Dundee boss Gary Bowyer opens up life at Dens Park, The Open, Charlie Adam calls and his father's United link

Bowyer's last job before Dundee was at Salford.

But the fact the 150th Open is on while Gary Bowyer is in the first few weeks of his new role has certainly helped convince the latest incumbent in the Dens Park manager’s chair that he is in the right place after a lifetime working in English football.

He was already sold on the club. As soon as he saw the impressive boardroom at Dens Park, in fact. "It immediately reminded me of the boardroom at Ewood Park," says Bowyer, who managed Blackburn Rovers with admirable results in difficult circumstances.

“I joined Blackburn and it was such a historic club. They are founding members of the Football League. But I also got a feeling that it was a family club as well as a traditional one. I get the same feeling here because of the people inside the club and the connection with the supporters.”

Charlie Adam, now at West Ham, gave advice to Bowyer about his move to Dundee.

The officials at Blackburn Rovers had the opportunity to compare oak-panelled boardrooms at a friendly in midweek at Dens Park.

Bowyer’s quietly impressive start continued with a 1-1 draw against the visitors. He takes his new side to Stranraer this afternoon.

It has proved a hectic period for the 51-year-old. His son, Leo, turns two today. The morning after he was unveiled as Dundee manager last month he shot out to Ibiza to attend his 27-year-old daughter Georgia’s wedding to Halifax Town footballer Jordan Keane.

Bowyer has adored his time in Dundee so far. He mentions walks along the beach at Broughty Ferry and the view as the train sweeps around the corner from the south to reveal the city on the other side of the rail bridge.

Bowyer gives out instructions during a pre-season friendly against Peterhead.

He spent an enchanted evening in St Andrews last Friday with assistant Billy Barr as they walked the fairways and crossed the Swilcan Bridge prior to The Open rolling into town. There was magic in the air.

“There was a girl playing the cello on the little bridge at the 18th and it was classical music – we just stood there watching,” he says.

“Then as you walked up the 18th, there was another girl playing a piano on the path and then the Claret Jug was there at the end, and we got pictures with it. An unbelievable night.”

He hopes it’s not the last photo opportunity he has with some silverware in Scotland.

Gary Bowyer was unveiled as Dundee's manager last month.

The Claret Jug is one of the most revered cups in sport. But the Scottish Championship trophy has been about a bit. Before the creation of the Scottish Premier League in 1998, it was handed to the champions of Scotland.

It has therefore passed through the bands of the likes of Billy McNeill, John Greig and Willie Miller as well as the chap who adorns the wall behind Bowyer in his office at Dundee’s new training complex at Dundee and Angus College's Gardyne campus. “To have Bobby looking over us, it is important,” he says.

As the first manager in this new facility, it was his decision to hang the painting of Bobby Cox celebrating Dundee’s title win in 1962 while on the shoulders of fans at Muirton Park. Befitting someone who graduated with a distinction in sport directorship from Manchester Metropolitan University and whose dissertation – on sporting directors recruiting first-team managers – is now due to be published, Bowyer is hungry for knowledge.

Conversation turns to Dundee’s woeful cup record. Today’s visit to Stair Park is step two in their latest mission to put something tangible in that plush Dens Park boardroom after last weekend’s 3-0 win over Hamilton Accies in their opening Group H fixture. Bowyer wants to know the last time Dundee won a major trophy.

“1973”

He writes the year on the whiteboard in marker pen and then rings it.

“And the last time in Europe?” he asks.

“2003. October 15. Perugia.”

That, too, is jotted down.

“They are alarming. But at the same time, it is something to strive for. I already know we have a lot of young, exciting players and one or two experienced heads who have been good for them.”

He picks out Paul McGowan, a player who could shoot into the top 15 of all-time appearance makers if he remains a regular this season. Dundee fans had hoped another veteran might still be around to help the side mount an immediate return to the Premiership.

Charlie Adam and the club have parted ways, however. But the veteran midfielder did have some input in Bowyer’s move north. Despite leaving earlier this summer after two seasons as a player, Adam retains a deep interest in the goings on at Dens because he's a fan first and foremost.

Adam tweeted his satisfaction when Bowyer's appointment was confirmed after talks broke down with both Jack Ross and Shaun Maloney.

“As soon as I got the Blackpool job I threw myself into the history of the club to get as much insight as I could," recalls Bowyer. "He (Adam) was still living in the area and is a Blackpool legend.

“And I rang Charlie. I said: ‘Look I just want to get your knowledge of the club'. He came in, we had a cup of tea and some biscuits.

"And then the Dundee job became available. I knew there was some interest from the club. Obviously, Charlie had left but I rang him again.

“I said: ‘history is repeating itself, here, can you give me some insight?' And he did. He shared everything he knew about the club – and said what an opportunity it could be.

“Obviously there was the disappointment of last season, but he did not have a bad word to say about the club.”

Was Bowyer tempted to try and bring Adam back to Dundee? “To be perfectly honest, it did not come up in conversation,” he says.

It seems Dundee are going in a different direction. The accent is firmly on youth. It is Bowyer’s forte after all. He is impressed with what he’s seen so far. “Even if I packed up and went home tomorrow, I could not speak highly enough about the club and would recommend here to people,” he says.

Bowyer has been sacked in some strange circumstances – including by Blackpool, after the opening game of the 2018-19 season – but it would be a surprise if he's asked to gather up his belongings any time soon at Dundee.

He is already proving incredibly popular with supporters, as seems to be the case wherever he’s been. He made a point of acknowledging the 148 Blackburn fans who had made the journey north to Dundee on Wednesday.

