All the best Ray!

[thefutureistangerine4]

Nice honest decent guy. Handled himself well during his brief period as manager and very dignified exit. Almost unanimously seen as a good appointment by ST when he got the job but unfortunately it has not worked out. I think he may still go on to become a good manager but this job was too big for him at this stage in his managerial career.

Embarrassed by some of the comments about him on this forum. Thankfully I do not feel this forum any longer represents the majority of the support who are on the whole pretty balanced and fair. This place is top heavy with bitter disgruntled 'super fans' who cannot stand common sense and reason.

Not excited about any of the people mentioned in the press. No idea who may be interested in the post but would imagine that the quality is not going to be particularly high.

If its between Hughes and McIntyre i would probably reluctantly offer it to Hughes but only till the end of the season. I am aware of the Raith Rovers debacle but perhaps with a better quality of players his managerial style may able to motivate them to give a bit more than they are doing. Thanks to RM and ST (yep thats right!) the standard of the players in the squad is pretty decent and Hughes does seem to have a bit of charisma and passion about him (also seems to be as thick as mince but ah well....!). McIntyre seems to me just to be another McKinnon and I see no reason to replace like with like. Fingers crossed there are some other decent candidates but who knows?

Whoever comes in will get my full support. Lets sort this quickly!

In the meantime I wish Ray Mac the best of luck. He will remain a DUFC legend in my eyes and I hope he goes onto be a success elsewhere

[LSArab]

Agree. Ray is united through and through and did all he could for us. Wish him all the best and sure he’ll get other jobs.

I agree ST is responsible for the quality of the squad too. Compare where we are now compared to January 2015. His responsibility ;-)

[USArab]

Nice honest decent guy. Handled himself well during his brief period as manager and very dignified exit. Almost unanimously seen as a good appointment by ST when he got the job but unfortunately it has not worked out. I think he may still go on to become a good manager but this job was too big for him at this stage in his managerial career.

Embarrassed by some of the comments about him on this forum. Thankfully I do not feel this forum any longer represents the majority of the support who are on the whole pretty balanced and fair. This place is top heavy with bitter disgruntled 'super fans' who cannot stand common sense and reason.

Not excited about any of the people mentioned in the press. No idea who may be interested in the post but would imagine that the quality is not going to be particularly high.

If its between Hughes and McIntyre i would probably reluctantly offer it to Hughes but only till the end of the season. I am aware of the Raith Rovers debacle but perhaps with a better quality of players his managerial style may able to motivate them to give a bit more than they are doing. Thanks to RM and ST (yep thats right!) the standard of the players in the squad is pretty decent and Hughes does seem to have a bit of charisma and passion about him (also seems to be as thick as mince but ah well....!). McIntyre seems to me just to be another McKinnon and I see no reason to replace like with like. Fingers crossed there are some other decent candidates but who knows?

Whoever comes in will get my full support. Lets sort this quickly!

In the meantime I wish Ray Mac the best of luck. He will remain a DUFC legend in my eyes and I hope he goes onto be a success elsewhere

Seconded!

[TangerineDream]

Signed.

Sorry it didn't work out for you here Ray.

All the very best to you and good luck for the future.

[thefutureistangerine4]

Agree. Ray is united through and through and did all he could for us. Wish him all the best and sure he’ll get other jobs.

I agree ST is responsible for the quality of the squad too. Compare where we are now compared to January 2015. His responsibility ;-)

If you were chairman which of the players would you have refused to have sold? Gauld, Robertson, Armstrong, GMS or Ciftci?
I don't think there is another provincial chairman that would not have sold Ciftci, Gauld or Robertson for the money on offer. What turned out to be the biggest error was the timing of the sale of GMS and Armstrong but there are mitigating circumstances. GMS had already signed a pre-contract and Armstrong was nearing the end of his. None of the above players would have extended their contracts so they were all diminishing assets. Provincial clubs are always going to sell their players at the highest possible price obtainable and there is a strong argument to be made that for each of these players that price was achieved. History has shown that we lost too many players too quickly - in some ways we were the victim of our own success in accumulating so many sellable assets at the same time. If we had only had a couple then the shock to the team would not have been so severe.

No doubt ST takes the blame for presiding over this sorry chapter and Im sure he is hurting about this too.

He did provide funds to RM to rebuild this summer and surely most people agree that there is enough quality in the team to be promoted. RM has to take some of the blame for team underperforming but tte players also need to take a look at themselves

[JamesMcClean]

What turned out to be the biggest error was the timing of the sale of GMS and Armstrong but there are mitigating circumstances.

Sorry, but there were no mitigating circumstances for what was the most mental decision taken by anybody within the halls of Dundee United Football Club in it's entire history.

