatest of cities.
“You might never have seen the city itself but you think ‘ambitious, wanting to do something’.
“When you look at Dens Park you think ‘lack of ambition, the people in Dundee lacking in thought and all the rest, it’s derelict, it’s shabby, it’s untidy’.
“It’s for the town really. If you think about it the image of the town.
“We’re sitting here now [in sunshine at Bridgeview Station Restaurant] and it doesn’t get any better than this.
“But that picture of Dens Park. It’s a wide open thing that’s 130 years old, it shouldn’t be here anymore.”
Memories?
But what about the traditionalists who want to stay at Dens Park?
“Someone said that to me the other day, must have been 38 – ‘what about the memories?’” Strachan added.
“I said ‘what memories? The last time you won something was 1973 at Hampden on a cold, crappy day’.
“What memories are you talking about, unless you are 80 years old?
“Get some more memories.
“You’ll get 25/30% more people going to a new stadium. It happened at Coventry, at Derby, that’s what happens.
“All this about memories – what memories are you talking about?”
Dundee’s last major trophy win was the 1973 League Cup after the club’s glory days of the 50s and 60s.
Since then the club has won five second-tier titles and two Challenge Cups as well as twice being League Cup finalists and once Scottish Cup finalists.
Advice to the council
After a stellar playing and management career, Strachan has been working behind the scenes at Dundee as their technical director with no thoughts of returning to management.
So what ambition does he have left in the game?
“I would like to see the stadium at Dundee,” the former Scotland boss said.
“Because I don’t think we can move on as a club until we’ve got a stadium. I think it’ll be good for everybody.
“That’s probably about it and just to keep just to keep laughing really.”
He added: “If I was to give the council any advice, it has to happen.
“If you see that new stadium and all the rest, people see there is a bit of ambition about this place.
“Instead of Dens Park thinking ‘look at the mess’.
“It’s not changed since I was there [as a player].
“The future of Dundee will be optimistic if you get a stadium.
“Yes, the training ground but a stadium.
“When it comes on the telly, people go ‘wow this is good, this is all right’.
“Dundee will be proud of it and people see that’s what Dundee does as a town, it grows, has ideas and gets better rather than saying ‘oh, look at the state of that’.”
Conversation