Jackie McNamara, the Dundee United manager, is determined to hold on to the talented group of players which could win today's William Hill Scottish Cup final.
McNamara heaped praise on the forwards who have contributed massively to the team's 88 goals in 45 games so far this season, even describing Nadir Ciftci as sometimes "unplayable". United's patchy but occasionally thrilling campaign has attracted interest in their batch of young players, and although the club has most of their exciting talents under reasonably long contracts, there is an inevitable risk of losing them to bigger, richer clubs.
Gary Mackay-Steven is out of contract in a year, Ciftci, Andrew Robertson, Stuart Armstrong, John Souttar and Ryan Dow - who signed an extension this week - are under deals until 2016, and Ryan Gauld's contract expires in 2017. Gavin Gunning is out of contract this summer.
"Naturally, you want to keep this group of players for as long as possible," said McNamara. "I know they're not the finished article yet, but the potential is very high. Every day at training I see their capabilities. At every press conference I'm asked about the opposition, but I also see my own players and what they're capable of doing. You're hoping it's the start of something, but in football you never know what's round the corner."
Ciftci, 22, the Turkish former under-19 international striker, has scored 17 times this season. "He's an important player; at times he's unplayable," said McNamara. "I think Ryan Dow, Ryan Gauld and Gary Mackay-Steven, when they are on it, are great. But you need everyone on their top game, not just one.
"[When they all play well together] I can see something will spark it off. A lot of things are key to that. Maybe it's hold-up play, or the ball is sticking well up front and that allows the movement to happen and midfielders to get up. They move about with a freedom and don't get picked up. There are games where it works more than others, but every manager will have their own frustrations with their team because he knows what they are really capable of doing.
"For me, I think Dundee United have been more on it [in good form] this season than off it. The runs we have had and the goals we have scored. We've scored 88 goals this season. I don't know the last time United scored 88 goals. It must be a wee while. [But] St Johnstone are very hard to break down at times. We have to be very patient."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article