I HAVE met Bryan Jackson, the interim administrator at Dunfermline Athletic, twice.
The first time we were in company and went for a meal. The next time he was telling me I had been made redundant at Dundee. Let's just say we don't see eye to eye, and I am in no hurry to meet him again.
I am sure the Dunfermline squad must have been equally dreading meeting him on Thursday when he informed 11 players they were being let go after the club entered interim administration over an unpaid tax bill, with assistant manager Gerry McCabe following on Friday.
I went through the whole process at Dundee and although you know it is coming – that the club are skint and can't pay wages – nothing prepares you for that day and those words from the administrator.
I am delighted to see that some of Dunfermline's players have been picked up already. Jordan McMillan is a friend and a former Rangers team-mate, and it was great to see him signing for Partick Thistle because I had a big part in him going to Fife in the first place and I still feel some guilt about it. Jordan is a hard- working boy; a good player who I reckon could still play at a higher level. The same goes for Andy Dowie, who has also joined Thistle, and goalkeeper Paul Gallacher, who has gone to Ross County.
Some always lose out more than others when it comes to administration. We lost nine players at Dundee. While guys like Colin McMenamin, now at Morton after a good spell at Ross County, and Partick goalkeeper Scott Fox have bounced back, Brian Kerr had to take a step down to Arbroath and Njazi Kuqi went back to Finland. Worst of all was Charlie Grant – the former Celtic and Hamilton Accies midfielder who was part of the Scotland team who reached the European Under-19 Championship finals – who is out of the game entirely now.
Perhaps because it has happened to me – because I ended up with 6p in the pound – I am critical of any board of directors which presides over a club that goes into administration. I know times are hard but the reason I am critical of Gavin Masterton and John Yorkston at Dunfermline is that I have known for years they were in a bit of financial bother, but they have kept on papering over the cracks, and saying they were suffering little more than a minor cash-flow problem. This hasn't just come on in the last six weeks. It dates back to Jim McIntyre's time at the club.
The stories coming out back then were scary. Jim had to fight tooth and nail for his pay-off and you can tell why now. But instead of being more upfront about the situation, saying "we are in financial difficulty and have to cut our costs", they kept sending out the message that they were fine. They were only masking the scale of the problem and judging by the sub-3000 crowd for Wednesday's Dunfermline v Falkirk match I don't think even their own fans trusted them at the end.
I suppose you have to have a certain sympathy for someone such as Masterton who, like his pal David Murray at Rangers, put his money where his mouth was and gave the club some great memories, such as a Scottish Cup final against Celtic.
A few years ago, the money was there in the game and pretty much everyone overspent. Scottish football was on a high, with Rangers having Gazza and Laudrup, while Celtic had Henrik Larsson and Pierre van Hooijdonk.
But these are changed days and the teams that overspent back then are finding themselves in dire trouble. Scottish football is approaching rock bottom but I will not be surprised if we take another couple of dunts yet. The Dundee, Rangers and Dunfermline scenarios illustrate what has to happen in our game, and Hearts are on the brink.
Clubs have to get their house in order. Players, managers, staff, directors and chairmen are going to have to accept that what goes out in wages can't exceed what comes in. Fans might not get the quality they once had but at least their clubs will survive. Supporters would rather have a team to support than no team at all.
THE latest cry from the Tartan Army is for Gordon Strachan to make wholesale changes in the wake of the defeats by Wales and Serbia were the final nail in our coffin when it comes to World Cup qualifying. People are crying out for the manager to get rid of the old guard and bring in the new generation.
That is all very well but I am not so sure they are prepared to put up with the consequences. If Gordon were to go for an experimental line-up I could see him rack up six straight competitive defeats in this campaign, not to mention the fact we have a difficult trip to Wembley to take on England. A sequence of results like that and I am sure the fans would turn on him.
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