Stars should be kicking up stink over United cuts
The aromas from the kitchen back in the day when Agnes was cooking up a storm at Dundee United linger long in the memory.
Top of the Tannadice stairs, next to the manager’s office, the staff canteen was serviced by a lady with VIP status.
Simpler times, nothing a la carte, just good old fashioned comfort food like spaghetti bolognese and mince and tatties.
Lunchtime was a feeding frenzy where youngsters like myself stood in line with men who were seasoned Scotland internationals. There was many a fight over the juice jug with a Maurice Malpas or David Narey.
A squad packed with talent, some of whom would move on in multi-million pound deals.
Fast forward a few decades and something is starting to smell at my old club – but this time it’s not mouth-watering.
This was the week when the penny dropped, with American owner Mark Ogren all but admitting he’s been sold a pup for his seven-figure investment.
Let’s start with the source of the current whiff which has the money man issuing dire warnings for Scottish football and trying to force through 20 per cent wage cuts for the bulk of the playing staff.
It started with a gambler’s blueprint to forge together a former agent in the shape of Tony Asghar and a sports enthusiast with deep pockets.
A noble cause of breathing new life into a sleeping giant and making a killing in the profit margin by rearing young players to be sold for fortunes is again proving to be a pipe dream.
The seductive appeal of being able to replicate the sort of business circa 2015 – Andy Robertson to Hull and Ryan Gauld to Sporting Lisbon – which makes good reading on a portfolio perspective but ignores the reality of the rarity of such multi-million pound transactions.
Sporting director Asghar and Ogren now find themselves in a bind. After throwing the dice with limited luck, tossing the coronavirus into the mix is only muddying the waters.
Ogren says things could get messy and everything is on the table concerning cuts. But it all sounds a bit rich to blame their desperate balance sheet squarely on the pandemic.
Their figures for a club which has just come up from the Championship are truly eye-watering.
Last season their £4.1m wage bill was 133 per cent of turnover and they posted a £3.75m operating loss – accounts so staggering you’re forced to double check their squad lists to see if you’d missed a megastar signing or two.
There have been whispers for a while now about the devil-may-care approach to United’s wage structure and the somewhat delusional belief in an academy starlet or two emerging to balance the books with a sale or two.
Ogren’s calls for financial support from the Scottish government for clubs to cope with a Covid-19 fan-free season are a touch shameless.
There’s a whole level of wrongness about running up that type of debt and then pleading poverty when it sinks in that Scottish football’s a money pit.
On the proposed wage cuts he said: “Just to be clear, we’re only doing this because of Covid.”
Earlier this month United committed to a loan deal for Mark McNulty on a wage which would service five players at Livingston or Hamilton Accies.
That fact alone should ensure that every player asked to forgo weekly dough should tell the club to do one, hopefully with the help of PFA Scotland.