Rumours swept the city on Friday night that United were set to enter administration after Craig Levein admitted the club “needed help” from Lloyds Banking Group, the same organisation Walter Smith claimed were “running Rangers”.
The Tannadice club have debts of £6.4 million with the bank, and are in the process of renegotiating their arrangements to cover the £700,000 of expected income they lost with the demise of Setanta.
The chairman repeated his manager’s call for the bank to be “supportive” but said United had fulfilled all their commitments to date. “The collapse of Setanta has caused us to renegotiate the arrangements we have with the bank and we are right in the middle of that, but there is nothing new,” Thompson told the Sunday Herald. “The club is heading in the right direction, there is no doubt that, but banks need to treat football clubs the same as any other business. We have met every commitment to the bank to date and we’re like everyone else. We just want them, in Craig’s words, to be a bit more supportive. The family have still got funds and we will see our way through all this.”
Levein could have goalkeeper Nicky Weaver and striker Jon Daly back for today’s match at home to Rangers, but the manager revealed that last season’s top scorer Francisco Sandaza requires further surgery and may not return until the new year.
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