Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[Stellaboz]

We don't do play offs.

 

Good thing we're going to win the league.

[The Toun Clock]

1 hour ago, SouthStander1876 said:

As much as I'd love Dunfermline to stay down while we go up, I'd be very happy if we both went up because it's nice to finally have the regular debies back

Yeah I think for bragging rights we'd momentarily enjoy it if one stayed down, however next season in the Championship we'd both want that derby again.

[ShaggerG]

19 minutes ago, The Toun Clock said:

Yeah I think for bragging rights we'd momentarily enjoy it if one stayed down, however next season in the Championship we'd both want that derby again.

Both boards will be praying that we both go up and that QP and Inverness are promoted with Dundee Utd and Kilmarnock or Motherwell coming down.

[SouthStander1876]

Would be a great league for away days

[HoBNob]

4 hours ago, NavyBlueArmy1876 said:

Worth noting that although we've brought in 5 players, we have also moved 6 on. Would be amazed if the business we've done in this window wasn't cost neutral. If McPake hasn't shuffled the deck he's clearly happy with what he's got - not sure how that can be leveled at your board. I suppose we'll find out come May whether he's made the right decision 

Look at the players that are going out, and where they're going. You reckon Seb Ross, Jamie Wilson, Finlay Malcolm and Paddy Martin will be cost neutral with those coming in? Including a transfer fee? Gies peace. 

3 hours ago, SouthStander1876 said:

As much as I'd love Dunfermline to stay down while we go up, I'd be very happy if we both went up because it's nice to finally have the regular debies back

Not for me tbf, If we went up I'd be absolutely delighted for Falkirk to stay down, wouldn't miss the derbies at all. I could absolutely go four games without hearing songs about Norrie and the such like

[Chubbychops]

I would laugh my chubby t1ts off if Falkirk went to the wall tbh.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Chubbychops

[Guest]

9 hours ago, mo83 said:

Ryan Willamson....IGetting a fair amount of stick from the Lolkirk lot saying we have signed a dud ,how was he with you guys?

You have not signed a dud, merely a footballer who has legs of glass and the heart of a field moose

[101]

On 31/01/2023 at 20:04, CallumPar said:

As far as I’m aware, they haven’t even started the work required to get the planning application approved for the artificial pitch.

99% sure not at the last supporters meeting but the one before that they said that it was the Scottish water aspect of the planning for the artificial pitch that they were waiting on so something has been going on for months.

[101]

On 31/01/2023 at 21:09, The Toun Clock said:

where’s the European players we were supposed to be looking at in previous windows

To comply with the post Brexit visa rules they pretty much have to be international level players so guys like Vytas and the Faroese boy Raith brought in will be the limited pool we would have to fish in so I don't think there is a massive queue of them waiting to come to the third tier of Scottish football. I would have hoped we would look to the Irish league which will be starting up soon but I think we have missed the boat there now.

11 hours ago, CallumPar said:

But having our own academy and training facilities will not be sustainable if we don’t earn promotion from league one.

I guess that's the point of the German investment to build the fundamental blocks and be able to do so in a division which can't sustain such things financially.

Bringing the academy in is probably were all the German money has gone which will in the future bring in talent and I'm sure anyone who has seen the youth players play it's been money well spent.

[DA Baracus]

8 minutes ago, 101 said:

99% sure not at the last supporters meeting but the one before that they said that it was the Scottish water aspect of the planning for the artificial pitch that they were waiting on so something has been going on for months.

All this is freely available on the official site. I'm beginning to suspect people know this fine well when they are 'just asking questions'. If not then I would wonder how they've missed it.

[101]

14 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

All this is freely available on the official site. I'm beginning to suspect people know this fine well when they are 'just asking questions'. If not then I would wonder how they've missed it.

The planning application was actually approved on the 27th September, so no doubt they will be aiming to have it ready for pre season.

https://planning.fife.gov.uk/online/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=RDZALFHFIPX00

[DA Baracus]

1 minute ago, 101 said:

The planning application was actually approved on the 27th September, so no doubt they will be aiming to have it ready for pre season.

https://planning.fife.gov.uk/online/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=RDZALFHFIPX00

Where's the planning documents for the new Aldi?

[101]

Just now, DA Baracus said:

Where's the planning documents for the new Aldi?

It's going to be a Lidl ...

[parsforlife]

24 minutes ago, 101 said:

Bringing the academy in is probably were all the German money has gone which will in the future bring in talent and I'm sure anyone who has seen the youth players play it's been money well spent.

Forgive for for being sceptical here as well,  we have absolutely no idea how the academy is going,  and we won’t for quite a while now,  we haven’t attained a very high club academy status(unlike say Queen’s Park who have just been granted elite from their outside investment) and a lot of it just looks like the failed fife elite model with new strips.  We have a small group in full time, but even they aren’t meant to be receiving much if any of a wage from what I can gather from the supporters update.  So how much have they put in?  

