Following on from the news that midfielder Charlie Telfer had moved on for pastures new and turned down the offer we had made him to extend his contract manager Ally McCoist has spoken to the Official Site and said that although he obviously wishes the youngster the best for the future, he was very sad to see him go.
‘We wish Charlie all the best but we were obviously very sad to see him go. He trained with the squad and came on against Stenhousemuir and we feel he is a great prospect. He still is, but sadly for Dundee United now. We offered Charlie terms which he was well within his rights to decline and he did. He moves with our best wishes.’
McCoist goes on to say that the ‘first thing’ people need to realise about this development, is that it was Charlie’s decision and the club definitely wanted to keep him, but for whatever reason – the contract he was offered or maybe promises of more first team action that we could offer at this stage of his development – he favoured the switch and he says questions about why he’d move instead of staying with us, are for Charlie to answer given his recent quotes and he wasn’t going to be pulled into that.
Telfer isn’t alone in being highly rated for the future though and McCoist knows that Gordon Durie’s youth side have plenty of talent within it and with the facts being that 21 Academy graduates have between them made more than 450 appearances for the first team following our administration, he doesn’t believe that younger players aren’t given a fair crack of the whip, albeit obviously different players develop at a different rate.
‘We are delighted with the academy, we want to get as many coming through as possible but 13 last year is good and we will never rest on it. Perhaps the whole thing has been blown up a little because Charlie has exercised his right to move on, but we will continue to work hand in hand with the academy. The boys that warrant and deserve their chance, I can reassure everybody, will get it.’
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