Tom Duthie: Work to get Utd on track needed now

Dundee United fans have a right to be angry.

In fact they should be spitting mad at how their team has let them down this season.

And with the Tangerines on the brink of relegation, no one can complain about them protesting.

The demonstration outside Tannadice on Sunday may not have been pleasant for those on the receiving end of it.

But it shows how much Arabs care and the one thing the club does not want to lose in this awful campaign is passion like that.

If that’s lost, all’s lost.

So long as protests remain within the bounds of reason, I can see nothing wrong in them.

I don’t have to agree with those who are chanting “sack the board” to believe in their right to express their opinions.

But I don’t agree with them, mainly because right now what’s most important for United is the work that must be going on to ensure the club survive their annus horribilis (for those of you, like me, who didn’t study Latin that basically means terrible year).

As justifiably furious as the punters are, it is vital that chairman Stephen Thompson and his board are grafting to make sure, come the start of next season, the club is in a position to bounce right back to the Premiership.

And the state of things right now suggests they’ve plenty work to do.

Cloth will need to be cut and a squad much better than the one now will have to be built.

The first step in that process will be deciding who should be the manager handed responsibility for putting a better team together.

My guess is it will not be Mixu Paatelainen.

In many ways, removing him would be harsh because, since the minute he took over, he’s had a difficult job on his hands.

But a fresh start looks the best option.

That probably includes changes at the very top, hence the chairman now being willing to sell up.

How long that takes remains to be seen but it could be quite a while.

And, until a new regime is in place at Tannadice, what is vital for United is that the necessary work that so obviously needs doing to get the club back on its feet is being done in a proper fashion.

Sorry, but fan ownership doesn’t work

Here’s the brutal truth — fans save clubs, they don’t run them.

The liking by some United supporters for a fan takeover at Tannadice worries me.

Don’t get me wrong, in an ideal world every club would be controlled by the people who pay at the gate.

But the experience I have of them taking over the running of clubs is that it just does not work.

It didn’t at Dundee and, despite claims to the contrary, it isn’t at Hearts — Ann Budge is making things right there.

That is in no way understating the importance of punters to our clubs — they are and always have been the most vital part of any club.

But look at it like this — you wouldn’t want 11 punters from the stands on the pitch, and the same applies to a boardroom.

Are SPFL twisting the knife?

Staying with the subject of the derby, am I the only one not entirely comfortable with the SPFL’s timing of the fixture?

Don’t take that as condemnation in advance of the stick Dundee fans will give their United rivals over looming relegation.

Whenever the game was being played the dark blue half of the city would be giving Arabs pelters.

That’s part and parcel of football and Dee supporters have taken plenty when their team’s gone down. I know, I’m one.

It’s a classic case of what goes around comes around and, so long as it remains reasonable, it’s not a problem.

But it is the kind of thing that should be reserved for supporters.

I’m uneasy about the league getting involved.

To schedule this derby when there was a good chance United could be relegated, smacks of them twisting the knife.

The need for a route to the top flight means the drop is necessary.

But those who run the game should focus on the timing of the games that decide who wins trophies.