Proudtobeabairn

Quite like the new kit but sponsor on home should have been white. I'm more amazed that the Maniqui is back ?!

Always amazes me at this time of year that folk can identify guys like Ben Weekes. Not sure I would recognise most of the Hibs first team!

For me the first stage of the reboot was the Rawlins investing and then giving them a period of time to really stamp their authority on things. They've not had that yet. I get that there's appeal in getting Deans out but seems clear it'll now be the Rawlins calling the shots? It seems a bit bizarre that having done all we can to get the Rawlins in we should want to dilute their influence through the fans bid before they've had a chance to really get started. I don't fully understand the fans groups intention or motives here either despite all that's been said. What have they seen that suggests the Rawins can't be trusted or that we immediately need to reboot again? On paper the Rawlins (or Phil at least) know what they're doing. We don't know who the fans group actually are but unless someone can tell us otherwise its unlikely they have the same experience in football. Bringing in the Rawlins then handing over their influence to the fans group seems a bit like bringing in a star striker and then making him play behind someone who has never played up front before. Hopefully the investment isn't completely off the pitch and a compromise can be found - as suggested before maybe something that drip feeds the fan investment and increases fan influence depending on the Rawlins hitting some milestones (e.g promotion, future investment etc). That sort of solution seems most pragmatic under the circumstances and most beneficial to the club?

We're going to have Dowds and Keena on the books so important Sheerin gets a look at them to assess their strengths weaknesses before deciding what type of player we need alongside them.

Re new signings - could be that Sheerin wants to have a proper look at those on the books first in pre season training before making a final decision on any new signings?

Haven't seen any chat on here about the Falkirk Supports Society. Nobody have mates involved in this? What are folks views (dare I ask): Falkirk Supporters Society 19h · A few months ago, we asked Falkirk fans what they thought about creating a new supporters' organisation. That organisation would invest small subscriptions from across our support, increase the collective shareholding and therefore fans’ influence in our club, so we could promote fans’ views and protect our club from bad decisions and external threats. Nearly 500 of you responded to the survey and the vast majority supported the proposals. We planned to launch the organisation in April on the back of what we had hoped would end with promotion to the Championship. However it wasn’t credible to go out to Falkirk fans and ask for money after such a disappointing end to the season. It’s time to move things along now. Why? Well, the same rules apply. It’s arguably more urgent to have a fans’ voice in the boardroom given recent events on and off the pitch. We also have an opening. As you've seen from the club's season ticket marketing, the club has made an offer of a "significant" share donation and a director position for an elected fans’ representative. We’ve heard the Rawlins’ vision to work alongside fans and the chairman’s “three-legged stool” pitch. That has changed things. We will discuss the details and come to a view about whether or not we have a satisfactory offer to take to fans, with a view to, we hope, launching the new fans' organisation at the beginning of the new season. More to come shortly. But to be clear - this organisation will be ran by Falkirk fans for Falkirk fans. The organisation and eventual fans’ director will answer to Falkirk fans. And our ambitions will only be limited by the amount of buy-in we get from Falkirk fans.

Can't wait for the season to start to get by all this p*sh Its pretty clear there are opposing views on the proposed investment and whether it should have gone through or not and that's fine however it doesn't do anyone any favours to be completely blinkered by their support or defence of the board. I do believe we all want the same thing (a successful Falkirk) but its not true that everything the board does is a complete shambles just as much as its not true that everything they do is brilliant. I honestly believe the majority on here find fault with anything that comes out of the club to the extent that often these are the very things they were bumping their gums about before they happened (sack M&M! clear out the team! We don't have any players! MR&SA GTF! Rawlins in! Rawlins out! ST not on sale! STs too expensive! no Q&A! Q&A shit! Announce refunds! Refunds disgrace! Falkirk TV shit! Pixellot shitter! No social media coverage! Why are we at Napier! let fans invest! Don't buy season tickets! Sign McCann! We need bigger names! KK doesn't have shares/toxic part of the board! KK was brilliant how could he have gone!) I get folk are pissed off (I am too) but it would be impossible atm for anything to come out of the club that a lot on here wouldn't have issue with.

