Dundee United Manager Jim Goodwin spoke to the broadcast media to preview our William Hill Premiership clash with Hibernian on Matchday Four.

The boss discussed inking a new deal with the Terrors, his personal development as a Manager, striving for continuous improvement, the threats posed by the high-flying Hibees and more!

ON SIGNING A NEW CONTRACT WITH THE CLUB

I’m really pleased. It's been something that has been bubbling away in the background for a number of months and I'm delighted that we've finally got everything concluded.

I’ve really enjoyed the last couple of seasons here at the club. I've, in that time, built up some great relationships with the board of directors, the Owner, Chief Executive and my backroom team as well. We've done some really good things over the last two years and hopefully there's plenty more good to come in the future as well.

A 12-month rolling contract is something that a lot of managers and a lot of clubs do up and down the country. It's something that both myself and the board of directors are very comfortable with. It's a sign of commitment from me, and it's a sign of commitment from them. We're both very happy. 

I'm happy here as manager, and clearly they're satisfied with the job that I've done up to now. It's just the wording of the contract, really.

ON DOING NUMEROUS REBUILDS OF THE SQUAD

What we've had to do over the last couple of seasons in terms of the rebuilding of the squad, that's been a real challenge for us, in terms of the volume of players that we've had to bring in.

Going forward, you would hope that you're not going to have to be doing 14 players again next summer. The signings that we've made are all players that we believe have got room for improvement and future development, and in the future it's just about adding to that.

Everybody knows the stature of the club in terms of the history of Dundee United. We know we're competing with some really good sides in the Premiership, but at the same time, there's a lot more to come from us as a club and from this particular group of players as well, and hopefully that will come to fruition over the course of the campaign.

ON STRIVING FOR CONTINOUS IMPROVEMENT

You can't stand still and be content with what's going on. We're continuously trying to make improvements and we've done that since I first came through the door, really, with the changes that we've made on the player front. 

We've made some changes to the backroom team as well. We've added some really good people in terms of the recruitment department and things like that. So, we're continuously trying to strive and trying to make progress on and off the field, and that's been evident with the success that we've had in a short period of time.

Consistency is the key. With myself signing again, it brings a bit of stability to the club as well, which is important. It's important for the players as well, in terms of recruitment, that they see how committed I am to the club, along with the commitments that they've made in the summer.

ON DEVELOPING AS A MANAGER

In my time, the last ten years as a manager, I'm really pleased with the progress that I've made on a personal level. There are far better managers than me out there who have been relieved of their duties at one club or another.

I've not changed a great deal as a manager or as a person, to be perfectly honest with you. It just didn't quite work out the way that I would have hoped at Aberdeen. But Dundee United gave me an opportunity, and I felt I was very lucky at the time to get this type of opportunity off the back of what happened. 

I'm just delighted that I could repay the faith that they've shown in me of the business that we've done in the last couple of seasons.

I'll have plenty of time to reflect on my career when I finally retire, but right now I'm just continuing to learn, continuing to try and focus on my own development as well as that of developing the players within the group.

I'm loving life at Dundee United at the moment, and long may that continue.

ON THIS EVENING’S CLASH WITH HIBERNIAN

Hibs, from the tail end of last year, have been one of the most informed teams in the country - domestically, very, very strong. I watched the European games as well. They were extremely unfortunate in the last game to go out in the manner that they did. 

David Gray has done a terrific job. He's a young manager that I've got a lot of respect for. They've got a really good, strong, competitive squad and they've invested well again in the summer. We know how difficult that's going to be, but it's a fixture that we feel that we've done well in last season and we want to try and build on that again this season. 

Our focus is on ourselves. We understand the qualities that Hibs have got, particularly in the forward areas, but I've got great confidence in the group of players that we'll be taking to Easter Road on Saturday. 

ON THE TWO-WEEK HIATUS AND TEAM NEWS

This team and this group that we've assembled is only going to get better over the next few weeks and months ahead because those relationships are now starting to build. 14 new signings, it sometimes takes a lot of time, but credit to this group of players. They've all settled in really quickly. They've understood what's been asked of them and we will continue to get better.

You look forward to the next game coming pretty quickly, so you can try and build a bit of momentum. But, with the players that we have out missing, it's given those guys a couple of weeks to get closer to the action. 

We did pick up a couple of little knocks in that Dundee game, so that gave us time for those guys to get settled and to get back into the fold. The injuries have been well documented. I've spoken long enough about that and we know what that situation looks like. 

Every team in the country is going to have setbacks along the way. The most important thing for me as manager is to focus on the players that I have available to me at this moment in time. We'll have a really strong competitive team going into Easter Road. If we turn up and we play the way we're capable of playing, then there's no reason why we can't get a positive result.

The squad that was there at Dens will be very similar to the one that is going to be available to us at Easter Road - we’ve got some long-term injuries. It's all been well documented.  Ryan Strain and Kristijan Trapanovski are probably the two who are closest at this moment in time. 

We would like to think in the next couple of weeks that those guys will start to get integrated back into the training squad and hopefully won't be too far away from playing competitive football again.

ON IVAN DOLCEK’S SCINTILATING START

You're always a little bit unsure about how the foreign players are going to settle in. Sometimes it can take a little bit more time for them to get adjusted to the culture and the style of play, but Ivan has taken to the Scottish game like a duck to water in terms of his goal return in particular. 

The most pleasing aspect of it is that there's so much more to come from him as an individual. I've had that conversation with him. He's had a terrific start. He's made that position in the team his own at the moment. But it's important that he doesn't get comfortable in it. I want him to keep pushing and training, keep trying to improve, keep trying to get better because we can all see the qualities that he has in front of goal.

It's now trying to get that development into him in terms of the 1v1 situations. Ivan gets all the plaudits, that tends to be the way in football, but there have been so many good individual performances right through our squad. 

There was a brief conversation between ourselves, Ivan and the representatives. It's a situation that we're all quite relaxed and very comfortable about at this moment in time.

Ivan will be with us for the rest of the season at least and he knows what we think of him. If the opportunity arises in the future for us to make this a permanent, then that's definitely something we'll look to do. 

We just want him to maintain his focus, keep performing well on a weekly basis for the team. I know he's absolutely loving life at Dundee United at the moment and why wouldn't he with the start that he's had? I'm pretty sure if we can have a successful campaign that Ivan will be more than happy to extend his stay at United.

ON OUR INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES

It's fantastic for the club. We've had a number of our Academy graduates away with the Scottish U21s as well and I'm delighted that all of those guys have got a cap or two over the last couple of weeks. 

Amar Fatah and Dario Naamo were away with their respective countries as well and we've had a few away on senior duty. Thankfully, all of those players have come back fit. That's the one thing as a manager, as much as you're delighted for them because you know what a proud moment it is for them and their families, on the flip side of that, you're watching the games nervously hoping that there's not going to be any more injuries.

The recognition for the individuals only comes off the back of performing well for the clubs and we're delighted with the representation that we have got all over Europe at the moment. 

We were training with a relatively small squad given the amount of players that we had away on international duty. We had seven in total away and we've got a few injuries to contend with at the moment but for the players that were here training all worked extremely hard and we were able to work on one or two key areas that we felt we needed to strengthen and improve and those guys that were here training put in a really good shift.

ON THE EVENING KICK-OFF

It's a bit strange playing a game at that time of the evening on a Saturday. It's not something that we would be all that used to but it's not a major distraction in terms of our preparations for the game. 

We just move everything back a couple of hours and the boys get a little bit more time in their beds on the Saturday morning, which they'll be pleased with! But in terms of our preparation, it doesn't impact or affect any of that.

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