Dundee F.C. Totally Explained

Everything about Dundee F C totally explained

Dundee Football Club, founded in 1893, are a football team based in the city of Dundee, Scotland. They are nicknamed The Dee or The Dark Blues and play their home matches at Dens Park. Their home shirt colour is dark blue.
Dundee FC currently play in the Scottish First Division, having been relegated from the Scottish Premier League in 2005. The team is currently managed by Alex Rae, who played for the club but recently retired from professional football. Rae was appointed on 24 May 2006, following the sacking of Alan Kernaghan. For the past three seasons they've failed to gain promotion back to the top tier as they finished 7th in 2005-2006, 3rd in 2006-2007 and will finish the 2007-2008 campaign in 2nd place. In the 2005-2006 Dundee managed to reach the Scottish Cup semi-final but were beaten 3-0 by Gretna, then a Scottish Second Division side.
Unusually for a city of its size, Dundee supports two senior professional football teams, Dundee FC and Dundee United. Their grounds are within a few hundred yards of each other and are the two closest professional football grounds in the British Isles. The two teams are fierce rivals, although Dundee's relegation and the subsequent lack of competitive games between the two have diminished the rivalry.

History

Formed in 1893, Dundee Football Club was formed by an amalgamation of two city teams, Our Boys and East End. The club played their first Scottish league match on 12 August 1893 drawing 3-3 with Rangers. Dundee moved to their current stadium, Dens Park, in 1899.
   The club were relatively unsuccessful in their early days until the Scottish Cup win of 1910. The first decade after the war saw Dundee come close to a league title in 1949, win two League Cups, reach a Scottish Cup final in 1952, and they also paid a Scottish record fee of £15,000 for Billy Steel. At this time Dundee's home attendances averaged more than 20,000.
   In 1959 Dundee had a shock 1-0 defeat to Highland League side Fraserburgh in the Scottish Cup. This is widely regarded Dundee's most embarrassing defeat in their history.
   Dundee won the league title of Scotland's top division, then called the First Division, in the 1961/62 season. Under the guidance of manager Bob Shankly, brother of Bill Shankly, and with players such as Alan Gilzean, Gordon Smith and Alex Hamilton they won the league championship in 1962 with a win against St Johnstone, which inturn relegated St Johnstone to the then Scottish Second Division. The following season the club reached the semi-final of the European Cup beating 1. FC Köln,Sporting Clube de Portugal and R.S.C. Anderlecht, before losing to AC Milan. Dundee also reached the Fairs Cup semi final in 1968, losing to Leeds United.
   Success since their golden era in the early 1960s has been scarce with a League Cup win in 1973-1974. Dundee. The Hampden win by one goal to nil, scored by Gordon Wallace, was against Celtic when Dundee were captained by the former Lisbon Lion Tommy Gemmell. Gemmell shortly after went on to manage Dundee for a brief spell. Although starved of success as far as the winning of trophies as concerned Dundee had some excellent players over the next few years including John Brown, Cammy Fraser, Jim Duffy, Tosh Mackinlay, Eric Sinclair and local boy Bobby Glennie who went on to skipper his home team on many occasions Under the guidance of John McCormack and then Jocky Scott, clinched the Scottish First Division title in 1998 with a 1-1 draw against Raith Rovers, ending a four year spell in the Scottish First Division by gaining promotion to the Premier Division. In 2000 the club made perhaps their biggest ever signing when they brought in Argentine international Claudio Caniggia, who later signed for Rangers. Caniggia was only one of many foreign signings in the Dundee side in the early 2000s, which also included former Newcastle player Temuri Ketsbaia. The signing of such high-profile players along with many others led Dundee to a Scottish Cup final and two top-six finishes (although it's worth noting that Jocky Scott, with considerably less money to spend, led the team to their highest placed finish in the Scottish Premier League - namely 5th.) This was achieved under the managership of Ivano Bonneti. However as the Marrs brothers chased an impossible dream, the attendances at Dundee F.C were still short of their neighbours and Dundee FC's spending significantly out-weighed their income . Dundee FC were soon forced into administration. This is hardly surprising due to their unsustainable spending.

Scottish Cup runners-up 2002/03

Before Dundee went into financial trouble they enjoyed a good run in the Scottish Cup. In the third round Dundee knocked out Glasgow side Partick Thistle 2-0 away from home. The fourth round saw Dundee knock out Aberdeen 2-0 at Dens Park. Dundee continued their march towards Hampden Park with a 1-1 draw away and a 4-1 AET victory over Falkirk at Dens booked their place in the semi-finals playing Inverness CT at Hampden Park. The only goal of the game was by Giorgi Nemsadze. This secured a 1-0 victory and a place in the final against Glasgow Rangers. Former Dee Barry Smith hit the post but Lorenzo Amoruso scored to bring Dundee's cup run to an end.

