Dundee and Dundee United share the same street but seldom have the respective ambitions of the clubs appeared so far apart.
The Dark Blues are sticking by their manager James McPake in the wake of the 5-0 defeat at home to bottom club Ross County, but there’s a growing disconnect between the club and supporters, with Dundee languishing in the Premiership and looking bereft of direction.
United, flying high in fourth, seem to have a clear structure, plan and pathway, in everything from the first team to youth football to their women’s team.
American owner Mark Ogren may well be gone in a couple of years given the way football goes these days, but when he does depart he’ll have laid a foundation stone for any new owner, whether it’s the supporters themselves or some other individual, to build on.
Dundee, meantime, are under pressure and the sense of disillusionment and despair within their fanbase is palpable.
Sitting second bottom of the league despite on paper having several players who appear to be Premiership quality, the silence of Tim Keyes, their American owner, is notable.
He’s been a decent custodian and the club have been financially backed by him, but it looks like his attention has wandered.
The new stadium at Camperdown Park, announced in a fanfare over four years ago, looks no closer to a brick being laid, while Dens Park is in need of refurbishment and is costing the club in rent.
The demographics in the city are also stacked against Dundee, with United having captured a couple of generations of young fans as the more successful outfit over many years.
Tim Keyes needs to take stock of his ambitions for the club and decide whether he’s happy for it to simply limp along as a yo-yo team between the leagues, or whether he has a serious vision to restore it to its once proud self and give Dundee fans something to get behind and respect again.
Whether you’re a fan of live football on television or whether you’re in the camp that thinks it’s damaged the game, you surely expect any television deal struck to showcase the country’s top matches.
That’s why it’s incomprehensible – and a real slap in the face to the Scottish game – that Sky, who are the SPFL main broadcast partners, failed to show any Scottish match in midweek.
Television provides a huge chunk of income to the game but what’s the point of partnering with a broadcaster when it refuses to show any matches, let alone the premium games, in a week where little is happening.
In midweek, Hibernian v Celtic and Rangers v Aberdeen were two of the top meetings that our game has to offer, yet neither was covered by the company which has the deal for live TV football broadcasts in Scotland.
Those who sell Scottish football have a duty to achieve decent revenue for the sport, but they also have a responsibility to ensure that the game goes to as wide an audience as possible – and is available for those who pay their subscriptions in the legitimate expectation that our national game will be properly showcased.
When Scottish football’s main live broadcaster can’t be bothered to show even our marquee games it indicates the low esteem in which they, and our administrators who agreed the deal, hold our football.
It’s there only as a schedule filler- and they can’t even be troubled to hide the fact.
Those in the SPFL who signed off on the agreement with Sky, who replaced BT, are culpable, but also untouchable.
They run our game with little or no pressure on them and frankly they couldn’t care less about supporters.
Our football masters serve the sport poorly but they’re bullet proof.
Their attitude to fans is to let them suck it up, safe in the knowledge that, sadly, they will.
