Gary and Ryan get together to bid a “fond” farewell to Jim McIntyre and discuss Dundee’s managerial options.
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Late in the Day
When you go into injury time a point up on the teams above you but finish it a point further behind then it’s tempting to conclude that some higher power wants you relegated at all costs.
Barring a miracle of Piers Morgan-not-being-a-fanny-about-something proportions, Dundee are down and the six points dropped in stoppage time since the end of January is a major factor in their demise. Our tendency to boot ourselves in the Ian McCalls at the very last moment has been as unerring as it is painful.
Hollow Little Reign
If only Dieng hadn’t sliced the ball straight to an opponent in the 91st minute at Hamilton.
If only Miller had put his laces through that penalty in the 94th minute v Killie.
If only Woods had put the ball into touch rather than attempting a blind, round-the-corner pass in the 96th minute against Celtic.
If only Horsfield had made some kind of attempt to stop the cross in the 95th minute at Motherwell.
Auntie, balls, uncle etc. The fact of the matter is that we didn’t do any of these things. Was that down to confidence? Judgement? Fitness? Nerve? Will to win? Ability? A bit of all of the above? Whatever we lack, St Mirren and Hamilton have more of and each point they bite and scratch their way to takes us closer to the abyss.
With these late collapses contributing to a record so appalling that it threatens to rehabilitate his predecessor, we are surely now in the time-added-on part of the Jim McIntyre era. In fairness, he inherited an absolute mess from Neil McCann and the timing and circumstances of his appointment caused issues from the outset. Trying to overhaul an entire squad in four weeks was a monumental task but he could hardly have wished for better backing from the club’s owners as he attempted to do it. Two mini-revivals seem a long time ago now.
In delivering what amounted to a pre-emptive vote of confidence in his manager prior to the Aberdeen game last month, John Nelms insisted “the data shows he is the best person to lead Dundee”. Those words have proved an albatross round his neck since because, whatever way you look at it – bottom of the league, nine defeats in a row, a record-low win rate – the data is not kind to either the Dundee gaffer or the Managing Director who quoted it in his defence.
I Should Coco
This week’s club statement, designed to address recent press stories, social media rumours and letters from fan groups, deviated from the Nelms’ widely derided pre-Aberdeen programme notes. Three defeats on, faith in the manager seems to have waned at boardroom level. Not only was McIntyre not referred to by name, there was no talk of him being the man for the job. Instead, results had been “beyond disappointing” and the manager “is judged on the players he brings in, the tactics he employs…we have high expectations of him.” If you were Jim McIntyre reading that you would hardly be inclined to consolidate into your current workplace pension.
The other substantial part of the statement (unless, of course, pie provenance of pies or beer festivals are dealbreakers for you) was confirmation that FPS remain committed to the club for the foreseeable future. You don’t need to be particularly enamoured with the owners of our club or the way it is run to realise that the ‘Nelms Out’ shouts growing in prominence of late are counter-productive.
The reality of our situation is that Nelms’ close friend and business partner Tim Keyes is subsidising hefty losses each year in the Premiership, where income is much, much higher than where we are headed. Our plight is not solely the fault of McIntyre, McCann or any other individual but the accumulation of years of bad decision-making. FPS must ultimately shoulder responsibility for where we find ourselves but the tap being turned off suddenly would not only cripple our chances of escaping the Fundesliga any time soon but prove an existential threat to the club.
We need our owners to learn from their mistakes and for changes in the way the club is run to take place. In the absence of any alternatives, what we don’t need to do is chase away a group who may have got much wrong but who have done so in the pursuit of what we all want.
As one of the most traumatic campaigns in the club’s history creeps towards the full time whistle, humility and pragmatism is needed on all sides, not another self-inflicted hammer blow.
NEW PODCAST! “Oh No.”
Gary and Danny pick over the rubble of yet another defeat before gazing into the crystal ball of who could come in if/when there’s a change of manager.
NEW PODCAST! #215: Post-split and pre-Saints
Gary, Ryan and Danny get together to moan about the season so far and consider what can be done to save the Dees from relegation.
Conspiracy theory collapses before end of injury time
A conspiracy theory alleging rabid anti-Irishness among Dundee’s stewarding community was discredited before referee Bobby Madden blew the full time whistle at Dens Park on Sunday.