Financial trouble

In 2003, due to financial mismanagement under owners Peter & James Marr, resulting in a £23 m debt, they were forced to go into administration with many players such as Fabian Caballero and Georgian captain Giorgi Nemsadze leaving the club in 2005. Despite this huge debt, Dundee FC survived by selling their stadium in 2003. The club's finances now look much better with the club focusing on its youth policy. In mid-2006, it was announced that financial restructuring would see the club become debt-free.
In early 2007 Peter & James Marr severed all ties with Dundee, stepping down as Chairman, when their company P&J Taverns was forced into administration. Bob Brannan and Dave MacKinnon took the Marrs' place.

Current first team squad

As of 20 May 2008 � For recent transfers, see List of Scottish football transfers 2007-08.

Technical staff

Alex Rae — Player/Manager
David Farrell - Assistant Manager
Gordon Wallace — Youth Coach
Paul Ritchie — Youth Coach

Noted players

� For a list of Dundee players with articles, see .

Bobby Mann

John Brown

Luis Alberto Carranza

Bobby Cox

Doug Cowie

Jim Duffy

Hughie Ferguson

Cammy Fraser

Tommy Gemmell

Alan Gilzean

Bobby Glennie

Jimmy Guthrie

Jonay Hernández Santos

Temuri Ketsbaia

Zurab Khizanishvili

Albert Kidd

Neil McCann

George Mclean

Giorgi Nemsadze

Nacho Novo

Andy Penman

Fabrizio Ravanelli

Brent Sancho

Juan Sara

Bobby Seith

Eric Sinclair

Barry Smith

Gordon Smith

Billy Steel

Steven Tweed

Ian Ure

Fan Zhiyi

Managers

This is a partial list of managers, from 1928 only.

Jimmy Bisset (1928 - 1933)

Billy McCandless (1933 - 1937)

Andy Cunningham (1937 - 1940)

George Anderson (1944 - 1954)

Willie Thornton (1954 - 1959)

Bob Shankly (1959 - 1965)

Sammy Kean (caretaker) (1965 - 1965)

Bobby Ancell (1965 - 1968)

John Prentice (1968 - 1972)

David White (1972 - 1977)

Tommy Gemmell (1977 - 1980)

Don Mackay (1980 - 1984)

Archie Knox (1984 - 1986)

Jocky Scott (1986 - 1988)

Dave Smith (1988 - 1989)

Gordon Wallace (1989 - 1991)

John Blackley (caretaker) (1991-1991)

Iain Munro (1991 - 1992)

Simon Stainrod (1992 - 1993)

Jim Duffy (1993 - 1996)

John McCormack (1997 - 1998)

Jocky Scott (1998 - 2000)

Ivano Bonetti (2000 - 2002)

Jim Duffy (2002 - 2005)

Alan Kernaghan (2005 - 2006)

Alex Rae (2006 - present)

Records

Highest attendance: 136,495 fans attended the 1952 Scottish Cup final between Dundee and Motherwell. This is also a record for a club match in Scotland not featuring either of the Old Firm.

Highest home attendance: 43,024 vs Rangers, February 7, 1953, Scottish Cup 2nd Round

Highest average home attendance: 24,532, 1948-49 (15 games)

Biggest league win: 10-2 vs. Queen of the South F.C. 1962. vs. Alloa Athletic F.C. 1947 vs. Dunfermline Athletic F.C. 1947

Biggest league loss: 11-0 vs. Celtic F.C. 1895

Most capped player: Alex Hamilton, 24 Scotland

Most league appearances: Bill Marsh, 386, 1924-1937 & Barry Smith, 400, 1995-2006

Most league goals: Alan Gilzean, 113

Most goals in a season: Alan Gilzean, 52, 1963-64

Highest transfer fee paid: £600,000, Fabián Caballero from Club Sol de América

Highest transfer fee received: £1.2 m, Robert Douglas to Celtic

Competitions

European Cup: � *Semi-finalists (1): 1962-63

Inter Cities Fairs Cup: � *Semi-finalists (1): 1967-68

Scottish Football League: � *Winners (1): 1961-62

*Runners-up (4): 1902-03, 1906-07, 1908-09, 1948-49

Scottish League First Division: � *Winners (3): 1978-79, 1991-92, 1997-98

*Runners-up (1): 1980-81

Scottish League Second Division: � *Winners (1): 1946-47

Scottish Cup: � *Winners (1): 1909-10

*Runners-up (4): 1924-25, 1951-52, 1963-64, 2002-03

Scottish League Cup: � *Winners (3): 1951-52, 1952-53, 1973-74

*Runners-up (3): 1967-68, 1980-81, 1995-96

Scottish Challenge Cup: � *Winners (1): 1990-91

*Runners-up (1): 1994-95

Evening Telegraph Challenge Cup: � *Winners (1): 2006

Further Information

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