Dear Members,
We hope you have enjoyed the start to the season as much as we have. With a convincing run in the Premier Sports Cup group stages followed by a comfortable home victory over Airdrie we can now look forward to a plum tie at Ibrox. August was also a good month in the league with a nailbiting derby and an excellent win over Hearts at Dens before battling draws at Easter Road and against St Mirren at home. Perhaps most encouraging of all has been the goalscoring exploits of the team with 33 chalked up in league and cup so far. Long may that continue!
Tony Docherty’s recruitment for the campaign ahead has continued with several additions to the squad, including the very popular return of Simon Murray, and some departures, notably Cammy Kerr, after a lengthy period of club service. Our best wishes go with Cammy for the future. There was a flurry of activity at the end of the transfer window with the arrival of loanees Sammy Braybrooke, Julien Vetro and Oluwaseun Adewumi. However, and not a surprise, we sadly saw Luke McCowan make the transfer to Celtic. A definite loss for the team but our best wishes go with Luke following his service to the club over recent seasons.
The club’s investments in the playing surface and the e-ticketing arrangements and approach have certainly on the evidence to date been positive and should improve the experience for the team and the fans.
At Dee4Life we have been continuing to work behind the scenes on the administration of the website and ensuring the minutes of the board meetings are posted in good time. We have also restored minutes from meetings in previous years to the website.
The planning application for the new stadium at Camperdown has not advanced as the club expected and we note the deferral of the consideration of the PPIP application from the 12th August planning committee of the city council. At this time a new date has not been given for when it will go to the planning committee. We are keenly awaiting an update on this and hope that the club can provide any additional information required for the PPIP application to advance.
The sudden departure of the club chief executive Greg Fenton just before the start of the league campaign raised concerns among some fans and we hope the club will communicate their plans for the role in due course.
The board held a strategy session on 31st August to review the last year and look forward across the 2024/25 season. The discussion was involved covering matters such as the relationship with the management at the football club, growing and engaging with the Trust membership, promoting and supporting the club, community trust and the wider club community. More of the output will be shared over the coming months.
For information the DSA held their AGM on 31st August following the planned Secretaries meeting at the Dundee Social Club.
I will close by asking you as members to let us know what you are thinking in terms of the progress being made by the club and if there are questions that you would like answered. We are working to develop better communication channels with the club and hope to be able to establish a constructive dialogue that can help our members and the club itself. Our contact details are available below and we look forward to hearing from you.
Here’s to another strong season for the Dark Blues!
Regards,
Keith Winter
Dee4Life Chair
Dee4Life 