Dundee - a tale of two halves

While one Dundee club are feeling the pinch, the other is spending money.

Craig Levein hinted last week that the Arabs are experiencing financial difficulties due to the collapse of Setanta, though the chairman Steven Thompson moved quickly to alleviate concerns. "We are not going into administration", he says, although it's safe to assume that belts are being tightened all around Tannadice.

One potential way to replace that lost TV funding could come from an unlikely source - near-neighbours Dundee FC. They have proposed offering £500,000 for Scott Robertson (who crossed the road to the Arabs under freedom of contract), although Levein is not happy about that idea.

Dundee, who spent spectacularly a few years ago before going into administration and getting relegated to Division 1, and who were supposedly in sever financial difficulties just a few months ago, are now talking themselves up again.

Director Calum Melville has bankrolled fresh investment in the squad and reckons that Dundee will be the 6th biggest club in Scotland once they re-establish themselves in the SPL.

Is this realistic? Fans still remember the crazy days of Claudio Caniggia and the White Feather, elite players tempted to Scotland's East Coast by wages that looked obscene at the time and proved to be the club's undoing. This time, the spending is more constrained, but six figure transfer fees are still way beyond a Division 1 club's earnings (they've already bought Leigh Griffiths for £125,000).

Melville, though, swears that the plan is for Dundee to become debt-free and self-financing, and reckons on a five year plan to get the club back to where it belongs.

What is he up to? Is the groundshare option going to be mentioned again? Either he has a rabbit up his sleeve, or is content to fritter away some of his fortune for fun.