Sky Sports viewers watched on as a Celtic supporter jumped an 8-foot drop to chase after a tricolour that stewards had pulled down seconds before.
The Celtic twitterati were quick to dismiss Dundee MD John Nelms’ claim that the flag was removed for obscuring an advertising board paid for by one of the club’s sponsors and posted images of a Rangers banner draped over the same spot earlier this season.
This appeared to be incontrovertible evidence of high-level collusion before further footage showed the offending Rangers flag was in fact removed minutes after the original picture was taken.
In all, the theory lasted almost as long as the injury time referee Madden added on at the end of Sunday’s game.
Choosing to ignore the fact other Irish flags were clearly on display at Dens Park without causing controversy, blogger and professional grievance merchant Martin Moore hit out at all involved, saying, ‘Normally I just analyse Sevco’s finances in forensic detail but I was inspired to write about this blatant anti-Irish racism. It was no coincidence that it happened on St Patrick’s Day.
‘Nelms says this was only done because the flag was obscuring an advertising board but he would say that because he’s from Texas and they have the KKK there.’
Professor Glen Dingies, of the Institute for Futba Studies, said, ‘There is a clear causal link between paranoia and supporting the Old Firm. Everyone knows the stewards at Dens are heavy-handed but, quite frankly, Ayr United and Falkirk fans are treated by them worse than Celtic or Rangers’ ever will.
‘With respect to the injury time played, it is highly unusual to see Celtic supporters back a referee rather than claiming a Masonic conspiracy against them. It’s almost as if they just see and hear what they want.’
Derry Got Soul Club Accounts Special: The Derry Accountant speaks
The accounts are out and, despite Dundee’s losses increasing over the past year, the Daily Record chose not to run a front page story claiming we were on the brink of going out of business this year. It’s almost as if the rag’s former editor was an embittered DAB who epitomised everything wrong with the media by not so much speaking truth to power but abusing his own to push personal prejudices.
Anyway, the headline figure is that the Mushy Peas lost £434,000 in the year ending May 2018. Yup, that’s £434k to finish one place ahead of Hamilton Accies, who lost double that wedge when they handed over their bank details and password to a Nigerian prince. Sofien Moussa, Randy Wolters and Lewis Spence didn’t come cheap, to be fair.
Debate over how big a bang our owners got for their bucks aside, the publication of the accounts set off arguments about what they meant for the club among fans with zero qualifications to comment on fiduciary matters. In an attempt to shed some light on these figures, we asked a top accountant with a season ticket for the Derry to look them over.
Walking Down The Provie Road: Right, the accounts are out. What’s the story?
Derry Accountant: Short story is the accounts show a loss-making company that is reliant on benefactors to sustain itself at the moment. That isn’t necessarily a worry and the fact that in note 3 the auditors have confidence that the business will run as a going concern for the foreseeable gives some comfort. I appreciate there are some fans who believe we should simply spend what we earn, and that’s a perfectly reasonable point of view, however the FPS strategy is clearly that they are willing (I purposely didn’t say happy) to incur losses.
Overall, the balance sheet is pretty flat. There’s not been huge movements on a line by line basis. Cash has remained consistent, debtors are flat and the increase in creditors relates to the way the loss has effectively funded by directors.
WDTPR: The report says we’ve increased turnover. That’s good but how was it possible when crowds fell and there was no discernible rise in TV money. Is it all down to the two televised League Cup derbies?
DA: From a football club point of view, turnover is simple. It will be all income from gate receipts, TV, league and cup placings and hospo/sundry income. Without having a detailed breakdown in front of me, revenue grew by 12.5% which is good going. I know we had three TV games in the Betfred, two of which also attracted full houses. We also got to the QF of that competition, which would have attracted more revenue. You would need to do a real deep dive on crowds/ticket price to unwind it all though.
WDTPR: How do losses and outgoings compare to last year?
DA: Whilst wages are up they are actually down as a percentage of turnover. You have to presume that a fair chunk of that increase will the payoffs for some of Hartley’s players while Caulker was allegedly on a big wage. Re the other expenditure this looks like potentially an increase in lease expenditure (note 8).
