Thompson remains defiant over transfers

THOMPSON SAID: “I think this has come off the back of what happened in the transfer window.

“Looking back, there is no doubt that from a football point of view it wasn’t the right thing to do.

“I haven’t really said that publicly and it has been hard for a lot of people to take that.

“But we have to run the club as a board and have legal obligations.

“So I still believe it was the right thing to do for the club.”

Asked if he now regrets selling, Thompson was defiant.

He said: “You can’t go back in life and regret things.You make decisions at the time and stick by them.

“It was the right decision for the club and it’s done now.”

The chairman admitted that it would have been more desirable to sell the pair to a team other than Celtic but stressed that no one else was prepared to cough up the cash.

“Perhaps if they had gone down to England it would have been seen a wee bit differently,” he said.

“It is always harder when they sign for one of the Old Firm clubs — I don’t think there is much doubt about that.

“But there was no other interest in either player.

“You always want more money per player — of course you do — but I think any other club in Scotland would have done exactly the same thing as we did.

“The financial climate in Scotland for football is not good and I want to make sure this club is around for many years to come. That’s what matters to me.

“Celtic paid the money — let’s move on.”

Thompson revealed that the whole episode will leave United still with cash to repay, albeit they will be under no time pressure to do so given the soft nature of the loans from wealthy, anonymous supporters.

“Once all the transfer fees are in — and they won’t all be in for a few months yet — we will be down to about £1.3 million of debt,” he said.

“I want us to be debtfree but I also want us to compete on the park.

“I think we have done things the right way by trading through it and winning games.

“We have also spent more money on our playing budget this year than we did last year.

“I feel as though there is a bit of negativity around and I can understand the frustrations people have.

“I am a bit frustrated as well because I want to be winning games.

“Don’t forget we have an operating loss of halfa-million to three-quarters of a million pounds because we have footballing ambition on the park and the club doesn’t bring in enough money to match that.

“That’s why we have to sell players from time to time.”