Bainsfordbairn

This morning was testing of players by 3 or 4 Napier Uni staff. I don't know the specifics of the tests but from what I saw it looked a bit more specialized than normal. I'm guessing an ordinary football club wouldn't have the equipment or expertise to do that.

The timing obviously isn’t ideal, but as I don’t know the reason for the delay I wouldn’t offer an opinion on it. The same applies to trading standards wrt refunds. My guess is that we’ll do the same as everyone else in League One. I picked Montrose and had a trawl through their website but couldn’t find anything about refunds. Do you know what other L1 clubs have offered?

Nothing out of the ordinary. No need. My work for the week is done.

A combination of things I would think. They've done all the updates and throwbacks to death trying to keep folk engaged ever since lockdown began 15 months ago. And given how abysmal the team were last season, I don't imagine pumping out more of the same would have been well received. Most of the things you've mentioned will happen within the next week so the social media stuff will be ramping up considerably. Particularly when preseason begin next Thursday.

There was a local dance group called the Vixens. They turned up to 3 or 4 games maybe around 2010 and were hired by KK's predecessor, a guy called Gary Dowson. The national team had something similar at Hampden called the Scottish Rockettes so maybe in was intended to mimic them.

For a while he's been the only director at the club who was there every day, so he was making many of the "running of the place"-type decisions. A couple of the other directors are sharing some of that just now. The lady in the Commercial Office is back from furlough and is taking on an increased workload, as are a couple of the other staff. There's also a former employee who's returned to help out.

With the exception of a fit Aidan Connolly, there's none of those players whom I'd have wanted in our colours next season. At least based on their performances in navy blue over the last 8 months. There's a few I'd have gladly taken if they were younger but their best days appear to be behind them. I think that the fact they got contracts at the same or higher levels than us says more about their future managers judgement than it does about FFC.

I've been hoping that the development team means we won't need to sign squad fillers this season. In the past the backups were always youth players. They might have had skill, but the problem was they were too wee and skinny to throw too many of them into a senior team together. If I understood the FFCTV interview with Ian Fergus correctly that won't necessarily be the case this season. They won't be playing in an "under -XXs" league so we can sign men instead of boys. Which makes them the squad fillers rather than first teamers who're not first picks. Or so I assume anyway. We'll see what happens over the next couple of months.

Yes, I am talking board. I know nothing of their inner workings so can't comment on your interpretation of their behaviour. I do know one thing though. The lack of an Airdrie match report wasn't part of any grand plan from the BOD. It was a mistake from a depressed employee who couldn't face writing it after seeing his team fail again. He did the wrong thing and won't do it again. I know because he's a friend of mine and we discussed it afterwards. Not everything is a conspiracy. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the accurate one.

Thank you. My arguement was about the lack of knowledge to provide oversight, which appears to have been addressed with the appointment of Holt. So I have no anger at the change of structure.

Pure guesswork on my part, but I don't think the club will know yet. Not unless there's been an instruction from the SPFL to all the teams. I think the number of fans is dependant on the level your area is in and there's still plenty of time for that to change. If we have more season ticket holders than fans who're allowed in then it would seem sensible for the authorities to let live streaming continue. Then again, it is the SFA & SPFL we're talking about.

Re the first part, the responsibility would lie with Sheerin if he has a veto and doesn't use it. We need clarity on exactly where the dividing lines lie between their roles. That may emerge in time, though I'm a bit disappointed we haven't heard anything about the fans forum that was meant to be happening.

Fair answer, and FWIW I'd have been in favour of the patrons bid just as I would have with the previous one. Re the 45K. I obviously have no idea of our current budget, but a couple of years back when we first got relegated I think it was around 1.5 million. Let's say around a million just for the sake of debate. That's less a twentieth of our income. Maybe the value or one or two players? The DOF is probably one of the two most important people at the club, the other obviously being the manager. If we're confident he'll deliver success then it is not a salary worth paying? It's a bit like a salesman. Not matter how much they cost, a good one will always earn you several times more than you pay out.

Just under three years ago, you and I had a long debate on here about "oversight". Hartley had rebuilt the team in the summer and screwed it up. You posted regularly about how incompetent the board were for allowing him to recruit so much dross so quickly. You wanted more board oversight and vetting of his decisions. I disagreed because I didn’t think the likes of a plumber whose football pinnacle was playing for Sauchie had the knowledge necessary to question someone who’ld played at the highest level. Besides which, giving the manager a budget and letting him spend it how he wanted, without interference from above, was pretty standard for Scottish football. So I’d have thought the appointment of a Sporting Director would have met with your approval. It created a level of football knowledge between the accountants/consultants on the board and the manager (or head coach as he is now). What specifically is your objection to it? Do you like the idea but don’t think we can afford it in L1? Or do you have issues with the selection of Holt? Or do you just oppose everything the club does as a point of principle? Personally, I’m not fussed either way. We’ve tried just about every other f’king idea going and none of them have worked. Maybe we’ll finally hit the jackpot this time.