WDTPR: A lot of figures are being bandied about for the rent on Dens. These include £500,000, £130,000 and £65,000. How much did we pay last year and how much will we pay next year?
DA: Note 17 is your friend here. Next year we will pay £65k for stadium rental and another £64k for other rentals (no idea what that is). This year per note 8 we paid £128k and its reasonable to assume this is split £65k stadium £64k other.
Looking forward it looks like this other operating lease drops off in a year or so and leaves just the stadium rental. Total payable is £1,391, 749, which is the total of 1 year and above in the narrative in note 17. In 2016 we changes account basis from UKGAAP to FRS 102. To the non-accountant (and indeed many accountants!) this wasn’t overly interesting. However as part of that we changed the way we account for leases, this has led to a provision being held on the balance sheet for leases that will be released over the life of the lease as opposed to the first lease break. This does not correspond to cash out the door and is purely a technical accounting point.
WDTPR: Are we paying directors less?
DA: Yes. Directors’ remuneration is down from £152k to £129k. I am presuming only John Nelms draws a salary from the club but obviously don’t know for sure.
WDTPR: How much is in ‘other creditors’ and what does that mean?
DA: See note 20 for related party transactions. Directors loans are the method that FPS are funding the losses with when not buying new share capital.
WDTPR: How fucked were we if we hadn’t sold Jack Hendry? Andy why does ‘player disposals’ only show £530,000 when we allegedly sold him for £1.5 million.
DA: Impossible to say as it all depends on what we would have done in the event we hadn’t sold him. It’s perfectly reasonable to presume that we simply spent the money we received from him and therefore admin expenses are higher than they would have been had we not sold him. The signing of Caulker wouldn’t have come cheap so my guess is we spent a chunk of the £530k on that. In other words if we hadn’t sold him then the admin expenses would have been lower.
The accounts show the net figure from the transfer, i.e. proceeds less any “cost of sales”. Without any additional info I am guessing that after we clipped the ticket with payouts to Wigan and potentially the player and agents this was the net we were left with. From memory there were rumours of a 40% sell-on clause and with payments arriving in instalments it doesn’t seem a bonkers figure.
WDTPR: The report states that ‘FPS intends to increase its stake and commitment to the Company by raising its hareholding to at least 75% of the voting equity. This would allow FPS to claim Group Tax Relief and offset the trading losses of the Company against its other business activities’. In plain English, what does that mean? How does it benefit the club?
DA: This will be some tax structuring within the US that will allow FPS to use the losses that DFC are running against other companies within their group. Whilst it won’t make any benefit in DFC accounts it will obviously ensure that the owners net spend across all their businesses is lower and this will make a loss-making investment slightly more attractive. I’m not a tax expert though.
WDTPR: One of the last times Tim Keyes was in town (August 2018) it was announced he’d increased his shareholding to the tune of £500,000. Again, what’s the significance of this?
DA: Note 19 mentions something about this and a loan subsequently being written off. I would expect Other creditors to go down as a result of this and share capital to go up. This happened on 9th August so that’s why it’s not in these accounts.
WDTPR: Do we owe anyone any money?
DA: Based on the accounts the biggest creditor is the “other creditors” which spiked from £492k in 2016 to £1.3m in 2017 and again up to £1.6m this year. Per Note 20 these are amounts due to FPS. Based on the accounts we owe HMRC £319k and have some trade creditors. The accruals deferred income are accounting liabilities as opposed to actual invoices received and again I am surmising that these relate to season tickets paid before 31 May 2018 but relating to 2018/19 seasons, i.e. we have the cash but we also have the liability to provide the “service”. The service being a season worth of football.
There is no bank debt that is visible in the accounts.
WDTPR: The accounts make mention of about £1.5million being due to go out in the next year. What does this mean, what does it contain and how does it compare to last year?
DA: Whilst these loans are technically due within 12 months the ‘other creditors’ portion is unlikely to be called in unless FPS pull the plug. The fact the accounts are on a going concern suggests this is unlikely to happen.
WDTPR: We have lost £2.3m in the past five years according to accounts published since FPS took over. How is this sustainable?
