Calum Melville insists that new Dundee boss Gordon Chisholm was always his club’s first choice to replace Jocky Scott. The Dens Park club moved quick to fill their managerial vacancy and had former Queen of the South manager Chisholm in the manager’s chair just short of 24 hours after Scott was relieved of his duties.
Chisholm, together with new assistant Billy Dodds, will take over the task of keeping Dundee’s hopes of promotion to the SPL alive from the enviable position of current league leaders.
Dundee struggled in their last eight First Division games under Scott, picking up just nine points from a possible 24. Defeat to bottom club Airdrie United on Saturday was the straw the broke the camel’s back for the Dundee board, who have invested heavily in building a squad to take them back to the top flight after a five-year absence.
The Dark Blues hold a narrow three point lead at the top with Inverness, Dunfermline and Ross County all chasing them down for the sole promotion slot. Chisholm’s job will be to keep them in top spot after 36 games but director Melville, who helped fund the summer arrivals of players such as Leigh Griffiths and Gary Harkins, insists the new boss will be given a second chance next season if they fall short this campaign.
“He [Chisholm]'s got all of next season to do it again,” said Melville on Sunday night. “He's actually contracted here for two years and one month. So if he doesn't do it this season, we'll have another crack at it again next season. But Gordon and Billy will definitely be in charge.
“We're very confident that we've got the right guys in place to take us to the SPL. They've got great knowledge of the First Division and I think it is fair to say that Queen of the South have punched well above their weight with the resources they've had. So we feel they are the right combination to take us into the SPL.
“We've got the best players, the best squad and, we think, the best management team in the First Division. So we see no reason why we shouldn't be promoted.”
Partick Thistle boss Ian McCall was also approached over the job on Sunday morning but talks fell by the wayside early on. Despite that, Melville was adamant that Chisholm wasn’t second choice to the man he previously worked as assistant to across the road at Tannadice.
“Absolutely not, Gordon Chisholm is first choice,” Meville insisted. “We spoke to a couple of candidates but, at the end of the day, we only met Gordon and Billy and we were more than satisfied, after meeting with them, that they were the guys to go forward with.
“Ian is not our manager. We are not in discussions with Partick Thistle anymore so it's finished.”
The swift replacement of Scott on Sunday night suggested that plans had been afoot to replace the 62-year-old for some time. Melville though made it clear that, although recent results had been of concern, they hadn’t approached anyone over inheriting the reins until their previous manager had been dismissed.
“We had picked up nine points out of 24 and we just felt that performances on the park weren't going particularly well,” explained Meville. “The final straw was losing 3-0 at Airdrie.
“He [Scott] is a legend around here. People use that word loosely but he really is a legend at Dundee Football Club. But ultimately we've got to try and get promoted. We've got nine games left and we felt we had to make a change.
“Our view was undoubtedly that the points gap was reducing and we were concerned that we would be overhauled. So we felt it was time to make a change.”
