You could also add the almost total media blackout from March until into August, people may justifiably blame Covid and furlough for this but the club were still happy to take £4.99 a month off of punters, (many of whom may well have been on furlough themselves) despite providing no service in return. The double selling of season ticket seats was another cock-up.

In my opinion, the club has appeared rudderless since Mal Brannigan was punted and not replaced. It now appears the business and commercial side of the club are being run by a committee of Tony Asghar, Laura McCallum (? The sports lawyer) and Derek Bond (who to my knowledge is not a full time paid employee. I may be wrong on that one though). To me this has led to a great deal of delay for even the most trivial of decisions being made and an even longer delay in any decisions being announced, such as the ones TEK has listed above. Of course, all of this is from the outside looking in.

My concern is that Tony Asghar appears to have been diverted from his primary job of organising the football operations of the club and leading the recruitment which, in the most recent transfer window, ended up getting some bodies in, but all felt like it was rushed through at the last minute (yet again). Granted, Fuchs appears to be an imaginative and ambitious signing on paper. But, the team has needed a left winger and a big target man for about two years and neither of these has been addressed still. The pursuit of a new manager dragged on for ages as well. It would surely be better for the club if Brannigan was replaced to allow for a clear leadership role on the business, communication and commercial side of the club?

There has also been no update whatsoever about what happened with the 100 grand handed over by the Foundation (of which I am an ordinary member) earmarked for the youth academy and the 50 odd grand raised by the walkers for the legal fees. The club had promised to really promote the Foundation, which hasn't happened at all other than a video of Mark Ogren where he looked like he was being held at gunpoint.

It does appear that Asghar now has an enormous amount of influence across the club as a whole with a lot of people appointed because of his contacts. Now there is nothing wrong with this per se. But, if things don't work well then he is going to take a lot of flak, just as he rightly was given loads of praise for his role in the raft of January signings a couple of years ago and of course signing Shankland.

Personally, I'm starting to feel like I am pouring money down a black hole with United. I had hospo booked for the Ayr game, not heard anything, bought season tickets, paid for umpteen games home and away, continue to pay into the Foundation, DUTV and contributed to Paul and Andy's heroic efforts and bought strips again which I only got about 10 days ago and half jokingly said to the wife we should just keep back for the young lads Christmas. No-one forced me to do this, but the debacle I had on Saturday with the game where I ended up £25 out of pocket and am still awaiting word on any refund may well be the straw that breaks the camels back for me because it feels like we are getting fuck all in return for this. Everyone is being affected by Covid but I think our level of football hasn't done too badly compared with other industries given that people can still get season tickets, access the shop and watch/pay for the games and we still have a tv deal with Sky. It's nothing compared to pubs and nightclubs for example which will die as industries very soon.

From the outside looking in, it's all quite worrying.

Last edited by lifesanocean (11/10/2020 10:50 pm)

Needless to say, were things going well ON the park none of these complaints would warrant a mention.
Not that I dispute the complaints, most appear valid.
But our recent bad form hasn't half brought out the dissatisfied customer.

Don't forget tho that things are pretty intolerable out there, I believe there's a good chance that the season will be incomplete again.
 

smedDUm wrote:

Needless to say, were things going well ON the park none of these complaints would warrant a mention.
Not that I dispute the complaints, most appear valid.
But our recent bad form hasn't half brought out the dissatisfied customer.

Don't forget tho that things are pretty intolerable out there, I believe there's a good chance that the season will be incomplete again.
 

I don't buy that Smed.  If things aren't been run right at the club we'll soon see it on the park.  Maybe we already have...

lifesanocean wrote:

You could also add the almost total media blackout from March until into August, people may justifiably blame Covid and furlough for this but the club were still happy to take £4.99 a month off of punters, (many of whom may well have been on furlough themselves) despite providing no service in return. The double selling of season ticket seats was another cock-up.

In my opinion, the club has appeared rudderless since Mal Brannigan was punted and not replaced. It now appears the business and commercial side of the club are being run by a committee of Tony Asghar, Laura McCallum (? The sports lawyer) and Derek Bond (who to my knowledge is not a full time paid employee. I may be wrong on that one though). To me this has led to a great deal of delay for even the most trivial of decisions being made and an even longer delay in any decisions being announced, such as the ones TEK has listed above. Of course, all of this is from the outside looking in.

