The financial situation Dundee United find themselves in is not nice for anyone – not least the players – so why should they be treated any differently?
Belt-tightening shouldn’t be unexpected with the way things are right now, not just with United, but with Scottish football and society as a whole.
If I was one of the players, however, I’d be a little bit annoyed that they’ve just recently been signing guys and now they’re asking people to take wage cuts.
I know some of the players brought in are loans but the club must’ve known they were in some sort of trouble prior to this.
There’s nothing the players can do other than their jobs at the moment which, thankfully, they are after a good win over Ross County at the weekend saw them rise to fifth in the Premiership.
If some of the playing squad were to be ‘rebels’, if you like, and turn down proposals to cut salaries, I wouldn’t blame them.
It’s easy to think players are on fortunes but you don’t know what situation they are in.
They might be at a point where they’ve been having financial problems and are trying to get back on their feet.
You never can tell so I think people need to keep that in mind and not throw them under the bus amid this ongoing process.
Not everybody will be able to take a 20% cut – it’s as simple as that. Everybody’s got bills to pay and that’s quite a bit of money to lose.
I’m sure, though, if there’s players that are able to do it they’ll want to help the club out as best they can.
The onus should not be on the players, though, and I would agree with Tangerines owner Mark Ogren that those in power need to do more.
I’m not just talking about the SFA or the SPFL helping football clubs, which I don’t think they’ve done so much, I mean in general.
The government need to help so many industries through the coronavirus and sport is no different.
There’s a lot of sectors being bypassed by government funding and football has borne the brunt of that at times.
There should have been more help from the start but now moving forward there needs to be a change.
We can’t put any more burden on supporters who are already ploughing in loads of money to clubs.
It’s a lot to ask of people, particularly those with young families, in normal times but to do it now amid Covid-19 is even harder.
A lot of the time, it’s because the club have got themselves in that situation, whether that be through administration or over-spending, but this is nobody’s fault.
There needs to be help for everybody because we can’t keep asking supporters to pay £15-20 to watch pay-per-view games and buy club merchandise in their droves.
There’s no quick fix for this and we desperately need a plan to keep going long-term.
If Dundee are to get promotion this season they can’t be slipping back into their old, harmful ways.
Too often last term would the Dark Blues’ form go through peaks and troughs.
With a loss to Hearts, win over Morton and draw against Raith, so far, we’re seeing a similar pattern emerge again.
Particularly at home they need to be winning games like Saturday’s against the Kirkcaldy men. In fact, they should be aiming to win every game at home.
Dens Park needs to be the basis from which the Dee build and conceding late goals like the one at the weekend is no way to go about that.
They seem to be fading in the second half of games this season and that has to be a concern. For me, it points to a lack of depth in the squad but their hands are tied, it seems.
The teams they’ve played have started strong, and Dunfermline are a good side as well, which proves the Championship is going to be Scotland’s toughest division yet again this term.
With it being a shortened 27-game campaign, the onus is on Dundee to start stringing results together fast.
You feel Friday’s trip to Alloa would be a good chance to do just that but it’s never an easy place to go.
Although James McPake’s side did well there last season we’ve seen United and others toil in Clackmannanshire in the past.
It was terrible to hear about the passing of Marius Zaliukas at the weekend – a man who struck a chord with me despite our battles.
We had a lot of clashes down the years when I was at United and he was at Hearts – he was the type of guy that loved to go at it.
We’d always pick each other up at corners and, to be honest, we hated each other!
I gave him a sneaky elbow at Tannadice once and he returned the favour by cracking my head off the post at Tynecastle.
For somebody that young, it’s absolutely horrible and my thoughts are with his family.
https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/dundee-united-qa-dramatic-week-assessed-winning-ways-pay-cut-jeando-fuchs/
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