Major Dundee pitch update, Jimmy Thelin Aberdeen latest, calm amid investment plans - Scottish football news

The latest stories across Scottish football this Thursday evening:

Dundee pitch playable for now

Dundee’s Dens Park pitch has passed a precautionary inspection ahead of Saturday’s cinch Premiership match against Motherwell. The Dark Blues have had four home games postponed due to a waterlogged pitch this term and heavy rainfall across the country this week had raised fears this weekend’s match may suffer a similar fate. With Dundee due to host Rangers next Wednesday – in a rescheduled clash that was contentiously called off 90 minutes before kick-off last month – the SPFL would be left with little room for manoeuvre in terms of fitting in any further fixtures before the post-split schedule is confirmed later this month.

It emerged on Thursday morning that if Saturday’s match was at risk of postponement, the Tayside club may have been forced to play it somewhere else, with St Johnstone’s McDiarmid Park and Tannadice Park put forward as potential options. However, a statement was released at 4.30pm confirming that the pitch had been deemed playable by a referee and was being protected by rain covers ahead of a further expected deluge ahead of kick-off.

Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell has spoken on potential investment at the club.

“A category one referee inspected the pitch on Thursday afternoon and stated the pitch was playable at the time of inspection,” it read. “This is the result of the hard work put in from the club staff and a range of contractors. The club are aware that there is further rain forecast for tomorrow and Saturday morning and therefore the full pitch has been covered with rain covers for that period. Due to the weather forecast a precautionary pitch inspection has been scheduled for Saturday morning to ensure the pitch is in the same condition as it currently is.”

Memories of Dundee v Rangers at Tannadice flood back: Dens Park club explore Motherwell options amid rain threat as Celtic step in to help

Elfsborg will fight for Thelin

Swedish club Elfsborg say they will fight to keep manager Jimmy Thelin at the club despite interest from Aberdeen and potential other suitors. The Swede has been persistently linked with the managerial vacancy at Pittodrie, with Aberdeen continuing their search for a permanent boss to succeed Barry Robson, who was sacked in January. But Elfsborg chief Stefan Andreasson has reiterated the Allsvenskan team’s desire for Thelin to remain in post.

“In the best of worlds, it’s like with players, that you sell the coach,” Andreasson told The Daily Record. “But when the right option comes for Jimmy, we will find a solution to it. There is interest and options for him, but we have concluded in our dialogues that he should continue with Elfsborg. Then we will see what the future holds, we are proud that he is a sought after name.” Peter Leven remains in caretaker charge of the Dons for their Premiership match against Livingston on Saturday.

Kettlewell stays grounded amid investment talk

Stuart Kettlewell is adopting a business-as-usual approach at Motherwell after the club revealed on Wednesday that they have moved a step closer to an agreement with a United States-based potential investor. The Well Society has a 71 per cent stake in the club and its board stressed that its members would have the final approval on any potential deal that emerged from the ongoing talks. But in a week where Brian Caldwell joined the Fir Park club as chief executive, the prospect of investment from across the Atlantic appeared to be closer to fruition as a club statement read: “The executive board of the club would like to confirm that investment discussions with a US-based family have reached the point where both parties wish to move forward to the next stage and have therefore entered into an agreement on non-binding heads of terms.”

However, boss Kettlewell refrained from looking too far ahead. He said: “I think yesterday probably just indicates that it’s maybe one stage further forward. Certainly my understanding of the conversations that I’ve had – and I’ve not been involved in a great deal of it, which you’ll understand – is that it’s just a small step. That’s all it is. With all these things, they can be a longer process, so that doesn’t necessarily change anything in my mindset and my remit. You look at budget over the summer. That’s going to be pretty much look exactly what it is just now until someone tells me any different which certainly doesn’t seem to be on the horizon or anything like that. I think it’s a positive step, because I’m always a believer in evolution, if there’s ways of improving things at football clubs.

“But again, you’ll see that Brian started here on Tuesday so that starts to become a conversation for the likes of Brian Caldwell, the board members and the Well Society to make sure that whatever happens next, for or against, is the right thing for the football club. I don’t think anybody should be massively reading into it that there will be wholesale changes here at the football club in the coming days or weeks. What I do need to know is what the plan is moving forward and we do sit with a plan for the summer. And to my mind that the news yesterday doesn’t change anything within that – certainly not at this stage.

“I don’t really think there’s anything legal and binding there as such at this moment in time, all it is, is a proposal and one more step forward and decisions still to be made.”