John Nelms insists Dundee are not in “crisis-mode” despite the club’s position in the Premiership and a disillusioned fanbase.
The Dark Blues are facing relegation back to the Championship with only seven matches left to overhaul a four-point deficit to St Johnstone.
On top of that, fans have been voting with their feet in recent weeks, with many staying away from the recent Scottish Cup quarter-final against Rangers.
There has been anger in the stands as well as empty seats, while Nelms has been trading letters with an “extremely concerned” group of fans about the way the club is run.
A major issue that comes up again and again from fans is a lack of meaningful communication from the club and Nelms says there is work being done to improve things on that front.
Opportunity
On the initial open letter, he said: “It gave us an opportunity to talk about what is actually happening behind the scenes.
“We are not in crisis-mode, the club is very stable.
“We are continuing to build different elements within the organisation and we will continue to build and invest.
“We have been in the Premiership in six of the eight years we have been here. Prior to that it was 2005.
“That whole time I would say is a successful period in the organisation.
“We have had road bumps on the park but we will continue to strive to get the right people in place, get top-level football people in place like we have to help make decisions.
“We take advice from top-level football people and try to get it right. But they are human beings and there is no formula that is 100% successful.”
Letters
The open letter, with over 1,300 verified signatures added to it online, called for fan representation at boardroom level, expanding the range of expertise at the club and more accountability of decisions made at Dens Park.
There has since been replies back and forth between the parties.
“We wrote a letter back and we are always accountable in everything that we do, every single day,” Nelms said.
“A lot of the elements we have in place have been successful in our minds.
“We meet with the DSA on a regular basis, they ask us open questions, we answer those open questions.
“We have a running dialogue and have had that for a long time.
“Prior to Covid, we started having them come into our staff meetings once a month.
“We’d have the charity, the DSA and Dee Promotions all coming in to make sure everyone was on the same page.
‘We are not going to go backwards’
“I think you have a certain group that wrote the letter who have a different opinion and might not want to be part of those groups. They may not be getting the information that they are getting.
“But they can certainly be part of those groups to get that information.
“We are not going to go backwards. Some of the suggestions they made are suggestions that have been made in the past but it was always in the time we were in an unsuccessful period.
“I am talking about financially unsuccessful, commercially unsuccessful and unsuccessful on the park – across the board unsuccessful.
“We are not going to go back to those days, we are going to move forward.
“We always want people and groups to have positive impacts on the organisation. If there are new and innovative ideas, we absolutely want them to be part of it.
“We are always open to that.
Fans on the board
“I would say the group (that wrote the letter) should form as a group, become part of the DSA and be heard. Speak to the Supporters Liaison Officer, be heard.
“I don’t think you can say there are not fans on the board. Two of our board members (Bob Hynd and Lindsay Darroch) have been Dundee fans for over 90 years.
“It’s also saying that [chairman Tim Keyes] and I aren’t fans. This is it, this is what we do, this is our team and people discount that because we’ve only been here eight years.
“Myself and my family have just become British citizens as of Monday so we are here for the long haul.”
AGM or Q&A
To combat the poor communication between club and fans, the open letter called for an AGM to return or for some sort of Q&A so supporters can ask questions of Nelms.
The Dundee managing director, though, says there’s no need.
“We do that, with the DSA,” Nelms countered when asked about holding an AGM or Q&A.
“They came up three weeks ago with 16 questions that we answered.
Is that…. Communicating with fans???? They’re starting to listen https://t.co/zjFjdAQljE
— Dens Park Choir 🇺🇦 (@DensParkChoir) March 24, 2022
“We have an open dialogue and this group (who wrote the open letter) can be part of that dialogue, there’s no issues with that.
“We feel that we do that.
“I’m sure there are ways to get information out in different forms and we can potentially look at that.
“But we have these Q&As so that’s why it feels strange when someone says you are not doing it. We are doing it and have always done it.
“We have meetings with the DSA at every home game for as long as I can remember, except because of Covid.
“They aren’t always positive meetings, there are issues from time to time.
“We’ll have one on Saturday.
“I’ll give them updates on where we are at and what we’re doing, sometimes more than we would say in public.”
‘Getting more information out there’
Nelms insists the only issue at the club right now is the position the team find themselves in the league table.
But he has asked for the fans at Dens Park to get behind the team as they attempt to get out of relegation trouble, beginning this Saturday at home to Aberdeen.
“We don’t look for pats on the back,” he added.
“Being a fan, you don’t really care about what goes on behind the scenes.
“In our case, the only thing that’s wrong is we aren’t winning games. We are trying to put that right.
“We do everything we can possibly do to get it right and sometimes we don’t get it right.
“We understand that and we make sure we learn from it.
“The team itself needs as much backing as it can possibly get.
“We are in a hole, we have to get ourselves out of the hole and we need our friends to help us.
“And back the team with unconditional love, so to speak, to get to the heights they can get to.
“But, behind the scenes, we are stable, we are building and we are successful in many different areas of the club.
“We will be getting more and more information out there, showing the success, showing the academy, showing how things are working.
“Hopefully, that will help.”
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