He's the general manager. What his current duties are I've no idea.

The fact the Mixu is head coach made me believe he would be similar to a director of football, but hopefully not.

I am only guessing but I assume he was appointed to run the club in the absence of the chairman when his intention was to emigrate.

Eta. Hopefully he'll be the first to go if we get relegated, we're going to have to trim the  club staff by a fair chunk of we go down, I'd much rather it was at the top rather than admin girls and the like.

Last edited by Andy (19/2/2016 10:32 am)

I met with David Southern in the summer to sort out the singing section. He was running the show when Thompson was in Aussieland. 

Did FKT not meet him and post a summary of that conversation including what his role entails?

Last edited by Goodie Conway 2 (19/2/2016 11:46 am)

Goodie Conway 2 wrote:

Did FKT not meet him and post a summary of that conversation including what his role entails?

I did indeed, but I'd hate to get in the road of an angry baying mob and their intended victim(s).
 
I've been watching Dundee United in 5 decades now and it's been unbelievable highs and unbelievable heartbreak mixed in with a lot of humour and decency.  But what I am witnessing now from some in our support, is more akin to what I would expect from The Rangers Supporters Trust; or Sons of Struth than Dundee United.

Some of the stuff I have seen on social media from so called United fans could end up in the criminal courts.  As above, there are only 2 teams in Scotland I expect that from and we are not one of them!  These people need to get over themselves and their own perceived self importance, as running a wee provincial Scottish futba club is an almost impossible task, especially one with 5,000 season ticket holders (in good times) operating in an environment where 3 others have 2 or 3 times us; and 2 more again have 7 or 8 times us!

Some seem to think coz they shout the same thing over and over and over and over louder than anyone else it somehow becomes FACT.  And that they are hurting more than the likes of me, or they are a bigger fan of the Club than me, coz I take a step back and look at the bigger picture and don't go shooting my mouth off having looked at both sides of an equation.

My understanding of the original topic is pretty much bits and pieces of the above.  He is GM.  He's been here a little more than a year.  He did a similar job at Hearts for a number of years.  He was brought in by the Chairman to manage the day to day running of the Football Club (presumably whilst he - ahem - researched other business opportunities); and he'll get a wage in line with that level of responsibility.  I'd have thought that if/when we are relegated, his position would be one of the first under review for sure.

But my understanding of his role is that he would be responsible for the day to day running of the Football Club and that he would answer to the Chairman and the BoD.  He would not be making unilateral decisions, more he would execute the express wishes of the Chairman and the BoD as to what they wanted done.  Which brings me to my next part, which is the, "have you seen what happened to Hearts when he was there?" bit.  Well he would have been doing what Romanov told him to do, just as Trevor Birch did at Portsmouth and Campbell Ogilvie did at Deadco in similar roles.  Unfortunate job title I know, but both of those men are meant to be brilliant football administrators.

Am I hurting just now?  You bet I am!  But you won't find me in the equivalent of an ISIS execution video filmed in Tannadice Street.  Relegation happens in football.  Should it happen to us?  Probably not, but then again you should probably not completely disintegrate over the loss of 2 players over the course of a year and 2 transfer windows.

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt, now I know how Joan of Arc felt,
As the flames rose, to her Roman nose and her Walkman start to melt.  Oh!

Last edited by Foo Kin Twat (19/2/2016 1:07 pm)

I think its a bit unfair to say that folk "shooting their mouth off" are suggesting to anyone that they're a bigger fan than anyone else.  I'd also suggest that the vast majority of those your referring to have also looked at both sides of the equation.

People will form different opinions from what they've seen/heard and everyone reacts in different ways.

As far as Southern goes, I agree with u he's only doing what he's told, but while he's doing that, someone else is taking a bigger wage for telling him what to do and what else exactly?

Nothing against Southern, but he's an expenditure the club didn't need.

Foo Kin Twat wrote:

Goodie Conway 2 wrote:

Did FKT not meet him and post a summary of that conversation including what his role entails?

I did indeed, but I'd hate to get in the road of an angry baying mob and their intended victim(s).
 
But what I am witnessing now from some in our support, is more akin to what I would expect from The Rangers Supporters Trust; or Sons of Struth than Dundee United.