One Dens Park official has already been moved to describe the new manager as “one of us”.

Bowyer knows such a folksy manner can only go so far – after all, he enjoyed a very good relationship with the supporters at Salford City, his last club.

He was recommended to the Class of ’92 owners by Wayne Rooney, his manager at Derby County, where Bowyer was in a secure post looking after the Under-23s.

He loved his time there and fondly recalls fans singing the club anthem, Ewan MacColl's Dirty Old Town, behind the dugout at games. Bowyer dreamed the dream by the old canal before being sacked eight weeks ago after finishing tenth.

He was the third manager in three years to be axed by the club. The decision prompted Jamie Carragher to describe fellow Sky Sports pundit and Salford co-owner Gary Neville as someone who “puts more people out of work than Boris Johnson”.

Bowyer was disappointed but unruffled. “Gary's been in touch – as soon as I got the job here, he sent a text saying congratulations,” he says.

"There was no fall out, no malice.” One upshot is that it has meant following – well, as far as the same street at least – in the footsteps of his father once more.

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As the son of a two-times European Cup winner, it is advisable to do something spectacular to mark your own entrance as a footballer. Bowyer’s approach was certainly eye-catching.

He scored a last-minute overhead kick equaliser while still a teenager to salvage a 3-3 draw for Hereford United at Scunthorpe in April 1990 – it is on YouTube to enjoy.

On the same afternoon Dundee were being relegated from the top flight – not for the first time, not for the last time – after a 1-1 draw with Celtic at Parkhead.

At the time Bowyer was a long way from worrying about their fortunes. He was feeling rather pleased with himself in the away dressing room at the Old Show ground.

Then his dad – who also happened to be Hereford United player-manager – walked in. He had subbed himself on during the second half with his side trailing 3-1 to create a little bit of history. It was the first time since the early 1960s that a father and son had played in the same side in the Football League.

But that was for historians to ponder. Bowyer senior sensed a son getting above his station.

“After the game I couldn’t stop smiling," the younger Bowyer recalls. "I was 18. I don’t know how I did it, it was an overhead kick. I think that’s what did my back in! But I couldn't stop smiling. He looked at me and said: ‘it was your fault for the first goal. We would have won that if it wasn’t for you!’

It was his way of bringing me back down to earth.”

It was a natural enough reaction from a father towards his son. But life could be relied upon to take the wind out of Bowyer junior's sails. Even signing for Nottingham Forest, where his dad had won two European Cups in 1979 and 1980, triggered some unwanted drama.

It should have been another proud day in the family's history.

And it undoubtedly was. It's just that an unhappy consequence of the deal left a slightly bitter taste. Not that it was Brian Clough or Nottingham Forest's problem. Nor should it have been a problem for Bowyer, whose father was sacked because of the deal. Hereford United chairman Peter Hill claimed Bowyer snr had put his son's interests over those of the club. Hill said he had instructed his manager to sign Gary on full professional terms.

That didn't happen and Forest made their move. "My dad lost his job over it," he says. "That wasn't great."

Bowyer snr, who also won the Cup-Winners' Cup and League Cup at Man City, was out of work for the crime of wanting his son to better himself. Some salvation arrived in the unlikely form of an offer to coach at Dundee United in the 1991-92 season.

The link was Jim McInally, Bowyer snr's old Nottingham Forest teammate. An added attraction was Jim McLean, viewed by many as a version of Brian Clough if Clough had been brought up in a household raised on Plymouth Brethren values in Lanarkshire.

"From talking to him, he loved his time here," says Bowyer. "I did not ask him about it until I signed for Dundee really.

"I asked him about where he stayed, how he found it. Those conversations happened in the last couple of weeks. But at the time I was 18,19 … my dad was living in Scotland, I was living in England. Great!"

Tannadice Street could not have been further from Bowyer's thoughts as he sought to make the same impact as his friend and flatmate Roy Keane at Forest.

Having a legendary player as a father meant Bowyer was on a hiding to nothing. He is brutally honest about his own abilities as a full back/midfielder. "I wasn't a great footballer. I could compete, I had passion. But I had to run around and compete. I just had to give my all. If I did not give my all I was worse than the average player I was.”

It is unlikely Clough was drawn to Bowyer solely on account of his father's status as Forest’s second-highest appearance maker. He didn't tend to sign average players. But he did ask him what he was good at.

"I was 18. I was dumbstruck. Brian Clough asking me what I was good at …

“I said ‘running’.

"He turned around straight away and said: ‘if I wanted to sign someone good at running, I would have signed a racehorse’.”

What Bowyer would have done for just one of his father’s 564 appearances for Forest over two spells.

Plagued by injuries, he was unable to break into the first team. He endured two stomach operations and an operation on his back in a three-year spell. He moved to Rotherham in search of regular football but was forced to call it a day at the age of just 25 when his back problem flared up once more.

“I look back now with the benefit of the knowledge and resources which were not available in those days, and I think I was unfortunate. But I would not be sitting here now if it hadn’t happened. That's how I look upon it,” he says.

Another bonus is that he’s now able to give something back to his 71-year-old father. After Hereford, Bowyer snr never worked as a manager in his own right again. He left Tannadice after six months due to family commitments.

But now for some breaking news: Dundee are set to employ their most decorated-ever scout.

“Dad lives about 10-15 mins from Crewe, 25 mins from Port Vale," says Bowyer. "Manchester is an hour away. Guaranteed I will have him out and about looking for players to help us up here.”