UNITED GIVE IT THE HARD SELL

HEAD of recruitment Ross Goodwin is aiming to help Dundee United follow in Motherwell's footsteps by turning them into a money-making selling club.

- BY SCOTT BURNS

United haven't posted a profit since season 2014/15, with American businessman Mark Ogren having to absorb millions of pounds of losses as their owner for the past seven years.

You have to go all the way back to 2015 to find the club's last seven-figure sale - Nadir Ciftci’s £1.5million transfer to Celtic.

By contrast, in the past 16 months Motherwell have sold Theo Bair to Auxerre for around £1.5m and Lennon Miller to Udinese for a club record £4.7m.

That kind of business model allowed the Steelmen to report an operating profit of £326k in their most recent financial figures.

When Goodwin was lured from Plymouth Argyle in May, a major part of his remit was adding value to United's first team.

Along with manager Jim Goodwin - no relation - and chief executive Luigi Capuano, they made a concerted effort over the summer to reduce the average age of the squad and adopt a more self-sustainable player trading model.