Robbie Neilson keen on 14-team Premiership and says Hearts should be there

Robbie Neilson hopes Dundee United and Hearts can both be in the Premiership.

Robbie Neilson doesn't want to lead Dundee United up to the Premiership and pass Hearts on the way down. He believes a 14-team league is the obvious solution.

A former head coach and player at Tynecastle Park, Neilson knows his former club belong in the top flight given their stature. However, unless league reconstruction is agreed, they will be demoted as the league's bottom team.

The United manager celebrated in midweek after proposals to end the season now secured his club the Championship title and automatic promotion. Ironically, the definitive vote came from across the street after Dundee's well-publicised five-day deliberation.

No-one at Tannadice wanted their Premiership return confirmed this way but coronavirus is responsible for many unexpected circumstances. The decision to end the season immediately will send Hearts down unless owner Ann Budge can devise a suitable plan in a league restructuring task force with Hamilton vice-chair Les Gray.

Neilson would prefer bigger leagues but recognises that 14 teams is perhaps the most the Premiership could accommodate while TV deals stipulate four Celtic-Rangers games for broadcast.

"Probably 14 is your limit. Once you start going higher than that, it affects TV revenue because the bigger clubs aren't playing each other as often. I do think a bigger league brings variety," he told the Evening News.

"We have ten teams in the Championship so you play each other four times. Then you have the Betfred Cup, the Challenge Cup and the Scottish Cup so it does get a bit repetitive.

"A bigger league brings more diversity to the games, for us and for the fans. But there is a limit to how big it can be for revenue. Ultimately, it will probably come down to that in the end.

"I had a wonderful time as a player and manager at Hearts. I know how big a club it is and it should be in the top flight. That's outwith our control. In Scotland, there are probably 16 or 18 teams who all think they should be in the top league.

"People say Dundee should be in the top flight but Dunfermline fans think they should be in the top flight. Inverness fans think they should be there, even Falkirk fans maybe. Nobody has a divine right to be there and that's the problem."

United have earned the right to be there under Neilson's tutelage. After overseeing a record-breaking Championship title win with Hearts in 2014/15, his first campaign in management, he is thrilled at repeating the success in his first full season on Tayside.

The regret is the circumstances with eight remaining games never to be played. "We would have liked to celebrate with a final game. When we got promoted with Hearts, our last game was against Rangers and it was a full house so the fans got to enjoy it. My biggest disappointment is for the United fans," explained Neilson.

"They've been travelling up and down the country for the last four years, taking thousands of people to Alloa, Queen of the South, Inverness and all these places. We wanted that last game for the release of it all. We hope to get a day for the fans once this is all over, but there are bigger things going on at the moment than football.

"We've had a great season here and we're delighted with how it's gone. The club have invested heavily because our objective was to get promoted in first place. We've been top of the league since day one and we were in a great position when football was suspended, 14 points clear with eight games left.. We were quite calm about it."

The focus now turns to next season, even though the current worldwide pandemic means no-one knows when that will start. United are optimistic and proactive, planning to resume training next month.

"The players are all on furlough so we're now gearing up towards coming back for pre-season. We are looking at round about the end of May. The Government and SFA have said June 10 but we think maybe that might be relaxed," explained Neilson.

"We've gone with the end of May to come back to give us certainty on dates, even though that could change. Rather than go on two-week cycles planning to come back, we just decided to aim for the end of May.

"All the boys are on furlough, as are the coaches, so myself, Tony [Ashgar, sporting director] and a few heads of departments are just planning ahead to get ready for that time. We will just be doing a good pre-season ahead of the new campaign. That might mean we go all the way though until the following May so the players need to use this time for some relaxation."

United have, of course, been waiting impatiently for a chance to rejoin Scotland's footballing elite. It is almost four years since Craig Wighton's goal for Dundee consigned them to a longer-than-expected period in the division below.

"The chairman has invested heavily and the club has changed massively even in the 18 months or so I've been here," said Neilson. "We brought players in to get us out of this league but also to get us up the next league when we get there.

"It's important we carry that momentum through. 'United Together' is the club's motto right now and it has been a team effort. We want to start the season well whenever it gets underway."

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