When Celtic-bound former United goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska was due to face Rangers in the final match of last season, he freely admitted to the media that he would be doing all he could to stop the Ibrox club and help his future employers win the championship – not that it quite transpired that way. Webster’s situation, though, is a little different.
The defender is not headed for either half of the Old Firm. He has already earned his move to the big time, but now finds himself on Tayside looking to relaunch a career which never came close to getting off the ground with Rangers. Webster, in fact, has no particular desire to ingratiate himself to the Ibrox support when he faces Tony Mowbray’s side this afternoon and absolves himself of any duty other than that of doing his best for his current team, rather than the club to whom he remains contracted. He shrugs off the suggestion that he has more reason than most to give his all today, and maintains that his opportunity at Tannadice is a new journey which he has no wish to complicate with excess baggage from his time at Ibrox.
His friends at Rangers may well be urging Webster to do them a favour this afternoon and add to the pressure on Mowbray, but the defender refuses to allow his mind to wander from the job at hand. “It isn’t really up to me to think about Rangers,” he said. “So far as I am concerned this season, I am a Dundee United player and that is where my focus is. When I run out onto the pitch today, it won’t be about what I can do for Rangers, but whether or not I can help Dundee United to get a result.
“It is up to the players who are at Rangers to get the points that will win them the league. I have to concentrate on United, so I can honestly say it won’t be in my thoughts on Sunday.”
Webster’s apathy towards the fortunes of Rangers could be construed as a reflection of his time at the club, where he remains contracted for another year after this season. The player made just one competitive appearance for Rangers, against Gretna, a game in which he scored. The idea that Webster continued to struggle with the injury problems that spoiled his stay in Govan clung to the player like a wet garment last term, but he was fit for the latter half of the season, only to be overlooked by Walter Smith. He has since acknowledged that being on the fringes of a club like Rangers can be an isolating experience and as such, this year is all about refamiliarising himself with the weekly demands of first-team football as well as enjoying being in the thick of some of the dressing room camaraderie.
At one stage, the former Hearts defender would have had just reason believe someone had placed him under a curse. Crocked by Filip Sebo on his first training session with Rangers, the defender became lost property at Murray Park as he shifted between the treatment room, then the gym and then the training ground. Sightings of him on a match day at Ibrox were as rare as Californian snow and this season is as much about rebuilding his psyche as it is about retraining his body.
“I don’t know if there was ever a time when I doubted that I would play regular first-team football again, but definitely when you are out injured the problem can be as much mental as physical,” he said. “It is a horrible experience to be part of a squad but to feel on the outside and it can turn into something of a vicious circle.
“You need games to get fit but you can’t get a game because you are not match fit and when that happens, I suppose you need to have a manager that trusts you to go in. It can be hard because there is so much at stake for clubs, especially with either half of the Old Firm where the pressure is on constantly and it is all about results.
“I am enjoying being a footballer again this season. I am playing, I am part of a side and Craig Levein has been fantastic with me. He has been a big part of my career and there has been no favouritism or anything like that from him this season, but I get a lot of confidence from him.”
Speculation linking Levein with the vacant Scotland job has filled many a column inch this week. Webster, though, was unwilling to contribute to the gossip and it seems there is little chance the subject will be broached in the Tannadice dressing room before today’s game.
Regardless, Celtic have found United something of a bogey team of late and a trip to Dundee at this time of year has come to be regarded with a degree of apprehension by both halves of the Old Firm. If the Parkhead side show the same kind of frailties that were so glaringly exposed in their most recent outing, a 3-3 draw with Falkirk, then Mowbray can expect more flak to head in his direction.
The Celtic manager’s defence of his unconvincing record to date has been peppered with references to players he believes are of a poorer standard than those who worked under his predecessors. Webster finds it hard to disagree, having experienced first-hand the firepower of Celtic sides in a more prosperous era, though he is careful not to dismiss the threat posed by the side he will face at Tannadice today.
“I definitely had one or two run-ins with big John Hartson but those kind of encounters are one of the joys of football,” he smiled. “The likes of John and Chris Sutton and Henrik Larsson, to be perfectly honest, were probably way above any other player that has played in the SPL for the last 10 years.
“Their quality, their awareness, their all-round play was on a different level really from anyone else and I think that was reflected in not just the amount of goals the three of them scored when they played together, but in the success that Celtic had at that time.
“But regardless of what anyone says, Celtic still have a lot of top-class players and they will always pose a threat. Scott McDonald will always score goals and while Marc-Antoine Fortune has had a difficult start to his Celtic career, I think it is probably a bit early to make a judgement on him.
“When you look at Celtic’s squad they have some excellent attacking options and I don’t think that, for all the criticism they have had this season, that they are not a threat to anyone. Georgios Samaras is a very capable forward and Aiden McGeady, on his day, can be a problem for anyone.”
Whether the players mentioned are capable of leading the Parkhead club to success this season remains to be seen. Any part Webster plays in derailing their ambition, though, will draw applause from the blue half of Glasgow, whether he acknowledges it or not.
