It was the best of times

“I am long enough in the tooth to have witnessed Jim McLean’s greatest-ever United side play.”

Twitter: @C_IRoache

WHEN YOU reach your fabulous forties, you earn certain privileges. For example, you are permitted to think a tablet is something you take for a headache rather than an electronic device and that an iPad is something you use to ease eye strain after a busy day at work.

Above all, though, you are given leave to say that life was simply better in your day — end of story.

Therefore, I will cheekily invoke this 40-something law to consider where the current Dundee United team ranks among its predecessors.

For those laddies and lassies who are seeing their heroes regularly sweep the opposition aside for the first time it is understandable and even unavoidable to pour praise upon them.

There have even been one or two excitable comments made to me about never having seen such good football played by United.

However, as has been heavily hinted at so far, I am long enough in the tooth to have witnessed Jim McLean’s greatestever United side play.

It was the team of 1982-83 which won the Premier League championship three decades ago last May and went on to reach the semi-finals of the European Cup the following year.

It is not being cruel on those currently turning out for the club to say any of them would have struggled to be a regular in that team.

And, yes, in that I include wunderkind Ryan Gauld.

That is neither a criticism nor a belittling of what this hugely promising player and his colleagues have achieved so far in their careers.

For these are exciting times to be watching United.

Rather, it is an attempt to give credit to the men who graced the club in the past.

For me, it is the tangerine and black equivalent of saying any of the current Celtic side would have found it tough to take a jersey off a Lisbon Lion or that the likes of Neymar, who will no doubt thrill us all at the World Cup next summer, would be pushed to be a first pick for Brazil’s magical 1970 side.

What United have just now is a really exciting crop of young players, several of whom should go on to play at the very top of the game. Manager Jackie McNamara certainly thinks so and, for example, would anyone seriously bet against Gauld being in the full Scotland side before the end of the season? I wouldn’t.

Nevertheless, it is too easy to let time dim memories and the league-winning legends deserve their place at the very top of the Tannadice pile without question.

Hamish McAlpine, Maurice Malpas, Derek Stark, Richard Gough, Paul Hegarty, David Narey, Eamonn Bannon, Ralph Milne, Billy Kirkwood, Paul Sturrock, Davie Dodds, John Holt and the rest not only conquered Scotland but regularly went toe to toe with the best Europe could offer and were left standing, more often than not, victorious.

They were, on reflection, the second classic McLean-built team, the first being the one that peaked when lifting the club’s first trophy, the League Cup, in 1979.

That line-up included a certain Graeme Payne, a precocious wee bundle of skill who looked to have the world at his feet at one time.

The third side of the McLean era was, of course, the one that took Europe by storm again in 1987, beating Barcelona home and away before reaching the Uefa Cup final — a fabulous achievement that will stand the test of time.

It is also right to pay respect to the players who graced the Scottish game when Jerry Kerr was United manager in the 60s, the first lot to do the Barca double while beating Juventus at Tannadice.

More recently, there have also been two Scottish Cups won by United sides that have included plenty of talent.

So while it is hugely enjoyable to be watching the class of 2013-14, they are a work in progress rather than the finished article and United know that themselves.

Young players like Gauld and John Souttar are still learning and need time and space in which to develop their skills.

I stress this should not be seen as a negative comparison between 2013 and 1983.

That would be hugely unfair on a set of bright young Scots finding their way in the game who deserve to be judged on their own merits and achievements yet to come.

Rather, it is just a wee reminder that as good as it has been so far this season it was even better in the 1980s.

Cue the Hovis theme...

Dundee United manager Jim McLean and his players celebrate winning the league at Dens Park in 1983.