Gary Harkins admits he owes Partick Thistle boss Alan Archibald a big debt of gratitude for realising he was useless as a defender.
The 31-year-old Dundee playmaker was first signed by the Dark Blues from the Jags back in 2009.
Harkins had spent part of his time at Firhill being played in the centre of defence alongside Archibald however, as he prepares to face his former side this afternoon, he candidly admits it was not a partnership made in heaven.
The popular midfielder said: “I played centre-half with Archie for half a season at Partick Thistle and I think he’s the reason I started playing further up the park.
“I think he’d just had enough of me in the end and told the gaffer to get me out of the road!
“He was always shouting at me, I can still hear him now, bellowing, ‘Jeebs! Jeebs! Where are you going?’, things like that.
“He used to tell me to grab strikers and stuff but I always wanted to play.
“So he had his work cut out trying to make a partnership with me at centre-half and I think he was glad to see the back of me.
“He’s a great guy and I always thought he’d become a manager one day because he’s a leader.
“From being in a dressing-room with him you saw what he was all about, he’s someone people wanted to play with and play for.
“He’s done a really good job at Thistle for the last few years, they have been bottom six but with the budget they’ve probably got then staying in the league would have been his remit.
“They have made progress every year he’s been there and this season he’s got them pushing for the top six.
“So I think people are starting to take notice of him now and see how good he is as a manager.”
This season has been a bit of a rollercoaster for Harkins he was virtually ever present for Dundee at the start of the campaign but he did not feature at all for the Dark Blues in November.
However, he fought his way back into the team in a more advanced role and he admits he would play anywhere for Paul Hartley’s side even if that meant a move back into defence.
Harkins added: “It has been a stop-start season for me, I have been in and out of the team.
“I played deeper at the start of the season then was left out for a while, but I have managed to get back in lately.
“I am further up the pitch again and am glad to be playing.
“I have just wanted to get playing again and I think I’m more comfortable higher up the pitch.
“But the main thing is just playing, if the manager asked me to play right-back I’d be happy to do it for the team.
“It’s not that I don’t want to play further back, I just think I’m more effective higher up the pitch.”
Dundee will travel to Glasgow today still buoyed by their derby win over United at the start of this month.
However, Harkins has warned that the Dark Blues need to make themselves harder to beat if they want to use that victory as a springboard to another top six finish this season.
He added: “We won our last game so we’re full of confidence but Thistle are flying just now so it will be tough.
“We have been through a patch of bad results but have won two of the last three.
“If you can win two out of three then that’s better than drawing a lot of games like we did before.
“Hopefully we can build on things now.
“We had been losing bad goals and not scoring enough.
“We have really good players but we were too easy to play against, but if we can just be a bit harder to play against then we’ll be a top six team.
“But it’s easy to sit here and say it, we need to go and show we should be in there.”