Micky Mellon insists there are “no big dramas” at Dundee United despite the Tayside club being set to implement cost-cutting measures.
The lack of crowds this season due to the coronavirus crisis has had a severe impact at United, with owner Mark Ogren quoted as saying the cut-back programme “could get messy”.
Reports claim that players have been asked to take a 20 per cent pay cut, but the United boss said: “I don’t know anything about the cuts, about the percentages yet, we are in discussions as a group, football employees.”
However, Mellon insists players and management will deal with the situation in the context of a pandemic.
He said: “Not just football is suffering, everyone in the world is suffering.
“So we’re well aware of that, we are not immune to that.
“So to be dealing with this is probably no massive surprise because there’s no crowds and no income for these football clubs.
“What I’ve always said is we have a group of players, a management staff and a staff at Tannadice that understand that.
“We are in discussions to come to a place where we can help the football club move through these times and it’s as simple as that.
“There’s no big dramas here, there’s nothing that’s worrying me about the situation other than we just want to get to a place where we can only concentrate on the football and get on with things.”
Mellon believes that financial problems had been in the making for “weeks and months.”
He said: “Football is all about fans, it revolves around fans coming to games.
“Common sense tells you the longer the fans stayed away, the less money is coming into football clubs, the more difficult it was going to become and there was going to have to be a give somewhere.
“We are adult about that, we understand that.
“We will do what is necessary in order to try and keep the football club moving forward until we get through this pandemic.”
Asked if the club had over-reached with recent new recruits – loan signings Luke Bolton (Manchester City) and Marc McNulty (Reading) and new boys Jeando Fuchs and Ryan Edwards – and were living beyond their means, Mellon said: “No, I think we have only brought two loan players, two young lads, probably two permanents.
“I think it has cut its cloth accordingly, sensibly. Without doubt we would be able to say that.”