Some of the stuff I have seen on social media from so called United fans could end up in the criminal courts.
These people need to get over themselves and their own perceived self importance, as running a wee provincial Scottish futba club is an almost impossible task, especially one with 5,000 season ticket holders (in good times) operating in an environment where 3 others have 2 or 3 times us; and 2 more again have 7 or 8 times us!

But you won't find me in the equivalent of an ISIS execution video filmed in Tannadice Street.

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt, now I know how Joan of Arc felt,
As the flames rose, to her Roman nose and her Walkman start to melt. Oh!

Wow, some incredibly harsh and I would say quite melodramatic words used to make whatever point your were making here.  People are pissed off, some like to vent but suggesting criminal activity and comparing our supporters with that of Sevco is way over the top, but that's my opinion and you're entitled to yours.

Thankfully very little of it runs true with the interaction I have with United supporters in my family, circle of friends, supporters bus and what I read on (granted limited to here) social media.

One thing I do take exception to is the often trotted out "wee provincial club", there are 42 football league clubs in Scotland, whatever way you measure them we are in the top six of them, with currently the fourth largest playing budget of all of them, so what is provincial about that?  Literally it means outside of the capital but I've no idea why it gets used almost daily to label United like we're lucky to be alive to hang on the coat tails on the Old Firm, just to play in the same league as them is a wonderful achievement. 

That said we have no divine right to finish in the top 6, and the worst team in each league gets relegated - normally based on sporting merit alone as we probably will this season.

Football is a sport based on ability and measured by a table, running a football club is business based on balancing incomings and outgoings and measured by a yearly financial report.

I can make an excellent judgement on the football side, we're pish, and by the limited information I can find out about the business side we're not doing much better.  So why, as customers of the business and supporters of the team can we not express our feelings?  Providing it is within the law of course.

It it truly is our (the supporters) football club then if we were to remain silent we would be guilty of complicity.

DontOfferMeThat wrote:

This is the thing - the fans don't know. But they have the right to know. What is Southern's job? Presumably to flag things that put the business in jeopardy (breaking salary budgets??) and to promote good business within the club. Marketing ? Advertising? Dealing with agents and contracts? Hiring and firing non player staff?
We still don't know anyone's roles in the sales and recruitment of players For all we know Jackie begged to keep Armstrong and/or GMS until the close season...I doubt it but we can only guess.
If as a business we are struggling after the sales of players then someone has made huge errors. But we don't know if Southern was screaming from the roof tops not to sign certain players on long contracts with bumper salaries etc etc  Maybe he said until he was blue in the face that Mixu should have a relegation clause in his contract (perhaps he does) and was over-ruled.
Who was behind Campbell's suspension?  
I don't think we will ever have the answers to many many questions and so we can't point the finger with any certainty - and that means we can't stop the same thing happening in the future. If there is away to get more fan involvement then we should pursue that.

Very good point that no-one outwith the management of the club really knows who made what decision and who was over-ruled. However, there are plenty folk on here who take wild stabs in the dark then post them as FACT
 

My OP was just a genuine attempt to find out about his role at the Club, but was unable to find any mention of him on the fishul website. All the members of the Board are there, with some background info on each of them, but he isna. I know he's no a Board Member, but you'd think there would be something about him somewhere on the Club website, given his position of importance.

It's a fair point regarding the Private Company status. However football fans especially season ticket holders are more akin to shareholders. We're exceptionally unlikely to go another provider of football entertainment irrespective of the competing price or the quality of the alternative product. So does that not entitle us to a bit more information than available to the roofers customers. 
Although I do get your point. 
 

DontOfferMeThat wrote:

It's a fair point regarding the Private Company status. However football fans especially season ticket holders are more akin to shareholders. We're exceptionally unlikely to go another provider of football entertainment irrespective of the competing price or the quality of the alternative product. So does that not entitle us to a bit more information than available to the roofers customers. 
Although I do get your point. 
 

And I balance it by saying exactly that.  We are Shareholders but only with an emotional dividend.

Please try my budget challenge DOMT, as it's virtually impossible, bearing in mind the expectation level is Top 6 AND to get to National Cup Finals, eg 20 players on a grand a week swallows up £1,040,000 or half your budget for starters!!!  I'll bet there will not be (m)any takers on the challenge!!!
 

