Kettlewell: Tannadice men have paid the price for chopping and changing

MOTHERWELL manager Stuart Kettlewell insists Dundee United’s descent towards relegation provides a stark lesson to top-flight clubs and insists the Tannadice club have paid the price for a season of ‘chopping and changing’.

Jim Goodwin’s team will be relegated at Fir Park today unless they and Kilmarnock win, and United somehow end the day with a better goal difference than Ross County.

Kettlewell believes United have suffered from a lack of continuity.

‘Dundee United is a massive football club in this country and what’s happened there is a lesson to us all,’ he said.

‘Chopping and changing — whether that involves managers or players — and not finding the right formula early enough means you run the real risk of ending up in the scenario they find themselves in.’

United started the season with Jack Ross in the dugout before Liam Fox and then Goodwin took charge of their doomed campaign.

Owner Mark Ogren has spent almost £13million on the club since taking over in 2018, with a big outlay on wages this season to bring in players like Steven Fletcher (right), Jamie McGrath and Dylan Levitt.

But Kettlewell argues spending power guarantees nothing in the SPFL Premiership if it is not married with hard work and organisation.

‘It’s been well documented that most people think United have too good a squad to go down,’ said Kettlewell.

‘They have players who are beyond the level where they should be relegated and their budget will be far greater than the likes of ourselves — they’ll have a number of guys who’ll probably earn more than double what we can pay our players.

‘But that doesn’t guarantee you anything or make you privileged in any way once that whistle blows. If you don’t get it right at your football club, if you don’t reach the correct marks, then what has happened to them is always a possibility.’

Motherwell were level on points with United when Kettlewell took over from Stevie Hammell back in February but, in contrast with United, the former Ross County manager has effected a massive upturn in fortunes to close in on a seventh-place finish.

‘When I took over, we were level on points with United,’ added Kettlewell. ‘If we’d accepted certain situations and hadn’t got the best out of our players and gone on a run, then it could easily have been ourselves in that situation.

‘Nobody is too good to go down. United need one heck of a goals swing and I expect they will come and have a go at us.

‘Will that be enough? I think you could see by their reactions in midweek that they know they have a mountain to climb.’