article_snippet.sent: The seeds of the crisis that appear to have taken place at almost every level of the club were first sown at the end of the winter transfer window when chairman Stephen Thompson took the unpopular decision to sell star players Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven to Celtic.
article_snippet.sent: As furious fans pointed out, hadn’t Thomson used the eve of last May’s Scottish Cup Final defeat by St Johnstone to declare Tannadice finances to be their finest since 1986 and vow there would be no player exodus, as occurred after the Scottish Cup win in 2010 under Peter Houston?
article_snippet.sent: Dundee United sold Stuart Armstrong (left) to Celtic during the January transfer window .
article_snippet.sent: Gary Mackay-Steven also sealed a winter move to Celtic on transfer deadline day .
article_snippet.sent: The Tannadice supremo even went as far as Stuart Armstrong (left) along with Ryan Gauld and Andrew Robertson as players Gary Mackay-Steven would like to keep for ‘at least another year’ to help ‘compete’ with Celtic.
article_snippet.sent: Ryan Gauld and Andrew Robertson Andrew Robertson were quickly sold for £3million each last summer, although the fees for Ryan Gauld and Andrew Robertson made the sales palatable.
article_snippet.sent: Yet parting with Stuart Armstrong and Mackay-Steven just 48 hours after reaching a League Cup Final against a Celtic side Thompson had vowed to ‘compete’ with proved particularly painful for the rank and file.
article_snippet.sent: I can understand letting Gary Mackay-Steven go because Gary Mackay-Steven had signed a pre-contract with Celtic but Stuart Armstrong is a different case.
article_snippet.sent: Dundee United were in touching distance of Celtic and if you are serious about challenging, then you can sell Gary Mackay-Steven in June.
article_snippet.sent: But both players sold Gauld and Robertson for substantial fees in the summer
article_snippet.sent: Especially selling to Celtic, a rival, rather than an English team.
article_snippet.sent: ’ Clubs were shocked 25 per cent of £6.3m worth of transfer fees for Gauld, Robertson, Armstrong and Mackay-Steven were paid in commission to unnamed parties.