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Bobby Boulders

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Posts posted by Bobby Boulders

    The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    Would love to have sat in the meeting with the Wardrop PR team where it was decided the best way to tone down the accusations of LOOK AT ME that followed standing in his home shirt looking sad outside the stadium for press photos was to release a statement that ended with “and those selfless gifts that were given? All me. You’re welcome”.

    4

    The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    47 minutes ago, Div said:

    I wrote a wee piece on the events of the last 10 days if anyone is interested.

    https://www.blackandwhitearmy.com/opinions/2279-kibble-0-wardrop-0

    I think that all reads as a balanced take on the situation, and I side firmly with your conclusion that this is all distraction being played out publicly for reasons I don’t understand. 
     

    The only aspect of it that I disagree with is the describing of the decision to ban him from the ground as draconian. Regardless of the degree of merit in his claims, he’s made them publicly (via smisa manifesto) and had that responded to in kind by a club statement. He’s then gone to multiple press outlets and strengthened his claims to name specific directors and club position holders as having lied and sought to scam the club. It’s untenable to continue to having the door held open for you and a match day role etc whilst that’s the case.

     

    If anything, it’s the posting of that letter publicly and bleating again in the Sun today that’s the out of order aspect of all of this. 
     

    For the second smisa election cycle in a row, the entire conversation has been dominated by a big personality and their supporters making use of the press to push forward a particular agenda and it’s the rest of the members, candidates and fans who are left in the dark. 

    3

    The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    41 minutes ago, buddie06smfc said:

    Shocked. Would be baffling, but not unexpected, should that application to join the SMiSA board be successful now. It shouldn’t come to that and that application should be withdrawn leaving the others to join the board for the right reasons.

    IMO the application should have been thrown out as soon as the blurb was put together.

    Far more likely that we see some MAGA-esque bollocks about how this is fake news and only a select bunch of well-meaning good St Mirren men know the truth. And, if we want to know the truth, we just need to elect them on to the smisa board. 

    2

    The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    3 minutes ago, Div said:

    I'm saying that spending every single penny we have in the bank is not a sensible or sustainable business strategy, particularly for a club that cannot access any borrowing (over and above once in a lifetime pandemic recovery grants!).

    Investing in the squad is fantastic when we have the funds to do so either because we've traded on a player at high value or we've out performed in the previous season through a better than expected finish in the league or from good cup runs or whatever.

    We got through the COVID season largely unscathed financially because of the two cup runs. We've then got the COVID grant sitting there and addressed whatever it was that needed addressing at Ralston (I'm still really unsure where all that money went to be honest) and we've decided to take a wee punt on the squad.

    Personally I'm cool with that, we had loads in the bank at that time.

    Having then spunked £1.7m over budget in that 12 month period though I'd have thought it more sensible to put the brakes on a bit. Maybe budget against 9th or 10th?

    7th seems a bit of a gamble when you're already burning through money at a heavy rate.

    Looks like we will get away with it thanks to Baccus but I do think this general shrugging of the shoulders at us posting massive losses is a bit perplexing.

    On that note, given that SMiSA already paid the majority of the cost for the replacement artificial surface at Ralston, and we're still operating from Portakabins out there, does anyone know exactly what it was we spent so much on at the training ground?

    You’ve already said that until we see the accounts, we don’t know the scale of loss that we’re discussing. The leap from that to “shrugging of the shoulders at us posting massive losses” is significant. 

     

    At the recent SMISA meeting, the chairman confirmed that there was more than a million quid of a balance still sitting in the club accounts. He said that the concept of needing to ask SMISA for funds wasn’t even a conversation that needed to be had in current circumstances. 
     

    Is it just me or are we confusing budget, income v expenditure and bank balance here?

     

    It’s possible for us to run at a loss while not getting anywhere near having nothing left in the bank, which would seem to be the case based on what John Needham explicitly said at the SMISA meeting. When phrases like break even have been mentioned, it has been in budgetary terms - not getting back to solvency. 
     

    Again, if there is any evidence or confirmed numbers out there that fuel this widely held belief about us having overspent millions of pounds over and above a purpose-given loan to the point where we’re going to have an empty bank account before the end of the season - I’d love to see it. 

    Any of the budgetary experts or  accountants who might be reading this, please feel welcome to tell me what I’ve missed or misunderstood. Genuinely. I’m here to be educated. 
     

     

    2

    The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    37 minutes ago, Div said:

    Taking a calculated punt on the squad last season when we had £2.7m in the bank was fair enough, but if as expected we’re posting a loss of £1.7m for that period then budgeting for 7th again this season was madness, in my opinion.

    We might well get away with it if we can cash in on Baccus in January but it’s not a sustainable way to run a football club.

    It’s great having ambition and it’s great having a decent squad but all of that has to be delivered at a cost we can afford.

    That’s boring but history has plenty examples of bigger clubs than us that gambled and lost. 

    Absolutely, I’m with you on living within our means. Fan ownership, in part, was an acceptance that there’s no big pot of money out there to bail us out and I’m entirely happy with that. 

     

    I guess I just don’t follow the reasoning that this is a big gamble. Correct me if I’m wrong (anyone, please) but this £1.7m loss that is consistently referred to - it’s the same rough value as our covid loan. That loan was included in the last available accounts, but was applied for on the basis that it was covering that same equivalent value in covid-caused costs and losses. So - it makes sense that it would be a spent by now on those same declared costs. 

     

    What’s the secret piece here that I’m missing that shows we’ve thrown more than a million quid away on top of that by gambling on expensive players and massively overreaching?

     

    In the absence of any actual evidence to the contrary, is it not possible that people are hearing the chairman say that we’ve been running at a loss during difficult circumstances and letting the panic run a bit far?

     

    We expected a couple of players to move on in the summer and they didn’t, so we’re running a couple of first teamers heavy. Even with an extremely generous estimate, that’s no more than a few hundred thousand quid over the course of a full season. 
     

    Please, if there’s actually evidence anywhere of the board having massively overspent and gambled with our club’s future, I’d love to hear it. 

    12

    The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    30 minutes ago, Div said:

    I'd contend that 20 years of running the club qualifies Stewart Gilmour more than most to question the clubs finances.

    The gamble may well have paid off with Baccus, time will tell, but should the club board be gambling?

     

    I think we need to get away from the mode of thinking that gambling has got us into the position of having posted a loss over a couple of covid hit seasons. 

    Underinvestment in our squad, at a time when top flight income is perhaps more important than ever, is an even bigger gamble - no?

    4

    The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

    in Scottish Premiership General Chatter

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Silvio said:

    I don't think we'd miss anything if Dennis goes. He's a classic case of emperor's new clothes - Danny Mullen is a much better player.

    Mullen put in a good shift for a great Saints team in the 2nd tier and scored some great & important goals thereafter. But three goals in recent weeks don't suddenly make him the missing link. He has scored 10 top flight goals in his entire career, and his ratio in the Championship is worse.

    Fair enough if you think he's as good as Dennis based on what we've seen, but "much better" suggests that you stir mushrooms into your tea.

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