New Dundee United boss Jack Ross: It’s nice not to have to firefight right away

New Dundee United boss Jack Ross is relishing his first chance to take charge of a team already on an upward curve.

The 46-year-old admits he has had to kick off each of his four previous roles at Alloa, St Mirren, Sunderland and Hibernian by “firefighting” in the wake of his predecessor being sacked.

Ross is pleased, therefore, to be taking the reins at Tannadice at a time when Tam Courts has just been headhunted by Hungarian side Honved after leading United to fourth place in the cinch Premiership.

“It’s a nice change,” he said. “Alloa were bottom of the Championship, St Mirren were bottom of the Championship, Sunderland had consecutive relegations, Hibs were not in a great place at the time, so it’s nice to come in with that bit of stability and not have to firefight right away.

“There are good foundations here and it’s up to me to build on that work and improve it. It’s a nice feeling.”

Ross also has the benefit of being appointed in the close season, although he admits he has a lot of work to do recruitment-wise before United begin their Premiership campaign in late July and their Europa Conference League adventure in early August.

“We are slightly behind schedule in terms of recruitment because of the uncertainty of the last few weeks, but not being involved in the League Cup gives us extra weeks before the start of the league season to help us recruit,” he said. “We’ve started work on that over the last few days.

“We’ve got a lot of work undertaken to ensure we’re comfortable with who we’re trying to bring to the club and the next stage is trying to get them across the line. That’s the challenge. We’re identifying good players and when you’re identifying good players, there’s naturally competition for them. We’re