Once upon a time Dundee might have issued a sugar-coated statement that glossed over or played down their financial predicament.
Those days are gone now. This was as bleak as a wet Sunday afternoon during lockdown.
What we got from the Dens managing director was a brutally honest portrayal of the club’s very own coronavirus cash crisis.
Of course it is worrying when you read that Dundee lost £500,000 in the curtailed last season and expect their revenue to be halved when the next campaign eventually arrives.
Eyebrows will also be raised at the the suggestion that, while “optimists” think stands will be filled with fans in October, others fear it will be 2021.
Arguably most worrying, though, is the status of Dundee’s business interruption insurance claim, albeit the American talks of “the strongest possible bespoke resilience” in its wording.
It would unquestionably be a gamble to rely too heavily on that even though Nelms appears confident of success in court via the Financial Conduct Authority. There has to be a Plan B if the outcome is not what the Dark Blues would have wished for in terms of cash total.
Even if, as is hoped, the decision is positive and a payout is due then the money will take time to come through, with the hearing not scheduled until late July/early August.
You wouldn’t exactly envy those in charge of Scottish football teams, would you? Guiding their clubs through this will take take wisdom, skill and bloody hard work.
Nelms called it a “grim reality” and he is not wrong.
