Tag: Monthly Update

Dear Members,

It’s always nice to send the old year out with a flourish and bring in the new one with a bang and Dundee certainly did that as 2025 became 2026. Hard fought wins over Falkirk and Kilmarnock heralded significantly improved and more enterprising performances from the players before the New Year derby at Tannadice saw arguably the best performance this season in overcoming the lot across the road.

On-field optimism

It wasn’t just the fact that they won with an excellent finish from a much-improved Ashley Hay but that they created at least six good chances to score and really should have been one or two more to the good at the final whistle. It was fantastic to hear Dundee fans singing and celebrating once again after what has been more of an attritional than a transitional season so far. Steven Pressley and his players deserve credit for digging so deep to find an extra 20% when they needed it the most.

Nine points radically altered the club’s league position and gave them a platform to build on in staying clear of Kilmarnock, now managed by former Dens pair Neil McCann and Billy Dodds, and Livingston. A narrow 1-0 defeat at home to Hearts, where they were denied by THAT save from Craig Gordon, was followed by a tricky Scottish Cup tie away to Kilmarnock. Despite falling behind, the team once again showed their growing resilience to bounce back and secure a place in the fifth round with a Drey Wright winner in added time. A stubborn but unadventurous performance at Ibrox coupled with a late collapse, which has been sadly all too familiar in recent seasons, summed up a 3-0 defeat to Rangers.

A huge determinant of where Dundee go from here in the remainder of this season will be the level of activity in the transfer window and it has been good to see some solid activity. Young winger Joe Bevan was signed from Burnley and was joined at Gardyne by defender Brad Halliday from Bradford on a two-and-a-half year contract and young midfielder Joel Cotterill from Swansea. The Club appear to be investing to try to secure their top league status and it has to be hoped there will be a few more arrivals. Certainly the revenue benefits of staying up will more than make up for any additional outlay.

Off-field matters

Off the field, things have been a little mixed. There was no sign of any application going before Dundee City Council Planning Committee’s January meeting. We also saw the publication last month of the SFA’s club licensing data which is based on four criteria – ground, first team, youth, legal/admin/finance. The Club was ranked bronze on ground alongside only one other SPFL team and several championship teams and on a par with Linlithgow Rose. They were ranked silver on first team (training/medical facilities etc) on a par with Dunfermline and Ross County and silver on youth on a par with Morton and Inverness Caley Thistle. Lastly they were ranked bronze on legal/admin/finance on a par with Arbroath and Cumbernauld Colts for example. All of this makes for worrying reading and suggests there is a lot of work to be done in a number of areas.

Elsewhere, there were some positive moves including the £10 offer for the Livingston match and subsidised buses to Kilmarnock for the cup tie. And Mr Nelms finally gave an interview, albeit a soft one, to the local media. This is to be welcomed but we feel that there are still many questions that fans and our members would like answered and would continue to urge the Club to be more communicative and transparent.

Special General Meeting

Turning to D4L matters, we are calling a Special General Meeting for Saturday, 28 February at 11am for 11.30am at the Dundee Social Club. The purpose of the meeting is to consider some updates to D4L’s rules and to review its strategy. We would encourage as many members to attend and exercise their voting rights as possible.

I have included a link to the Minutes from our AGM in November for reference. Please click here (member login required).

We are also currently on the lookout for a new treasurer following Grant MacGregor stepping down from the board. If you feel you would like to get involved and join the board please contact us at contact@dee4life.com.

I will close by wishing you all the very best for a prosperous and enjoyable 2026! Let’s hope this is the year in which Dundee secure their top league status and address the various off-field issues!

Keith Winter

Chairman

Dear Members,

The uncertain start to the season continues for Dundee as the newly compiled team tries to bed in while off field matters continue to be shrouded in mystery. The desperate disappointment of a derby defeat was hard to stomach but the seeming lack of attacking endeavour compounded the misery for the Dark Blue faithful. We have had to suffer many defeats to the other lot over the years but few where it has seemed so flat both in terms of performance and atmosphere in the home end. The fact that home tickets did not sell out suggests that pricing is becoming an issue as well as the quality of the fan experience at Dens. Whatever the reason, it did not really feel like a derby and that is perhaps as much of a worry for all concerned as the result itself.