My concern is that Tony Asghar appears to have been diverted from his primary job of organising the football operations of the club and leading the recruitment which, in the most recent transfer window, ended up getting some bodies in, but all felt like it was rushed through at the last minute (yet again). Granted, Fuchs appears to be an imaginative and ambitious signing on paper. But, the team has needed a left winger and a big target man for about two years and neither of these has been addressed still. The pursuit of a new manager dragged on for ages as well. It would surely be better for the club if Brannigan was replaced to allow for a clear leadership role on the business, communication and commercial side of the club?

There has also been no update whatsoever about what happened with the 100 grand handed over by the Foundation (of which I am an ordinary member) earmarked for the youth academy and the 50 odd grand raised by the walkers for the legal fees. The club had promised to really promote the Foundation, which hasn't happened at all other than a video of Mark Ogren where he looked like he was being held at gunpoint.

It does appear that Asghar now has an enormous amount of influence across the club as a whole with a lot of people appointed because of his contacts. Now there is nothing wrong with this per se. But, if things don't work well then he is going to take a lot of flak, just as he rightly was given loads of praise for his role in the raft of January signings a couple of years ago and of course signing Shankland.

Personally, I'm starting to feel like I am pouring money down a black hole with United. I had hospo booked for the Ayr game, not heard anything, bought season tickets, paid for umpteen games home and away, continue to pay into the Foundation, DUTV and contributed to Paul and Andy's heroic efforts and bought strips again which I only got about 10 days ago and half jokingly said to the wife we should just keep back for the young lads Christmas. No-one forced me to do this, but the debacle I had on Saturday with the game where I ended up £25 out of pocket and am still awaiting word on any refund may well be the straw that breaks the camels back for me because it feels like we are getting fuck all in return for this. Everyone is being affected by Covid but I think our level of football hasn't done too badly compared with other industries given that people can still get season tickets, access the shop and watch/pay for the games and we still have a tv deal with Sky. It's nothing compared to pubs and nightclubs for example which will die as industries very soon.

From the outside looking in, it's all quite worrying.

​Very good post to summarise some of the impacts of not having that position in place. Gets to the real point of Value Vs cost of the salary. Particularly the point about distracting Asghar from the playing side. For the sake of a decent salary for a competent GM that could evolve that side of things (don't even need a big hitter to revolutionise it), we could be well out of pocket as a club in other more important aspects. 

Duplicate, sorry.

Last edited by AlwaysUnited (12/10/2020 11:29 am)

AlwaysUnited wrote:

 
 
In my opinion, being awarded an CBE (regardless of your views of the honours system) is a very newsworthy event, and Lorraine is very much part of the United family. Its a big deal.

Is Luggy's birthday as important? Do United normally acknowledge birthdays of distinguished former players? Milestone birthdays maybe, but not normal ones. Personally, while I wish Luggy many happy returns, I don't think it's the media team need to get involved.

Lorraine Kelly's award was newsworthy, and it was in the news.

I'd say Luggy's birthday was more important to United fans than a routine award from the Establishment to a member of that same Establishment. 

But in the grand scheme, neither is of great relevance to the difficulties apparent in our dealings off the park. I'm willing to give the club a bit of leeway given the disruption caused by the health situation, but it pissed me off a wee bit seeing agents posting photographs of the food they'd been presented with at Tannadice when a lot of paying fans are out of pocket for services paid for up front, as outlined very coherently by lifesanocean above. 
 

AlwaysUnited wrote:

Tek wrote:

Tek wrote:

Seem amateurish just now.

Constant problems with DUTV and the streams.

Failure to get strips sent out to people after weeks and weeks.

Failure to offer to refund people hospo money and even worse not replying to people's emails and enquiries regarding the matter.

Very, very poor some of the stuff i am hearing and reading.

And a wee minor (some would say, inconsequential) thing.

Utd's Twitter page congratulating Lorraine fucking Kelly on her CBE but neglecting to wish our clubs greatest ever Striker a 64th Happy Birthday, yesterday.

They really do seem out of touch with the fanbase.

 
In my opinion, being awarded an CBE (regardless of your views of the honours system) is a very newsworthy event, and Lorraine is very much part of the United family. Its a big deal.

Is Luggy's birthday as important? Do United normally acknowledge birthdays of distinguished former players? Milestone birthdays maybe, but not normal ones. Personally, while I wish Luggy many happy returns, I don't think it's the media team need to get involved.

