All things Dundee FC

[The_Kincardine]

1 hour ago, SweeperDee said:

 

Beautiful b*****d, but he's not an aurator.

Eh?

[SweeperDee]

Just now, The_Kincardine said:

Eh?

Orator, sorry!

[The_Kincardine]

1 minute ago, SweeperDee said:

Orator, sorry!

Thanks.  I thought I was aurally deficient for a bit there.

[stu2910]

Interview with John Nelms in the Times:

John Nelms, the 45-year-old managing director of Dundee, admits that people were uneasy when he showed up as the new co-owner at Dens Park in 2013. The plain fact is, Dundee FC had seen enough dubious cowboys and dream merchants to last a lifetime, some of whom had endangered the very existence of the club. So who was this latest character?

The likeable, plainspoken Nelms recalls his early days at Dens. “Everyone was kind of nervous when I came in,” he says. “And I understood why. When I arrived I got some of the ‘we know where your family lives, we know where your kids go to school’ stuff. Thankfully, that is no more.

“There was a load of cynicism to overcome. But I appreciated what the fans were going through. They didn’t know me personally: who was this guy, what was he going to do?

“That is why we made no big promises. But we said we are going to put a shift in for this club and try to build it up. I am here every day, trying to make it better. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get 100 per cent buy-in from people, but if we keep doing what we are doing, I think they will see we have the best interests of this club at heart.”

Nelms might just be winning people round. Together with fellow-American, Tim Keyes, the pair own around 62 per cent of Dundee, via Keyes Capital Investment, and have seen the club grow and thrive in the top flight in Scottish football since their arrival.

John Nelms, the 45-year-old managing director of Dundee, admits that people were uneasy when he showed up as the new co-owner at Dens Park in 2013. The plain fact is, Dundee FC had seen enough dubious cowboys and dream merchants to last a lifetime, some of whom had endangered the very existence of the club. So who was this latest character?

The likeable, plainspoken Nelms recalls his early days at Dens. “Everyone was kind of nervous when I came in,” he says. “And I understood why. When I arrived I got some of the ‘we know where your family lives, we know where your kids go to school’ stuff. Thankfully, that is no more.

“There was a load of cynicism to overcome. But I appreciated what the fans were going through. They didn’t know me personally: who was this guy, what was he going to do?

“That is why we made no big promises. But we said we are going to put a shift in for this club and try to build it up. I am here every day, trying to make it better. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get 100 per cent buy-in from people, but if we keep doing what we are doing, I think they will see we have the best interests of this club at heart.”

Nelms might just be winning people round. Together with fellow-American, Tim Keyes, the pair own around 62 per cent of Dundee, via Keyes Capital Investment, and have seen the club grow and thrive in the top flight in Scottish football since their arrival.


The intriguing question remains: why are Nelms and Keyes at Dens Park? What possible sane reason can there be for American businessmen throwing their money at Scottish football, let alone at the basket case that was recently Dundee FC?

“It is a bit of everything: the lifestyle, a bit of love, plus the challenge of taking a struggling club and trying to put business acumen into it and building it up,” says Nelms. “For me, it’s not just the love of football, but a love of this country as well.

“When I was young, after being born and raised in the USA, my father got a job fixing missiles to nuclear submarines at Faslane. He worked originally in Missouri, where he was a jet-propulsion engineer, but then headed a team over to Scotland when I was seven years old. We lived in Rhu and I went to school in Helensburgh.

“My father died when I was 14, but I’d been back and forth to Scotland a few times since on holiday. I always felt like I’d come back here eventually. And then the opportunity at Dundee came up.

“Back in 2013 we had a family meeting with my kids — then aged 13 and 11 — before we embarked on this. It was, ‘right, guys, dad is thinking of doing this … is this something you’d want to do?’ And the answer was, ‘yes, absolutely.’ They were fully into it. So here I am.”

Nelms’ sworn ambition is to do right by Dundee, build the club up, make it a success and a proud part of the Tayside community. He emits such warmth and feeling and determination for the club that you are left thinking, ‘if this guy is another chancer, he is a damn fine actor.’ The growing feeling in Jute City, after early doubts, is that Nelms is the real deal.

“I think having a good work ethic is important,” he says. “I always say to my kids, ‘you can’t have million-pound dreams with a minimum-wage work ethic.’ So I am working all the time on Dundee.

