Former Dundee chief executive Harry MacLean has criticised managing director John Nelms over “a lack of communication” with Dark Blues fan groups.
MacLean – at the helm of the Dens Park side during administration a decade ago – also called on Nelms to confirm whether or not he had taken a wage cut like the playing squad.
James McPake’s stars agreed salary reductions last month as the club moved to cut costs during the coronavirus shutdown.
Dundee have lost revenue worth over £500,000 since football was suspended in March and face at least two more months of severely limited income, with the second tier not due to return until October 17.
MacLean – who wants Nelms to work closely with organisations such as the Dundee FC Supporters’ Society (DFCSS) and the Dundee Supporters Association (DSA) – told Courier Sport: “As a fan, I’m very worried about the situation at the club.
“I’m more worried about the lack of communication between the people who have an interest in the club being well-run and being a good club.
“It will never be like that while there are factions and disparate groups who don’t talk to each other.
“The person who can make that happen is John Nelms, he has the power but he has to have the will to go with it. I’m not sure if it is there.
“Now is the time, he needs the people’s help now.”
He added: “If he has taken [a wage cut] then he would be as well to say so, there’s no loss to him revealing that.
“We’re all in it together, it’s an easy story and a very good one for John – he says, ‘I’ve taken a cut, the management have taken a cut, the players have taken a cut, unfortunately we still have redundancies and a few things to do but we are all in this together’.
“And then maybe invite the leaders of the fan groups to one table and ask, ‘What can we do together to safeguard the club?’”
‘WHAT IS THE FOUNDATION TO GET EVERYONE FIGHTING IN THE SAME DIRECTION AGAIN?’
Dundee Football Club, once more, needs its loyal fans to pull together to see it through a difficult period.
And former Dens Park chief executive Harry MacLean believes now is the time for club bosses to start talking to them again.
With MacLean at the helm, and with help from supporters, the Dark Blues found a way through administration in 2010.
Dundee’s current situation is not administration, but much of the usual income dried up as a result of the early end to the 2019/20 season, as well as the late start to the new Championship campaign which kicks off in October.
Managing director John Nelms has put money-saving plans in place to help safeguard the long-term future of the club, with players and staff taking wage cuts, while the academy is having its budget slashed in the wake of losses of £500,000.
Unsurprisingly, fans have stepped up once again to lend support – the new 1893 Foundation is already injecting cash into the club, a ‘Thank You to the NHS’ scheme has raised £13,750 and the Dundee FC Supporters’ Society (DFCSS) is weighing up how to use their cash reserves of £34,000 to help out.
MacLean says it’s time Dee chiefs gave something back.
He said: “Dundee fans are putting their hands in their pockets for the third go round to support the club.
“To be fair, they’ve never been found wanting but they are weary of it now.
“My major concern is we are 10 years on from administration and the fragmented approach with the fans would make me wonder if we could come through the same situation now.
“If it happened again through Covid, insurance battle, Tim Keyes walking away or whatever – what would be the end result for Dundee, what is the foundation to get everyone fighting in the same direction again?
“I think all the players have given themselves a chance of getting the fans onside and James McPake has said as much.
“But I think the board and the people who run the club need some help at the moment to bring all the different fans groups together in a way to create a kind of fighting force for the future.
“How are we going to reverse the non-talking of the last few years? I think that is probably required going forward.”
He added: “As a fan, I’m very worried about the situation at the club.
“I’m more worried about the lack of communication between the people who have an interest in the club being well-run and being a good club.
“It will never be like that while there are factions and disparate groups who don’t talk to each other.
“The person who can make that happen is John Nelms, he has the power but he has to have the will to go with it. I’m not sure if it is there.
“Now is the time, he needs the people’s help now.”
The question of whether or not Nelms himself has taken a wage cut has never been answered by the club.
MacLean, though, suggests revealing that could be used as an icebreaker to get all the groups with ambitions to help the club together.
“I don’t know exactly what John has taken in terms of a pay cut,” MacLean added.
“If he has taken one then he would be as well to say so, there’s no loss to him revealing that.
“We’re all in it together, it’s an easy story and a very good one for John – he says, ‘I’ve taken a cut, the management have taken a cut, the players have taken a cut, unfortunately we still have redundancies and a few things to do but we are all in this together’.
“And then maybe invite the leaders of the fan groups to one table and ask, ‘What can we do together to safeguard the club?’
“From my point of view, if he wants someone to help bring those people to the table, I’ll happily do it for him for nothing. Just to help. I’m not interested in a positon or a blazer or anything else.
“I think they can use the Covid situation as an opportunity to do that.
“The DSA, DFCSS, people like Ross Day and Scott Roberts who started the 1893 Foundation, they need to invite all these groups together and have a discussion, even if they don’t particularly want to be in the same room together. The thing they all have is they all support Dundee.
“I think John Nelms would do himself a power of good, not just meeting the representatives of the DSA or DFCSS, but have town hall meetings with the fans, tell them your plans and get them on your side and actually hear their stories and understand from them what supporting their team means.
“If a guy is getting £400 a week and spends £50 of that to go to Dens with his kids then he deserves the respect to talk to him and find out how things can be made better for him.
“I feel John probably doesn’t have the right people around him to say, ‘Come to Whitfield, have a chat with people’.
“I think actually talking with those sorts of guys would be really helpful for John, I just don’t think he really wants to do that.
“We are losing the connection we had with the club and the board and manager. The club has to fight to maintain that and he doesn’t.
“I think this all stems from the past John had with the initial approach from DFCSS to FPS (Football Partners Scotland) coming.
“Some fans were against it but the Americans had the majority of fans on their side from the start, they just need to talk to them again.
“To be fair to FPS, they have demonstrated they are willing to put in heavy amounts of money to the club but something gets lost in the PR piece. They don’t talk and that has to be John – or Tim.”
MacLean – who left the club board in 2011 after playing a huge role in the Deefiant season following administration a year earlier – says his biggest piece of advice to Nelms is to talk plainly and openly to the Dundee support.
“Not having a relationship with Dundee fans is a major problem for the person in charge of Dundee Football Club,” MacLean said.
“My biggest advice to him is he needs to talk to Dundee fans because he needs them now and, in a way, they need him.
“They need him to talk to them and be visibly on their side.
“With the players and management taking a cut, the manager joining the 1893 Foundation, they have a base to build from but it’ll get blown away if John doesn’t talk.”
He added: “There was a time when I was chief executive and a big group of Dundee fans turned up at the door to Dens Park, almost flaming torches and pitchforks type stuff.
“They were angry at what had happened to their club. The only way I could think to sort it out was to invite them in and hear what they had to say.
“We spent a couple of hours with me answering everything I could. After that they could see I was doing everything I could and working as hard as I could – Dundee fans will accept that even if things aren’t going so well.”
