Outgoing chairman Bob Brannan has had a pop at disgruntled Dundee fans, warning that if they don’t dig deep the club won’t be around for much longer.
In an open letter to a long-suffering support Brannan challenges them to follow him and fellow director Calum Melville in financially backing the Dark Blues.
He said, “I have personally sunk several hundred thousand pounds into the club over the last few years, and Calum significantly more in just over a year.
“Is it so much to ask that every true Dundee fan buys a season ticket and financially supports the club in every way he or she can?”
He added, “I have heard and read a number of fans’ comments, with a minority stating they are not going to renew their season tickets, or at least not until the club spends big money on three or four signings.
“Frankly, if that sort of attitude prevails there won’t be a club.”
In the course of the letter Brannan also says, “I take full responsibility for our failure to win promotion last year.”
Yet he goes on at length to lay the blame for not going up firmly at the door of sacked boss Jocky Scott and the playing staff, saying, “It’s hard to see how the board could have done much more.”
Brannan talks up the talents of the new managerial team of Gordon Chisholm and Billy Dodds, calling the former “the best manager in division one”, while defending the raising of walk-up admission prices from £17 to £19 per match.
He urges fan groups such as Dee4Life to come up with new methods of fund-raising, pointing out they continue to enjoy a 26% shareholding in the club only because directors haven’t sought additional shares in return for funding provided.
Brannan also confirms that Dundee won’t be matching what he labelled last term’s playing staff “promotion budget”, indicating that funding from Melville will now be at a “much more realistic level.”
The Dark Blues, meanwhile, have appointed long-serving general manager Jim Thomson to the board, as operations director.
They also announced that Harry MacLean has become commercial director and that they will be advertising for a chairman-elect to replace Brannan.
Meanwhile Gavin Skelton, the former Kilmarnock and Gretna midfielder, is the latest player to be targeted by Chisholm.