Overall I do think we do need to keep an eye on the gmbh still.   3 years they have been here,   The sell?

Increased scouting network- fail, one player who we released in a year

Not being stay away owners- fail rarely at matches and hiding behind others when they do come across.

Training ground- fail, for now,  was meant to be open in part a year ago and in full last summer,  which still would have been still quite a slow process,  we now have a not even half-built site with talk of scaled back plans on account of our league position. If they are meant to be outside investment then why the f**k is our league position matter, sure as f**k they should still be funding it at the same rate?  It’s quite clear the first team budget has been slashed comfortably to account for the relegation.

The academy- unknown without wanting to repeat what I said above,  surely at minimum it would be at the same level as before we joined fife elite,  but the sell of bringing outside investment into this was an idea of an academy where we could fight for players at a much higher level than we were at that stage.

Increased professionalism- I would say with the appointment of cook this is a pass,  but it still is large parts of the club reliant on volunteers, and whilst not wanting to offend or sound ungrateful a lot of them are in roles where their being stretched beyond their natural abilities. 

All of this under the background of absolute disgraceful failure on the most important part of the club since they turned up.  
 

 

[DA Baracus]

16 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

All of this under the background of absolute disgraceful failure on the most important part of the club since they turned up.

This suggests they are to blame. Is that what you are saying?

[parsforlife]

12 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

This suggests they are to blame. Is that what you are saying?

Not completely,   Could we have ended up with grant and then hughes taking the club down the shithole without them coming in? Quite possibly yes,  at least a few pars United side of the board(especially our former chairman) we’re quite enthusiastic at those appointments,

but any member of the board who either approved,  or were unwilling to put their foot down and hold those who wanted to take the club down such a bad path to the fire deserve a lot of criticism and that especially includes gmbh who whilst at times didn’t have outright control did/do on a de facto basis given the future agreements they were always going to have full control.

[101]

11 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

unlike say Queen’s Park who have just been granted elite from their outside investment) and a lot of it just looks like the failed fife elite mode

I guess where QP have exceeded is their coaches must have a higher certificate and more medical/ sport science staff along with some of their players maybe making the Scotland teams? I guess the German investment has taken on the payroll of the entire coaching set up and facility hire. 

FEFA only really failed because we were the only team bank rolling it, there is a reasonable amount of players that have made it from the academy into senior football.

14 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

Increased scouting network- fail, one player who we released in a year

Yogi clearly didn't fancy anyone other than the usual suspects. Max Little you would imagine came from the scouting network plenty time to see if that will work out for us. Also making sure we bring in the right players has also been a massive change to get away from bringing in rockets like Kyle Turner or Paul Watson who on the face of it were good enough footballers but clearly shook the dressing room up badly.

I thought it was poor decision making to put so much emphasis on the scouting when you take one look at Tory immigration policy and know that getting in folk will be difficult, when we can't even get nurses in what chances does a minor football club have

18 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

Not being stay away owners- fail rarely at matches and hiding behind others when they do come across

Really? I'm not sure I would agree that they are hiding behind anyone but I don't think we are as good as when Bob Garmory was chairman.

 

20 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

Training ground- fail, for now,  was meant to be open in part a year ago and in full last summer,  which still would have been still quite a slow process,  we now have a not even half-built site

I'm not entirely sure how much of this is in their control? You probably could spend 10x as much on fast contractors but if the council don't grant permission until 13 months after you thought you would be in then I don't know what anyone would do. 

On top of that the roofing contractor going bust half way through the project isn't ideal.

23 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

Increased professionalism- I would say with the appointment of cook this is a pass,  but it still is large parts of the club reliant on volunteers, and whilst not wanting to offend or sound ungrateful a lot of them are in roles where their being stretched beyond their natural abilities

I would agree, we need to have a plan in place to wean ourselves off volunteer labour. And support David otherwise we will just burn out someone else trying to work 24/7.

I think there are green shoots but by no means perfect. I'm not sure what more I'd expect of the board in league 1, obviously can demand a lot but is it realistic? I'm not so sure. 

Would it be great to have an elite academy in L1? sure. Is it necessary, I don't think so. Something to aim for in the next 2/3 years.

Would it be great to have a number of young European players looking to forge a career in the UK? Sure. But can we get them through the visa process, I doubt it.

Would it be great to have a fully functioning training ground and have had to planning process settled long ago? Sure, but is there much the board of a football club can do? I doubt it. If there was I suspect they would have done it.

Would it be great to have a staff fit to run the football club? Yes, but is that a great way to spend the cash, in roles like David that bring cash back into the club, there even seems to be a recruitment issue for bar and hospitality stuff so where staff are needed they are clearly bringing folk in. 