Foo Kin Twat wrote:

TheShed wrote:

I think its a bit unfair to say that folk "shooting their mouth off" are suggesting to anyone that they're a bigger fan than anyone else. I'd also suggest that the vast majority of those your referring to have also looked at both sides of the equation.

People will form different opinions from what they've seen/heard and everyone reacts in different ways.

As far as Southern goes, I agree with u he's only doing what he's told, but while he's doing that, someone else is taking a bigger wage for telling him what to do and what else exactly?

Nothing against Southern, but he's an expenditure the club didn't need.

The Shed - You probably get this, but many obviously don't.  Dundee United is a PRIVATE LIMITED COMPANY owned by (the) Thompson (Family) and stripping it barely back, we are merely Customers albeit customers with an emotional interest!!!  If Dundee United were doing house conversions and we were customers, we would have no say in how the business was run, nor who the owner paid to run the business the way the owner wanted the business run, nor to what he earned for being the owner of that roofing business.

I deal with peoples debt every day of my life and try to stop them losing their roofs over their heads, so I know a dangerous amount about debt and debt management and repayment etc.  Here's a back of a fag packet idea of what Dundee United is run on.  Have a think about it and get back to me with how you would allocate that as a budget if you were running Dundee United?  In fact I would urge EVERYONE to have a go (but I winna haud my breath).

Don't get me wrong, the Chairman has questions to answer, but these will only be formulated once the next set of accounts are published.  And of course as Dundee United are a PRIVATE LIMITED COMPANY, the owner can limit what gets into the public domain.  Like everyone else, I will have plenty questions to ask, as the answers will determine whether I trust him with my hard earned cash in advance of a probable year in the Championship.

Anyway for this season:

£600,000 for being a Premier League Team (TV Money) - which will be £60,000 next season
£1.5M (5,000 season tickets at £300 each) - which will be nothing like that next season either
And you can choose an amount of other realistic income, but justify it please


Then allocate your break even budget to the following general categories:

Playing Staff and how many players you deem we need
Coaching/Management
Non Playing Staff
Chairman and BoD
Accommodation/Travel
Stadium Upkeep
Training Facilities

I look forward to seeing everyone's efforts...........

All the budget is allocated to Thompson's back hipper 

Tangerine_Ultra wrote:

All the budget is allocated to Thompson's back hipper 

Not really fair, true or helpful, TU!

Andy wrote:

United's income for 2014 was £5.6m Fooky, not including the sale of player registrations that year (Gauldy and Robbo) so that's a fair chunk more than £1.5m in season tickets + £600k in TV money.

It's not my business no know how it's made up but at a guess:

Walk up fans.
Away fans.
Corporate boxes.
Hospitality.
Sponsorship.
Advertising.
Merchandise.
Catering.
Cup revenues.
Income from Gussie.
Endorsements.
Youth development grants.

Wages that year were £3.5m, higher than usual due to bonus payments.

Wages to turnover was 63%, again higher than usual.

United made over £1.2m profit that year, the fourth yearly profit in the past five.

The biggest issue I've picked up was a massive 18% increase in administrative costs that year on the previous year, wages for the company went up 8% on the previous year too.

Much of the increase in profit was due to severing our agreement with the bank, loan payments, interest payments etc were all greatly reduced - as they still are now.

On closer inspection, and not being anything like an accountant, it looks like the operating loss sits at around £2,200 a week, meaning were spending a couple of grand more than we bring in each week so the yearly profit must come in chunks of payments, player sales, prize money, sponsorship targets, unbudgeted gate receipts from cup runs etc.

Good post

Foo, I wouldn't even try to guess how the finances are accrued and allocated, but surely David Southern doesn't make spending decisions in any case.

Understanding that you've met and been accorded discussions with Mr Southern, I have no doubt he's an affable gentleman. But I reckon he'll be a casualty of mismanagement at the club. 

His time at Hearts overlaps by quite a few years another name you mention: Campbell Ogilvie. Ogilvie has been disastrous for Scottish football, and I hope David Southern took on none of his ideas or qualities.

Finally, the Topic here isn't Stephen Thompson, surely?