Sons' sorrow

[C'mon_the_Sons]

Maybe there's a wee gap in the market for some enterprising chap to set up a wee stall on Castle Road to sell Sons merchandise?

If the club aren't interested then that's their loss.

[KierenAAFC]

Thoughts on Jack Ross , decent appointment ?

[Howlin' Wilf]

The trust don't have direct control over club merchandise.

The trust has a board member who also has a particular role on the club board but merchandise is an area that is reserved for the club board rather than the trust board.

There may be a degree of influence but certainly nothing like control.

It seems a bit odd to give someone the title of commercial director if he doesn't have control over that aspect of the club. I'm not getting at Alan at all. He's as dedicated a director of the club as I can recall. It doesn't make sense though, if the relatively mundane task of ordering merchandise is a reserved power.

[C'mon_the_Sons]

It seems a bit odd to give someone the title of commercial director if he doesn't have control over that aspect of the club. I'm not getting at Alan at all. He's as dedicated a director of the club as I can recall. It doesn't make sense though, if the relatively mundane task of ordering merchandise is a reserved power.

Maybe his role is limited to generating revenue for the Club that requires no upfront costs to the club?

[Howlin' Wilf]

Maybe I missed something but I really don't see what all the fuss is/ was with Jack Ross.

Don't get me wrong he seems to be a good coach, we seemed to miss him when he left but as a manager he hasn't really done much.

I know he didn't have long as interim manager with us but I didn't see any great changes and did he not get sacked as the hearts u21 manager?

Is it maybe a good coach but not a manager?

Pretty much this. In 2012 the bounce never happened until Murray arrived. I recall when Murray couldn't make it to a game v Falkirk, due to the birth of his son, Ross took charge and we had a 4-1 defeat. This doesn't of course prove anything except that Ross changed a settled team and formation that night. As for his dismissal at Hearts, did the club favour the other party? If so they may have been looking for a reason to get rid. All speculation of course but it will take a manager of special ability to rescue Alloa. I wish him well.

[Howlin' Wilf]

Maybe his role is limited to generating revenue for the Club that requires no upfront costs to the club?

Maybe. That would be odd as well though. Surely the ordering of merchandise is self financing if the stock sells?

[C'mon_the_Sons]

Maybe. That would be odd as well though. Surely the ordering of merchandise is self financing if the stock sells?

Yeah that would make sense but it's the DFC board we're talking about here!

[Sons Fan]

Pretty much this. In 2012 the bounce never happened until Murray arrived. I recall when Murray couldn't make it to a game v Falkirk, due to the birth of his son, Ross took charge and we had a 4-1 defeat. This doesn't of course prove anything except that Ross changed a settled team and formation that night. As for his dismissal at Hearts, did the club favour the other party? If so they may have been looking for a reason to get rid. All speculation of course but it will take a manager of special ability to rescue Alloa. I wish him well.

I hope I'm wrong as I have nothing against the guy but I have a funny feeling he's in the same moled as Rene Mulinstein. Coach at Man Utd and by all accounts a great coach but not a manager.

Thinking about it Murray is a good manager but not a coach so maybe they were perfect together

[optimistic]

I've never got all the fuss over Jack Ross either, I don't think he got a win before Murray came in, and if I recall correctly, hearts under 21's were third from bottom of their league, I genuinely do wish him well though, just not against us,

[BallochSonsFan]

It seems a bit odd to give someone the title of commercial director if he doesn't have control over that aspect of the club. I'm not getting at Alan at all. He's as dedicated a director of the club as I can recall. It doesn't make sense though, if the relatively mundane task of ordering merchandise is a reserved power.

It's not odd at all.

As club commercial manager, Alan is answerable to his fellow club board members and the shareholders with regards to any commercial decisions he makes. As a trust board member he's answerable to the trust membership. There's overlap - the fans want more/better merchandise and the club want to make more money from merchandise sales. That doesn't mean that the trust board can demand that Alan as commercial manager stocks a new range of clothing, scarfs, car stickers or any other new merch that might fly off the shelves or stock more replica jerseys because the fans want it or the trust want it. That's down to Alan as the club's commercial director, not Alan as a trust board member. Theres different considerations involved, not least of which would be using club money to invest in a better range of merchandise to sell.

If the club wanted to allow the trust to source and sell merchandise in a similar way that the trust produces and sells the match day programme then that's another issue. Is it something that the support would want? Is it something that the club would be willing to do? Ultimately it's club money that buys stock - any change would likely require the trust to absorb a degree of the financial risk. Hence it's a decision made by the club board, with Alan as commercial director.

[Thommo90]

Pretty much this. In 2012 the bounce never happened until Murray arrived. I recall when Murray couldn't make it to a game v Falkirk, due to the birth of his son, Ross took charge and we had a 4-1 defeat. This doesn't of course prove anything except that Ross changed a settled team and formation that night. As for his dismissal at Hearts, did the club favour the other party? If so they may have been looking for a reason to get rid. All speculation of course but it will take a manager of special ability to rescue Alloa. I wish him well.

