Tuesday 29 September 2015 13:17, UK
Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson insists the board had little option other than to dismiss Jackie McNamara after a poor start to the season.
McNamara's two-and-a-half year stint as United manager officially came to an end late on Monday following talks with Thompson at Tannadice.
United have progressed to the quarter-finals of the Scottish League Cup, but have won only one league game this season, against Motherwell at Fir Park.
The team are currently second bottom in the table, above McNamara's former club Partick Thistle, but the board decided to force the change following a 2-1 defeat to 10-man St Johnstone last Saturday.
Thompson told Sky Sports News HQ: "We've got expectations at this club, that fans have expectations and so do we, and we've been in the top six eight years running, and that is where the fans and club expect to be.
"We've obviously reached an agreement on it late last night in regard to that and that's kind of behind us, so not easy.
"As a chairman you build a relationship with a manager, it's the most important relationship at the club. We got on very well, worked very well together, we spoke to each other three, four times a day.
"We, certainly as far as we're concerned, back him. The budget, I'm repeating myself, the budget's the third biggest in the league, that must tell you something that we didn't just take the money and run off into the hills, so it was hard, I found it very hard.
"You build a relationship with people, we are all individuals as well, but I've got to do the right thing for the club and we believe that was the right thing for the club."
Thompson insists there was no panic in the boardroom due to the lowly league position, but the board felt the time was right to change the manager.
"I haven't thought about relegation at all, it's not something we even want to think about but the performances haven't been the best. It's a results driven industry at the end of the day and that's what it's based on. It's simply based on results," he said.
"Certain things that have happened in the past have been done very, very well, but we've got to deal with where we are now.
"We know what we are looking for as a manager but we're not going to rush into it. We're in the middle of discussions just now.
"We spent a fair bit of time yesterday on it, along with discussing things with lawyers. We've got an idea what we're looking for, we've got a big squad here, I think we've got a lot of talent here, so hopefully we'll make the right decision with the right manager."
