Bainsfordbairn

It came from the employees who run the shop. The number given is consistent with what they've been telling me over the couple of weeks, as every time I've gone into the stadium recently I've asked how sales were going. The bod might make things up but the staff don't.

As the players in question are no longer here I suppose I can put this one up now. Considering the recent contributions to our thread by Monkey Tennis, it's ironic that the one IN the skip now plays for QOS.

I hadn't seen it in a strip before, but that "swirl" design is on the back of our training shirts this season as well as being on the sleeves of our tracksuit top. I'm guessing it's a standard puma template.

I can say with absolutely total conviction that we will make a signing. Probably around four / five / six signings, as I think our squad size will be somewhere around the 18 mark and we currently have 13 under contract. As to when those will occur, well two things need to happen first. 1) Player decides he wants to join a big club. 2) Agent phones up Morton / QOS (delete as appropriate) and laughs in their faces while rejecting their offers. There's also a third stage which involves fans of diddy teams posting on the Falkirk FC thread to say they never rated the guy while sobbing uncontrollably. Seriously, I don't think anything's imminent atm but things can change quickly at this time of year.

That's not accurate. The football admin person deals with all the paperwork and registers the transfers via FIFA's online TMS system.

I obviously don't know the insider details of what's happening, but from the very first day after relegation I got one consistent message from folk at the club - the owners want out. That hasn't wavered in the slightest. I don't know when they're going, or who they'll pass the baton to, but I am certain that they WILL sell up. In the meantime if fans want to hold off buying tickets or merchandise that's their choice. I just don't believe it makes any difference the ultimate sale of the club.

Unfortunately that's not true. The shares are worth whatever the new owners will pay and I doubt the value of that payment will reflect the number of season tickets sold. If our next owners are buying the club as a showcase for Indian players - or to make money by building a hotel on the East side - or even razing the place to the ground to build houses on - why would they give a toss how many season tickets holders FFC have? For me, the argument that withholding money hurts the MSG is wrong. It's a red herring. The MSG won't care because they know they're leaving anyway. And they'll still get money for their shares regardless of what the fans do. The only effect in the short term might be that cuts have to be made to either the playing budget or the admin staff. It's not going to force the board out.

Leaving aside the obvious windup attempt, Rangers were always very clear with us regarding their plans for Rudden. He was planned to play a season on loan in the Championship, a season on loan in the Premiership and if he did well in both he'd then be expected to challenge for a first team place at Ibrox. You'ld have no chance of getting him even if he weren't going to be out injured for the next 3 or 4 months. If you want a player with Championship experience - go for anyone at Morton or QOS. Taking players from them is as easy as taking sweeties from a wean. They just can't compete with the big boys.

I think we'll add a utility player in defence as at the moment we have no cover and then after that everyone who comes in will be a forward.

After all the GIRFUY-type posts we had to ensure from Monkey Tennis recently, it's fun to look at the QOS thread this evening. They wanted to get Durnan back. They were desperate to keep Doyle. Nae luck Monkey. It looks like you've been hit with a bad dose of the Mortons.

Tids and Buchy were loving it today. I can't possibly imagine why wearing a Falkirk top made them both so happy.

Dumbarton's never lovely. In winter it's as freezing as Arbroath. In summer you get eaten alive by midges.

Less than the fingers on one hand, but more than a Morton fan's IQ.

Ciaran Dunne is here. The guy on the ball is on trial.

He's not. It's almost as shocking as that bloke this morning who wrongly posted that we'd sign a defender today.

Apart from those listed in the statement a few days after the season end, everyone was out of contract. That included McKee and the other players not mentioned such as both Mitchells, Dunne, Diakite, Jarvis (Jason), Langan, Reekie & Young. I'm not sure of the reason for the omissions. I am sure that as none have been announced as having signed up again, they are no longer Falkirk players. We currently have nine players with more to be added when an agent picks up the phone and says "we accept". Whether any of our former reserve players have received offers and will rejoin remains to be seen.

I was in for about four hours doing different things. It seemed that every fifteen minutes the tannoy went off with a "could Ray McKinnon report to reception?" message. They're talking to people and have been for some time since the budgets were sorted. Just need to wait and see.

You know the lady who's in charge; what do you think the chances are?

That should be it for the day.

The training wear looks cracking. The blue player issue kit will be online in the retail shop in the next couple of days.

From the public statement made by the people fronting the fans consortium, I don’t think there’s any doubt that their bid was “hamstrung and pushed out”, as you put it. Up until recently we had a board of six. BPM spoke publically at a fans meeting about splits in that board. I tend to agree with him, and I could probably guess which ones would be for and against fan ownership. I don’t believe KK would be in the “against” category for the reasons I’ve given. You disagree because of your source. Fair enough. I’m not going to try any further to convince you otherwise because it’s all speculative. Neither of us can know for certain as we weren’t there. I just thought that in this case it was important for the other side of the story to be told, particularly as it came from the horses mouth. I don’t think anyone can defend some of the things done recently at board level, especially that statement last week. The problem is that when you’re part of a collective you have to abide by the majority decisions even if you don’t agree with them. Which kind of bring us back to that board split thing again. This whole ownership scenario needs to be resolved and resolved quickly.

Sorry, but I've already got one. He might be 85 but he still covered three signings, the strip photoshoot and a job for Commercial while I've been away. He even got his picture on P&B!

Nobody coming in at the weekend. Though you'll undoubtedly see further activity before the players return for pre-season on Thursday. Oh, and "6 players at the same time" has already been done. We signed 7 players on the day the transfer window opened in January, albeit a few of them weren't announced until the following day until the "I"s were dotted and the "T"s crossed.

I was surprised when you posted that a number of weeks back so I asked KK about it. He strongly denied it. He said he had nothing whatsoever against the fans bid and hadn't done anything to stall or negate it. He could be lying of course, but I'm inclined to believe him. It just doesn't fit with how I'd expect him to behave. I don't know how well you know him, but he's very much the stereotype of the target-driven salesman. He push, push pushes to sell, sell sell. And he's good at it, as well as being quite creative in some of his ideas. (cue hot tub jokes) I've never seen him let personal feelings get in the way of doing a deal if it brings in money to his budget. As an example, I know someone who used to slaughter him relentlessly when he first started work at FFC but it didn't stop KK selling sponsorship to the guy. Who now seems to have changed his tune about him, as the person is a regular poster on P&B. So I'd be surprised if he had a personal issue with the leaders of the fan consortium, which you previously hinted at. KJ served on the old Voluntary Management Committee which AT was in charge of, so it's possible those two butted heads then. (though that's pure speculation on my part) However, that was long before KK arrived on the scene. I doubt he or anyone else would have an issue with DW, who's the kind of sensible, stable, inoffensive and boring person you would expect an ex bank manager to be. (Sorry David. ) At the end of the day KK is a salesman who wants what makes his customers happy. Because happy customers spend money. I just don't see him doing anything to derail the fans bid as it's not in his interests. Sorry Bairnado. I think you're wrong on this one.

I don't think I'm coming back. I'm going in a permanent huff. I spent five weeks sitting in the house, staring at the phone like a teenage lassie wondering if the boy she met last night would call. It didn't ring once. And on the first day I'm abroad, what happens? We sign Tidser and Buchanan. Followed by Connolly today. A certain mutual acquaintance has been now deleted from the Christmas card list.