Dundee Utd warn they must remain a selling club

Record profits - but operating loss - for the Tannadice club

Published 24th Feb 2016

Dundee United made a record profit of almost £4 million last season, but warned they would need to keep selling players to retain their financial health.

United posted a £3.94 million profit to follow their 1.2 million surplus the previous season, and their fifth profit overall in six years.

The club's revenue increased by four per cent to 5.82 million following a fifth-placed finish in the Scottish Premiership and a League Cup final defeat by Celtic, but player sales enabled them to make a profit.

The accounts were boosted by the £2.85 million sale of Andy Robertson to Hull in the summer of 2014 and Ryan Gauld's 2 million plus transfer to Sporting Lisbon.

They then secured about £1.8million from the sale of Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven to Celtic.

A statement from the Premiership bottom club read: `"Successful player trading enabled the club to reduce its net debt, which stood at £7.3m in 2007, to 1.28m in a further step in the club's strategy to reduce net debt.

"It is noted that the club continues to spend more than it generates in income.

"The operating loss for the year was 799k and only successful player trading can sustain such losses.

"Much work continues to be done on identifying and implementing reductions in operating expenses and the value of this work should be reflected in forthcoming results.''

United have continued to achieve success in the transfer market this season, selling Nadir Ciftci, Ryan McGowan and John Souttar for a combined total of about £2 million.