Part of 'the United Family'.

She writes for The Sun and is a tax cheat.

Most Utd supporters i know can't stand her. Again, it shows that the media team are out of touch with the majority of the support to acknowledge one piece of 'news' and not the other.


 

As much as folk might disagree with the Tax laws and her defence, she won her case. As I understand it she operates her business in the same way as thousands of contractors, particularly in the oil and gas industry.

 

lifesanocean wrote:

Tek wrote:

Utd offering a 'partial' refund to anyone who's stream was affected on Saturday.

Missing the point once again.

You offer a full refund to customers who are not happy. Now many won't take it but in this current enviroment where people are struggling and worried about employment etc you make sure you are looking after your customer.

Otherwise you end up losing custom, ultimately. 

 

Hmmm. Just checked my email. I have got the duplicate payment refunded and a fiver off the one that actually worked. Glad i'm not totally out of pocket but still think the pr ain't great.

Can you imagine going to the cinema and only seeing bits n bobs of the film. You'd demand a full refund. And if the cinema said 'we'll just give you a fiver back because you did see some of the movie'. You would never spend a penny in the establishment again.

For too long football clubs have lived off the blind loyalty of their supporters. No other company in the World could operate in such a fashion. They'd be out of business before too long.
 

Tek wrote:

Utd offering a 'partial' refund to anyone who's stream was affected on Saturday.

Missing the point once again.

You offer a full refund to customers who are not happy. Now many won't take it but in this current enviroment where people are struggling and worried about employment etc you make sure you are looking after your customer.

Otherwise you end up losing custom, ultimately. 

 

And you have to email them by 12noon tomorrow if you want it.

I'm glad that they are actually acknowledging the problem and issuing an apology, a lot of boys who are lucky enough to live in Dundee and  normally get to matches will have just sampled the media mishaps for the first time, I live down south and try and get up as often as I can but have had to deal with this from the beginning of arabzone, to be fair this season has actually been better than previous offerings, but if I can just show you an email a good friend and ex poster on here,and who now lives on the other side of the pond received in 2015 you can see it's not a new phenomenon.

•  Joe Rice <joe.rice@dundeeunitedfc.co.uk>To:kevarab@ Sat, 21 Mar 2015 at 20:13 . Kev Thanks for your email. Please allow me to get back to you in due course over the next few days.  

Sent from my iPhone  Joe Rice =x-smallCommunications and Media Manager
 T: 01382 833166M: 07785 575359E: Joe.Rice@dundeeunitedfc.co.ukTw: @joericedufc   dufc.co | www.arabzone.co.uk Dundee United Football Club Limited | Tannadice Park | Dundee | DD3 7JW On 21 Mar 2015, at 18:29, KEV ARAB <> wrote:
 
Once again another couple of hours wasted trying to listen to arabzone, this has been a recurring theme for as long as I can remember. Not once after one of these sporadic services have I seen a message from you or your team saying 'sorry for the breakdown in service' on any media platforms including your own, would you not expect this from one of the TV companies you subscribe to ?

•  
•  You ask us to tweet if there is a problem, then you tell me you are unaware of the problems, does no one monitor your service ? being a professional media team I would have thought that  this would be a given with the array of gadgets most people have these days. 
•  
• All the other aspects of Arabzone are excellent and I look forward to the updates but I don't think you truly appreciate how frustrating it is for someone like myself who lives outside Scotland and can't get to as many games as I'd like, to be let down as many times as I have by, at best a very sporadic audio service. 
•  
• I've taken nights /Saturdays or Sundays off of work (unpaid) to listen to  games only to find I have to keep refreshing  my gadgets and getting nowhere and no service, have you ever looked forward to a game and it's called off at the last minute, how did you feel?Welcome to my world every week!
•  
•  I know from speaking to various other subscribers that I'm not alone in thinking  if you do have a problem just let us know, I know we are all United supporters but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be given the courtesy of an apology or at the least an explanation when things go wrong (not good PR)    
•  
•  
• Regards 
•  
•              KEV 
     

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So we at least got an apology this time so progress I suppose.

And you've guessed it he's still waiting for that reply, Communication eh!

japanarab wrote:

18 years of this absolute pish. I fear they'll never get the hang of streaming games unless a new team is brought in. Seriously, any other job and you'd be punted years ago.

 
It's an outsourced service. Nothing to do with the Arabzone team