Dundee boss Gordon Chisholm has insisted he and his players will continue to act in a professional manner, despite the threat of job cuts hanging over Dens Park.
On Monday morning, Chisholm asked chief executive Harry MacLean to address the squad before training to let them know exactly what is happening at the financially stricken club, which has called in Bryan Jackson of accountancy firm PKF to act as administrator.
He will begin to do so on Wednesday, if former Dundee benefactor Calum Melville follows through with his pledge to donate £200,000 to the club.
That cash was originally thought to have been earmarked to settle part of the club’s outstanding £365,000 tax bill, but is now needed to pay for administration.
Despite the grim possible scenarios, and the fact weekend reports suggested Chisholm and his assistant Billy Dodds would be the first to be axed, the Dens Park gaffer stressed he will continue to work as normal until told otherwise.
“I asked Harry to come up and answer the players’ questions, because it is time the board stepped forward to speak to them and let them know what’s going on,” he said.
“Everyone needs to know what’s happening. I have tried to keep the boys informed as best I can, but I am not in the loop either. I saw in the media on Friday that players are going to lose their jobs and I’m going to lose my job.
“I would hate to think we have found out that way rather than by someone from the club telling us. But supposedly no decisions have been made and will not be until the administrator comes in on Wednesday.Speculation”There has been a lot of speculation, with people putting about figures regarding our salaries, which are way over the top. It has got to the ridiculous stage.
“When you come to a job of this size and hear the promises that were given and the people we met know what they were you don’t expect to be experiencing something like this.
“As far as I’m aware, they are still waiting on money from Calum Melville to make sure it does go into administration. Until then, all we can do is remain professional.
“The players have been a credit to themselves. They have trained, despite not being paid their full wages, and are preparing for Saturday’s game-even if they do not know whether they will still be here.
“Myself, Billy Dodds and the players have one outlook at the moment. That is to be professional and continue to do our jobs until told otherwise.”
In another development, former Dundee director Ian Bodie has broken his silence to defend himself and the club against accusations they had acted “immorally” when they lured Chisholm and Dodds to Dens.
Scottish League Managers chairman Alex Smith made the allegations on Monday, saying Dundee had sacked Jocky Scott and employed the new management duo when the club had already started experiencing financial difficulties and had stopped paying the tax.
But Bodie, who resigned from the board in May, disputes this.
“Two days after the appointment of the new management team, accounts for 2008-9 were lodged and they included a going concern note that said if the club continued in the SFL in 2010-11, Calum Melville’s support would continue,” said Bodie. “If we had known the finance had not been in place, we would not have even contemplated removing Jocky from his post, because if we had, Alex Smith would be right and it would have been immoral.
“The fact is we had a commitment we believed was genuine and it was the unanimous decision of the board to make the change. Running a football club is always a hand-to-mouth existence, but until December-January time everything was okay.
“After that, we got less and less assistance from our benefactor, by which I mean he did not give us more than he said he would. I was unhappy to be not paying the revenue but Calum went to see them and managed to negotiate a standstill. That was a good deal, though at the time I did assume we would resume paying one day.
“When I left in May, it was 60% because I was unhappy and 40% because I felt it was time for a change.
“We were still behind to HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) and starting to fall behind to general creditors as well. It became clear to me when I left things were on a knife edge, but I did not want to say anything that could possibly damage the club.”