Dundee boss Tony Docherty not surprised to lose another key player to Old Firm

Dundee boss Tony Docherty was not surprised to lose another key player to Glasgow’s big two and believes there is even more talent coming through the Dens Park pipeline.

After Luke McCowan moved to Celtic in the summer for a reported fee of around £1m, Rangers announced on the final day of the January transfer window that fellow midfielder Lyall Cameron would be moving to Ibrox in the summer.

Preparing for the trip to Celtic Park on Wednesday night, Docherty was asked about Cameron’s impending departure and said: “No, no surprise. And I think it’s credit to Lyall Cameron for the level of performances that he puts in.

“I think that’s 108 times he’s played for the club and scored 27 goals. That’s one in four for a midfielder which is outstanding.

“I had asked him to step up to the plate with Luke going to Celtic and he’s now had 17 goal contributions in 30 games in the Premiership.

“You look across any league at a midfielder, that’s a fantastic contribution.

“And what comes with that is when you’re playing at that level, and you’re playing with that kind of consistency, you’re obviously going to attract suitors.

“So it’s the nature of the industry now. And I couldn’t have been more pleased for Lyall, but I’m pleased I’ve still got him because he’s a brilliant kid.

“We’ve got a really good relationship and I know he’ll continue to give absolutely everything in a Dundee shirt, because he wants to leave here with his head held high.

“If he left now he would do that, but he realises we have objectives, and he’ll be a large part of that going forward.

“It’s important that I know what the gig is here.

“It’s about improving and developing footballers and there’s ones coming behind like Finlay Robertson, Josh Mulligan and Aaron Donnelly, young players that we look to improve and develop.

“And this is what happens when they do that well and they’re ambitious young men like they are, then of course, they’re going to attract suitors.”

The Taysiders were thumped 6-0 at home by Hearts on Saturday, leaving them in 10th place, six points ahead of bottom side St Johnstone.

“I think the word aberration probably would come to mind,” said Docherty, who is still without Billy Koumetio (ankle) and Scott Fraser (groin) while Joe Shaughnessy and Charlie Reilly were scheduled to play a reserves game as part of their return to fitness.

“I’ve got a good group and we analysed that game right away, and you would just say it was a really bad day at the office and Hearts had a really good day.

“Collectively, we all had a bad day, which sometimes happens.

“But in professional sport, and particularly in football, you need to move on from that quickly and you don’t become a bad team on one performance.

“But we are now preparing for our next match which is a tough fixture.

“It’s the champions at home, and we’ll do all we can to implement a game plan to try and take something from the game.”