The Wrong Car

But it does confirm, in court, that Hogarth was/is a fairly dodgy director while involved at the club I agree regarding the lack of statements, and it's one the the reasons I've got a fairly harsh view on the Trust. Even if you ignore their involvement at the time, their role now is to try clarifying these issues on behalf of fans I think we can file that one under 'bad lawyer'

It was mentioned by the judge in his concluding statement, not the club I don’t, but it’s a reasonable explanation for Martindale’s comments given the expenses judgment was only a few weeks ago.

Again, is there any evidence of this? Whilst the handling of the case was bad, the club were completely right to pursue Hogarth for cutting checks to himself.

“Covering court costs” also applies to the recent Hogarth case, which the club were involved in.

I'm presuming Sangare may have a relegation release clause. He'd be a good option, if used correctly, however may fancy his chances in the English lower leagues Holt seems like the sort of player who could kick about the Premiership for a few more years on 1 & 2 year deals, before moving to the Championship in 4/5 years time. If he's happy to stay, and it makes financial sense for everyone, I'd build the team around him!

In terms of next season I’d be looking to keep Shaun Donnellan David Carson Scott Pittman Jamie Brandon Steven Bradley Sean Kelly (purely as he can cover a number of positions) Jack Hamilton Tete Yengi Depending on how loans go, and if Brandon signs Welch – Hayes and Lawal are options. Presuming Penrice, Anderson, Obileye, Jason Holt, Stephen Kelly, and Boyes leave that only leaves decisions on Shamal George Cristian Montano Mikey Devlin Daniel Mackay (if there’s a permanent option) Mohammed Sangare Michael Nottingham Andrew Shinnie Kurtis Guthrie I doubt George will want to stay in the Championship, and as a former LFC keeper who’s won POTY at Colchester I’d imagine his agent will be busy. Montano seems like a nice guy, but he’s fairly injury prone and 33 this year. Mikey Devlin is done. The rest may be decent in the Championship, either as starters or backup, but I wouldn’t be breaking the bank to keep them.

Fair enough, I remember thinking Holt’s comments on Souda after the Forfar and Hamilton games being unnecessary harsh on a new signing

Wasn’t Souda criticised by Holt? Harsh to blame Martindale for that one, however I agree with your general point regarding squad managements and favourites. The players also have to take some blame, however. Some, like Kelly and Anderson have be misused tactically however they’ve hardly contributed when on the pitch.

The Trust has taken two months to arrange a meeting, whilst not even bothering to comment on the Rankine case. That case mentioned dubious actions by Rankine dating back to 2013, a time when the Trust had a board member in place. As a fan, I’d like to know what DS was actually doing the 4 years he was on the board, given it co-incided with Nixon’s undeclared bonus’s to players which saw a points deduction

It's incredibly egotistical to assume that Livi fans not listening to you means there's no general concern amongst them Most fans, myself included, has asked for clarification, or specific details. Usually it's met with silence or general comments about the club Hopefully the Trust can arrange that meeting to clarify this - it's only been two months since they began organising it

I’ll bite - why wouldn’t Livi be liable for paying legal fees in all the recently past cases? The club was directly involved in both the Hogarth and Rankine cases What’s not clear is your assertion that the club is paying for the Optco & Beuskens cases. Is there any evidence of that? What Optco-specific cases have happened?

Is there any actual evidence this is the case, or is this just speculation? The club has spend money on the Hogarth and Rankine cases as they were named, however with Robert Wilson stepping away it’s not clear if anyone in the club is directly involved

How exactly do Livi win or lose a case that’s focused on Optco ownership? Clearly it has an impact on who owns the club, but it’s not exactly a win/lose situation

As much as the gap isn’t insurmountable, yesterday showed that this team isn’t capable of putting a run of results together. We’ve improved since December with Yengi and Carson joining, Brandon starting and a sensible formation being picked, but it’s clearly not going to cancel out the abysmal October - December period

Signing a 27 year old and then referring to him as a project signing for the future pretty much sums up our Summer transfer window

Is there any more info about this case? All I've heard is that Beurskens feels he was due Wilson's shares when he retired, however given Robert Wilson is involved in the case it seems like a weak claim to start with?

I think I'm right in saying that the Trust hasn't officially commented on the outcome of the Rankine case, but has posted about the two games since? Not exactly an organisation with it's finger on the pulse when it comes to club matters.

Given he did loan money to the club and he was rumoured to be asking for much much more, I’d say clarifying the actual amount owed in court means the case “went the clubs way”

Hard to say what this means - it could be needed organised before any court cases Ironic that David Stoker highlighted this, given there's still questions what he was doing while the Trust Rep on the board. It seems like there was no financial oversight whatsoever, which is a bad look for the Trust. Sitting on a board with a messing banking situation, witnessing loans going in and out of the club and not raising any concern is a major issue that the Trust needs to front up to. The recent Club Statement mentioned Rankine's issues going as far back as 2013, with Stoker resigning in September 2013.

Hard to tell what to make of this signing at this time On the one hand the comment about him being best as a DM suggests he’s been brought into play a position we’re well covered for, without improving it On the other, signing an experienced, but not past it, player early for the Championship makes sense. It’s the sort of signing we should have made last summer

That statement is exactly what needed - a clear outline of the situation and the work undertaken by the club. The less 'shadow directors' we have, the better. Given it mentions events in 2013, I'd be interested to hear the Trust's opinion as they had board representation at this time. (for most of the year anyway)

Presumably this wouldn't completely cover a year of playing behind closed doors (with little sponsorship). We missed out on the financial benefits of playing Top 6, while paying a higher than expected rate for VAR, I'd still say COVID is having some impact on the club, given it's immediately been followed by an inflation crisis. Poor squad planning, both in terms of highly paid duds like Parkes/Bahamboula and an inability to cash in on assets like Nouble, Fitzwater and Devlin, also have an impact, and these seem much more controllable Are these against the club or Optcco? Both here and the FB forum seem to have a number of ITK people who use "as I understand it" to dripfeed information with little context - an issue easily solved by the Trust actually doing it's job for once and keeping fans informed

What cases are in February?

All fair points, and I wasn’t trying to be negative for negatives sake However given there’s no meeting planned and it’s difficult to signup, I’m not sure how anyone can take part in their democratic process

As much as I'd like to see Livingston fan owned one day, there's no reason why a fans group can't begin to exert influence at board level. The Operating Fund during Covid showed the potential is there. For example, 500 fans paying £10 a month would be a yearly contribution of £60,000 - a decent financial contribution at this club. My biggest issue is that the Trust, in it's current form, seems to be just an extension of it's leader's ideas rather than a forum that allows fans input. For example, Don Paul's view that the club shouldn't have pursued the Hogarth money automatically became the Trust position despite numerous fans not knowing if they were in the trust. As FF mentioned previously, the Trust seems to idealise the period between Massone and Ward as they had a board member, ignoring the fact decisions made at that time completely alienated many fans.