Keith Jackson: Finances come before football at Tannadice...

[ian1964 10,720]

...so what is the point in Dundee United?.

 

KEITH looks at club that has lost its way and says that Terrors chief Stephen Thompson must be honest with whoever takes the reins from Jackie McNamara.

 

STEPHEN THOMPSON has one fairly fundamental question to ask himself before he begins his search for a new manager this morning. What is the point in Dundee United?

 

That’s not meant as some sort of cheep dig. It’s a serious concern and one which strikes right at the heart of the extraordinary malaise over which he has been residing for much of these last lamentable nine months.

 

Is he in command of a sporting club which exists primarily to win football matches? Or is business on Tannadice Street now all entirely about servicing the bottom line? At all costs.

 

It’s of vital importance that Thompson answers honestly before attempting to recruit Jackie McNamara’s replacement because, to the outside world at least, the lines have become very blurred since the turn of the year.

 

In fact, the confusion can all be traced back to the day Thompson chose to incentivise McNamara by handing him a contract which included a bonus clause every time one of United’s best players were sold.

 

The exact details of that deal remain confidential but McNamara’s remit may have well be worded like this: The more successful you are as our manager, the more difficult your job will become. The more money we make, the less matches we’ll win.

 

Is this really the job description Thompson intends to offer the next United boss? Because if it is then, I ask again, what’s the point? Why bother to speak to anyone of genuine ambition when the club has none of its own?

 

It is hard to imagine how the interests of any manager could be more conflicted by such a contractual agreement. Or more at odds with those of the supporters who follow his team.

 

It may sound ridiculous but, in fact, the actual reality of Thompson’s business model for United became even more absurd in January when, to all intents and purposes, he sold the League Cup Final to Celtic.

 

And this is where Thompson’s logic makes no sense at all because, as far as its supporters are concerned, the whole point in Dundee United – the club’s entire reason for being – is realistically not to challenge for the title but just to pick up the odd piece of silver every couple of years.

 

To them, quite understandably, that double deal was an act of betrayal.

 

It’s one thing asking supporters to understand the importance of good financial house keeping but it’s quite another to be so blatant about selling their hopes and dreams down the river. And then expect these diehards to keep forking out for the privilege of funding a club which no longer seems to care if its own team wins or loses?

 

The truth is these fans are the biggest victims in all of this as their loyalty has been shamelessly abused. They have been scandalously short changed by the Thompson-McNamara coalition, a relationship which has felt doomed all these months.

 

United’s fall has been staggering stuff. This time last year, nine games into the campaign, McNamara’s team was perched at the top of the Premiership. Aberdeen were trailing in fifth spot. Celtic in sixth.

 

Now, nine games into the new season, United are second bottom. With just five points from the first 28.

 

This slump could not be allowed to continue especially as it feels very much like the manager has been doing no more than going through the motions for most part of 2015. United too for that matter. This is a club which now has no sense of direction other than the downward gravitational pull of a possible battle against relegation.

 

Of course, McNamara is hardly blameless in all of this. He might well recover from this to prove himself to be the bright young manager so many of us thought him to be but there is no denying, United’s form since January has been catastrophically poor. His team has won just four league games in seven months. In total, United have managed to take 16 points from a possible 72.

 

So the only real surprise about McNamara’s exit is that it didn’t happen quite some time ago.

 

Or, perhaps, that he was the second casualty of the campaign, his sacking coming just a couple of days after Motherwell pulled the plug on Ian Baraclough.

 

Baraclough lasted just the eight games but it was hard to mount much a defence for the Englishman. His team selections had gone beyond baffling and when a member of his backroom team began brawling with players at Cappielow the other night there was only ever going to be one answer.

 

Way back in the summer, just after Baraclough had kept Motherwell up, I suggested that McNamara’s position at Tannadice might be one of the first major stories of the new season.

 

That Baraclough beat him to it was something of a surprise.

 

But few will be shocked to see Thompson now looking for a new hired hand. Indeed, if it’s true McNamara was shocked to be relieved of his duties in a corridor of McDiarmid Park on Saturday, after losing against 10 men, then he must have been about the only one.

 

The rest of us knew it was coming the day his chairman ripped the innards out of his dressing room, packaged them up in green and white and posted them off to Glasgow’s East End.

 

On that very day Dundee United didn’t just sell its two best players, Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven. It sold its sporting soul.

 

So, yes, now Thompson has reached a crossroads of his own and, for the good of his club, it is time for him to ask himself some difficult, searching questions.

 

He must work out how to turn this decline around before a wretched 2015 lurches into a truly cataclysmic 2016.

 

If he cannot come up with the right answers, if he fails to acknowledge his own part in all of this, or if he intends to hire his next manager on the same conflicted basis as he did McNamara, then perhaps the real question is not so much what is the point in Dundee United but what is the point in Thompson staying put?

