Dundee Utd F.C.

[der Berliner 3,747]

My signatures are reserved for days like these ...

 

Gæð a Wyrd swa hio scel! - Fate always goes as she likes!

 

Ry'n ni yma o hyd! - We are still here!

 

 

... we'll wait four years and see where the Arabs will draw their water.

[Bearman 9]

Dundee, by default took our place so creating an exciting 'Dundee Derby' for the spl once again...Karma struck that it was Dundee their great rivals who put them down for us to take their place at the top table. Well done Dundee!

[Bearman 9]

Unable to attend himself due to sickness, Stephen Thompson sent 'spies' to the Balmoor stadium tonight for the Championship play-off semi-final match between Peterhead and Ayr United to check out potential opponents for next season.

 

Ayr Utd won the match 4-1.

 

It is believed Thompson was even more sick when he learned of the result.

[ian1964 10,724]

Fed statement

 

Following on from an absolutely wretched 15 months for the Football Club on and off the park ending in relegation last night the Committee of the Federation of Dundee United Supporters Clubs would wish to release the following statement.

 

It is with great regret that the Committee of The Federation of Dundee United Supporters Clubs find ourselves having to again publicly comment on the abject state of our Football Club.

 

Following on from now confirmed relegation which will see us play out-with Scotland’s Top Tier of Football for only the second time since 1960 we would call for those we feel are ultimately responsible being Stephen Thompson and Mixu Paatelainen to stand down from their current positions immediately and admit they have failed the Football Club and its Fantastic Supporters.

 

Last night was the culmination, in our opinion, of the shocking manner in which the Club is currently being run and it is plain for all to see that change is needed throughout the Football Club to allow us to turn the current unacceptable situation around.

 

Sadly we are where we are because the facts are that the current incumbents in the boardroom and on the management team, tasked with running our proud Football Club, are simply not up to it as has been proven by our demise to the second tier of Scottish Football .

 

We would also wish for recent reports concerning potential financial issues affecting the Club to be made transparent for all fans, to give absolute clarity on our current financial position. There can be no hiding on this issue.

 

Finally, the Committee ,given our current situation, do not currently support fan ownership of the club, or control, either permanent or as an interim measure. In our opinion to run the Dundee United Business successfully, you need experience of having carried this out at a level within an organisation which has the turnover, at least, the size of our Club. However should an individual or individuals with such credentials be interested in a role at the Club we would support them subject to the Dundee United Supporters satisfaction that they have solely the best intentions for Dundee United Football Club and are 100% committed to turning the Clubs current fortunes around.

 

Regards

 

Committee of The Federation of Dundee United Supporters Clubs.

[der Berliner 3,747]

Other than us, dear Arabs, you went down a league because you were failures as a sporting institution. Same with Hibernian, St. Mirren and free-falling Dunfermline.

 

BTW, dear Arabs, you are worse than ... Ross County, Partick Thistle, St. Johnstone, Hamilton Academical, and, dare I say it, Dundee! Some feat for a team that was once belonging to the "New Firm" and out to grab European spots and even challenging the Yahoos for the title when barring us from the SPL. I didn't exactly like to see that old Arab fan with tears in his eyes, but if anyone, you deserved what you got this season!

[ian1964 10,724]

Dundee United: Mixu Paatelainen poised to leave as manager

 

Mixu Paatelainen will soon be leaving Dundee Utd with discussions over a financial package for his departure under way, BBC Scotland has learned.

 

The manager remains an employee of the club for the moment, but chairman Stephen Thompson made no mention of the Finn in a statement to fans on Tuesday.

 

The pair had a 25-minute meeting at the training ground earlier in the day.

 

United's relegation to the Championship was confirmed on Monday. Paatelainen's contract runs until the summer of 2018.

 

He arrived at the club's training base in St Andrews on Wednesday, but it is not yet clear if he is taking the players for training. Their next match is at Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Friday.

 

Raith Rovers manager Ray McKinnon has already been installed as favourite to succeed the former United striker.

