Could Dundee United be ready to abdicate their long city reign as kings of the hill?
Is dethronement by a reinvigorated Dundee FC on the horizon, as talk of revolution gathers pace among some of the Tannadice faithful?
With Dundee making impressive progress under Paul Hartley and enjoying boardroom stability, the Dens Park club may be in line to be crowned No 1 in town.
Former St Johnstone chairman Geoff Brown always told me that good player identification was the key factor when he made an appointment of a new Saints manager.
The ability to pinpoint a signing target that would fit the formation and style of the team was crucial to future success, he maintained.
That’s happened at Dens where Paul Hartley signings such as Holt, Low, Stewart and Ross, have slotted in seamlessly and look to be shrewd and intelligent captures, with Dundee fans watching some of the most fluent football in years.
Meantime at Tannadice, while Ryan McGowan, Robbie Muirhead, Blair Spittal and Charlie Telfer have impressed, the likes of Henri Anier, Mario Bilate and Darko Bodul have all struggled.
United are only three points behind their city rivals after just four games of the season. The board will feel that it’s too early to press the panic button, but the team must avoid getting detached from the front-runners.
While a wave of optimism surrounds Dens, a foggy gloom is haunting Tannadice.
The American owners of Dundee are quietly going about their business at the same time as the United board stand accused of failure to communicate with their fans, as a blizzard of rumours chill the relationship between club and supporters.
Amid disquiet over transfer income, the chairman’s absence in Australia, the suspension of the head of youth and concern over the team’s win record stretching into last season, there is an audible air of alarm among Arabs.
Meanwhile, at Dens Park, Dundee seem set fair with the backing of the Keyes family, who have promised to be there for the long haul and who, while anything but spendthrift owners, seem nevertheless prepared to invest prudently if and when required.
That has given hope to Dundee supporters that the decades of dominance by United may be ending.
Dark Blue fans find themselves united, while United fans find themselves divided over the many unanswered questions at their club.
When the United For Change group mobilised to unseat legendary chairman Jim McLean, as the club slid backwards under his stewardship, a bitter civil war broke out.
United For Change supported the late Eddie Thompson’s battle to win control, which he bequeathed to his son Stephen, the current chairman.
Once again there is a mood of insurgency among many of the Tannadice faithful.
United urgently need to engage openly with their supporters, to avoid another deeply damaging battle.
Jim McLean was a tough cookie; but I suspect the current Tannadice board is unlikely to prove as resilient an opponent as him should the present unhappiness among some fans blow up into a raging squall.
Football sails on a sea of emotion and while the good ship Dundee FC currently crests the waves, The SS United flounders without a captain on the bridge.