It used to be the most secure seat in Scottish football. Now the manager’s chair at Tannadice comes with an ejector button.
Liam Fox became the latest to be fired into the Tayside stratosphere after a distress run of six defeats on the spin sent Dundee United bottom of the Premiership. At least the former boss will have plenty of company up there. The club are now looking for their third manager of the season having jettisoned Jack Ross back in August after just seven games in charge. The initial bounce under Fox didn’t hit any great heights and lasted a mammoth 22 games in the dugout.
No one was shocked. Only Mayflies – who are lucky to last a day – have shorter lifespans than Dundee United managers. It wasn’t always like this. Jim McLean sat on the Tannadice throne for almost 22 years until his eventual abdication in May 1993. In almost 30 years since, the Tangerines have has 21 permanent managers. There are flames coming off this hot seat. At some stage you have to think it can’t always be the boss to blame. There must be other factors at work here.
If you look back at the 21 gaffers who have been and gone, how many could be classed as success stories? Ivan Golac smelled the flowers and won the Scottish Cup but all wasn’t rosy in the garden with Wee Jim.
Craig Levein did well before Scotland called and Peter Houston won the trophy again. He was stupidly mutually consented and Jackie McNamara was decent until the punters turned. Since then? Robbie Neilson got them out the Championship then went straight back to do the same for Hearts. Tam Courts got them in to Europe and also decided he didn’t want to hang about.
See a pattern here? Dundee United rack em and sack em and any time they do get a half decent gaffer in charge they can’t hold on to them. History keeps repeating itself in this neck of the woods. Which is why they need to break this terrible cycle if they are to have any kind of bright future. This is a club that has problems running right to the core.
On paper they have players that should be able to cut it in the Premiership, with a wage bill to match. On the pitch they have been wretched.
The recruitment has been disjoined and the team lacks balance in key areas. The midfield has never been addressed since Ross was in charge in the summer and it wasn’t exactly yer brightest to let Tony Watt go to a rival club and not have some kind of striker lined up as a replacement.
The whimpering about it not being easy to sign front men in January was laughably exposed by Eamonn Brophy – who swapped St Mirren for Ross County last month – running riot in the 4-0 scudding that proved to be the final straw for Fox. There have been some arrivals that fit the bill. Steven Fletcher, Jamie McGrath, Dylan Levitt and Aziz Behich would get games for most Premiership sides. They have been hurt badly by injuries to the likes of Ian Harkes and Peter Pawlett and others.
But for all the problems, these players should be performing far better. The manager – or managers – carry the can, but whoever has been in charge have been badly let down. And it’s not exactly as if there’s a ton of positivity around the decision makers at the club.
Owner Mark Ogren has already flushed a whack of dosh down the drain and his man on the ground – director of football Tony Asghar – is seen as the bogey man as far as Arabs are concerned.
American Ogren has already hinted the money tap can’t run forever and the club has to be self-sustainable, and sharpish.
Good luck with that plan if they tumble into the Championship. The man at the top might think it’s a breeze to bounce straight back up but it took United several shots last time around, Hibs hung around for three years and it even took Rangers two bites to get out of the second tier quick sand. Around lap around that block shouldn’t appeal to anyone. Dundee United might have sneaked an appearance in Scottish writer Neil Forsyth’s eighties set BBC show about the Brink Matt robbery The Gold, but there is no bottomless bag of swag at Tannadice.
The list of potential new gaffers will be the usual suspects after vacancies popped up at Aberdeen and Motherwell and plenty will fancy even, even with the revolving door policy in the manager’s office.
But Dundee United need to sort themselves out off the field and find a manager with a fire-proof bahookie to get comfortable in this hottest of seats.
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