St Johnstone defender Dave Mackay takes no satisfaction from seeing one of his old clubs tearing itself apart.
But Dundee’s civil war won’t be his concern when Saints head to Dens Park.
The derby is a crucial one for the Perth club in their quest for Europa League qualification. And there will be no room for sympathy.
Mackay, who got a taste of Dundee chaos when he was a Dark Blue as a young player, said: “It seems to be a club where it’s one thing after another. It’s been like that for the last 10 to 15 years.
“You finally thought they were back doing things right, but when you’ve got fans in charge of a club it’s a hard situation.
“You don’t get one man making decisions at the top. You get a lot of people having their say and it’s proving to be awkward. There’s a bit of infighting which is far from ideal.
“St Johnstone’s by far the best run club I’ve played for. It’s stable, there’s one guy at the top and he’s the guy to go to. I went through two administrations at Dundee and Livingston.
“Dundee have changed a bit for the better. I don’t think they’re in danger of going into administration again, which is a positive.
“People aren’t happy with the way Barry’s been dealt with, which is understandable. I think he’s been treated poorly myself after all the loyalty he has shown.
“John Brown’s come into a storm and it isn’t of his own making. He’s just come in to do a job.
“But we’ve got a job to do as well. We’re chasing a European place and you can’t feel sympathy for anybody. Football’s a ruthless business.”
Mackay was on the bench for Saturday’s victory over St Mirren after recovering from injury, and is a likely starter.
He said: “I’m back training again. If there was an injury crisis I probably could have started on Saturday but the gaffer didn’t want to risk it, and he knew there was the game coming up in midweek.
“Ando (Steven Anderson) has done a good job, even though it’s not his favoured position, and it will be up to the gaffer to make a decision.”
From a purely football perspective, Mackay believes Dundee showed enough against Celtic on Sunday to suggest this will be a tough test for Saints, who have already beaten them twice this season.
He added: “I watched the first half of their game against Celtic.
“They played well and were unlucky to be behind at half-time. I know the fans are split over John Brown but it’s their first home game under him and it’s a derby game. I’m sure their players and fans will be right up for it.
“We need to expect that the new manager will get a reaction and we have to make sure we’re ready for it and that they don’t start picking up points on Wednesday.”