It would be easier for me to sell up, but I’m a fighter. I care about the club
SAYS STEPHEN THOMPSON
THE age-old belief that managers always carry the can for adverse results on the park cuts little ice with Stephen Thompson.
Over the past 18 months, Jackie McNamara, Mixu Paatelainen and Ray McKinnon have all sat in the dugout at Tannadice. None could be said to have encountered anything like the level of vitriolic abuse directed at the man gazing down on them.
To many of the Tangerine persuasion, Thompson’s ongoing presence in the boardroom has become the single biggest factor in the club’s demise. He has become a human lightning rod for their every grievance.
By his own admission, attending matches of late has become less of a pleasure and more of a chore. When you have assumed the mantle of public enemy No 1 among your own fan base, the match-day experience tends to lose its appeal.
However, those believing that protest banners and barracking will dissuade the man at the helm from showing his face in public may have to reconsider.
Whatever accusations could rightly be levelled at him, seeking refuge in a darkened room has never been his style.
‘It’s not the same as it was when we had a fantastic team on the park — before so many of the players went — of course,’ he said. ‘That’s no slight on Raymond at all. He’s trying to rebuild a team that got relegated.
‘Do I go (to games) with a heavy heart? I don’t think they are the right words. It’s certainly not easy. It’s been a rough 18 months for me.
‘It is what it is. But the only thing that matters is the club. Listen, I’ll be at the game tomorrow, I was at the game the other night and I was obviously at the (Challenge) Cup final last weekend. I’ve hardly missed a game this season — only one I think.
‘It would be easier not to go and face some of the things you face. If you are in it, you are in it properly. It would be easier for me to walk away. To just say: “There you go”. To sell the shares and walk. I’d have an easier life that way, for sure. But I’m not in it for that. I’m a fighter. I care about the club.’
Contrary to the belief of so many of his detractors, Thompson is not as entrenched in the club as the foundations of the stand bearing his late father Eddie’s name.
Were the right individual to come along with an appealing offer, his door is open. But to date, there have been no offers — serious or otherwise — for his majority shareholding.
‘There is a lot of noise out there but the one thing I’ve made very clear is that there has been no formal approach to me or the club to take it on,’ he explained.
‘It’s not just about taking the club on board. It’s about having the funding to take the club forward. I could easily give up and pass it onto someone else. It’s not about that. It’s about having a properly funded proposal that’s right for the club.
‘The door is open for anyone who wants to come and talk with me. I can’t be more open than that. I’m not blocking people out. I’m actually opening the door.’
The recently formed Dundee United Supporters Foundation have designs on getting one foot over the threshold at some point.
Talks with their counterparts at Hearts have been held with a view to a fan-ownership model but action remains some way off.
Frustrated at the current impasse, a season-ticket boycott is being muted. Thompson contends, though, that rather than oiling the wheels that might lead to his removal, such a drastic step would only put a spoke in them.
‘Any potential boycott of season tickets doesn’t hurt me — it only hurts the club we all love,’ warned Thompson. ‘It wouldn’t help the business in the slightest. That’s just damaging everything that matters.
‘It will also impact the team Raymond can put on the park next season. That’s a dramatic knock-on effect for the club.
‘One day in the future, I won’t be sitting there as chairman. There will be someone else at some point down the line.
‘Change always happens. My dad was there before me, Jim McLean was there, George Fox before him. It’s about supporting Dundee United from a fans’ point of view. But, at the end of the day, you’ve got to support the club and the team financially.’
As open as he is to all proposals, Thompson knows departing the scene with United in its current state would be no legacy at all.
Some £1.55million was lost as the club waved goodbye to the top flight last season. Ongoing issues have led to Americanbased fan Alastair Borthwick injecting £300,000 to plug some of the gaps.
On the park, a poor start to the year has seen United slide to fourth in the Championship. The play-offs now represent a long shot at promotion. The current snapshot of a once proud club is far from pretty.
‘I want the team back in the Premiership first and foremost,’ added Thompson. ‘You’ve got to earn your right to be there. If the right person came along tomorrow, I would talk with them but we can only address that if and when it happens.’
In the meantime, United appear to have taken a step in the right direction with the appointment of Darren Taylor as head of football operations.
A measure designed to ensure the scattergun signing policy of recent years is never repeated, Thompson believes Taylor will add value to all future acquisitions while allowing McKinnon to focus on first-team matters.
‘The most important thing when you are running any football club is the recruitment,’ he added. ‘Selling players (in the past two years) wasn’t the issue. It’s who we replaced them with that was the problem.
‘It’s a full-time appointment to help people like Raymond.’
“Raymond is trying to rebuild a team that got relegated”