Play-off first leg

Fair to say tonight didn't match the drama of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ITagEDUEU

I admit I was only half watching but neither of them look like they'd cause much concern next season. I guess United would invest more heavily though.

United have by far the biggest playing budget in the Championship. If they prevail on Sunday they'll simply throw cash at their team; in all probability money they can't afford.

Probably.

I'm intrigued as to just what these American investors think is going to happen in the next years. They've made the right noises and seem to be in it for the longer rather than short term but also made it clear they intend to make money. The only way to do that is by turning into a youth farm and pocketing the transfer fees - but there's not usually much left from that if you deduct running costs first.

They've obviously got some potential from their current station and in normal circumstances should be a top six club but once the shine of a top-flight return wears off they'll find it as much of a slog as the rest of us.

And it's all academic now because they lost the playoff and are condemned to yet another year of lower league football. They won't be able to sustain paying Premiership wages in the Championship forever and no doubt they were banking on being promoted this year, but it's not to be.

It's all the sweeter when you take into account the sheer arrogance of Dundee United and their support that they believe they are entitled to be not just a top flight club but one that challenges for Europe every year, egged on of course by their chums on Radio Scotland in the same way they do for Aberdeen, their other 'darling' club. Well nothing is a given in football, you have to earn your right to be where you want to be and United haven't done that so **** them.

Yep. And they weren't even unlucky, if anything they carried a huge amount of good fortune and still couldn't get it done. In four play-off final matches, totalling six and a half hours of football from 2017 and 2019, they have managed one goal (a penalty) against Accies and St Mirren, both of whom were absolutely pathetic.

Anyway, the owner did say in taking over that it wasn't promotion or bust this season but presumably this is another year of subsidy coming up.