It would be like a morbid version of Family Fortunes. Football Family Misfortunes, you could call it
Ask five Dundee United supporters for the biggest single reason their club is in a mess and you may well get five different answers.
Gary Mackay-Steven, Stuart Armstrong, Celtic and the infamous January transfer window would be a popular one. So too would Jackie McNamara’s contract-gate and his summer dealings, Sneijder, Bodul, no keepers et al.
The botched chase of Tommy Wright and eventual appointment of Mixu Paatelainen is another. Then there’s the not-so-magnificent seven the Finn brought to Tannadice.
I could go on.
All merit a significant ranking when it comes to the blame game of how a club has lost its way so terribly, But there’s one that perhaps cut even deeper. And that is the suspension, and subsequent departure, of head of youth Stevie Campbell.
Campbell didn’t scout potential first team new recruits, he didn’t sign them, he didn’t coach them and he didn’t kick a ball himself but the ramifications of his departure have been considerable.
At most football clubs you would say the manager is the most important person there.
In Dundee United’s case, he wasn’t. It was Campbell.
Not because of his profile. There are other academy managers who covet the spotlight more.
It was because of what he did and, perhaps even more importantly, what he represented.
In a matter of a few short months United’s youth set-up has gone from being arguably the highest regarded in the country to one that is now being spoken about in the game as in need of attention at best, and unravelling at worst.
You can come to no other conclusion than Campbell was as near to irreplaceable for United as one man can get.
He made sure there was joined-up thinking and that everything that needed to be done was done. To the highest standard.
As well as the fact that the progression of United’s youths has stalled over the last nine months, there could be longer-lasting consequences.
Relegation wouldn’t necessarily stop parents from coming to the conclusion that United was the best club for their boy to forge a career. Whispers that things aren’t what they used to be would though.
It might sound like a ridiculous comparison but Dundee United are similar to Manchester United in the scale of the pride the two clubs’ sets of supporters take in seeing their own come through the ranks. When it happens for generations it becomes part of the DNA of the place. It’s a badge of honour even in the worst of times.
If Arabs could be sure that everything was as it should be below first team level it would soften the blow of going down a division. But they can’t be.
This isn’t a criticism of Stephen Thompson. Employment law is a minefield. But whatever happened to start the ball rolling in the Campbell case, it didn’t end up in a criminal court. So surely a point of no return hasn’t been crossed?
There have been plenty of suggestions post-Dens about how to set United back on the road to recovery, ranging from the possible but unlikely (Thompson being bought out) to the shouldn’t happen and will never happen (Lorraine Kelly being appointed chairwoman).
But if Thompson and Campbell could agree to disagree, bury the hatchet and try again that would be the best news a dejected Tannadice fanbase could hear.
