Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson can understand why fans are disgruntled but urged them to stay loyal for the sake of the club’s future.
The Tannadice chief has been the subject of demonstrations and some supporters are organising opposition, with the formation of pressure group Fans United and the newly-registered Dundee United Supporters Foundation.
As he and his board battle to cope with a relegation cost estimated to be as high as £1.5 million, Thompson has asked those who want him out to nevertheless stick by the team as they try to get back to the top flight via the play-offs.
Thompson was asked if, as a self-confessed fan of the club he runs, he can put himself in the shoes of the average, faithful United supporter who is angry at how things have turned out for his or her team.
He replied: “Yes, I can because it has been a spectacular fall.
“I can understand why they are disgruntled.
“But the loyalty of our fans is so important to this club because we are not the biggest even though we do aspire to be a top-six Premiership club.
“We have 5,000 season ticket holders and when you move up the line I think Hibs are next in terms of numbers or even Aberdeen with their 11,000 or 12,000 season tickets – that’s a big difference.
“That’s what we aspire to be but it’s difficult.
“It is not just about buying season tickets, it’s about everyone staying together and moving forward for the sake of United’s future.
“I won’t be here forever. Of course I won’t be.
“Someone else will be sitting here in years to come, whenever that may be. I’m not putting a time on it.
“It will be somebody else, just like it was my father (Eddie) before me and Jim McLean and George Fox before that.
“We are where are.
“We want to still get promoted, probably through the play-offs because I think Hibs are probably going to win the league, unfortunately.
“We still want to try to get up and that means us all being Dundee United together and supporting the club.”
Asked to summarise both his own situation, considering the unrest among the support, and the club’s general predicament, Thompson added: “We have certainly been in better places.
“We have sat here looking forward to cup finals, for example, and would rather be in the top league.
“Football is what it is, however.
“Things are tough, of course they are.
“For a club of United’s size to go down to the Championship is difficult.
“There is no money in the game up here so for a club of our size to be relegated is pretty tough.
“I reckon it (relegation) has probably cost the club between £1.25 million and £1.5 million this season.
“That reflects the size of the playing budget we have.
“You can slash the budget, of course, but it is far less than it was last season, when we spent money to try to stay in the Premiership.
“We have cut £1.5 million off the cost base this year but the income this year versus two years ago is £2 million down.
“Nobody at the club is happy with where we are: the fans aren’t happy, I’m not happy, the board’s not happy and the staff aren’t happy.
“We have been used to going to cup finals but we can’t keep going on about the past. We have to learn from it and move forward.
“We can also go over the sale of players two years ago (the infamous deal that took Stuart Armstrong, Gary Mackay-Steven and, later, Nadir Ciftci to Celtic) but we can’t change that.
“It was who replaced them that was the issue because recruitment is absolutely everything in football.
“Get it right and you do well. Get it wrong and it’s a disaster.
“As I’ve said, I can understand the fans being concerned but why was nobody worried when we had £7.3 million of debt?
“Nobody seemed to bother then.
“What has happened is that we have talked openly about finances over the last few years and now it’s getting used against us.
“Look, it’s a challenge. I am up for that challenge but we need the fans to support the club.”
The Tangerines still have a chance at promotion despite the Hibees having the title all but wrapped up.
There is a path through the play-offs but it a notoriously difficult one to navigate so what happens if they stay down?
“We have already thought about these things, obviously,” said the chairman.
“We had to draft a plan for the Premiership and one for the Championship.
“It would mean another challenging 12 months ahead for the club off the park.
“We have had challenges before – a number of them – maybe not going back two or three years when it was all going well and we were in cup finals.
“But if you go back, we had been under incredible pressure from the bank.
“Nobody knew how much pressure we were under.
“The bank didn’t want our debt. They wanted to get out of football.
“I remember when we got offered a figure of £1.2 million for David Goodwillie but I turned it down and we ended up getting £2 million. They (the bank) said then that if you don’t get that money we are pulling the plug on you.
“That’s historical and there is a different type of pressure now.”