Fan frustration

The pattern of lower attendances continued with the Motherwell game which saw a drop of 1,200 on the last visit of the Steelmen. To the players’ and head coach’s credit they bounced back from a poor first half performance to secure a draw against Motherwell following the international break. There was some grit and fighting spirit on show in the second half which was certainly needed to get them back into the game and to get the home fans behind them. It wasn’t pretty but they hung in there and showed some resilience after the late, and harsh, sending off of Yan Dhanda in particular. Still three points from three draws is not a great tally from the first five games and they will have to get a win or two on the board soon if they are to move clear of the relegation zone. Even this early in the season it is important to build some momentum and draws are not enough.

We have heard many fans expressing their disappointment at the lack of activity toward the end of the transfer window despite the head coach Steven Pressley making it clear that he felt a few more players were needed. The lack of Scottish Premiership experience in the squad has to be a concern and while we have to hope that some of the new players will succeed in making the transition it is clearly going to be a step up for a good number of them. Doubts also persist in key areas of the park including in goal, midfield and up front but ironically, given how things went in the last two seasons, it is the back line which is giving the most reason for optimism, especially the form of Luke Graham. The young centre-half notched his first top flight goal against Motherwell and showed up well for the Scotland U-21’s. He already looks as if he is going to be a key figure this season.

Burnley link-up?

Another question which fans have been asking is what has happened to the much vaunted partnership with Burnley. After a succession of loan deals for some undoubtedly talented young players from Turf Moor in the last two seasons, the well has suddenly run dry with no explanation coming from the Club. With attacking flair apparently in short supply, now would be a good time to attract a few players north. At the same time the partnership with CF Monterrey in Mexico appears to have stalled. Victor Lopez was allowed to return home to Queretaro without really having had the chance to make an impact and Cesar Garza is struggling to gain a first team place despite the departure of almost all of the first choice midfield from last season. Once again fans would appreciate hearing from the Club on these issues so they can at least have a clearer understanding of what’s going on.

SLOs meeting

On a more upbeat note, we were delighted to meet the Club’s new Supporters’ Liaison Officers, Billy Douglas and Kris Scrimgeour, who joined our recent Board Teams call. Both Billy and Kris are Dees through-and-through and shared some of their fondest memories of going to matches with our directors. We value their knowledge and experience of all things Dundee and look forward to working with them in the months and years to come. We wish them all the very best in their roles and will do everything we can to assist them. If there are issues you would like us to raise with them on your behalf please email contact@dee4life.com.

I will close by wishing the players and the coaching staff the very best for a busy and challenging run of fixtures in the next few weeks, starting with the visit of Livingston.

Best wishes,

Keith Winter
Chairman.

What a difference a derby victory can make!

Just as things were starting to look really ominous with the spectre of a relegation battle looming large, Dundee pulled out a win for the ages with a comprehensive triumph over the other lot at Tannadice.

The spirit, desire and dogged determination which we have all been searching for suddenly appeared in abundance on a beautiful Sunday. The 4-2 win probably should have been even more comfortable and the players showed that they can still turn on the style.

Everyone played their part in an excellent team display with inspirational performances from a number of them including big Joe Shaughnessy at the back, two-goal Jordan McGhee and, of course, that man Simon Murray. If ever there was a team that needed a spark to reignite their season it was Dundee and surely this result will give them a huge confidence boost going into three difficult games before the split. I know many of us have been hugely frustrated by the slump in form and results since the turn of the year but now we can look forward with some optimism and belief that we can turn this predicament around. I’m sure we will all give the team as much backing as we can for the run-in, starting with the visit of Rangers on March 29.

Another silver lining in what has been a challenging period for the Club is the fact that we can now look forward to a Cup Final at Hampden. While sadly the senior team did not make it past their Scottish Cup quarter-final with Hearts at Tynecastle, it has been hugely encouraging to see the achievements of the under-18’s team in reaching the Scottish Youth Cup Final. Scott Robertson’s young team produced a strong performance to overcome St Mirren on their home patch with a 2-0 win in front of 1,400 fans. They will now face Kilmarnock in the final at the national stadium with the dates still to be confirmed. I’m sure there will be many of you who will take the opportunity to cheer the Dark Blues on in a national final and we wish Scott and the team all the very best.

