Haste ye back to full health, gaffer

[BBC] This column is usually filled with bad takes, daft footballing opinion and poor attempts at humour, but today I want to be a little more serious. The gaffer, Jim Goodwin, is going through a health issue at present. And for his own and his family's sake, I hope he can return to full health as soon as possible. As a player, Goodwin was never my favourite, in fact, he likely wasn't anyone's favourite. For a start, he was always in the opposition, but I'll concede, he played the game in an honest and often robust manner. He'd tell you himself he wasn't the best player to pull on a pair of boots, but he made the most of 'what he had'. That in itself is admirable. Since becoming Dundee United manager, it's been clear to see he's a passionate, amiable, well-spoken, determined, thoughtful and proud man, who has represented our club wonderfully well and given his absolute all. Through no fault of his own, he's had to build four teams in his time at Tannadice. With those teams he has achieved, I would imagine, most of what was asked of him, albeit this season is still in its infancy. He has also fronted up every week, regardless of result, and taken the full force of flak and blame when there are also others at fault when things haven't gone well. Yes, I'm looking at you lot upstairs. Far be it from me to speculate what Goodwin is going through, but he and every other manager in the league must experience some amount of stress on a near daily basis. Yes, football managers are in a relatively privileged position, but we need to remember they are human. They have good days, they have difficult days. They also suffer from ill health at times, and when that happens, football tends to pale into insignificance. So from myself and many, many others, I wish you well, Jim. Haste ye back to health and the dugout. Paul McNicoll can be found at the Dode Fox Podcast