Sections of the Dundee United support are up in arms because their board has decided to sell Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven and regular readers will know my readiness to call sports administrators to account, in particular when addressing the sort of propaganda that was issued to justify the decision.

Anxious not to ruin whatever legacy they have with the club's supporters, having been two of their most popular players, Armstrong and Mackay-Steven have understandably rejected the club's contention that it was their desire to leave which forced United's hand.

I cannot imagine that when he supported that official line Jackie McNamara, the manager whose methods enhanced what was an already burgeoning youth development programme when he took over, was insinuating that he did not think the pair would continue to give their all had they been made to stay at Tannadice until the end of the season.

There was certainly no evidence of anything other than full commitment as they played significant parts in their team's comeback win in the League Cup semi-final win over Aberdeen on Saturday.

The wistfulness of Mackay-Steven's comments regarding how strange it will be when the final is played to be unable to represent either the team he helped qualify for it or the one he is now employed by when they meet one another seemed telling, too.

Yet, odd as that is, there is something profoundly wrong about the situation he came within a few hours of confronting in potentially seeking to prevent the club to which he had committed his future from winning silverware.

The truth doubtless lies somewhere between the two extremes of a board that was anxious not go unrewarded for their club having developed these players so ushered them out and a couple of lads who were desperate to play for the country's biggest club so demanded the right to go.

As someone whose footballing allegiance is known to lie elsewhere in Dundee I am conscious, too, that an element of Schadenfreude could be read into this, given the extent to which United have boasted the upper hand in the city for the past 40 years or so.

However rather than wish ill on these closest rivals I can only express the hope that after its dealings with the administrators over the years my club has absorbed the lessons learned from the way United run their business.

I have seen a fair bit of them this season and have submerged partisanship in enjoying how they play. Yet, while Armstrong has probably been their best player and GMS their most exciting over the piece, I had no hesitation in identifying teenager Charlie Telfer as man-of-the-match against Motherwell 12 days ago, while the marks for merit filed immediately after the semi-final demonstrate that it took no prompting from McNamara to persuade me that Ryan Dow - Telfer's second half replacement - had changed that match.

It is an extraordinary fact that little more than two years into the job McNamara, who has now committed his future to the club until 2017, is already the Premiership's longest serving manager, which will remain the case no matter which combination of Hearts, Rangers and Hibs move up the way at the end of the season and he has demonstrated a superior capacity to identify and develop talent, most obviously when compared to his Rangers counterparts in the case of Telfer.

Admittedly whoever thought it a good idea to try to squirm out of responsibility by blaming players who have left a club that has won one trophy in the past 20 years to join another that is guaranteed to win prizes year after year while picking up a huge pay rise to boot, should take a hard look at themselves.

However as he pointed out in the interview we carried last weekend, United chairman Stephen Thompson's family has invested some £6 million in the club, which deserves rather more respect than we ought to afford to the pompous oafs who, at no personal risk to themselves, draw salaries from Scottish sports governing bodies that are utterly disproportionate to what they bring to their organisations.

Consequently just as when Jim McLean sold Andy Gray and Raymie Stewart, then won two League Cups and United's only title, sold Richard Gough then beat Barcelona twice on the way to the UEFA Cup final, sold Kevin Gallacher and Duncan Ferguson then finally won the Scottish Cup, they sold Ryan Gauld and Andrew Robertson last summer and have now reached another domestic final.

If I was a United supporter then - and I'm still glad I'm not - I would be trusting in those running the club, not least another manager who appears to be a greater asset than any individual player.