The absolute shambles of the last season is now well behind us thankfully but I'm sure still taking a toll on the finances. 

 

That's a very long post now, apologies

[parsforlife]

5 minutes ago, 101 said:

I guess where QP have exceeded is their coaches must have a higher certificate and more medical/ sport science staff along with some of their players maybe making the Scotland teams? I guess the German investment has taken on the payroll of the entire coaching set up and facility hire. 

FEFA only really failed because we were the only team bank rolling it, there is a reasonable amount of players that have made it from the academy into senior football.

Yogi clearly didn't fancy anyone other than the usual suspects. Max Little you would imagine came from the scouting network plenty time to see if that will work out for us. Also making sure we bring in the right players has also been a massive change to get away from bringing in rockets like Kyle Turner or Paul Watson who on the face of it were good enough footballers but clearly shook the dressing room up badly.

I thought it was poor decision making to put so much emphasis on the scouting when you take one look at Tory immigration policy and know that getting in folk will be difficult, when we can't even get nurses in what chances does a minor football club have

Really? I'm not sure I would agree that they are hiding behind anyone but I don't think we are as good as when Bob Garmory was chairman.

 

I'm not entirely sure how much of this is in their control? You probably could spend 10x as much on fast contractors but if the council don't grant permission until 13 months after you thought you would be in then I don't know what anyone would do. 

On top of that the roofing contractor going bust half way through the project isn't ideal.

I would agree, we need to have a plan in place to wean ourselves off volunteer labour. And support David otherwise we will just burn out someone else trying to work 24/7.

I think there are green shoots but by no means perfect. I'm not sure what more I'd expect of the board in league 1, obviously can demand a lot but is it realistic? I'm not so sure. 

Would it be great to have an elite academy in L1? sure. Is it necessary, I don't think so. Something to aim for in the next 2/3 years.

Would it be great to have a number of young European players looking to forge a career in the UK? Sure. But can we get them through the visa process, I doubt it.

Would it be great to have a fully functioning training ground and have had to planning process settled long ago? Sure, but is there much the board of a football club can do? I doubt it. If there was I suspect they would have done it.

Would it be great to have a staff fit to run the football club? Yes, but is that a great way to spend the cash, in roles like David that bring cash back into the club, there even seems to be a recruitment issue for bar and hospitality stuff so where staff are needed they are clearly bringing folk in. 

The absolute shambles of the last season is now well behind us thankfully but I'm sure still taking a toll on the finances. 

 

That's a very long post now, apologies

A long post- but not a bad one.

I think in general a lot of your points-  whilst being slightly simplistic the answer is spend more money,  why are Queen’s Park able to achieve higher academy status, they spent more.   Why are we not able to get any of the foreign players in, we aren’t paying enough tor the the quality of players who gets visas. Similarly on the training ground,  if we had spent properly we’d have a better comprehensive report before committing and good architects are normally very good at preparing the right paperwork to make sure planning is a smooth process.

I know that can seem a bit entitled, I am forever infuriated by EPL fans shouting at their owners for not buying a 100m striker,   But this is what the group came in saying they would do, if they don’t/aren’t willing to provide the finance to achieve that,  then we need to ask if at what point should they still be in control.

[DA Baracus]

11 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

A long post- but not a bad one.

I think in general a lot of your points-  whilst being slightly simplistic the answer is spend more money,  why are Queen’s Park able to achieve higher academy status, they spent more.   Why are we not able to get any of the foreign players in, we aren’t paying enough tor the the quality of players who gets visas. Similarly on the training ground,  if we had spent properly we’d have a better comprehensive report before committing and good architects are normally very good at preparing the right paperwork to make sure planning is a smooth process.

I know that can seem a bit entitled, I am forever infuriated by EPL fans shouting at their owners for not buying a 100m striker,   But this is what the group came in saying they would do, if they don’t/aren’t willing to provide the finance to achieve that,  then we need to ask if at what point should they still be in control.

The only way to get international players of the required quality to play in League 1 is to chuck large sums of cash at them, a tactic that famously went well in the past for the club.

How much was spent on the training ground report? How much should it have been? What cheap architects were used?

 

[parsforlife]

8 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

The only way to get international players of the required quality to play in League 1 is to chuck large sums of cash at them, a tactic that famously went well in the past for the club.

How much was spent on the training ground report? How much should it have been? What cheap architects were used?

 

I didn’t say large sums of money, I said more money.   Again,  this was something the investment group stated they would provide,  they clearly haven’t.

I don’t know why you want to be petty about things you know fine well I can’t provide, but I can’t give you a number of examples of projects going more smoothly,  something roughly on the spend we are looking at is often done in 18 months, a year if things go well.  What is your justification for it looking like it’s going to take far more than double that time?