C'mon - they've been in the door 5mins and haven't even made it to Scotland yet. During that time we've appointed a sporting director, development coach, restarted the development team, changed the management team, released 90% of the first team and are in the process of rebuilding a team that will (hopefully) win the league. They've also communicated poorly, hacked off some fans by rejecting their investment and rubbed some of the status quo at the club up the wrong way. Its too early to judge them but they must deliver now. If we win the league with points to spare this season we'll hopefully see more and more of their influence (in a positive way) and investment.

Let's give Lewis a bit of credit, if theres a high volume of questions asking more or less the same thing then he'll be forced to ask it. He has a little more leeway here than in the pre/post match interviews as the questions are not his. Hopefully he'll use that leeway and ask the difficult ones. I've emailed some of mine in anyway and suggest everyone with concerns does the same. Good to get a bit more detail over the last few pages on the fans bid. I still think the fundamental issue is that the Rawlins haven't had time to properly influence the running of the club and do things their way. They clearly want (and I think deserve) the chance to do that before they will agree to boardroom changes etc. The proposed changes to the boardroom would have held them back (is the way they'll see it) in terms of decision making. A change of chairman along with the new fans reps would have made it extremely difficult to get things done especially if the changes they want to make are unpopular but necessary. Those on here supporting the fans bid seem to gloss over that point when its raised. The Rawlins are not fans, they're here to make money and to do that we need to be successful. I'd like to see the fans group restructure their investment proposal. Stagger it over the next 2-3 years and make it dependent on the Rawlins hitting milestones and increasing fans representation on the board over that period. Trust needs to be regained on both sides and this way we get to see what impact the Rawlins can make but with the medium/longer term balance of power shifting towards the fans.

Martin Ritchie and Sandy Alexander have supported the club for years and look what happened when they were calling the shots. Just because someone is a fan doesn't mean they are the best person to make decisions and run a successful football club. I like the idea of the club being fan owned but I like the idea of Falkirk being successful more.

FFS its not about taking sides - its about giving folk some information and detail. As @JulioBairn says above, our support were so sick of the way the club was being run that we did everything we could to get the Rawlins in the door. Now, we're being told they are out to ruin the club despite on the face of it having more experience of decision making in successful football clubs than anyone else involved at the club. Normal fans being asked to 'take sides' with the Patrons when (1) we don't even know who the 'patrons' are (just some secretive chat about there being a 'football man' involved etc... I mean - that's got to be the very least they could reveal surely?!? (2) Nobody is actually telling us why The Rawlins approach = BAD (3) we've been wanting a clear out for years, we now have one (4) Most of those speaking out against the Rawlins sound like they've had their nose put out of joint and have taken the hump.

Who has vanished for a fortnight? Where are you getting this info? Maybe SA and MR have been hounded (quite rightly imo) over the last few years to the extent that they have stopped trying to intervene in board decisions? Maybe unsettling a few folk and making a few unpopular decisions is what we need after years of boardroom failure? We'll find out soon enough.

Seems like every man and his dog have got the intimate details of exactly what the Rawlins have said or done to the Patrons & CI guys bit no-one is willing to share? What harm would posting some actual details on here do at this stage? As others have said it may give folk like me an others more reason to galvanise against the owners if they really are out to destroy the club. I don't doubt the CI guys have been treated shabbily but their statement said nothing really about the reasons the board have given them or what actually happened. All we've heard from the Patrons bid is that someone (Mrs Rawlins?) took a swipe at their character but no actual details for us to judge. Based on the information we do have I completely understand why the Rawlins wouldn't accept the conditions attached to the Patrons bid. If there's more to it then get the details out there, until then it all just sounds like bumped gums and playground stuff.

We're building a younger team. Some may well improve over the next few years. Let's give them a chance though eh? E.g Mutch - 22 Williamson - 25 Hall - 24 McCann - 21 Nesbitt - 24 McGuffie - 23 Keena - 21 Dowds - 24 Telfer - 25 Morrison - 21

P.s this constant chat about 'jobbers' is disrespectful to players who haven't even played 90mins for us yet. On paper some might not be amazing but let's give them a chance.