Off the field, there does not seem to be much happening, at least publicly, around the new stadium project or the proposed training facility at Riverside. There was no submission to the last meeting of Dundee City Council planning committee and it is concerning for fans when there is no news and the situation appears to be dragging on. We appreciate the Club has a lot on its plate at the moment and the focus must be on Premiership survival but it would be good to hear a little more on how things are actually progressing.

Turning to our D4L prize draw, I am delighted to confirm that this month’s winner is Vincent Brady from Dundee. Eight-year-old Vincent, who joined Dee4Life in 2023, receives £30 worth of vouchers for the club shop. We would ask Vincent’s parent or guardian to email us at contact@dee4life.com so we can arrange delivery of his vouchers. Congratulations Vincent!

I will close by wishing Tony Docherty and the team the very best for the seismic upcoming matches they are facing. We have been here before as a Club and as fans and, to continue the silver lining theme, we know what it’s going to take to get out of this.

Who’s to say we can’t pull off another great escape?

Best wishes,
Keith Winter
Dee4Life Chair

With the team performing better than we have seen in sometime, notwithstanding some poorer results recently, the new stadium proposals, with the Planning Permission in Principle application now submitted, and the recently announced partnership with Burnley, there is a lot of excitement around the Dundee support just now.

The Burnley link is particularly intriguing to me as I spent several years living in the Lancashire town. My wife and I still have friends down there, and I was last at Turf Moor earlier this season. It is a fantastic club from a great part of the world, and I hope that this partnership delivers for all parties.

The Dee4Life board is obviously delighted by the prospect of Dundee taking steps forward on and off the park but – as I outlined last month – the founding principes of the Trust mean we must always ask questions about developments, even those that appear exciting and potentially transformative.

With that in mind, we have submitted a series of questions (see below) relating to the stadium development. I hope that the club takes the time to consider these and provides answers that will go some way to addressing the concerns that members tell us they still have about the Camperdown plan.

At our November AGM we agreed to hold a follow up meeting in the first quarter of 2024, and I can confirm that this will take place on the evening of Monday 18 March. Following on from another suggestion, this will be online to allow a wider selection of members than usual to attend. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible then. Further details, including how members can join the meeting, will follow in our next update.

Ahead of that discussion, we want to gauge the views of members about how the Trust and the club and to find out a bit more about you and how we can best represent you. To this end, we have compiled a short survey which members will find in their email inbox. I would be most grateful if you could take a few minutes to fill in before the end of February.

Thanks for your time and I am hopeful February gives us more league points.

Regards
Keith Winter, Chair

Questions submitted to the Dundee FC board via club SLO John Burke:
1. When will the full planning application likely be submitted? Or any submissions required by the grant of the current PPIP under any attached conditions, notably suspensive conditions?

2. Is the target of football being played in the new stadium by summer 2025 still valid given the fact that planning permission in principle still has to be determined?

3. What are the phasing arrangements for the delivery of the elements contained in the development mix? Will the football facilities be included in the first phase or is the stadium contingent on the successful delivery of the other, revenue-generating elements?

4.Will Dundee FC own the stadium? If not, will the rental terms be set at a commercial rate or on other terms, such as a set percentage of the club’s turnover?

5. If the club is not to own the stadium, will the club pay more in rent than the current arrangements at Dens Park?

6. The ONS notes that private commercial construction costs have risen by around 30% in the past seven years, including approximately 14% since December 2021. Interest rates have risen significantly in this time too. How has all this impacted on the affordability of the project?
What protections are in place for the club should DBPH experience financial difficulties that prevent the project from being delivered, or the company to cease trading?

7. Records from the Land Registry suggest that both the Camperdown site and Dens Park have been used as security against loans obtained from the Soho Green finance company. Is this correct, what has this finance been used for and have the loans been repaid? What guarantees can be given that Dens Park will not be lost if repayments are not met?

8. Is finance in place for the new stadium development and is this in the form of investment or lending? If it is the latter, are the club liable for repayments of this?

9. Whilst the planning application process and subsequent development takes place what are the arrangements and investments planned for Dens Park?

10. In any delay on delivery of the Camperdown proposal what is the strategy and practical arrangement for the continuing use and operation of Dens Park over each of say 3, 5, 7-year periods or indeed indefinitely?

11. Should planning permission be refused or should the development fail to materialise for any other reason, what is the club’s Plan B position?