At United, summer signings Noel Hunt, Steven Robb and Craig Conway met their team-mates for the first time, while new goalkeeping coach Scott Thomson was back at the club where his senior career started.

Not there were any of the players who have been told they can move on if they find other clubs, though midfielder Derek McInnes is expected at Tannadice within the next 24 hours to sign his release papers.

McInnes has now agreed a severance deal and has been linked with SPL new boys St Mirren and Millwall, but it is understood he has opted for a player-coaching role at First Division St Johnstone instead.

Grant Brebner, meanwhile, still seems to be edging towards a move Down Under to Melbourne Victory. He starred, and scored a spectacular 30-yard free-kick, for them in a third game as a trialist at the weekend and will be offered a permanent deal with the Hyundai League team.

That leaves David Fernandez, Paul Ritchie and Jim McIntyre to sort out their futures. A sign they definitely won’t be involved at first-team level with the Tangerines came when they were given an extra day off.

Instead, they have been told to report tomorrow when the squad start a new routine of spending most of the working week training at St Andrews University.

The players will only definitely be at Tannadice on Fridays and match days, while, for the rest of the week, they will head straight for their new Fife base.

One final absentee was World Cup star Collin Samuel. After his exploits with Trinidad and Tobago in Germany, he has been given extra time off.

“I’ve given ‘Sammy’ three weeks holiday and he will not be back with us until July 17, when we return from our pre-season trip to Denmark,” explained Craig.

At Dundee, new faces were defenders Danny Griffin and Gary McKenzie as well as the new management team of player-boss Alex Rae and his assistant Davie Farrell.

The players were ‘Bleep’ tested on Friday and today were being introduced to a new style of training with the emphasis on short, sharp work, most of it with the ball. “It’s an idea that was developed in Scandinavia and something I was introduced to at Rangers over the last two years. It’s tough, but at least most of what you do is with the ball and it gets fitness levels very high,” said Alex.

He is continuing to work to get more new faces in, including a German trialist, who could be working with the squad in the next few days. Back at work after his long injury lay-off was full-back Stephen McNally, who has not played this year because of a back problem.