Tekel Towers » Stephen Thompson

AlwaysUnited · 14/7/2018 12:07 am

Can I just say I've spent the last four years seeing the former chairman vilified on this and other forums, and I couldnt stop myself from registering to have my say. While everyone makes mistakes you have all forgotten about his achievements which include, but not limited to:

*Overseeing several years of success, including a Scottish Cup Win and regular European participation
*Reducing the clubs debt, which was threatening the very existence of Dundee United
*Erasing the club's bank debt and securing much better terms
*Signing world class players such as Andrew Robertson
*Backing EACH AND EVERY manager in the transfer market
*Somehow being held responsible for recruitment failings, despite the fact this was overseen by a director of football and not the chairman
*Representing Dundee United's fans views on the issue of the readmission of Rangers to the Scottish leagues
*Bringing record revenues into the club through the sales of players such as Gauld, Robertson, Ciftci etc
*Consistently offering the most competitive season ticket package in Scotland
*Renouncing his own salary and worked for free for the benefit of the club
*Delivering world class training facilities, that are the envy of almost every club in Scotland

Everyone knows the relegation was a dark day for the club and no one at the club is exempt from criticism, but lets remember the good things that the former chairman did as well, he deserves to be left in peace and with his dignity intact. He was always and always will be a United supporter.

WeeDude_83 · 14/7/2018 12:17 am

Hiya Stephen.

SuperMario · 14/7/2018 12:40 am

Speechless

Shedtastic · 14/7/2018 2:21 am

AlwaysUnited wrote:
*Signing world class players such as Andrew Robertson

You have stated this in the 'plural', eg PLAYERS, can you please name the other 'world class players he signed?

Just one will do.......

Tangerine'n'Black · 14/7/2018 4:57 am

Reducing and erasing debt.....the clubs on it’s last legs financially with no assets, mortgaged to the hilt and not a pot to piss in.........thank you for feck all Stephen Thomson.

The Scottish Cup was as a result of his father getting lucky eventually with Craig Levien who built the team / structure that delivered that with Houston. And the youth coming through thereafter, the youth were backed as we’d no money to do anything else.

As for backing the managers.....yes, but he employed the muppets that spunked all that money then pissed off with the golden handshake and %age of everything supposedly good to put us in this position.

And every bit of bad press our club has had in last ten years has been him....including the now defunct Rangers situation which even he managed a u turn on.

He goes with no thanks from me just glad to see the back of him.

We can only hope not to see him at Tannadice or The Arch and he pisses off to Oz!

RRDH · 14/7/2018 5:50 am

Twilight zone stuff that.

14/7/2018 7:02 am

A brave debut post AU & I admire you for that.
And in your defence I would ask any poster on any forum just this one question which must be answered honestly.
Did you ever refer to him as Sir Stephen at any point in his tenure?
Uh huh.....

14/7/2018 7:45 am

smedDUm wrote:
A brave debut post AU & I admire you for that.
And in your defence I would ask any poster on any forum just this one question which must be answered honestly.
Did you ever refer to him as Sir Stephen at any point in his tenure?
Uh huh.....

😁 - yeah quite a few of his biggest critics started life as his biggest fans.

14/7/2018 7:52 am

He didn't create the financial mire we were in but the extent to which he was responsible for clearing the debt is low imo.

The player sales were good fortune and the result of a youth policy put in place under his father.

The deal to clear the bank debt was similar to those struck by Aberdeen, Killie and, I think, Partick - so either a lot of genius chairmen out there or it was the bank that had to clear it's bad debt.
Funnily enough I'm not buying the genius chairman theory.

Swing_kinker · 14/7/2018 7:59 am

Brave post considering the responses he's likely to get. Dont fully agree but he did do some good over the years and that has been forgotten

Last edited by Swing_kinker (14/7/2018 10:53 am)

kdyteejay · 14/7/2018 8:25 am

Swing_kinker wrote:
Brave post considering the responses he's likely tombstone. Dont fully agree but he did do some good over the years and that has been forgotten

Agree with this. Anyway welcome to Tekel towers to the newbie.

Mass Debates · 14/7/2018 8:40 am

Welcome AlwaysUnited. Your views are as valid as any of us on here.

It started well with Levein but once we won the cup and the bigger fish started to eat away at that squad every roll of the dice ended in failure for him. Once you’ve lost the fan base then you have nothing else left.

PatReilly · 14/7/2018 9:28 am

Welcome, AlwaysUnited.

Stephen Thompson certainly did carry out some of his work in a steady manner. But his decision making was ultimately poor.

And you've sugar coated history a good bit. ST would have had Sevco in the top league immediately, but the threatened loss of support focused his mind in a different direction on that one, as an example.

