SOME clubs sell a cherished player and take some time before bouncing back. For Dundee United, the mourning period dragged on for considerably longer and it will almost certainly now cost them their Premiership status. Losing Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong to Celtic in January 2015 visibly weakened United in the second half of that season, including in the League Cup final when they were defeated by the Parkhead side. But the malaise, that deepened when Nadir Ciftci also made the same journey last summer, has hung over the club again this year.
An ever-shrinking budget has meant first Jackie McNamara and then Mixu Paatelainen have struggled to replace those who went out the door with players of a similar quality. And it has led to a campaign of frustration and resentment as United thrash about at the bottom of the table, seemingly helpless to their fate.
A seismic summer awaits at Tannadice. The bulk of the first-team squad will move on, Paatelainen could find himself replaced as manager, while chairman Stephen Thompson continues to try to off-load the club to a willing buyer. A competitive Championship – even shorn of Rangers and perhaps also Hibernian – will offer them little respite as they look to return to the top flight at the first attempt. Only once the dust has truly settled will those responsible for their impending relegation be able to reflect on the dismal campaign that was 2015/16 and the significance the loss of three star players had on their demise.
“I have been here a while and almost every transfer window we have lost players,” said Sean Dillon, United’s club captain who will almost certainly join the exodus from Tannadice in the summer. “A lot of them have been big players over the years. I understand a lot was made of the most recent ones and there were a lot of opinions. Was it the timing? Was it what happened before it? Was it the games after it?
“There are so many things you can add in there. Personally, I’ve seen so many good players come and go from the club and thankfully we’ve been able to continue on. Of course, the lads that left are a miss but that’s football. It happens all the time.
“Look back, every summer people come and go. You lose one, two, three players and people arrive. It’s what happens so it’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason for why things have gone badly.
“Social media plays a bigger part now, there’s more space for fans to have their say and put forward opinions. That’s not a bad thing, I'm not saying that, but it’s possible that more was made of it than there should have been.
“But that’s down to people’s opinions, one fan will think that it was right for them to move on and others will say they should have stayed. There will always be counter arguments to every point people make.”
Dillon pointed out that things had not always been rosy even when Mackay-Steven, Armstrong and Ciftci were still at the club.
“We couldn’t beat St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup final [in 2014] with the team we had and all those lads there. Four others moved on and when Gary and Stuart left people thought it was a disaster. But they all played in the final and we couldn’t win.”
Dillon has been at United since 2007 and his daily life revolves around the city of Dundee. It is why he can empathise with those fans who chose to protest outside of Tannadice after last Sunday’s loss to Hamilton.
“I wouldn’t shy away from speaking to people because I understand what they’re going through,” said the Irishman. “I have been lucky for a long time here, you come out and have a bit of craic with people about the game. You had good days and bad days, but you always came out to face people.
“I have no problem with people giving their opinions, you take the good with the bad and that’s the way it is. It’s not as if people are coming at you with a hammer in their hand, but they’re angry. But I respect them and what they’ve got to say because nobody wants the club to be where it is.”
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