Former Dundee director Steve Martin has criticised managing director John Nelms for failing to include other locally-based directors in the decision-making process at Dens Park.
And while Martin believes Nelms and his fellow-American, Dark Blues owner Tim Keyes remain the men to lead the club, he’s unhappy with developments as Dundee plummet towards relegation from the Premiership.
Martin, who left the board last year year, has issued a statement on his Facebook page and had a pop at Nelms.
“My thoughts are simply that John has taken far too much on to himself, and forgot that he had a BOD, all local experienced business men, who now had little or no input into major decisions, that being a big mistake,” said Martin on the social media platform.
“It’s difficult uprooting your family to a new life 5,000 miles away, but they settled in quickly, John just simply forgot to use the knowledge of his fellow-directors, and that’s resulted in where we are today.”
The feeling he and other Scottish directors were no long part of the decision-making process was a major factor in Martin’s departure from Dens last December.
“My frustrations grew and we had let’s call it ‘operational differences’ and I was gone too,” is how he puts it in his statement.
He also expressed the view the departure of former chairman Bill Colvin in June 2015, has become an increasing problem for Dundee.
Martin and Colvin, who played a major part in saving Dundee from administration in 2010, were instrumental in attracting the initial investment from Texas-based Keyes that would lead to him assuming overall control at Dens four years ago.
Despite his criticisms, Martin did stress the Americans’ intentions for Dundee have always been honourable and they deserve the chance to turn things round.
“We do not need Tim, or Keyes Capital, or John Nelms to desert their investment.Yes, there are a few watching developments but Tim deserves a chance to see a result on his investment, that can be done, albeit starting off from the Championship again.
“And if John takes heed and works with the fans, communicates with the fans, is open to advice from fellow-directors, existing, or even those who have resigned and are still available to help, and maybe with concentrating solely on our club instead of new stadium dreams or being an SPFL director, as that doesn’t help our club, we can rebuild and literally start again.”
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