'We will not entertain any approach at the moment'

 

But the Championship club have made it clear they will not welcome an approach for the former Terrors midfielder, at least while the club is involved in the Premiership play-offs. They face Hibernian in the first leg of their quarter-final on Wednesday.

 

"Ray is under contract and is the Raith Rovers manager," chief executive Eric Drysdale told The Herald. "That is the way we want it to stay. We will not entertain any approach at the moment."

 

United chairman Thompson apologised "unreservedly" to fans on Tuesday, promising "radical changes" in the "near future" to try to ensure a swift return to the top flight.

 

Former Finland boss Paatelainen, 49, replaced Jackie McNamara in mid-October, signing a two-and-a-half year contract.

 

United were bottom of the table at the time of his arrival after just one win in their first 10 Premiership outings.

 

But Paatelainen, who had previous spells in charge at Hibernian and Kilmarnock, has overseen just five wins in 25 Premiership matches, culminating in Monday's 2-1 defeat at city rivals Dundee, which sealed their relegation fate.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36201456

[ian1964 10,724]

Dundee United Record FC: The best thing Stephen Thompson has ever done is reject new Rangers from SPL

 

FAN blogger Derek admits that while it was still a tough night at Dens Park, being relegated by Dundee wasn't as horrible as he'd imagined.

 

IN the end, it wasn't as bad as I feared it was going to be.

 

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the most fun I have ever had at a football game.

 

Like so much which has happened this season, there was a grim inevitability to events, and perhaps that knowledge was something of a defence mechanism.

 

Dundee United have turned 1-0 leads into 2-1 defeats so often this season that I will be disappointed if in future years it doesn't end up being referred to as Doing A Dundee United.

 

The Dundee fans rubbing it in didn't really bother me, as I didn't expect anything else. Truth to tell, for most of the game we could hardly hear them - a comment on the distance between the two sets of fans rather than the volume of their singing.

 

Like most Premiership grounds, the away fans are miles away from the home fans.

 

It was very strange when Craig Wighton's winning goal went in. As much as we knew it was coming, the moment it actually happened was still spooky.

 

Being relegated is an odd experience. I wasn't sure at full time whether to applaud the players, or skulk off in a huff, or stay in the ground feeling sorry for myself.

 

I chose the third option. I stayed for a full five minutes after the game before disappearing into the Dundee night. Quite a lot of fans did. Some consoled each other, and some just stood there trying to take it in.

 

I didn't feel like crying. In truth, I felt a lot worse before the game than I did either during or after it.

 

The players looks distraught, of course. I have castigated the players on many occasions this year, and deservedly so, but I didn't feel the end of Monday's game was the time to do any more of it.

 

Obviously, the Dundee fans were going to have a lot of fun at our expense, and they did. We would not be any different of the roles were reversed. Although given how excited they were getting, I hate to think what state they'd get in if they ever won anything. I assume spontaneous combustion would be involved. It was quite cute.

 

But did the relegation feel worse because of who delivered the final nail? I can only speak for myself, but it's hard to say. Would I have felt any less bad had Inverness or Partick Thistle been the one to send us down? I genuinely have no idea.

 

Again, the schadenfreude from Rangers fans was only to be expected. In a strange way, it did provide some solace in a dark time - if they hate us quite that much, it's hard to shake the feeling, underneath it all, that we're doing something right. Judge someone by their enemies, as a wise man once said.

 

Besides, the way he acted over the liquidation of Rangers is one of the few things our chairman has actually got correct in these last few years. They might be better off focusing on his many wrong decisions if they are looking for any sort of sympathy from United fans.

 

An old saying about stones and glass houses spring to mind. For all his flaws, at least the owner of our club hasn't yet been referred to in a court of law as a glib and shameless liar.

 

There is no doubt we fully deserve relegation. This is due to a series of bad decisions leaving us with an abysmal squad of players, and is entirely the responsibility of the club itself. Not due to some spurious notion of fate being against us because we wouldn't let the new incarnation of Rangers into the SPL back in 2012.

