By Alan Patullo.

There's a lot to get your teeth into here.

His friendship and ongoing professional relationship with Jackie McNamara 😮

Confirmation Paul Sturrock was let go by the club in his Scouting/recruitment role.

But most interestingly of all. Utd seem to be trying to forge some sort of relationship with Boca Juniors!! 

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/dundee-united/interview-tony-asghar-denies-untoward-dealings-at-dundee-united-1-4874166

I knew I was right to be suspicious of Tony Asghar: I'm a River Plate fan 

Wondering if the Dundee United pal he had was MacBonzo..................

It's an odd headline though.

PatReilly wrote:

I knew I was right to be suspicious of Tony Asghar: I'm a River Plate fan 

Wondering if the Dundee United pal he had was MacBonzo..................

It's an odd headline though.

 
Agree about the headline Pat, so many other possibilities but he chose that.

Liam Smith, the ayr right back, is on the books with Jackie McNamara- couldn't see any other players we would be interested in unless we are looking at young lads from Celtic and the rangers

Good interview, honest and open, makes the whole structure in place a bit clearer.

The Boca thing will come to nothing so not even thinking about that.  Luggy going sadly is the right thing, he should never have been used like he was by Martin.

redford_must_score wrote:

PatReilly wrote:

I knew I was right to be suspicious of Tony Asghar: I'm a River Plate fan 

Wondering if the Dundee United pal he had was MacBonzo..................

It's an odd headline though.

 
Agree about the headline Pat, so many other possibilities but he chose that.

 
Wow that is a revealing interview. Bearing in mind there were only two kids in the school with the "classic" Utd tops - myself and another boy in my class (who was a Rangers supporter, who thought their Umbro strip was naff), maybe he is referring to me. I was a athlete who tried to play football, whereas Tony was a footballer who tried to be an athlete. When I think about it my PE class was combined with Tony's class, so we did play quite often.

He was the third best footballer in my year. My recollection was he was more of a midfielder than a forward. It has to be said, even at that point he was carrying a few extra pounds.

What is clear, though, is he must be reading this.

The interview seems a little like a disclaimer: He acknowledges he was/is a Rangers supporter. He discloses his connection with McNamara. He admits he is still a director of Revolution.

He mentions transparency. He patently is aware of what happened with the McNamara management team kickbacks on transfers and must know that abusing the trust of supporters again would be disastrous. Up to this point he has done a pretty decent job and I think the support are willing to extend him goodwill. It is for this reason, I think he should disclose the nature of his remuneration package. If he is receiving any transfer fee incentives or performance related pay, then he should disclose it now. It's too late when things go wrong. He will have nowhere to hide.

Thus far he has done a decent job, but, you need transparency and accountability.

Tangy wrote:

i wouldn't want the details of my contract made public. employees of Dundee united have the same right to privacy as you and i do.

To be fair to Macbonzo, who is probably big enough to answer for himself, he isn't suggesting the details of the contract are made public, but simply pondering if TA is receiving a similar benefit or incentive from selling players which maybe influenced Jackie, to the anger of a large section of the support.


 

PatReilly wrote:

Tangy wrote:

i wouldn't want the details of my contract made public. employees of Dundee united have the same right to privacy as you and i do.

To be fair to Macbonzo, who is probably big enough to answer for himself, he isn't suggesting the details of the contract are made public, but simply pondering if TA is receiving a similar benefit or incentive from selling players which maybe influenced Jackie, to the anger of a large section of the support.


 

 
I get that pr but I think we forget united is a workplace like any other. We've a completely new regime in, from top to bottom.

As annoyed as I was with the Jackie thing, I'd rather ta got 50k grand and we have a winning team with a conveyor belt of talent than we languish in this god awful league any longer.

Ex Houston Arab wrote:

Might seem trivial and not of immediate concern but I did pick up on his reference to ‘that great Adidas strip’
Hopefully time for a change of supplier

 

Puma, I heard. This was before the takeover was finalised so who knows

Maybe the difference is that we were outraged at Jackies percentage because he was the coach and we felt he was taking the club for mugs, couldn't cope with the loss of 2 keys players and playing players he thought would be an earner for him. Whereas Asghar is not the coach, doesn't select the team, wants the club to be successful so his career and agency can flourish long-term? Or is this naivety on my part?

PatReilly wrote:

Tangy wrote:

 
Lastly - somebody else made the point above that ashgar can support 2 clubs. 

Aye: that was a hopefully humorous injection poking fun at those think Rangers and Sevco are the same club.

I wasn't ever angry that Jackie got a percentage of transfer fees, it was part of his contract after all. Just Jackie was a pish manager, that annoyed me.

But like Macbonzo says, football clubs are a bit different from normal businesses. If Tony Asghar is good at his job and achieves what we all want, nobody would be too bothered, I'd imagine, if he received a cut, by way of a bonus. But as we as supporters are part of underpinning any success, I don't think it's beyond reason that we know if the Sporting Director gets a pay off for transfers. Openness and transparency.

But it's hardly worth arguing about, we can take different positions on this, but there are more important areas for us to concern ourselves.
 

I'm too big and old to argue over that - but an interesting discussion. I'd say to US, football is different - but in reality, its a business. Sure we can agree to disagree - but i heard the wee lassie in the east stand pie stall is on 9 quid an hour AND has a bonus scheme where she's paid as many left over hotdogs as she can carry
 

Tangy,

You are right, for the new owners football is business. I recall when the Glazers bought MANU, I thought, why the hell did the supporters start buying the shares and block their bid (it was a FTSE 250 SETs listing)? At the time I felt that the Americans failed to understand that football clubs were not "sports franchises". Whilst my view hasn't changed, I do think the Americans have got more imagination when it comes to maximising revenue. I suppose we need to have a flexible mindset. I have my doubts but let's hope it works.