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Ex Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson reveals he has filed for bankruptcy as he reignites Rangers rivalry
Ex Dundee United supremo Stephen Thompson revealed he has applied for bankruptcy after hitting rock bottom and jokingly threw his hat into the ring for the Rangers CEO job as he looks for a return to football.
Thompson took over at Tannadice after dad Eddie died from cancer and it was a roller coaster time at the club from winning the Scottish Cup to relegation from the Scottish Premiership. He became a hate figure among the Ibrox legions around the time of the Light Blues financial collapse and he quipped that he could be line for a job there.
The diehard United fan gave a frank interview on BBC Scotland’s Off the Ball with Tam Cowan and, after selling his father’s Eddy's Food Station stores to Spar, admitted: "I've kind of hit rock bottom to be honest. I signed a petition for bankruptcy yesterday which isn't a great place to be in life. The stores were making money but we started out at the wrong time. I'd like to get back in football but it's not easy to get back into.”
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And on Rangers he said: "Well, they do need a chief exec don't they? It's pretty well known they [Rangers fans] don't like me. We had a bit of a battle with them a couple of years over an abandoned match before that and I charged them half the price to get in again.”
He was also a target for criticism when Gers dropped down to the bottom tier but he said: “They need to look at what happened at their own club and not look outside - it wasn’t anyone else who took the club to where it got to, it happened from within. Everyone wants to blame someone else and football is great for rewriting history.”
But Thompson wants a genuine return to the game and said: “I had 17 of years of my life in football. It’s what you know, it’s in your blood. I watched United since I was four years old so I’m a football guy. I feel I’ve got something to offer. We had a lot of success at Dundee United, I know it didn’t end well.
“I sat on the league board for six years, done transfers fees, sell on clauses so I know how it works. You’re on a steep learning curve at the start but you don’t forget it and I feel I’ve got something to offer someone.
"I was damaged by it but not now. It certainly affected me for a while. Living in your home city, and Dundee isn’t huge, is tough for anyone who owns a club. But it is what it is. I was damaged for a wee while but you get over that.
“It was a bit of a roller coaster. We went from winning the Scottish Cup to getting relegated so you can’t get higher and lower than that. I love the club but it didn’t end the best way. It was a hard act to follow in the footsteps of my dad - and he left me with £7.2million of debt as well which was fun. We got it down to £1m.”
Thompson hired and fired managers during his time at United and said: “Paul Hegarty was one of my heroes as a kid and I sacked him twice. It’s not a very pleasant thing to do but you’ve got to run the business. It’s hard picking a manager. I was talking to Alan Burrows a couple of weeks ago and it’s all analytics now.
“The best football we played was under Jackie McNamara but things didn’t always go well, particularly towards the end. It’s common in England (that mangers get a cut of players’ transfer fees) but not in Scotland. It was part of the negotiations and people said he wanted to sell them to make money.
“Every club in Scotland has to sell players to survive or the owner has to put money in. Bojan Miovski covers one year’s operating losses! It’s quite frightening. We used to have a gap of about £750,000-£1million so you have to fill it. The only club with money in the bank is Celtic.”