DA: Short answer is we are totally at the will of FPS. Like the majority of clubs in Scotland we are running the benefactor model. The only way to move away from that is to up revenue (new streams from new stadium etc?) or to lower costs. It’s easily arguable that we have spent a lot of needless expenses on poor signings and payoffs etc.
HULLTOON HERALD: South Ayrshire Police set to tackle Mexican cartels
Having prevented the breakdown of civilisation by taking a small amount of bevvy off football fans, the South Ayrshire division of Police Scotland is set to be deployed to Mexico to tackle the escalating war between rival drug cartels.
The SAPD were quick to boast of their accomplishments on twitter last weekend after cops in riot gear boarded a coach containing Ayr United fans travelling to watch their side play Greenock Morton, a notorious powder keg fixture which has led to zero arrests or incidents of public disorder in recent years.
Having seen his officers seize a bottle of orange Mad Dog 20/20, two tins of Fosters, two tins of Strongbow Dark Fruit cider and a total of three litres of Buckfast, Sergeant Lyall of South Ayrshire Police has set his sights on bigger targets.
“Now that El Chapo has been banged up, Mexico is wide open and cartels are sure to be murdering and extorting in order to strengthen their grip on the lucrative drugs business,” he said. “Operations like last weekend keep communities safe and we are keen to take our experiences of pointlessly targeting peaceful football fans into the counter-narcotrafficking arena.
“My men will lay traps in lay-bys all over Mexico every Saturday in operations costing the public purse thousands while serving no purpose other than making us look like big men on twitter. They won’t know what’s hit them.”
Professor Glen Dingies, of the Institute for Futba Studies, said, “I don’t know what’s more embarrassing – that South Ayrshire Polcie saw fit to boast about the fact they took 65 units of drink off the streets or the fact a supporters bus only had 65 units on board. My mate Jimmy has a bigger away day kerry-oot than that on his own, for fuck’s sake.”
NEW PODCAST! Provie Road Pod #214: Livi, Loanees, Love
Gary, Ryan and Danny get together to celebrate the victory over Livi, lavish praise on various players, thank our lucky stars for a few breaks and preview this Friday’s game against Hibs.
NEW PODCAST! Provie Road Pod #213: Injury Time can GTF
Gary, Grant and Danny return to rake over the coals of two bouts of last minute heartbreak, be cautiously optimistic about new signings and be recklessly confident about our chances against Livi.
Derry Got Soul: Getting Away With It
Getting away with it
There’s an apocryphal tale about two explorers walking through the jungle when they hear a tiger roar.
One sits down and takes a pair of trainers out of his back pack.
“You’re crazy. You’ll never out run a tiger!” says his colleague.
“I don’t have to out run the tiger”, the first explorer replies. “I just have to outrun you.”
What does this have to do with the ongoing travails of Dundee FC, I hear you ask? Well, that tiger is relegation and (hopefully) the first explorer is Jim McIntyre and his mate is both Oran Kearney and Brian Rice at the same time. It isn’t a perfect analogy but then again its author probably wasn’t thinking about a three-way scrap at the foot of the Scottish Premiership when they came up with it. Oh, and the trainers are this January’s transfer business.
A whole new team has rocked up to Dens over the past month. The last time we had this many loans Tam Burton was offering lenders 0.5p in the pound and telling them to be grateful for it. Will Jim McIntyre’s hastily assembled cavalry ride to the rescue? Can we actually get away with this?
The Patience of a Saint
Sitting on 13 points after 23 games would all but guarantee relegation under normal circumstances but this is no ordinary season. Proof that 2018/19 represents a lifeline for shiteness came last week when we lost a winnable home game and still improved our position slightly due to our rivals’ goal difference suffering more damage. If you were to pick any season to be historically bad, this is the one.
Less than two months ago this very blog was heaping praise on Jim McIntyre on the back of a glorious four-game unbeaten run that hinted at revival. We’ve won only one of the nine games played since then while recording a goal difference of -15. The utter clusterfuck that McIntyre inherited continues to act as mitigation but all managers will ultimately be judged on their record regardless of the size of the turd in need of polishing.
