Sir, As a lifelong Dundee United supporter I am appalled by the tone of and the lack of ambition shown in the statement by the club’s board reported in The Courier on Friday.
The statement lists what it sees as achievements on the park during recent years, including ending up in the top six for the last seven years.
But that is exactly where a club the size of Dundee United should be, especially with Rangers absent for the greater part of this time.
Throughout most of my lifetime, Scottish football has been almost completely dominated by the giants Rangers and Celtic supported by their huge fan bases.
With Rangers’ relegation, Dundee United and other smaller clubs had a wonderful opportunity to lift trophies.
During this time St Mirren, Hearts, St Johnstone and Aberdeen all managed to lift trophies and Motherwell took second spot in the league two times.
What has Dundee United achieved over this same period?
Following our cup final defeat to St Johnstone last year, the club sold two of its best players for large sums of money.
This year, with the club in a cup final, the final stages of another cup and challenging for top, or more realistically second spot in the league, the clubs sells another two of its best players, to its principal rival.
You could not script this. No wonder the fans despair.
The players fought hard in the games against Celtic but the board is not playing its part.
Instead it launches an attack on the ArabTRUST and the Federation of Dundee United Supporters Clubs.
I do not know the ins and outs of the so-called commission issue but it was appalling to see the board criticising the fans’ organisations in the way it did, especially bearing in mind everything that has happened.
Eddie Thompson was a true fan and had great ambitions for the club.
He must be turning in his grave.
Nigel Hawkins. 1 Auchterhouse Park, Auchterhouse.
Unnconvincing Jennifer
Sir, It is an unconvincing line for Jennifer Dempsie to run, to admit that Jim Crumley ‘knows a thing or two about wildlife and conservation’ while claiming that he has somehow had his head turned about T in the Park by the hysteria of a campaign group – particularly when RSPB have condemned DFC’s actions as ‘unethical and unacceptable’.
We would agree with her view that people should try to work the facts out for themselves and reach their own conclusions; Mr Crumley has done this and has shown considerable courage in speaking out. Without her clarifying exactly what facts he has supposedly not checked, her attack on him, from a position of such vested interest, is self-regarding and distasteful. He deserves an apology.
Strathallan T Action Group.
Fife drivers’needs ignored
Sir, It is well accepted that local authorities meet with severe challenges when it comes to prioritising scarce resources and Fife Council is no different.
Despite the constraints, a recently constructed eight-feet wide surfaced cycle path has appeared some few hundred yards out of Kinglassie.
It runs parallel with a dual carriageway for a further third of a mile before disappearing into an industrial site and seems to serve little or no useful purpose.
From all observations, it is seldom used by cyclists, who appear to favour the dual carriageway.
Now turning to the condition of many of Fife’s roads with their multitude of potholes, would the money spent needlessly on this cycle path not have been better utilised in filling damaged roads with the materials used in the path’s construction?
There appears no point in complaining about financial constraints when the money allocated to the path’s construction could have been better deployed.
The dangers posed to the motorists seem to attracta lesser degree of importance.
David L Thomson. 24 Laurence Park, Kinglassie.
Flight safety paramount
Sir, After the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, reports circulated of US flying schools accepting trainees who wanted to learn to fly but not to take off or land, so we expected the utmost rigourby airlines and regulators in response to these horrors.
But the past 15 months have shown that passenger planes could leave one air-traffic control area without entering another, they could fly over war zones despite military planesbeing shot down and their location-monitoring systems could be switched off by pilots.
Did the air authorities and governments give no thought whatsoever to a pilot having a heart attack or stroke, particularly since the obligation to have a third person in the cockpit, the flight engineer, was abolished?
They cannot merely blame the bean counters. Passengers want competent regulation first, then cheaper fares.
Are the flight paths so full that so many planes must go over the Alps?
Superficially, the wide Rhone valley seems more logical for a Barcelona to Dusseldorf flight.
Psychological tests and airport security have their place but common sense is absolutely crucial in all business enterprises.
John Birkett. 12 Horseleys Park, St Andrews.