Proudtobeabairn

Can't honestly say I know enough about Hetherington, Nesbitt or MacKay to slate them (yet). Nor McGuffie or Paton. One constant here though is we're bringing in guys from at best lower championship sides - nothing to suggest we'd not have to rebuild again next summer if we do go up. Having said that It's not going to be hard to be better than last season and with Partick gone we should be favourites.. would 100% replace Mutch though with someone a bit more experienced, vocal and generally solid though.

Falkirk 0 v 1 Whoever they're playing against

Hands are tied re Miller with the mental 2 year deal - hoping his influence won't extend to being on the pitch!

Good to hear from Sheerin and although nothing he said was incredibly exciting, nothing was particularly concerning either. Sounds like Holt and Corrzo will help find the players but Sheerin will have the final say.

I'm not saying there's not a lot of sense in that as an ideal set up but the point is it failed. That means either the conditions attached by the fans group were unacceptable to the current board or the Rawlins were against and influenced the board to reject. Most likely both though I'm not in any way itk. I'm not surprised if the Rawlins were against it as they want to do things their way. Its not attractive to them to be part of an equal share committee even if that does make more sense to us as fans. To get this through a different approach is going to be needed. That might be to give the Rawlins the control they want but drip feed the investment and make it dependent on the Rawlins achieving set targets that are designed in the clubs interest. A bit more creativity basically than here are our demands take it or leave it.

As others have said, this year will be a big test of exactly what the Rawlins plans are and whether they're likely to move us forward. I have no affiliation with the board whatsoever (or any fans group) but I said previously it was naive to expect the Rawlins to allow the fans group to have parity before they'd had a chance to do what they originally bought into the club to do. If the fans group had invested 12 months ago or been prepared to negotiate their red lines then things could have been different but the Rawlins got their first so are not likely to want to dilute their influence before they've had the chance to do things their way. Don't forget, they're only here because the fans backed their investment. I get how in black and white the value of the fans group investment should allow them to have a say but things are not always so straightforward and both timing and demands made are important. Overall what I've heard about the fans group on here is positive and hopefully a safety net if things go tits up but some of the whinging on here doesn't do the fans group any favours, and the bull in china shop approach is very unlikely to get any of the current board onside.

Come on now, Dinamo Zagreb would be quite exciting. If only for the pre season friendly and chance to recreate Ceske Budejovice style scenes

You do know Rawlins isn't American?

Could be the start of a long wilderness spell for Killie...

Agree we need to see and hear more from them and hopefully they are over here soon so we can ask these questions directly. In the interests of this discussion not just becoming a wind tunnel of only one point of view, the counter point here is that since the Rawlins came in we've seen MR and SA influence reduce, a new board structure, appointment of a Sporting Director, restart of a youth team and academy coach appointed, a new manager... Again - a few months ago this forum was full of folk demanding all those things. I'm not saying they've all been done well (Deans and Holt have massive question marks over them and staying in League 1 is a disaster) but time will tell. The easy thing for them would have been to walk away when we failed to go up.

The extra detail is very interesting but I can still see why this failed. The Rawlins got in first. They want to do things their way and don't welcome interference to the extent the fans group are asking for. This could turn out good or bad for us but giving the Rawlins the influence they need to do things their way is what we all wanted a few short months ago - let's not forget that. In that respect the fans offer could maybe have been better timed. Instead of going in with an all or nothing offer which was unlikely to win the Rawlins support (given the above) why not try and work with the Rawlins for a while and stagger the investment or put conditions in place that guarantees investment and gives the fans group more influence over time. E.g if certain conditions are met over the next 6-12 months. It does also look (to a complete outsider) that the fans group have walked away when discussions became fraught at least twice now (in the public domain). This was never going to be an easy negotiation and maybe some of the "red lines" could have been relaxed or delayed to get a better outcome? Its unrealistic to expect to remove board member, choose the manager and make possibly other demands that the Rawlins would see as unpractical (or certainly not beneficial to them). These type of discussions are always going to be fraught and should really only be made through lawyers for some of the reasons we're seeing in the detail. Yes the fans investment is higher but you have to take into account the fact the Rawlins are only here at all to do things their way (and we as fans enabled that only a few short months ago). I just can't see a benefit to the Rawlins of the fans group offer (other than the initial funds which the Rawlins would be unlikely to have control over) - if anything the offer seriously hampers the plans the Rawlins have for the club. Again this might work out well and maybe it won't but if they get us to the Premiership and make a bit of money along the way on player sales, is that so bad? Sounds like the Rawlins response has been petty but let's remember we are getting only one side of the story here. The Q&A coming up is where the hard questions need to be asked.

The 500k would have been something good - the red lines maybe not. It sounds like I have 100% faith in the Rawlins. I don't but I just think we spent so long trying to get control from MR and SA to someone with a bit more know how. We seem to have that and most of you seem to want to take that influence away and hand it to a group of fans (who haven't even made their identity or proposals public) before the Rawlins have even made it over here. On top of that it sounds like MR and SA seem to be in favour of letting the fans group in (which would have been the ultimate red flag a few weeks ago). Its a typical Falkirk made mess.

