Dundee fans will be rightly nervous at the preparation for the upcoming season with just two new players signed so far: Drey Wright and Paul Digby.
But Steven Pressley won’t be alone in having to assemble a new-look squad with pre-season training now underway.
The days when a boss might add three or four new men to a fairly settled pool of players are long gone in Scottish football.
Managers are now constantly rebuilding from season to season which means keeping a settled group is a rarity and requires top-class planning and luck.
Transfer market challenges
Dark Blues fans are still entitled to be concerned though.
Having lost key men Joe Shaughnessy, Antonio Portales, Scott Tiffoney, and Mo Sylla, and with Josh Mulligan in my view highly unlikely to sign a new deal, Pressley and his recruitment team need fresh faces fast.
Dee have two trialists in the building at the moment, with links to new technical manager David Longwell, and they’ll be there for the next fortnight.
One of them, Kyle Magennis, has had an injury-prone few years so some supporters may have early fears.
Previous injuries shouldn’t stop signings, but they should increase caution.
Adding a significant number of new players in a short space of time increases the chances of buyer’s remorse.
The best players currently available are, along with their agents, weighing up their offers carefully.
The danger is that those players are cherry picked quickly, and clubs slow off the mark are left with lesser quality, both in terms of ability and other important player characteristics, such as attitude and desire.
The longer new signings take, the greater the chance of making poor choices.
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