Another humiliating cup exit to add to the spreadsheet of doom is a major black mark against McIntyre. That we lost at a venue where we traditionally struggle, while contending with injuries, ineligibility and Ibrox-bound star players and facing one of the best strikers in the country isn’t in itself a surprise. The margin of defeat was inexcusable, however. Whatever difficulties the manager faced as he sought to overhaul his squad, many fans are rightly asking why Darren O’Dea was deployed as playmaker while three natural midfielders on our payroll weren’t even in the stands at Palmerston. Could some accommodation not have been made with Glen Kamara? Would extending a temporary olive branch to Elton or Madianga really have been more painful than taking three from a Championship team? Why not start one of the young midfielders on the bench?
Tighten Up
Regardless of the manager’s culpability or otherwise in our cup exit, the circumstances surrounding the QoS replay wont arise again and we have to hope that the performances against Hearts and Motherwell are more indicative of what we can expect from the second half of the season.
With a whole new team signed over the past month it is almost impossible to predict how we will line up at Hamilton tomorrow, let alone how we are likely to fare over the remaining 15 matches.
Eleven players in and 14 (including the previously on-loan Marcus Haber and now-on-loan Matty Henvey) out represents an incredible turnover of personnel. The profligacy of Paul Hartley and Neil McCann have meant in excess of 80 players have been signed since promotion five years ago. Cammy Kerr, our longest serving player, has had more than 100 teammates by the age of 23 without moving club. Quite clearly this churn needs to end but that’s a conversation for another day. Right now we just need to concentrate on at least matching St Mirren’s point tally between now and May while bettering Hamilton’s. In a year of abnormal triple shiteness, normal rules concerning the points per game required to finish 11th or 10th have been suspended. Everything we have done over the past month and will do from now to matchday 38 will be judged relative to them.
St Mirren have effectively had the same transfer window as us – throwing together a new team of randoms on loan in the hope something sticks. Their fans are delighted to welcome back Kyle McAllister, but beyond him and Greg Tansey none but the most dedicated of Football manager obsessives will have heard of the rest much less have the slightest idea what to expect from them.
While neutral observers largely shook their heads at Martin Canning’s treatment, Hamilton supporters appear to see his sacking to be the best bit of business their club could have done this month, and they were the ones watching his side week in, week out, after all. Those fans are similarly delighted with the second coming of Tony Andreu but, depending on your perspective, they’ve either failed to overhaul their squad like us and St Mirren, or will benefit from greater stability.
From their early outings, Dieng, Dales, Nelson and Craig Curran all appear upgrades on what we had before. If Horsfield, McGowan, Robson, Hadenius, Wright, O’Sullivan and – if he stays away from bounce games – Davies all bring similar improvements to their positions then we stand a good chance of staying up.
Getting the Message
This transfer window, more than any other, was a time for solid signing rather than potentially-spectacular-but more-likely-disastrous gambles. That realisation didn’t always penetrate the collective Derry consciousness, however.
To scroll down the comments that accompany the unveiling of any Dundee signing on social media is to immerse yourself in world of dyspeptic rage where a section of fans – unconsciously uncoupled from reality by years of on-field misery – are unable to contain their dismay that the Mushy Peas have once again failed to announce a marquee signing.
Maybe the club has to take its share of the blame here. The interval between the wee pen and paper emoji being posted and the identity of the new man being revealed (on average six minutes – I’ve checked) feels intolerably long. “EMOJI KLAXON!!!” messages fly about group chats, chests pound, speculation grows. Your head soberly notes it’s probably the boy from Mansfield we were linked with while your adrenaline-filled heart screams “Berbatov! It’s Berbatov! It’s fucking happening!” And those teaser videos don’t help either. I remember being in the Taybrig “beer garden” with a couple of mates crowded round a phone screen as DeeTV tantalised us with shots of the new signing’s jeans, the outline of his jaw and a surprisingly lengthy focus on a pair of winkle-pickers. ‘Dundee Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of Sofien Moussa’. Who? “Must be good if they went to all that trouble” we convinced ourselves as while seeking out more information about our new number 9. “Ach, the fuck does Wikipedia know anyway? Let’s try YouTube”. A few videos of the Moose losing possession in midfield later and we finished our pints in silence then went home.
Ah, Moussa. We hardly knew ye. An era has ended, ladies and gentleman. Let’s hope the new one starts with us being less shite than St Mirren and Hamilton.
