The soon to be open transfer window is a nightmare for clubs with players who have had a good season. They are the ones who will not want to answer the phone in case their is an approach for their players from the other end. Darren Jackson admits there is nothing Dundee United can do as they brace themselves for bids for more of their star players this summer. The club have earned a glowing reputation for cultivating young footballing talent in recent years, although there was some supporter disquiet when two of their brightest prospects - Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong - left for Celtic in January. Now it is Turkish striker Nadir Ciftci and teenager John Souttar who are attracting scouts and rave reviews in equal measure, but Jackson is adamant they are simply focused on the task in hand.
Jackson said: "It’s just speculation. Scouts are at most games so you just have to accept it. As someone said, it can be looked on as a compliment but you don’t know they are there so it doesn’t really affect us. We just carry on and do our jobs and hopefully they go away. But that’s what happens when you have young boys who are doing well. It has happened all season. There is nothing you can do about scouts at games. We just have to concentrate on winning the last two matches."
Regarding Souttar, the Scotland U19 midfielder, Jackson is convinced he is destined to make his mark at the highest level. He said: "He’s a young kid who is a huge prospect. Unfortunately, he got a really bad injury at the start of the season and it has affected him. He has just come back in now and he has changed position. I think he has handled the situation really well. He just takes everything in his stride. He is totally laid back. 'Soapy' doesn’t worry about anything. You see that in his play where he will take the ball, sell three people a dummy at the edge of our box and you are like, ‘No! No!’, but that is the way he plays. That’s what makes him such a good player."