“The club has no debt. We promised the fans that we wouldn’t take debt with us. The club is self-sufficient and we run to a strict budget. In fact only yesterday a guy said to me, ‘you’re the tightest man in Scotland with an American accent’. I took it as a compliment. I was trying to conclude an absolutely tight deal for the club.

“If we are going to do something that is outwith our budget, then we’ll put the money in first. The money comes from our own pockets — from Keyes Capital. Everything is well thought out. If something is going to cost X, and if we think it is a good investment, and will help us achieve what we are trying to achieve at Dundee, then we make a decision to put the money in.”

But surely, I asked Nelms, you’re not just throwing money into the club? Nelms and his investors cannot possibly be in this to be down on the deal. Can Keyes Capital reclaim the money, which they occasionally pump into the club, down the line?

“No … or at least not until we sold the business,” Nelms replied. “It is a long, patient process. This is a business and we want to grow the business. Put it this way — and these are not real numbers, by the way — but if what we took over was a one million pound business, then we think that what we took over is worth a lot more now. And we believe, as we build it, it will be worth a lot more again. At the end of the day, someone might not want to take it off us, and we might never want to sell it. So it could be for generations that we hang on to this club, I don’t know.

“We don’t have an exit strategy. We might sell it in ten years’ time, I don’t know. Or they might plant me in the ground when I’m still here, who knows?”

There has been recent consternation at the thought of Nelms and Keyes demolishing Dens Park and moving Dundee to a new site near Camperdown on the west side of the city. He happily explains the furore.

“Tim and I are deepening our roots in Scotland. We want to develop and do more things here on the business side. Are we looking at a new stadium? Yes, we are looking to see if building a new stadium might be right and sustainable for this club.

“This piece of land came up for sale, and it is a good piece of land, so we purchased it [for a reputed £1.2 million]. The club didn’t purchase it —Tim and I purchased it. It is one of those where, we want to do what’s best for the club, and if putting a stadium there is best for the club, then we’ll try to do that.

“Look, I love it here at Dens Park — absolutely. We would love to upgrade Dens, but I don’t know that we can; it would be almost impossible.

“We are behind the times in this stadium, so we have to keep looking forward. The club has been here for 100 years. Now we have to think of the next 100 years.”

Nelms spent much of yesterday concluding the deal to sell striker Greg Stewart to Birmingham City. Today at lunchtime Rangers arrive at Dens Park. He is an engaging character, now utterly immersed in the saga of Dundee.

“When we came here, we had plans, and we are well ahead of where we thought we’d be,” he says. “But the real answer is, we’ll never be satisfied. We’ll always be looking ahead to what is next, to what we can do to make Dundee that bit better.”

[Fifespud]

U guys seen this p**h

Interview with John Nelms in the Times:

John Nelms, the 45-year-old managing director of Dundee, admits that people were uneasy when he showed up as the new co-owner at Dens Park in 2013. The plain fact is, Dundee FC had seen enough dubious cowboys and dream merchants to last a lifetime, some of whom had endangered the very existence of the club. So who was this latest character?

The likeable, plainspoken Nelms recalls his early days at Dens. “Everyone was kind of nervous when I came in,” he says. “And I understood why. When I arrived I got some of the ‘we know where your family lives, we know where your kids go to school’ stuff. Thankfully, that is no more.

“There was a load of cynicism to overcome. But I appreciated what the fans were going through. They didn’t know me personally: who was this guy, what was he going to do?

“That is why we made no big promises. But we said we are going to put a shift in for this club and try to build it up. I am here every day, trying to make it better. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get 100 per cent buy-in from people, but if we keep doing what we are doing, I think they will see we have the best interests of this club at heart.”

Nelms might just be winning people round. Together with fellow-American, Tim Keyes, the pair own around 62 per cent of Dundee, via Keyes Capital Investment, and have seen the club grow and thrive in the top flight in Scottish football since their arrival.

John Nelms, the 45-year-old managing director of Dundee, admits that people were uneasy when he showed up as the new co-owner at Dens Park in 2013. The plain fact is, Dundee FC had seen enough dubious cowboys and dream merchants to last a lifetime, some of whom had endangered the very existence of the club. So who was this latest character?

