Dundee United manager Mixu Paatelainen is understood to be safe in his post despite Wednesday’s dramatic intervention from chairman Stephen Thompson.
Paatelainen and his players were still reeling from Tuesday night’s 3-0 home hammering fromMotherwell when Thompson issued a stingingcritique of the Tangerines.
Thompson, who appointed Paatelainen just four months ago, didn’t hold back in his criticism as he apologised to United fans for the “abysmal” display against Well.
While not mentioning the Finn by name, he had a serious go at the players.
Thompson included an admission that there had been “incorrect” decisions made by himself and his directors over the last year and a half but the most brutal words were aimed at others.
However, talks were held between chairman and manager later on Wednesday and the outcome is that the Finn appears to be safe.
The head coach will have to live with Thompson going public with his view that the players he works with every day have “failed miserably”.
Paatelainen will be going into the remaining games in the knowledge that Thompson has made it clear he won’t tolerate another display as bad as the one against Well.
Also, the chairman’s highlighting of just three wins in 25 matches in the league doesn’t help his manager either because break that statistic down and you find Paatelainen having only won two out of 15 in the Premiership, albeit there have been a couple of victories in the Scottish Cup against Airdrie and Partick Thistle during his tenure.
Things appear to be going from bad to worse at United but Thompson still appears to have faith in his head coach.
Also, with the spectre of the Championship comes the prospect of big cuts next season.
It is understood that some players’ contracts do not have relegation clauses in them, meaning they would retain their salary level despite dropping down a division.
When the club’s fate is finally sealed, however, you can expect moves to be made to address that situation.