 

There are a great many United fans who would rather he moved on to a new project in Australia and let his sister Justine take care of handling their club’s business. They may well have a point even if their chairman no longer does.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/opinion/sport/keith-jackson-finances-come-before-6528173

[BrahimHemdani 1]

There is NO point in Dundee Utd or two Clubs across the road from each other.

 

I've been saying for years they should amalgamate as Dundee City.

[Bearman 9]

There is NO point in Dundee Utd or two Clubs across the road from each other.

 

I've been saying for years they should amalgamate as Dundee City.

 

Definitely...and here is the perfect kit for Dundee City.

 

[Juancornetto 1]

Stephen Thompson is trying to buy an Australian club so the obvious conclusion is that he's trying to liquidate as much cash out of Dundee Utd as possible. I don't understand why Utd fans aren't absolutely enraged by this, he's doing an SDM on them and they're sleepwalking towards oblivion.

[craig 5,199]

Stephen Thompson is trying to buy an Australian club so the obvious conclusion is that he's trying to liquidate as much cash out of Dundee Utd as possible. I don't understand why Utd fans aren't absolutely enraged by this, he's doing an SDM on them and they're sleepwalking towards oblivion.

 

He's bought it has he not ?

[barca72 440]

He's bought it has he not ?

 

Here's the latest story I could find ...

 

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3371017/jets-deal-done-ffa-forecasts-sale-after-kick-off/

 

Jets deal done: FFA forecasts sale after kick-off

 

 

By ROBERT DILLON

Sept. 23, 2015, midnight

 

FOOTBALL Federation Australia officials are confident a deal has been done to sell the Newcastle Jets.

 

‘‘The FFA has advised me today that the broad terms of the sale have been agreed,’’ Jets chief executive David Eland told the Newcastle Herald on Tuesday.

 

‘‘That’s really positive news for the club. Unfortunately, the timing has been delayed until after the season kicks off.

 

‘‘My recollection was that FFA were hopeful the transaction would be completed by the start of the 2015-16 season, but it looks like that is going to be pushed back.

 

‘‘But we’re only talking a matter of weeks, not months.’’

 

Eland said he could not confirm the identity of the prospective owner, but it is the A-League’s worst-kept secret that FFA and Scottish multimillionaire Stephen Thompson have been engaged in negotiations for months.

 

The chairman and majority shareholder of Scottish Premier League club Dundee United, Thompson was first linked to the Jets late last year but refused to meet former owner Nathan Tinkler’s asking price.

 

When Tinkler was ousted in June after placing the franchise into voluntary administration with millions of dollars in liabilities, Thompson started dealing directly with FFA and has conducted extensive due diligence, liaising with prominent Newcastle business and football identities.

 

Thompson politely declined to comment when contacted by email on Tuesday.

 

He told the Herald in May: ‘‘I would prefer to deal with business matters privately, rather than in the public domain.

 

‘‘It’s well documented that I believe the A-League is on the up. Football is a growth market in Australia and I think there is a huge opportunity to build something big in Newcastle.’’

 

FFA has maintained since Tinkler’s demise four months ago that it hoped to have a new owner in place by the start of this season.

 

It is understood other recent issues, such as the precarious financial predicament at Brisbane Roar and the collective-bargaining agreement impasse with Professional Footballers Australia, have become logistical priorities for the governing body.

 

Thompson’s track record at Dundee United is encouraging.

 

Since he assumed the club’s helm in 2008 after the death of his father, Eddie, Dundee United have repaid more than $12million to the banks to wipe out the club’s debt.

 

The Tangerines own their stadium, Tannadice Park, and have recorded a profit in four of the past five years, while improving their performances on the pitch.

 

Eland was hopeful news that the Jets would soon have a new owner would encourage Novocastrians to jump on the bandwagon.

 

‘‘Once again, this is a sign that the club has a really bright future,’’ Eland said.

 

‘‘If there are people out there who are thinking about engaging and becoming members of the club, I’d hope that this news today is the catalyst to confirm their membership for season 2015-16.’’

[RANGERRAB 3,613]

'Thompson's track record at Dundee Utd is encouraging'.

 

Maybe they should ask how he repaid that debt to the bank & on what terms. They are a club who seem to be constantly short of cash reserves for no particular reason. After all they do not seem to have any problems getting a buyer for any of their best players do they? They have become the yahoos feeder club.

 

Rangers-hater Thompson voted Rangers out the SPL then set about reducing budgets with no cashcow Rangers in the top division. Months later this cost-cutting led to his well-respected manager Peter Houston quitting. His replacement Jackie McNamara has now gone too probably finding that the job was pretty much impossible

 

Do Newcastle Jets knowwhat they're letting themselves in for?