The likeable, plainspoken Nelms recalls his early days at Dens. “Everyone was kind of nervous when I came in,” he says. “And I understood why. When I arrived I got some of the ‘we know where your family lives, we know where your kids go to school’ stuff. Thankfully, that is no more.

“There was a load of cynicism to overcome. But I appreciated what the fans were going through. They didn’t know me personally: who was this guy, what was he going to do?

“That is why we made no big promises. But we said we are going to put a shift in for this club and try to build it up. I am here every day, trying to make it better. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get 100 per cent buy-in from people, but if we keep doing what we are doing, I think they will see we have the best interests of this club at heart.”

Nelms might just be winning people round. Together with fellow-American, Tim Keyes, the pair own around 62 per cent of Dundee, via Keyes Capital Investment, and have seen the club grow and thrive in the top flight in Scottish football since their arrival.


The intriguing question remains: why are Nelms and Keyes at Dens Park? What possible sane reason can there be for American businessmen throwing their money at Scottish football, let alone at the basket case that was recently Dundee FC?

“It is a bit of everything: the lifestyle, a bit of love, plus the challenge of taking a struggling club and trying to put business acumen into it and building it up,” says Nelms. “For me, it’s not just the love of football, but a love of this country as well.

“When I was young, after being born and raised in the USA, my father got a job fixing missiles to nuclear submarines at Faslane. He worked originally in Missouri, where he was a jet-propulsion engineer, but then headed a team over to Scotland when I was seven years old. We lived in Rhu and I went to school in Helensburgh.

“My father died when I was 14, but I’d been back and forth to Scotland a few times since on holiday. I always felt like I’d come back here eventually. And then the opportunity at Dundee came up.

“Back in 2013 we had a family meeting with my kids — then aged 13 and 11 — before we embarked on this. It was, ‘right, guys, dad is thinking of doing this … is this something you’d want to do?’ And the answer was, ‘yes, absolutely.’ They were fully into it. So here I am.”

Nelms’ sworn ambition is to do right by Dundee, build the club up, make it a success and a proud part of the Tayside community. He emits such warmth and feeling and determination for the club that you are left thinking, ‘if this guy is another chancer, he is a damn fine actor.’ The growing feeling in Jute City, after early doubts, is that Nelms is the real deal.

“I think having a good work ethic is important,” he says. “I always say to my kids, ‘you can’t have million-pound dreams with a minimum-wage work ethic.’ So I am working all the time on Dundee.

“The club has no debt. We promised the fans that we wouldn’t take debt with us. The club is self-sufficient and we run to a strict budget. In fact only yesterday a guy said to me, ‘you’re the tightest man in Scotland with an American accent’. I took it as a compliment. I was trying to conclude an absolutely tight deal for the club.

“If we are going to do something that is outwith our budget, then we’ll put the money in first. The money comes from our own pockets — from Keyes Capital. Everything is well thought out. If something is going to cost X, and if we think it is a good investment, and will help us achieve what we are trying to achieve at Dundee, then we make a decision to put the money in.”

But surely, I asked Nelms, you’re not just throwing money into the club? Nelms and his investors cannot possibly be in this to be down on the deal. Can Keyes Capital reclaim the money, which they occasionally pump into the club, down the line?

“No … or at least not until we sold the business,” Nelms replied. “It is a long, patient process. This is a business and we want to grow the business. Put it this way — and these are not real numbers, by the way — but if what we took over was a one million pound business, then we think that what we took over is worth a lot more now. And we believe, as we build it, it will be worth a lot more again. At the end of the day, someone might not want to take it off us, and we might never want to sell it. So it could be for generations that we hang on to this club, I don’t know.

“We don’t have an exit strategy. We might sell it in ten years’ time, I don’t know. Or they might plant me in the ground when I’m still here, who knows?”

There has been recent consternation at the thought of Nelms and Keyes demolishing Dens Park and moving Dundee to a new site near Camperdown on the west side of the city. He happily explains the furore.

“Tim and I are deepening our roots in Scotland. We want to develop and do more things here on the business side. Are we looking at a new stadium? Yes, we are looking to see if building a new stadium might be right and sustainable for this club.

“This piece of land came up for sale, and it is a good piece of land, so we purchased it [for a reputed £1.2 million]. The club didn’t purchase it —Tim and I purchased it. It is one of those where, we want to do what’s best for the club, and if putting a stadium there is best for the club, then we’ll try to do that.