I am questioning why we're where we are and its been down to years of mismanagement. We've gone down a different route now and I'm relatively happy that a new broom is sweeping through the place even if it means it puts a few noses out of joint. We need to try something different. Still a few signings to come in so maybe the Rawlins don't feel they need to invest more at the moment. maybe that'll change when if all goes to plan we go up this season - who knows. And as for the £600k, Its been covered to death. Yes everyone agrees that an extra £600k in the coffers could be useful but most can also understand why the Rawlins wouldn't want to give away their decision making authority at this point in time.

I don't need to and neither should you. If she rips up the way things have been done over the last 10 years and we're successful on the park then happy days. If we're not then I'll be joining the cries to hound them out. Until then I'm prepared to see how we get on doing things a different way.

Complete pish that the McCann announcement has been timed to try and boost season tickets. He's been in self isolation and this is the first opportunity we've had. He's a good signing but hardly a Marquee big name wheeled out to sell shirts. A lot of folk on here are going to be very unhappy it seems if we stroll to the title this year.... "but...but... what about the way Mrs Rawlins spoke to someone who knows someone I know, or the way the b*stards announced poor Mark Durnan was leaving"

Excellent signing. Experienced keeper next please.

All priority groups should now have been offered at least 1 dose. When publishing hospital figures we really need to start seeing % of those in hospital after 1 dose and % of those in hospital after 2 doses. Otherwise we're going to be held back due to folk who have refused the vaccine or who have tested positive while in hospital for completely some unrelated reason. Just showing infection rates and total # in hospital is not a true reflection of how dangerous the virus is anymore.

Optimistically, most of the signings we've made will be an upgrade on what we had, the main concern is that not by much and most have been given 2 or 3 year deals. Had we been in the Championship I don't think theres one signing yet that we'd be happy with though they might be just enough to get us out of League 1. Ideally we still have 5-6 to come in. McCann sounds a good prospect and the others really need to be a step up from the likes of McGuffie and Nesbitt (who sound very much like David Smith/Alex Harris type signings). Sheerin must surely have expert knowledge of the under 20s so hopefully a few decent loans will be secured before we kick off.

I get what you're saying here but I don't remember anyone sensible welcoming in Kenny Rogers. The Rawlins have genuine experience and should have the knowledge to know what they're doing. Tried to watch the Dark Knight but got bored by the self indulgent 45min car chase and switched off..

Your regular reminder that 6-12 months ago everyone was so sick of MR and SA that they were desperate for the Rawlins to start shaking things up and to take control over every aspect of the club. They're doing that now - did anyone realistically expect that everything would just stay the same (including personnel) but we'd magically get better? This could still of course go horribly wrong but we chose this route and so let's see what happens. Communication has been appalling but I suspect much to do with KK not being around. As someone else said, we're late on things like new strip, ST sales, refunds etc but its not as though all other clubs in the league are announcing theirs so maybe the pandemic knocking usual timescales for everyone and we need to give a little more slack on some of these things. Not defending how shit we've been at communication (particularly GD and the missing Q&A) but all over the last couple of months has not been bad. Positives around clearing out the dross, development team created, new management team appointed etc. Biggest negative for me so far (along with communication) are the 2/3 yr deals being handed out and too much authority being given to Holt. Overall, I think we're at a point where we need to grit our teeth and hope the changes the Rawlins make see us start to improve. We've tried almost everything else. (and I include fan ownership of sorts through SA and MR, fan representation on the board (bairns trust etc). Personally I don't care whether the board are Falkirk fans or not as long as they look after the finances and on the pitch we head in the right direction. Jury out on both but you'd think on here most days that we're days from liquidation.

McGuffie is a poor signing. He'll be about as effective as Josh Todd. If we have another 5-6 coming in then at least 3-4 need to be improvements on the standard we've brought in so far. As others have said, 2 year deals for guys who are very unlikely to cut it in the championship is also bizarre. Surely at the very least Sheerin will have some under 20s identified and be trying to bring them in on loan.

A fundamental requirement for a footballer even.