Dundee manager Tony Docherty has taken a leaf out of the playbook of excuses amid Rangers’ repeated postponements and attacked Motherwell’s Stuart Kettlewell’s criticism of Dundee’s policies over ‘player not pitch’.
Kettlewell stated that two years ago, Motherwell invested well over £1M in fixing their pitch and sacrificed player investment to do so, and he resented the fact Dundee had done the opposite, invested in players and sacrificed the pitch.
Well Docherty was having none of it:
“To imply money has gone into the squad instead of the pitch is wholly inaccurate and unfair. People who have said that should know better, in my opinion. It does a real disservice to the squad and the staff for the work that has gone in here. The reality is, we are punching four or five places above our weight in this league and that has been down to hard work. That’s hard work from the staff and the players. We had to build from scratch in the summer, we had three signed players. We built a squad and built a staff, then improved along the way. So for people to imply what they have is inaccurate and unfair. It does a disservice to the football department.”
The hilarious thing about this ‘defence’ is it literally confirms Kettlewell’s views – that Dundee chucked all their cash at the playing squad, didn’t bother with the pitch, and now thanks to that investment are reaping the rewards.
To call it ‘hard work’ and say they’re punching above their weight literally admits red handed that Dundee focused on the football side of their club and not the infrastructure.
That they rebuilt a squad from scratch, and of course, most folk can tell you new players and signings don’t grow on trees.
We feel Mr Docherty really didn’t think this argument through when he launched such a defence, and Kettlewell can feel vindicated in what he says.
Yes, Dundee basically splurged all their cash on a new squad, invested it in staff, and let the pitch just rot away as a sacrifice.
Sorry Tony, all you’ve really done is confirm what Kettlewell said.
You’re just annoyed you’re being called out on it.