“Look, I love it here at Dens Park — absolutely. We would love to upgrade Dens, but I don’t know that we can; it would be almost impossible.

“We are behind the times in this stadium, so we have to keep looking forward. The club has been here for 100 years. Now we have to think of the next 100 years.”

Nelms spent much of yesterday concluding the deal to sell striker Greg Stewart to Birmingham City. Today at lunchtime Rangers arrive at Dens Park. He is an engaging character, now utterly immersed in the saga of Dundee.

“When we came here, we had plans, and we are well ahead of where we thought we’d be,” he says. “But the real answer is, we’ll never be satisfied. We’ll always be looking ahead to what is next, to what we can do to make Dundee that bit better.”

He's either the biggest liar we've ever had (and we've had some of the biggest) or it's definitely not us.

Another good interview from Nelms.

[LiamDFC]

I have a good feeling about today. A convincing 2-0 win and an earth-shaking Derry Rumba to start the first home game of the season.

Also, McGowan to lose his shit and sprint full-pelt towards the away fans, through Bains net before dragging the goalposts and Joey Barton into the Shankly with him.

Edited August 13, 2016 by LiamDFC

[bobbycoxblue]

Quick cheer up lads

[Fifespud]

Quick cheer up lads

Funny how you don't appreciate what you've got until it's gone.

[Dundee-FC92]

The ballad of blubber man Bill

Granny Danger
To kebabs - no stranger
The Cheaper Insurance ground
Old Dangers scales show a large pound
The world famous humbled
Beneath the rock they crumbled
A long season of nothingness
How long though they've deserved this.

[TheMessiah]

How's wee Fais getting on?

Reckon he'll be starting anytime soon?

[Fifespud]

The ballad of blubber man Bill

Granny Danger
To kebabs - no stranger
The Cheaper Insurance ground
Old Dangers scales show a large pound
The world famous humbled
Beneath the rock they crumbled
A long season of nothingness
How long though they've deserved this.

Just beautiful man. [emoji106]

[an-dee]

How's wee Fais getting on?

Reckon he'll be starting anytime soon?

I thought he looked bright when he came on today. Some great touches and runs. Once he's settled in I think he'll be first choice.

[Thistle4eva]

Must admit ohara looks like he could be yet another great signing for yous. Best player ive seen (highlight wise) this season.

Apart from erskine obv

Edited August 14, 2016 by Thistle4eva

[DundeeDerryBoy]

Must admit ohara looks like he could be yet another great signing for yous. Best player ive seen (highlight wise) this season.

Apart from erskine obv

Seen him 3 times and he's been our best player by a mile every time.

1 goal and 2 assists in his first two league games. Amazing to think Killie played him in defence.

[Ludo*1]

I know we agreed not to mention Liam Kennedy again but he's been punted/got a new job so won't be reporting on Dundee for much longer.

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

24 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

I know we agreed not to mention Liam Kennedy again but he's been punted/got a new job so won't be reporting on Dundee for much longer.

Thank f**k for that.

[The Algebraist]

12 hours ago, Thistle4eva said:

Must admit ohara looks like he could be yet another great signing for yous. Best player ive seen (highlight wise) this season.

Apart from erskine obv

 

5 hours ago, DundeeDerryBoy said:

 

Seen him 3 times and he's been our best player by a mile every time.

1 goal and 2 assists in his first two league games. Amazing to think Killie played him in defence.

 

Watching the game yesterday I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that both O'Hara and El Bakhtaoui are going to play for a bigger club than us. The former deserves all the plaudits he's getting and the latter has technique well beyond typical SPFL standard. Let's hope for a couple of good years and a big fee out of both them.

[D TOTAL]

Hemmings started for Oxford and has a goal

[Dee Man]

Latest rumour I've heard is 3 players went out and got pished in Austria, got fined but Harkins refused to pay it. 

[Milnzo]

1 minute ago, Dee Man said:

Latest rumour I've heard is 3 players went out and got pished in Austria, got fined but Harkins refused to pay it. 

I was told that through the week.

O'dea, Harkins and one other fined £100 each for drinking/breaking curfew. The other two paid up, Harkins refused - OYP.

Good night sweet prince. :tears: