Handsome_Devil

Not saying they're saying they're right or wrong but looking at a single set of accounts without all kinds of context and caveats is rather pointless...if someone is determined enough to dig that out and pore through it in detail fair play (I'm certainly not!) but i certainly don't see reason for concern because a headline number.

The wannabe psychologist in me would love to speak to Ian Ross, he looked a brilliant prospect when he came into side - not only doing the normal midfield stuff but being really dynamic in getting up the pitch by running past players. Bit by bit that got lost from his game and he ended up at left back I think. Did he just not hit his early potential? Lose confidence? Get the risky part coached out of him? It's particularly curious as Marc Fitzpatrick followed almost the exact same path a decade later. Anyway, two teams where it's safe to say you've no idea what you'll get on Saturday. I feel confident saying we'll win or we'll lose or it might be a draw.

I'd love them to come up. There was a much bigger rivalry with them than Hamilton back in the day and I've no doubt it'd return soon. But tbh I'd just find playing any team which has the edge of a derby more interesting than interchangeable St Mirren, St Johnstone etc of the other six.

No worries, I wasn't meaning you in particular, it just happened yours was the comment which sparked my latest rant

Sure but at the AGM it was said that those in discussions were viewing this as an entrepreneurial enterprise to make money. The language used by everyone - from those in the AGM to those on Twitter - is investor not benefactor. All kinds of people are demanding investors and they'd be well minded to know the difference. I'd absolutely love some generous idiot to hand us cash but this is 100% not what is being discussed ATM. Which is why I'm calling bullshit on it just now and questioning everyone who blindly says we have a 750k deficit, we need an investor... they're talking nonsense.

To show my age/ignorance here, who is Ewan McVicar?

Often when time passes you get a better perspective on things but our rallying call still seems as bizarre as ever. It's a total guess but I strongly suspect McMahon and Weir just blundered into an area they don't know - ie communication/marketing - and made a bollocks of it. I asked before and didn't get an answer (and I know it's a daft question because of details etc), but I would love to see the back of an envelope business plan which leads people - in our boardroom or stands - to conclude we'll be better off with investors trying to take money out the club than we are now.

Thanks for that. I did wonder about going from cup winners to relegation but always hard to know how much of that can be laid at the door of the CEO or how much they just do their best when the sporting side collapses around them.

So lads, Brian Caldwell, any good?

With the usual caveats of not knowing his personality, focus on growth v cutting costs etc, instinctively you look at his record of 25 years CEO experience of football clubs and say fine...

Definitely. I'm assuming Hearts are spending more on Spittal than we'd ever contemplate but even if they're only offering him an amount we could match, I'd be far from convinced we should - for various reasons including what you mentioned. Essentially if we pick up a journeyman 26-year-old and get two great seasons from him, you happily wish him all the best in Edinburgh or Aberdeen rather than doing anything stupid or kicking ourselves for not doing more. And while we didn't get cash on this occasion, it won't have gone unnoticed - not least because the club will shout about it loudly - that Kettlewell has now transformed the financial circumstances of Johnston, KVV and Spittal with Bair arguably on his way to joining them. I'm not saying that's unique - it is after all the job of a coach to make players better - but having so many folk make such dramatic jumps in such a short space of time is certainly unusual... probably the only similarity I can think of for us is McGarry, Clarkson and Paterson in 2007 under McGhee. As an aside on Hearts, very curious to see how they'll do next season... they've done some excellent early business on paper but safe to say there's intriguing questions as well.

Yeah, there's certainly room for that within the context of 'the model'. There's only so many experienced SPL we can sign and if we get a good chunk out of them before they move on for more money then everyone's a winner. Would I have liked to keep him, sure, bit it's hard to grudge him it or think there's much else that could have been done.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/blair-spittal-latest-hearts-transfer-32412276 Not confirmed yet.

That's entirely common sense and as mentioned already totally at odds with how Scottish football works sadly.

In tennis and cricket nobody complains if something goes against them when they've burned their three challenges. You're supposed to use them when you're convinced of an obvious error, being penalised for delaying the game on a whim is entirely reasonable. There'd certainly be issues with an appeal system but it'd be miles better than what we have now.

Yeah, I've no doubt they would. But there's always been deals between whatever league body there is and the SFA, not always reached easily. The league - which generates the money through playing every week - is ultimately the dog rather than the tail, regardless of the fact that the SFA is the ultimate governing body. Delighted if we're pushing to get ND out and reform the league regardless of VAR though. About 12 years overdue and likely doomed to failure but still.

Thing is, every club will be able to point out inconsistencies and put out a whiny statement. So while we get got particularly mugged most recently, it's not like we're unique or having any great cause here. The pressure will begin to build if when clubs - and you'd assume Motherwell, Hearts, St Mirren could be the starting point - start saying they're going to campaign to scrap it. Until then though you're just complaining about the referee after getting beat the same way clubs always have done.

Meanwhile: https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2024/03/20/statement-on-var-decision-against-aberdeen/ Pew! Pew! Goes the sound of our toy gun.

Of course he did because this season. FFS.

There's various articles about the City Group in France: https://onefootball.com/en/news/feature-estac-troyes-manchester-citys-french-affiliate-abandoned-by-fans-and-in-freefall-38579102 https://www.essentiallysports.com/viral-sports-moments-soccer-news-incompatible-with-this-team-magic-troyes-supporters-unhappy-with-promotional-activities-in-manchester-citys-multi-club-model/ While I'm unsure about the merits of this for us in general, if the offer was to become part of the Abu Dhabi promotion campaign I'd take kicking around the Championship and Challenge Cup every time.

Time will tell. I find it hard to believe it's a free lunch. Certainly I've always thought if there were clubs where investment could work it was Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Anywhere else and you're basically giving away your money, those three medium clubs at least offer a theoretical path to profit...but as we've seen, converting that theory into practice is far from easy. It's like the old joke that anyone who wants to be a politician should be excluded from the job - anyone who says they can make money investing in Scottish football, old firm apart, should be chased from your club.

Nah, there's a big difference in deciding your own course as opposed to existing purely to benefit the bigger club in your ownership model. Hibs certainly aren't walking into that status next week or anything but there's a phrase about thin ends and wedges which springs to mind.

It's now been X weeks since the Hibs thing was waved through by the SFA and I still struggle to have a concrete position on it. Every instinct I have says I want us to have nothing to do with this sort of shite yet there's no doubt being independent will get old very quickly when we struggle. How long do you try to push water uphill (insert analogy of your choice here)? Are principles worth being a yo-yo club? Might enjoy some junkits to Ireland and winning the Challenge Cup, who knows...

Definitely but there's something incredibly depressing about our biggest clubs turning into feeder sides for that level of team down south.

Perhaps it's just me but I really don't think we were *that* bad. Good absolutely not but we still made what, six or seven decent chances, had a goal disallowed and a penalty denied. And that despite picking a stupid team. Draw that 1-1 as we should have done and quite frankly that game would have been forgotten by all concerned by Saturday evening. There were people jumping off bridges at half time v Livingston and eyeing up the top six after Ibrox and I understood neither view. Robinson used to say he thought we were never as bad as some said when things were bad and never as good as some said when things were good. Wise words and perfectly fitting to our level now. We're on course to survive what was universally regarded as a tough season having cleared the deadwood and are on course to do so with, at worse, a minor operating loss. This season is heading for the 'job done, move on' tick virtually everyone would have settled for last summer. Any time I'm optimistic in spring rather than panicking over our immediate future I think things are ok overall.