Pressley wants Dundee to end high player turnoverpublished at 12:00 28 June
Image source, SNSNew boss Steven Pressley is aiming to shake up Dundee's previous transfer strategy as he plans to implement a new, long-term, recruitment strategy.
The Dens Park club signed 16 players last season, and 22 the season before that. So far this summer, Pressley has added just four.
"I'm aware that it's going to take time to get the players in," the new head coach said. "It's really challenging, but I came here with that understanding.
"There's no doubt we could get players in now but are they the right ones for Dundee? That's the most important factor."
"Every year there seems to be a real transition of players and we have to get away from that at our club.
"It has to be when we come to the end of a season, we're only looking to recruit two or three and build on the season before."
"In order to do that it's very important that we get the recruitment right now. We're working tirelessly hard, really doing a lot of due diligence around that. Everybody's really committed to try and getting players in, but we just want to get the right players in."
Pressley has the added difficulty of replacing two key players, academy graduates Lyall Cameron and Josh Mulligan, who have departed for Rangers and Hibernian respectively.
"We've made a couple of really good acquisitions to the squad in [Paul] Digby, who's settled in extremely well, Drey Wright, who has had a a couple of excellent seasons at St Johnstone, and of course Emile [Acquah] from AFC Barrow, a big striker that has very much impressed me in my travels in England.
"He also impressed our recruitment team - the reports, the due diligence on him was very good and we all collaborated. We think he is a really interesting signing."
The head coach also touched on the partnership Acquah can strike with new club captain Simon Murray, who was appointed earlier in the week - a decision Pressley called "very easy".
"It was the natural choice. When you look at Simon, first and foremost, he's a terrific person but he's also a player with a great attitude.
"He leads by example to our younger players, he's a really good player and I love his journey. He's had to work exceptionally hard for what he's got, he's had some serious setbacks in his career, some difficult periods, but he just keeps going.
"He's shown amazing resilience and we're really seeing the fruits of that now. He's never been better than he is now, never been fitter than he is now, so it was a very easy decision. He's a Dundee supporter at heart, which which also is a a really important factor."
