Sean Dillon has plenty theories as to why Dundee United find themselves looking forward to at least a season in the Championship.
He believes mistakes have been made at a number of levels at Tannadice. They all contributed to the nightmare that became relegation this year.
But that’s as much as he’s prepared to say about the problems that have beset the areas of the club he’s had no control over during the past 12 months or so.
Because to talk any more, he believes, would be to deflect from his share of responsibility for the drop. And that’s not something he will ever do.
For the long-serving Tangerines captain it’s important to look at your own mistakes before pointing the finger at anyone else.
“Look, like anyone else, like any fan out there, I have my opinions about what’s gone wrong and where.
“What I know for definite, though, is I am part of a team that didn’t do enough to keep us in the Premiership. That’s what’s most important to me.
“That’s a horrible feeling and, if there have been other low points in my 10 years at United, nothing has been as bad as this last year.
“I won’t point a finger at other people when I know we, as a team, were not good enough. For me, that wouldn’t be right.”
And when he looks back over this awful season on the park, he sees that fact as the bottom line.
“I do think we had a lot of bad luck but you don’t finish bottom because of bad luck, you finish bottom because you didn’t do well enough.
“We had some bad breaks but there were too many games when we were ahead and lost.
“There were too many where we went behind and didn’t come back when we could have and too many bad goals we shouldn’t have lost.
“That means as players we can’t blame anyone but ourselves.”
Dillon does believe it’s only right there have been post mortems in what went wrong, at all levels, and he understands why the United support is unhappy.
That understanding includes the continuing anger over the sale of team-mates Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven right at the end of the January transfer window last year.
The team was on a high at the time but many Arabs feel that was the moment the bubble burst. Dillon realises that but believes there comes a time when the future has to be the main issue.
“I get it, I do, but how far do you look back and how long do you keep looking back?
“There has to come a time when you have to say what’s done is done and you are working towards getting us back to where we feel we should be.”
For him that means everyone with a love of United finding a way to come together. Nothing typifies what he wants to get back to than the spirit he felt when he was part of the team that lifted the Scottish Cup in 2010.
“I’ve never been at a club that felt more together than we did then.
“I remember thinking this wasn’t just for me, or the team — this was for everyone.
“It was an amazing time, players, staff, fans — we were all in it together.
“If we can get back to that feeling, it’ll go a long way to getting us to where we want to be.”
That’s not him taking sides and he’s first to admit he doesn’t have all the answers.
But he knows that whatever the opinions of the various factions, that willingness to come together will be vital to rebuilding United.
TOMORROW: Sean looks back at how it all began.
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