Dundee United de Vries doubt

Craig Levein has said speculation linking Mark de Vries with a move to Dundee United is nothing more than newspaper talk - although he admitted he is looking for a target man.

The 31-year-old Dutch giant, who is currently on-loan in his homeland from Leicester City, said he would be more than willing to move to Tannadice if he was wanted.

De Vries, who stands at 6ft 4in, spent two-and-a-half years with Levein at Hearts before following his boss to Leicester - and claims his time at Tynecastle was the most enjoyable of his career (see here).

But Levein told the Dundee Evening Telegraph: 'I knew nothing about this until I read what Mark was saying this morning and I have not spoken to him. It's obviously been a case of someone putting two and two together and giving him a call because you can see we need more strikers here and I do think a target man would give us a different option.

'Right now, we are really restricted to playing 4-5-1 and, even if we are looking to change things from the bench, we don't have the type of striker to alter the way we play.'

While Levein admitted de Vries is that type of striker, he added that he is not sure of who he actually wants to bring to Tannadice and that whoever he signs will have to be match-fit - a condition he is not the Dutchman meets.

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