 

But where do we do from here? Other than the Championship, obviously.

 

Season ticket sales will undoubtedly be sluggish at best if Thompson remains the chairman.

 

His statement on the United website did say all the right things, and took a modicum of responsibility for events, but after everything which has happened these words sound like bland platitudes. The problem is that no-one really places a lot of faith in his public declarations any more.

 

Perhaps we are all doing him a disservice. Future events will prove us right or wrong. I hope he does what he says he is going to do, although I am not optimistic.

 

Greater fan representation on the board would certainly be a good thing, as long as they were willing to challenge the board rather than acting like a useful idiot legitimising the board's actions, as we have seen at some clubs.

 

Changes are afoot. Mixu Paatelainen has gone, which came as no surprise to anyone except Mixu Paatelainen.

 

I love Mixu, I really do, but he has shown nothing this year which suggested he was the man to lead us to promotion. A split is best for both parties.

 

There are a few people among the candidates who I wouldn't mind as manager, although I might question the sanity of anyone who wants to take the job on.

 

The playing squad will look very, very different regardless of who takes over. I wouldn't mourn the departure of too many first team players, given that they are generally either triers with no ability or players with ability but ho heart.

 

Given that the development squad just beat Hamilton 9-1, maybe the future is brighter than we thought. The hope is that we will see a few of the development squad in the first team before the season ends.

 

There's very little to be gained by playing the same old tired failures, especially playing guys that we know will not be here next season. Now relegation has been confirmed, playing the likes of Ryan Dow and Chris Erskine is utterly pointless. If it wasn't before.

 

There will obviously need to be cutbacks next season, both on and off the pitch.

 

But whatever happens from here, whatever state Dundee United continue in, I'll be there next season like the idiot I am. Standing (standing!) at Cappielow or Palmerston supporting a brand new set of players, who with any luck will actually give us something to celebrate.

 

I support a football team. Not a chairman. Not a group of players. And definitely not a balance sheet.

 

I am proud to be a Dundee United fan, and I always will be. Nothing will take that away. It's too late for me now.

 

Read more at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dundee-united-record-fc-best-7893135#XrTPxTR6z6eFSa2x.99

 

[der Berliner 3,747]

And here was me thinking ian was linking an article as "blast from the past". But no, this is from one of the apparently brain-dead ...

 

Dundee United Record FC: The best thing Stephen Thompson has ever done is reject new Rangers from SPL

 

FAN blogger Derek admits that while it was still a tough night at Dens Park, being relegated by Dundee wasn't as horrible as he'd imagined.

...

IN the end, it wasn't as bad as I feared it was going to be.

...

Again, the schadenfreude from Rangers fans was only to be expected. In a strange way, it did provide some solace in a dark time - if they hate us quite that much, it's hard to shake the feeling, underneath it all, that we're doing something right. Judge someone by their enemies, as a wise man once said.

...

An old saying about stones and glass houses spring to mind. For all his flaws, at least the owner of our club hasn't yet been referred to in a court of law as a glib and shameless liar.

...

Given that the development squad just beat Hamilton 9-1, maybe the future is brighter than we thought.

...

But whatever happens from here, whatever state Dundee United continue in, I'll be there next season like the idiot I am.

 

Yet, he does say something sensible ... even though he hasn't got the brains to see farther than his own team:

 

I support a football team. Not a chairman. Not a group of players. And definitely not a balance sheet.

 

Too bad that he did not see the Bluenoses as the supporters of a team that were victims of a vile chairman and his deeds.

[Scott7 6,011]

The D'ited back to where they once belonged. Division 2. Doesn't matter what they call it. It's Division 2.

[boabie 230]

I hope Paatelainen demands every penny he is due.

I now await their fans holding a "boycott" with the result only a dozen or so tickets are sold.

 

 

Just saw on the news Paatelainen has gone.