The fact is, from being a good football side by Scottish standards, in his eight year tenure we've become a second tier side which is struggling to get out of a massive rut.

TheShed · 14/7/2018 10:08 am

ST was left a financial disaster to clear up by ET that is true

ST started off reasonably well, needed to sort the finances and knew it.

I was aware of 1 meeting he had with a bank where the bank wanted to put us in admin and he came up with a solution to stop it. This was way before the deal that was made with others to clear the debt.

There was however a turning point, where his decision making became poor, it was like he didn’t care anymore. Players sold, terrible recruitment, dreadful contract deals for new managers, assets mortgaged and no sign of stopping the long term issue of spending more than we earn. He had to go and should have gone a lot sooner.

A lot of people said years ago it was to do with Levein leaving and then Houston going and that whole Levein influence disappearing. Maybe it was or maybe it was to do with the increasing influence of a new director who had not long come on board and was seen as the right hand man?

We’ll maybe never know, but the timeline fits and this is the reason I have my doubts about the current chairman. It’ll take a lot more than his “he never listened to me “ bollocks to convince me things have really changed.

I hope they have, I hope it’s going to get better and I’m realistic enough to know it’ll take time. There is however financially no margin for error anymore, all the assets are mortgages now, there’s nothing left. If it goes wrong this season, what then?

14/7/2018 10:21 am

I think you're pretty much hitting the nail on the head TheShed.
You might have also included getting carried away with the Aussie dream.
Good post.

Morphman · 14/7/2018 10:24 am

A running theme from anyone who I've seen comment about ST is that he didn't take advice unless he knew it would immediately affect his own wallet. Such as the Rangers liquidation stuff.

I'll give MM his due, he brought in Luggy almost as soon as ST moved out as chairman. Probably because he has recognised to some degree that he knows sweet f*** all about recruitment and football in general. He turned to Luggy who knew what the club was about and despite mixed success in management was probably of a much higher calibre to help influence footballing decisions.

Prior to this we had ST giving every manager free reign to sign whatever shite we liked and then we installed Darren Taylor (who?) as director of football/recruitment who knows as much about signing quality players as we do on this forum. Does anyone really think ST hired him back cause he wanted great advice on signing players? No, he was hired to fulfill project brave requirements and was very much a face.

ST didn't learn from his mistakes, that cost him the support from fans and ultimately left us in this rut.

TheShed · 14/7/2018 10:31 am

smedDUm wrote:
I think you're pretty much hitting the nail on the head TheShed.
You might have also included getting carried away with the Aussie dream.
Good post.

There’s plenty more could have been included, some good more bad tbh.

Rocky Raccoon · 14/7/2018 10:34 am

Crackin' first post but the jury is out.

1, Stephen Thompson
2, Cath Thompson
3, Dundee fan
4, Rangers fan

Take your pick.

lifesanocean · 14/7/2018 11:23 am

5. Yer da
6. Yer ma

14/7/2018 12:05 pm

The Sevco issue (item 7 in ST's best pal's debut opening post) is very vexing.
Stephen weighed in first thinking his ratings would go up with the fans.
Or maybe he was just being an honourable man.
Either way I'm afraid the legacy of applying the first cut is still costing us dear to this day.
I kid you not.
#Neverwrestlewithabear.

blackandtangerine · 14/7/2018 12:40 pm

smedDUm wrote:
The Sevco issue (item 7 in ST's best pal's debut opening post) is very vexing.
Stephen weighed in first thinking his ratings would go up with the fans.
Or maybe he was just being an honourable man.
Either way I'm afraid the legacy of applying the first cut is still costing us dear to this day.
I kid you not.
#Neverwrestlewithabear.

Sorry yer wrong here. Thompson wanted rangers back asap. Was a meeting with fed and trust where he was told fans would boycott season tickets. He then said rangers are cunts. End of.

ShutTheFrontDoor · 14/7/2018 12:47 pm

Good luck Stephen T in your new venture

PatReilly · 14/7/2018 1:01 pm

ShutTheFrontDoor wrote:
Good luck Stephen T in your new venture

I've never understood someone signing up for a forum so they can show folk how daft they are.

TheShed · 14/7/2018 1:03 pm

PatReilly wrote:
ShutTheFrontDoor wrote:
Good luck Stephen T in your new venture
I've never understood someone signing up for a forum so they can show folk how daft they are.

Just some bairn, best ignored.

14/7/2018 1:29 pm

blackandtangerine wrote:
He then said rangers are cunts. End of.

Ah well, at least he managed to say something we can all agree on (even if he wasn't thinking it)