Dundee United manager Robbie Neilson called on Ian McCall to speak to him face to face about any issues he has over the summer transfer of Lawrence Shankland.
After the 2-0 victory for his Ayr United team over the Tangerines on Saturday, the Somerset Park boss chose to speak out about a comment that had angered him regarding the coaching Shankland would get at Tannadice after his move north.
McCall had clearly been waiting for his moment to have his say but Neilson believes that moment should have been in the manager’s office rather than in his post-match press conference.
“I know that Ian likes to have a chat about things like that,” he said.
“If he’s got anything to say I’m sure he’ll tell me. I’d rather it was face to face than having to go through the media.
“I’ve certainly got respect for Ian. I think he’s a good manager. I would hope it would work both ways.
“Lawrence is an exceptional player. I spoke to Ian for 10 minutes before the game on that and we agreed on that.
“I think Lawrence had a very good grounding here and did very, very well. We hope that he’ll go to the next level and I think everyone agrees on that.”
Fifteen minutes or so earlier, McCall had said: “In the summer when they signed some of our players there were quotes coming from them that they will get better coaching. Well, it didn’t look like that today.
“But they’re welcome to send Lawrence down and we’ll give him a week’s coaching, not a problem.
“I thought we just passed it round them today. They were big and strong but that was about it. The performance was terrific and the result thoroughly deserved.”
He added: “We were all very unhappy about it. Granted they have better facilities, I get that. But you don’t say that.
“Gary Holt took Robbie Crawford and his comments were ‘we want to continue the good education he had at Ayr United’. That’s all you’ve got to do in this game.”
Asked where the comment had come from, McCall said; “From their manager.”
The direct quote that he was likely referring to was part of United’s official statement on their website when Shankland’s signing was confirmed.
It was attributed to Neilson and read: “We are getting a player who has shown how good he can be at this level and we believe we can make him an even better player with the facilities and coaching that is available at Dundee United.”
