Bainsfordbairn

Reasonable point and I wouldn't argue with it. The only observation I'd make is that while we're all assuming he didn't watch the new players, we have no way of knowing for certain. It's a pity there were no fan forums in the last few weeks.

EdiBairn - I'm starting to like you. Now that you've dropped your three campaigns I'm agreeing with a lot of what you post.

I know of at least one board member who was making waves at some of Houston's signings last summer. However, that comes under my "leave the football side up to him" (the manager) comment. What self-respecting football manager would accept interference from a businessman who knows SFA about the game? Unless he was working under Vladimir Romanov, obviously.

That line gets spun quite a lot on message boards. To me it misses the point. Unless there is a "football person" on the BOD - say a Director Of Football with an Alex Smith background - then I suspect that most football boards will have little knowledge of the game. By that I mean none of their members will have played professionally or have coaching badges. They'll be made up of successful business people rather than ex-footballers. That being the case, they're responsible for picking a manager and setting his budget. After that they have to leave the football side up to him. IMO anyway, and I'd apply that line of thinking to all boards everywhere. If you consider Falkirk specifically, then what should our BOD have done differently in relation to our last two managers? "Oversight and governance" is too vague a phrase for me. I'm interested in the specifics of where you think they failed when it came to Hartley and Houston.

The two "employee" BOD members are in every day and so, just about, is the Chairman. Plus one other who I see on a fairly regular basis.

No idea Shod. That's a different argument though.

Disagree. The fact that we're speaking to people now rather than waiting to next week suggests otherwise. I think that once everything is complete, we'll find that they wanted the new man in ASAP in order to give him a chance to make changes before the window clanged shut. Otherwise we would surely have faffed about for a few more days. We didn't, as Ayr's statement now confirms.

Possibly, but then you told us that he would have his pick of League 1 and 2 clubs if he left Falkirk. He ended up at the second-worst team in senior Scottish football. Did no-one else want him? That's not a dig BTW and I was a bit surprised myself that no-one else appeared to have been in for him. Or did he feel some sort of loyalty to EC?

Not at the moment. Once an appointment is made an invite will be sent to the press to visit the stadium, at which point you'll know all about it because every news agency who's been invited will shouting "New Falkirk manager" from the rafters.

I think it comes down to where he sees himself in the future. If he has ambitions to manage at the top level again, then Falkirk (probably) offer a better opportunity to polish his CV. He's done brilliantly with Ayr but when your better players start getting snapped up will he be able to sustain it? He may think he's taken you about as high as he can and that the best he can aim for in future is to consolidate you into a decent Championship side. A bit like QOS in recent years. Whereas if he turns Falkirk around he could envisage establishing us in the Premiership, which would give him more exposure and make him more attractive to future suitors. All speculation on my part of course. I have no idea where he sees himself and he may be quite content to remain at a club where, if he keeps this level of success up, he'll be considered a legend for years to come.

Indeed. So everyone who wanted the job, got close enough to make the shortlist and has had an offer suddenly changed their mind? Hmm. Does anyone have an "I smell shite" gif?

I'm probably being a bit naughty here as I'm sure BPM will bite, but the BOD have actually listened to the fans over the last few appointments. Most of us (myself included) wanted Houston & Hartley brought in, and my gut feeling is that the new manager will be one of the four you've mentioned, which continues the trend of appointing popular managers. They also sacked the last two incumbents at pretty much the exact point when fan reactions to continual defeats meant they'd passed the point of no return. Compare that with the "no we won't sack him" speech from MR at the open-air meeting post HMRC-gate when he wouldn't even consider the idea of getting rid of Pressley, despite being told by multiple folk that the fans didn't want him. Since the newer directors came onto the board they seems to be more receptive to fans opinions, as least when it come to the hiring and firing and managers. Which is why I doubt why we'll bring in someone who doesn't have any either close knowledge of the Scottish Championship or a track record of success at a higher level. Mind you, I doubted that we'd get a doing from Queens on Saturday and I'm sure Mr Dust or Edibairn will quickly remind me how that turned out....

The regular cameraman who'd been doing it for years left last season and the young guy who replaced him may still be learning. He's not bad and you certainly notice the difference in quality when he's not there and one of the commentators has to do it instead. I think it's because as fans they have a tendency to watch the game with the naked eye rather than through the viewfinder, so the camera doesn't always keep up with play. They're doing their best but at the end of the day they're not professionals.

Fair enough Marshy. No offence taken.

That's a bit of a strong word for one fan to use about another. Particularly when the fan in question is an inoffensive little guy who's been following Falkirk for decades. I made a post recently, in response to Shodwall I think, in which I explained the reasons why the likes of FFCTV have to be so tactful when interviewing managers. I'm happy to dig that out and post it again if you want. In the meantime, what exactly has Lewis done to be deserving of the word "coward"?

Probably because his schedule for the day is already full and he wouldn't be able to make it. Edited to add one other point - journos like to try and pretend they're the only ones who have a "scoop". I think when the invite for the Hartley announcement went out, it stated why the PC was being held. Within minutes of that email landing in the newsdesks, papers were breaking "exclusives" that our new manager had been confirmed. Even though the press conference was still three or fours hours away. Nothing like that has happened today. So it's reasonable to assume this is just some plonker at the wind up.

Interesting; I didn't know that. Cheers Shod.

If that's true, someone's forgotten to tell me.

Not true. You can make loans for a specified period, which I think are either 30 or 90 days. Remember Longridge / Tumilty came on loan outwith the window and Shepherd / Henderson went the other way.

Alex was more involved with the academy. Ironically, I think his job title was "Football Consultant".

As soon as I read it I thought of you and had this mental vision of you spitting your coffee out all over the screen.

Nobody you would get excited about. One was the young lad who played last week against Morton. The other is another young lad who's been training with the reserves for a while. Neither are names you would recognise.

Unless we get a complete new board of directors I doubt there is any danger of him ever being allowed back.

For anyone that's interested, I thought Tommy Robson had a really good game up at Brechin today. Hopefully Saturday will see him back where he belong on the left side of our defence.

I wonder if this means a clean slate for Harris & McKee?