‘Let the fun and the rollercoaster commence’

The 2024-25 Premiership season is upon us, and Dundee United are back in the big league.

Last season was a tough one, given just how well Raith Rovers performed over the course of the whole season, but from the get go United were the clear favourites.

Biggest team, biggest budget, biggest everything, blah blah blah. That came with a heavy expectation and they were more than made to work for it, but in the end they merited the title win. No doubt about it.

This summer has seen a massive rebuild of the playing staff. 15 players left the club, including an Australian goalie that played a massive part the last time we were in the top flight, and, as of writing this, nine new players have been brought in.

Jim Goodwin has once again used his contacts and knowledge of the Macedonian market to capture the signings of Kristijan Trapanovski and David Babunski, and the others that have come in, Ryan Strain aside, are unknown to most Scottish punters.

The manager has also ripped up his preferred formation handbook from last season and is attempting to implement a whole new system for the upcoming season.

Gone is the 4-2-3-1 era and we are now stepping into this brave new world with a 3- 4-3 line-up.

Why he has decided to go down this route, possibly only he and his coaching staff know, but the early signs from the League Cup have been somewhat less than wonderful.

We have looked quite good on the ball and going forward, but at times we look as open as a barn door when not in possession. I’m hoping that is due to the players getting used to the new system and each other.

As for the League Cup, it looked for all the world like we weren’t going to get out of the group stages again – which would have been highly unfortunate given that we had won three of the four matches and had a +5 goal difference – but we were still reliant on the mighty Buckie Thistle giving us a slight helping hand last Saturday.

With our Cup campaign now on the back burner, for a few weeks at least, we move on to the league campaign, and what better way to start than with a Dundee derby.

My own favourite fixture, although I am fully aware that is not a sentiment shared by all Arabs.

Let me say this, United fans are not all that confident leading into this one, and from what I can gather, Dundee fans feel they are slight favourites.

The team across the road easily won their own League Cup group and scored 18 goals in their four games. It’s fair to say that they’ll be feeling good about themselves, so let’s hope that nice wind gets taken right out of their sails next Sunday.

As for the rest of the season from a tangerine-tinted perspective, it still feels like Goodwin has a way to go to win over some United fans. Not all the support have taken to him and in many eyes he will have to ensure the team hit the ground running, or the pressure may very well start mounting.

His summer signings look good so far though. We have the full-of-energy Will Ferry, a wizard on the wing in Trapanoski and a man that simply oozes class every time he touches the ball in Babunski.

The early signs from this team tend to make me believe that our North Macedonians are going to be our star men this season, with Babunski just edging it as our one to watch for me.

As a club, I always feel that United should be aiming for top six. Bare minimum.

Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Dundee last season all achieved that feat so I see no reason why United shouldn’t have similar aspirations. As for where I think we’ll actually finish, I’ll say eighth.

Let the fun, and the rollercoaster, commence.

Paul McNicoll can be found of the Dode Fox Podcast.