Again... didn't we want someone to come in and 'throw tantrums' - upset the apple cart and do things differently? A few months ago 99% of folk on here wanted exactly that (and that's what pushed through the Rawlins deal - fan support for getting them in and letting them loose).

Well let's hear about them then? How many have been in positions of influence during successful periods for clubs like Stoke and Orlando (or similar)? Sorry - you can't expect to win support just by being fans with money. Maybe there's more to the fans group than that (I'm sure there is) but nobody other than a select few knows anything about them.

I get where you're coming from to an extent but the fans themselves made a massive effort to push through the Rawlins investment - we've got to give them a chance to now do things their way surely? What was the point of bringing them in to hand over their influence to a fans group (who the vast majority of us know nothing about) before they've even got started? Are the fans group more qualified and better placed than the Rawlins to make these decisions? Don't forget MR and SA were fans... I thought we wanted change?

The decision to knock it back wouldn't have been Rawlins alone - sounds like there was consensus that the majority of shareholders want to give Rawlins the influence he needs to take things in his direction with that being diluted. Isn't there also the option to increase their investment as part of the deal that brought them in? That could very well be the wrong decision (not like we have a history of making great decisions) but at face value Rawlins has the experience and credentials to do well. It seems strange to me that we wouldn't let that play out. There aren't any signs of this being a Kenny Rogers scenario so why would we dilute his influence before he's even started. 100% behind new investment, but the conditions that seem to go with it sound counter productive imo.

So what are we saying here? Anyone should be able to pop along at any time and take control if they have money behind them? The Rawlins project hasn't even got out the blocks yet and you expect him to hand over decision making to a fans group - that's just not realistic. He got in there first, made his investment and now expects some time to do things his way rather than being forced into having to make decisions by committee. Remember for the last few years we've been desperate for someone competent to take over decision making. Rawlins has shown nothing yet to show us he can do that but his credentials are better than a group of local businessmen and he has earned the right to be given that chance no?

From what's been said I can almost understand why Rawlins would reject the fan offer. Imagine you had made a sizaeble investment and were finally starting to get some decisions made and the board structured in the way you need it to be to get things done. At that point, some previously unknown (to you) fans group demand you restructure that board and even have a say in the new manager appointment (before you've even had a chance to appoint your own man into that position yet). A few months ago Rawlins was our saviour who we all wanted to be more hands on and to use his business acumen to sort the club out. He starts doing that and then gets asked to dilute his influence and instead be a co-partner with a fans group he knows very little about and very possibly have less experience of football club ownership than he does. Its's not surprising if he sees this as a threat to his investment and plan for the club. It doesn't sound like he's refusing new investment but rather protecting his position and making sure he has a chance to do things his way before considering reducing his influence. Is that really surprising? Its not great that the investment isn't happening but are the red lines the fans group have proposed realistic given Rawlins hasn't had a chance to fail yet?

Yogi maybe heading back to ICT? I think Sheerin a reasonable option and still least bad option of those that have been mentioned (Yogi aside).

While a fan group would be far better than the set up we currently have, it wouldn't be my first choice. I'd much rather have a single owner (Geoff Brown type) though it would clearly need to be someone who knows what they're doing (preferably with deep pockets) Fans groups occasionally work but can also become rife with ego and cliques. Like the manager role there are no guarantees of success at board level though we seem to be more incapable than most at balancing the bad times with some good.

He also won League 2 with Arbroath and finished 2nd in League 1 the following season. Of the names being bandied around, I'm coming round to Sheerin as being a far better option than the likes of McIntyre or Kettlewell.

Sheerin has come out of left field but maybe wouldn't be the worst choice. Hear me out... McInnes took him to Aberdeen in 2014. Since then he's been in charge of their under 20s - won the development league in his first season and made the youth cup final in 2018. Hardly pep levels of success but assuming he's a good coach (certainly trusted by McInnes) then he fits the 'head coach' remit. You'd like to think he'd know all about the talent in the development league and so maybe good for some decent loans. Looks increasingly unlikely there'll be an exciting left field candidate so after we've looked into dross like McCann and Rice, this might not be the worst option. Don't get me wrong, I'd still far rather have someone who'd bring a bit of excitement but we seem to be scraping the barrel here so trying to look at the positives.

Not in the slightest bit excited about the prospect of Rice. He's utterly miserable in his interviews and I can't see how he would command or motivate the dressing room. He's also disliked by Accies fans and comes with plenty of personal baggage. Would steer well clear.

Shouldn't really sign a player based on a game against us during the last few years - not too difficult to be a standout against our midfield. The fact he's signing for Stirling should tell us all we need to know about his ability.

Probably need to be someone I haven't heard of with an excellent record (most likely overseas) bringing a load of exotic contacts and the promise of attacking football to really get the juices flowing.