Bainsfordbairn

My understanding is that the decision was made collectively and I think was supported by all of them.

You may wish to publicise some of it then. The staff can't say anything and I'm not only pushing a boundary but might be overstepping it. What else do you know has been cut?

A long while back, someone made a telling point about Craig Campbell. They said that he might be doing a hundred wonderful things behind the scenes but that he'd made so many feck-ups that he had to go. There was more than a grain of truth in that. I heard that CC was pretty effective at much of the unseen stuff, though maybe not always his PR or people skills. In particular, he and ML always did whatever they could to support the management team. If you were to ask any of the management, coaches, or backroom staff what they think of the person who's now running the show, and how supportive they feel he is, well, hmmm.... The good thing about people who have no professional football knowledge is that they generally recognise their shortcomings. They let the pros guide them as to what needs to be done. If you have someone with amateur knowledge and a different mindset, then there may be potential for friction. Ach well, I'm sure a small squad will be fine. It probably worked at Sauchie Juniors.

That's the second time you've posted about an arsehole making things up. I'm guessing you know a little more than we do. I have no idea who it was, or what evidence they provided that obviously persuaded the Procurator Fiscal that a crime had taken place, or why it was thrown out of court on Friday. We may never find out unless the wrongly-accused chooses to speak about it. Though I suspect that everyone involved will want to forget the whole thing as quickly as possible. However, you've strongly hinted that either a specific former player or his relatives were up to mischief. You've basically named the guy by providing his current club. Having done that, I think it's only fair that you clarify what you believe you know. The guys father used to post regularly on P&B. He might even respond to what you have to say about him or his son.

Agreed. They didn't come out of it well at all and ML admitted that freely in public at the EGM. It won't be forgotten or forgiven, nor should it be, but at least they did what needed to be done. And the two people responsible for it are either gone or going. Now we wait and see how much of the media will report the retraction. Not as many as reported the original allegation, I suspect. I'll be curious to see if the Herald do anything with the story given that they normally cover local court cases.

They decided to issue it on the Friday. It was written on Saturday. I suspect's it's taken two days to issue because after recent PR disasters it needed all the BOD members (and MSG?) to sign it off.

The couldn't say anything while criminal charges were still in the pipeline. Once those were dismissed on Friday then they were free to speak, which they've now done. At least it sets the record straight.

From the interview that RM gave, I got the impression that he wasn't expected to do anything other than get fit and prove he could stay that way. If he managed that then it was expected that his quality would shine through in the end. I kind of agree with that actually. I watched him regularly as a Scotland youth player and the boy was a baller.

The club won't put a time on it - they never do with long term injuries in case things don't work out as they would like. Aidan has an idea in his head as to when he hopes to return by, but in very general terms it'll probably be in the winter. Maybe a wee bit earlier if things go well.

ML corrected LM a couple of times when he issued statements that weren't true. I'm surprised she didn't jump in on that one too. Actually, now that I think about it, was it not LM who "explained" the story on how McKinnon was recruited? Bit of a strange choice given that ML and CC did most of the work after the BOD sanctioned them to speak to him.

I think the obvious answer is finance. I do have a wee bit of sympathy for the board here. As fans, we want more players, better players, and the proven duds shipped out so we can bring in quality to replace them. And we want it every single window every single season. And if it costs more than we can afford and we make a loss, then not only does someone have to cover that cost out their own pocket, but the financial consequences may be highlighted in a powerpoint presentation in bold red figures with a minus beside them, as we saw at the EGM yesterday. I'm not defending the current owners - in fact I'm very keen to see as an absolute minimum that their voting power is broken up, and I'd like a lot more than that - but they're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment. I have an amount of sympathy for them. Albeit the solution is very much in their own hands.

There's only the one still about, and it's not exactly a secret who he is, given that he was identified from Falkirk Herald pics on the very first day of training. The other lad who you'll have seen today - a former academy goalkeeper - is just training with us. Albeit he was (wrongly) named in the "lost generation" slide that the guys who called the EGM listed in their presentation yesterday as having been lost to Bury. I presume he's now left them. Anyway, given that the outfield trialist has been with us exactly a month today I think it would be reasonable to assume that he expects to get something from FFC eventually. Otherwise he would surely have moved on a while ago. My concern is that if we do manage to get him in, he'll be the very last addition to the squad. Unless something changes in terms of ownership, obviously. I hope we do get him though. I had a long chat with him on the touchline today and he's a Clyde fan who, like me, absolutely detests Rangers. We need more people like that at our club.

The old One F forum was probably the worst football forum in the history of the universe. It was so bad that some of the Morton loonies would have felt right at home there. And yet for all the nonsense, stupidity and mediocrity there, one poster stood out above them all. Phil09 - a guy so utterly clueless about football that he was ridiculed incessantly by the entire forum. It was as if he'd never been inside a football ground and got all his ideas about how the game should be run from watching Match Of The Day. He certainly knew nothing about the Falkirk team he was trying to comment on. The ridicule got so bad that he tried to reinvent himself by changing his user name. He got the mods to rebrand him as Falkirkfan6871. Ah, good old Phil. I wonder where he is now, and whether he's any smarter than he used to be?

