DUNDEE UNITED and their Trinidad and Tobago internationalist attacker Collin Samuel are to part company after Saturday’s concluding fixture against Motherwell.
That follows Samuel’s agent being advised that any new contract that was offered him would be considerably less lucrative than the one which expires in the next few weeks.
“I don’t believe Collin has been consistent enough to warrant being offered the same terms as he is on currently,’’ revealed manager Craig Levein.
“I would have kept him on at a reduced salary, and I spoke to his agent over the weekend, but the upshot is he’ll be leaving.”
Levein has also spoken to Leicester City over potential signing target Mark de Vries but he revealed that the finances involved in any move for the player would almost certainly rule the Tangerines out of the running.
De Vries’ salary at City is well above a level that United could afford. Nor could the Tangerines pay as sizeable a chunk of his wages as other clubs could in order to secure his services on loan.
“As things stand, I don’t think we’ll be getting Mark,’’ admitted Levein. “However, if he were to get a pay-off from Leicester then perhaps we could do something. We would certainly be interested.’’
Levein was yesterday not only standing by his criticism of the weekend dismissal of Lee Wilkie, he also expressed unhappiness that there is no mechanism available to challenge the second yellow card which led to Wilkie walking.
“After watching a recording of the incident, my thoughts on the matter are exactly the same as they were on Saturday,’’ he said.
“Lee has won the ball, there was nothing wrong with the challenge and it wasn’t even a foul let alone a booking.”
“Unfortunately, though, there’s nothing we can do as far as having the punishment overturned is concerned.
“If it had been a straight red card he’d got we could have appealed, but you cannot appeal a second yellow even though that has the same net result, which is ludicrous.
“To be fair, the disciplinary system has come a long way.
“At one time you simply had to accept the decision which had been made.
“Now at least it is being accepted in some instances that refs have made wrong decisions and these are being overturned, which is a massive step in the right direction.
“Yet we still have this anomaly where you cannot appeal a yellow card.’’
Midfield pair Greg Cameron and Morgaro Gomis meanwhile will visit a specialist following the Motherwell game to determine how best to address the groin complaints they’ve been suffering from.
“If they don’t need surgery then they’ll need injections and we’ll deal with the situation after the last match,’’ said Levein.
United sold approaching 5000 briefs, to voucher holders and Early Bird season ticket purchasers, for the pre-season clash with Barcelona yesterday.
With a sizeable number of telephone and internet applications still to be processed the match is well on its way to being a 14,000 sell-out.