From memory, wasn't the game Murray had his son a 2-1 win at Falkirk? Megginson and Fleming scored, and if I remember right he ended up showing up near half time??

Same game we had like 3 players on the bench.

[Jan Vojáček]

I've never got all the fuss over Jack Ross either, I don't think he got a win before Murray came in, and if I recall correctly, hearts under 21's were third from bottom of their league, I genuinely do wish him well though, just not against us,

He won 2, including our first at this level. But also lost 1-5 to Morton and 3-4 to Airdrie and 4-0 to Dunfermline after Muzz was appointed.

The fuss comes from speaking to players who played at the club at the time. Never have I heard a coach spoken about in such a great way, he was absolutely loved by the players during his time from us. His sessions were, by all accounts, head and shoulders above Murray's, his player recruitment was also top class. Without him there would be no Kirkpatrick and Megginson and Kane would probably not be Sons players.

Funnily enough I think this could be what lets him down in senior management, he's not nasty enough. You need to be prepared to go through players when they aren't performing and I don't know if he'd do that.

[Jan Vojáček]

From memory, wasn't the game Murray had his son a 2-1 win at Falkirk? Megginson and Fleming scored, and if I remember right he ended up showing up near half time??

Same game we had like 3 players on the bench.

Nope, although that was one of my all time favourite games it was earlier in the season.

I think we lost 2-0 or something like that in the game Wilf's talking about *looks it up*

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

The 2-0 Falkirk game at the Rock was Adamson's last game in charge. I remember being in hospitality and getting the impression from Jardine that Adamson wouldn't be in charge for the game the following week. Adamson was bagged on the Monday afterwards.

That means Ross must have been in charge for Airdrie, Cowden and Morton. Two league defeats and a win.

There may have been a cup game he was in charge of but I'm not sure. I vaguely remember Murray's first game being Hamilton at home, may have been a cup match?

[Jan Vojáček]

The 2-0 Falkirk game at the Rock was Adamson's last game in charge. I remember being in hospitality and getting the impression from Jardine that Adamson wouldn't be in charge for the game the following week. Adamson was bagged on the Monday afterwards.

That means Ross must have been in charge for Airdrie, Cowden and Morton. Two league defeats and a win.

There may have been a cup game he was in charge of but I'm not sure. I vaguely remember Murray's first game being Hamilton at home, may have been a cup match?

Yup, Jacko was in charge of a 4-1 Scottish Cup victory over East Stirling - shocked that such a monumental result has slipped your memory.

Muzz's first game in charge was a 3-1 home defeat to Hamilton, Ali Crawford scored a belter and Chris Turner scored and then was sent off. It was a Scottish Cup game as well, played as a replay at about the 28th attempt. I remember post match all the fans mentioning how much we stood off them...

[Johan Cruyff]

Tend to agree with the comments not getting the fuss about Jack Ross. He was the boss for one of the most inept Sons performances ever - 5-1 home defeat to Morton. If memory serves we were 5-0 down with the Morton players acting like it was a training session. Absolutely woeful performance and probably one of the main reasons the board, rightly, didn't give him the job.

[Howlin' Wilf]

From memory, wasn't the game Murray had his son a 2-1 win at Falkirk? Megginson and Fleming scored, and if I remember right he ended up showing up near half time??

Same game we had like 3 players on the bench.

We were both wrong it was a 2-0 defeat at Falkirk.

[Howlin' Wilf]

It's not odd at all.

As club commercial manager, Alan is answerable to his fellow club board members and the shareholders with regards to any commercial decisions he makes. As a trust board member he's answerable to the trust membership. There's overlap - the fans want more/better merchandise and the club want to make more money from merchandise sales. That doesn't mean that the trust board can demand that Alan as commercial manager stocks a new range of clothing, scarfs, car stickers or any other new merch that might fly off the shelves or stock more replica jerseys because the fans want it or the trust want it. That's down to Alan as the club's commercial director, not Alan as a trust board member. Theres different considerations involved, not least of which would be using club money to invest in a better range of merchandise to sell.

If the club wanted to allow the trust to source and sell merchandise in a similar way that the trust produces and sells the match day programme then that's another issue. Is it something that the support would want? Is it something that the club would be willing to do? Ultimately it's club money that buys stock - any change would likely require the trust to absorb a degree of the financial risk. Hence it's a decision made by the club board, with Alan as commercial director.

So help ma boab! I was only talking in terms of a stock order - ie more stock of the type that had indeed sold out. If a board of directors/chief exec cannae do that properly, Gawd help us with the rather more complex duties of running a fitba club.

[BallochSonsFan]

Our chief executive is under the impression that 52 brides will want to hold their wedding at a football stadium and that 18 of them wont be troubled by the fact that a football match is taking place at the same time as their wedding. So far he has sought the opinion of zero soon to be married couples. I wouldn't be entirely confident in what our CEO can do properly.

[The Moonster]

So help ma boab! I was only talking in terms of a stock order - ie more stock of the type that had indeed sold out. If a board of directors/chief exec cannae do that properly, Gawd help us with the rather more complex duties of running a fitba club.

Or building a new stadium...