Yep. Whether this is a good or a bad deal depends on the build cost, annual rent fees and - most crucially - the duration of them. If the ownership of the stand passes to the club when SA expires then it's probably a good deal. If payments have to be made to his descendants for the next hundred years than it's almost certainly a bad one. I've seen figures quoted for the first two but never the third.

18 signed players of whom two are out for a wee while. One hasn't yet been publicised by the club but I imagine that will change today, possibly in the post-match interviews. Hopefully something changes over the coming weeks.

I have no idea; I can only make assumptions from what I witnessed today. If she does leave, then perhaps her departure statement could include an acceptance of responsibility for the incident and an apology for it. I think she's man enough (pardon the pun) to do so while others would never even consider the idea that they got it wrong. Whether such a statement would ever get board approval for publishing remains to be seen.

She admitted that the racism statement was drafted / approved by a combination of her, Craig Campbell and a former unpaid PR advisor and that they got it badly wrong. She apologised multiple times for it and when asked if the club would issue a statement to that affect said that would be up to the current board, which she later offered to resign from. I got the impression that she'd be happy to do it but have a suspicion that the others wouldn't be so keen. Least said soonest mended, and all that. Yes, she got it wrong and if she's leaving then she's paid the price for it.

I'll probably get flak for this, but I like ML. If you were there today you would have heard some of the panel talking about how hard they work for FFC. I've spent a lot of time around the club in recent years and from what I saw she did more than all the others put together. I always had the impression she was doing it for the right reasons too, rather than just being on an ego trip. I'll be sorry to see her go if she is indeed leaving as SA seemed to infer.

This was my first AGM / EGM (thanks for the proxy BPM) so it's the first time I've heard SA speaking before. I thought he came across terribly. He got off to a bad start in his initial speech / rant when he responded to someone who dared criticise the MSG. It sounded a little petulant to me, like the response of a child who's been scolded for the first time ever. Then his "where is the love and the trust?" question, when talking about the actions of the BOD / MSG. Those were his exact words. I was so stunned that I actually noted them in my phone. He literally got drowned out in the shouts of response. He then said that he'd read somewhere about someone who wouldn't renew his ST until the MSG were gone. At which point he said the guy would never be back at TFS, because he at least wasn't going anywhere. I've heard from various folk that SA is a really nice guy but he did himself no favours today. Colin Liddell was better. His underlying message was "we're taking our time to get it right", but his whole tone was of someone speaking for a group whose members want to pass on the baton. Or the majority of them do anyway. That was my reading of his contribution so I still think change will happen. Will be interested to hear if anyone who attended got different vibes from him. He did, however, screw up badly when he tried to use semantics to claim that the MSG only really became an organised group over the last couple of years. A succession of former Bairnstrust boardroom reps lined up to shoot him down in flames. . I thought Brian Guthrie spoke very well, incidentally. He nailed a number of attempted evasions from the panel. I'm a long way short of being his greatest fan but he did well today. Kenny Jamieson played a blinder. Near the end he asked every BOD member individually if they thought they were dysfunctional and all agreed that they were. They basically admitted that they didn't get on, couldn't work together, and didn't communicate properly to each other, never mind the fans. Hence why not a single hand went up to object to the "should the BOD step down" motion. It was carried unanimously by the attendees in the room - and completely outvoted by the MSG. A couple of the jibes from the chairman of the meeting towards the former CEO and Chair pretty much summed the whole thing up for me. If they can't even show solidarity in front of the fans, then what chance is there of them working together for the good of the club? I imagine that would have been a humiliating morning for the BOD attendees. They're finished and they know it. One final point, seeing as it'll probably annoy Marshmallo. KK got several ovations from the room after speaking and seemed to be held in high regard at least by those who offered an opinion. And yes, he has been offered (and rejected) more money to move elsewhere. Several times.

Speculation on my part, but I think you might see a number of trialists if that were the case. Over the last couple of years we've regularly brought in folk for a couple of games with the reserves. Usually leading to wildly inaccurate rumours as to who there were on the messageboards.

Yes. The money saved by not having one has gone to the first team, as seen, I think, by the experience and quality of the players we've signed. I had a look at the Stranraer team last night. Apart from the two ex-Falkirk lads, the only name I recognised was Jamie Hamill from his time at Hearts. Whereas everyone Falkirk have signed recently has spent their careers at a higher level.

No argument from me. I'm someone will make that point on Friday.

It is the case. He said earlier in the interview that we will not be running with a twenty man squad. We now have the eighteen players that the budget allowed. If we can somehow squeeze a few extra pennies from somewhere then you might get a nineteenth player, who would be someone that can cover multiple positions, including left back. But that would be it. The man himself said so - providing you join the two parts of the interview together. Not unless there's a sudden massive upsurge in season tickets anyway. Or FFC receive an unexpected lump of revenue from somewhere.

You were, and believe it or not Morton cited your post as part of their "reasons why we think he was tapped" to the SPL. You posted that he was seen in TFS, albeit it was clearly a joke as RM wasn't here on the day you said. And no, I'm not kidding. Seriously. It would have been funny had they not won the case.

It's true though. The deal was confirmed late last night and he signed the paperwork in Dingwall this morning. He was travelling down the road today. It would have been pointless for him to visit the stadium in the afternoon for a photocall when he'll be here this evening anyway.