By Graeme Dey

EDDIE THOMPSON is to plough another £500,000 into Dundee United through a further limited rights issue.

That move will take the sum the chairman has invested in the Tangerines since taking over at Tannadice a little over two years ago to £2.5 million.

It will also see his shareholding rise from 55% to over 70%.

A 75% stake would leave him entirely free to run the club as he wished.

Yesterday, however, he insisted the step he was taking was designed to ensure United are operating at break-even by the summer of 2006 rather than to secure himself greater control or because of any financial pressures on the club.

A year ago Thompson was the principal participant in a similar issue, which saw existing shareholders offered new shares on a like-for-like basis and which raised £340,000.

It is anticipated this re-run will attract little in the way of takeup by other shareholders, who have until January 5 to subscribe.

Thompson will, at a price of £33 per share, buy a matching stake and then purchase a chunk of what remains. Excess shares are to be issued at the discretion of the board.

The Tannadice supremo, who earlier this year sold his Morning Noon & Night grocery chain for £23 million, revealed United’s operating loss for the year ended June 2004 was £1.5 million.

This compares with a £2.6 million loss for the previous 12 months.

Since the summer, however, the wage cuts taken by the playing staff and management have begun to impact and the operating deficit for the three months to September of this year was £380,000 down on the same period in 2003.

On that basis the club are aiming to drive down the loss to June 2005 to around £500,000.

Thompson revealed that for the year ended June 2004 some 68% of turnover was taken up by wages, compared with 77% in 2003, and having since knocked 25% off the wage bill it is anticipated that figure will be further reduced come the summer.

The chairman stressed United were working “comfortably within” their existing banking arrangements—which comprise a £6 million long-term loan and £1 million overdraft—and that the relationship between the club and their bankers had never been better in his time at Tannadice.

He said the new rights issue was aimed at securing the financial future.

But the club’s finance director, Scott Carnegie, admitted this might not be the last such action needed.

Directors Thompson, Carnegie and Derek Robertson were commendably candid as they unveiled details of the rights issue.

Thompson confessed that his 25 months at the helm had, with the exception of finishing fifth in the SPL last season, not been a positive experience.

“I’ve had little enjoyment since coming into the club,’’ he said, “But that’s how it is with senior football.

“The pressures on all chairmen, particularly if they are also the majority shareholder, are enormous.’’

The depositing of a further £500,000 in the Tannadice coffers, though, makes clear that Thompson remains entirely committed to supporting United’s cause.

Meanwhile, assistant manager Gordon Chisholm revealed that Jim McIntyre and Chris Innes have been carrying knocks for the past fortnight, result- ing in their having to be nursed through the lead-up to matches.

In keeping with that pattern, McIntyre and Innes have both missed training so far this week, although neither is in any danger of being ruled out of the weekend clash with Celtic.

McIntyre has officially been credited with netting twice in last Saturday’s 3-0 defeat of Kilmarnock.

In his report to the SFA, match referee Willie Young has named McIntyre as the scorer of the first goal—Grant Brebner’s shot which he deflected past Alan Combe—and the third, despite the fact TV pictures confirmed that it was actually Killie’s Simon Ford who glanced home Mark Wilson’s free-kick.

Boss Ian McCall was yesterday censured by the SFA over an incident which occurred during the defeat by Celtic on the final day of last season.

McCall—who last week had a fine for branding ICT’s Juanjo “a cheat” reduced from £2000 to £1500—threw his notebook to the ground in frustration at Parkhead and it bounced into the crowd.