He came on as a sub four times last year in friendlies that weren't covered by FFCTV. I genuinely thought he looked decent. Granted, the opposition were poor with the likes of the Shire & Brechin but he was keen to get forward, had a bit of skill and a surprising amount of dig. His tenacity won us a penalty in one of those games. I was hoping he would get a chance with all our injuries at the end of the season but it didn't happen. Still looked like a wee boy though so maybe they think he needs to develop more physically. Hopefully we should see a lot more of him this year with this new development squad so we can judge him properly. I wouldn't write him off yet.

The graphics are done by a local company called Milk & Two. A quick google search will give you their website, on which they list FFC as one of their clients.

You weren't wrong. Since our meeting almost every major decision has gone badly, with the possible exception of recruiting Houston. And even then the initial good choice was undone by cutting his budget for the final season which led to his decison to walk. Since then it's not been so much downhill as off a cliff. I thought we finally had a new beginning with the Rawlins. Maybe we still do, but the stories that have emerged since are a concern that need to be answered. If he want to have sole control then he has to explain what his plans are if he's to keep the fans on board.

I've no idea why but for some reason your reaction stuck in my head for years afterwards. You genuinely looked astounded, hence why it maybe sprung to mind when I was typing up a response to illustrate my lack of interest in boardroom stuff. As I'm a child of the sixties Spock seemed an appropriate analogy. Though Seven of nine would make for a more appealing avatar image .

Thank you. I'm one of the volunteers who helps out at the club and I get information from being down there quite a lot. People will answer questions as long as you don't pry into confidential stuff and then go spreading it on the internet.

What? I have no idea who user FTID is and I have no involvement whatsoever in any board matters. Nor am I using social media to either attack or defend any of the parties who are. I know nothing about it other than what I've read on here. I give you my word of honour on that and will happily meet you in person to discuss it. The most "anti-board" person I know is Back Post Misses. I met him for the first time maybe a decade ago when he came along to a Bairnstrust meeting. The conversation turned to the BOD and I told him that I had no interest in boardroom matters and his eyebrows did a Mr Spock impersonation. My feelings haven't changed in the slightest. Of the current board, I obviously know and like Kieran Koszary because I've worked with and helped him in his Commercial role for a number of years. I have no relationship with any of the others. That applies to most of the BOD members whom I've encountered. The only exceptions are those BOD members whom I got to know because they were around the club on a daily basis. I have a lot of time for Ronnie Bateman and liked Margaret Lang as a human being, though I strongly disagreed with a number of decisions that were made during her tenure. Conversely, there are a few BOD people whom I disliked intensely because I saw both how they behaved and how their decisions affected staff members who were friends of mine. Though for obvious reasons I'm never going to name them or go into detail. Your allegation about me is both untrue and unfair, given that my name is known on here and I have no idea who you are. Will you explain it?

Three weeks today.

I don’t know the specifics but I’ve had the impression that this appointment had a lot of “I”s to be dotted and “T”s to be crossed before they could finally go public. Which is probably why so many “ITK” posts have said announcement today / tomorrow and then ended up looking silly when nothing happened. From my visit to TFS today I believe it’s almost over the line. Fingers crossed there will be an announcement tomorrow. Whether they delay is indeed shambolic would depend on the reasons for it. I have no idea what they are.

He's a former coach with the Foundation who was doing coaching elsewhere and then returned to work in the shop initially. I think he always saw that a starting point for getting more involved in the professional game. He's been watching the opposition and doing video analysis alongside his "day job" for a while now; I think it was BPM who first mentioned it a year or so back. When Gary Holt arrived he began working fulltime in the football side, hence why you would have seen the club advertising for a retail person not that long ago. The role itself isn't unusual. Alan Maybury picked up various people from his contacts with Stirling Uni who did the same job, usually students who were studying for Sports degrees at the Uni. They were considered part of the club, travelled on the team bus, came with us on preseason trips and could often be seen haring down the tunnel at halftime to show the manager what they'd picked up in the first half. Or fulltime for that matter. Graeme McArthur was the last person who did some of this but he left when we got relegated to League One. Different folk have been doing this kind of role for a while, under different managers, but they've usually worked in the background so most fans would have been unaware of them. So I was a bit surprised to see Liam named in the interview. Edited to add - I don't see anything wrong with someone feeding information into the coaching staff, which I presume is all he's doing just now. It's up to those who've played the game professionally to decide what they do with that info. Corrzo will certainly have various qualifications but he's never played at the level that Holt, McCracken or Miller have.

I have a suspicion that our formation tomorrow will be dictated more by who's fit to play than anything else. There may be a few who're struggling to make it.

I don't think they know for certain, but it'll be a few weeks. Not imminent anyway.