[GingerPetric]

If you were chairman which of the players would you have refused to have sold? Gauld, Robertson, Armstrong, GMS or Ciftci?
I don't think there is another provincial chairman that would not have sold Ciftci, Gauld or Robertson for the money on offer. What turned out to be the biggest error was the timing of the sale of GMS and Armstrong but there are mitigating circumstances. GMS had already signed a pre-contract and Armstrong was nearing the end of his. None of the above players would have extended their contracts so they were all diminishing assets. Provincial clubs are always going to sell their players at the highest possible price obtainable and there is a strong argument to be made that for each of these players that price was achieved. History has shown that we lost too many players too quickly - in some ways we were the victim of our own success in accumulating so many sellable assets at the same time. If we had only had a couple then the shock to the team would not have been so severe.

No doubt ST takes the blame for presiding over this sorry chapter and Im sure he is hurting about this too.

He did provide funds to RM to rebuild this summer and surely most people agree that there is enough quality in the team to be promoted. RM has to take some of the blame for team underperforming but tte players also need to take a look at themselves

Well Stephen, I would have held off selling Armstrong until the summer (when he still would have had a year left?) and I probably would have not sold GMS in the circumstances that occurred (for both).

If I wanted to sell them I would have done so in a timescale that allowed us to try and replace them adequately, not tell the support they won't be sold repeatedly.....then actually go ahead and do it with no time to get replacements. And no, haemorrhaging half the money he got for GMS on Robbie phucking Muirhead doesn't count.

The rest had to be sold as they were great deals for the club, or the Thompson family, dependent on your perspective.

Ray conducted himself well throughout his time with us, it's a real shame that it didn't work out, it wasn't for a lack of effort or desire.

I think you are wrong in your initial analysis saying the this forum is at odds with the 'wider' United support. I don't know of anyone who felt the status quo was a good or viable option.

The performances just have not been good enough, end of.

[thefutureistangerine4]

Sorry, but there were no mitigating circumstances for what was the most mental decision taken by anybody within the halls of Dundee United Football Club in it's entire history.

That's your opinion and you are entitled to it. I would be more interested to hear the opinions of other chairmen put in the same position against the backdrop of huge debt. My view is that many in the same position would have made the same decisions. What is beyond dispute is that the club has thereafter spiralled downwards.

Personally, I think the main mistake was not to strategically invest some of the funds that came in. We perhaps could have coped with the loss of top players if we had brought in the right ones. We didnt do that. Also, we probably should have tried harder to have got Tommy Wright when that was an option.

ST bears the responsibility for this and rightly should be criticised for the decline of the club over the last few years. It is just too lazy to blame everything on the sale of the players. Clubs such as ours will always sell our best players when a good offer comes in for them. This will only change if we have millions in the bank or a wealthy owner who can afford to run the team from his/her own assets (as a hobby)

[LSArab]

I’m not sure why we still had huge debt (prior to relegation) given the income from player sales from Goodwillie onwards.

[thefutureistangerine4]

Well Stephen, I would have held off selling Armstrong until the summer (when he still would have had a year left?) and I probably would have not sold GMS in the circumstances that occurred (for both).

If I wanted to sell them I would have done so in a timescale that allowed us to try and replace them adequately, not tell the support they won't be sold repeatedly.....then actually go ahead and do it with no time to get replacements. And no, haemorrhaging half the money he got for GMS on Robbie phucking Muirhead doesn't count.

The rest had to be sold as they were great deals for the club, or the Thompson family, dependent on your perspective.

Ray conducted himself well throughout his time with us, it's a real shame that it didn't work out, it wasn't for a lack of effort or desire.

I think you are wrong in your initial analysis saying the this forum is at odds with the 'wider' United support. I don't know of anyone who felt the status quo was a good or viable option.

The performances just have not been good enough, end of.

A reasonable response to mine from someone who clearly is intelligent. I dont disagree with you about the timing of the sale of those two. I suspect there was a concern that with only 18 months on Armstrongs contract there may have been a fear that an injury or loss of form could have resulted in a much lower fee in the summer. So the decision becomes a gamble at that point. Do we turn down a guaranteed good fee at a risk that that fee may disappear later? Once the decision has been made to sell Armstrong is there a possibility that Celtic have insisted on bringing forward the GMS transfer as part of the Armstrong deal. I agree that in retrospect the wrong decision was made. We should have held onto both till the summer. BUT I can see the rationale behind making the deal.

I have no issues with any of your other points other than your point about this forum. This forum is dominated on the whole by people that are passionate almost to the extent of being unable to see things rationally. The support generally are far more forgiving that the majority of this forum. I am not saying the support are happy with the status quo but I think they mostly are prepared to move on if results can improve whilst there is a significant number on here that even if everything was now rosy they would have an agenda to dwell on the past and undermine anything good in the club. Just my view from observing.