[Swampy]

LLD I think you're mistaking a lot of fans' expectations with how the club would strengthen and build ahead of the new season, and the expectations that many had of the squad and manager.

Following the end of the transfer window I figured mid-table, maybe 6th or so, and I stand by that. I think most fans were either the same as that, or even more pessimistic.

However, most fans did expect more signings in different positions, which would have had us compete around the top. I don't think that, given the financial situation at the club and the past rhetoric from the chairman, that this was a stupid assumption to make.

That said, to some extent the writing was on the wall after the chairman's column in June that said basically that he wanted to give the 2nd division squad a chance to "lead us" into the first.

Still, I don't think many of us expected to sign just one natural defender over the summer transfer window. That's a shocker, and one that saw many reevaluate after the transfer window closed.

Basically you need to separate the expectation of the squad and the expectation of the club. I think maybe 4 or 5 online fans out of the dozens and dozens that there are would have predicted the second division squad to challenge at the top.

Of course as someone else pointed out, Morton fans do see their club as big despite the fact it's only been a few years since we were scraping score draws at the Shire and only a bit longer before that since we were on the verge of extinction. But in terms of size, support, turnover etc. the potential is clearly there. Sadly, we're not yet seeing it.

[GreenOak_Ton]

SramTon, on Sep 16 2007, 13:01, said:

i think you've answered your own question.

unfortunately our problems will really start when the opposition start researching our weaknesses.

Just attack the Morton defence.Doesnt matter if its down either flank,through the middle,high balls,short passing.....it'll crumble anyway as the headless chickens run around banging into each other while trying to protect a young keeper who isnt ready to command his box yet.

[H_B]

Swampy, on Sep 16 2007, 13:45, said:

However, most fans did expect more signings in different positions, which would have had us compete around the top. I don't think that, given the financial situation at the club and the past rhetoric from the chairman, that this was a stupid assumption to make.

I think the fans fell for the hype a bit. Too many were stupidly preening about having been "linked" to half decent players, to notice that none of them were signing and you were left with Kieran Mcanespie.

[LargsTON]

Hieronymous_Bosch, on Sep 16 2007, 18:45, said:

I think the fans fell for the hype a bit. Too many were stupidly preening about having been "linked" to half decent players, to notice that none of them were signing and you were left with Kieran Mcanespie.

Not me.

I really don't know what the motives were behind the fruitless attempts to sign Sutton, Mensing and the like.

If it was a ploy to boost season ticket sales it's failed miserably as fans had their expectation levels raised before the knock out blow of Adam Coakley signing was delivered. No wonder fans are pissed off.

Morton are a shambles, a total fucking mess and Rae is a MAJOR part of the problem.

[H_B]

LargsTON, on Sep 16 2007, 19:07, said:

Not me.

I really don't know what the motives were behind the fruitless attempts to sign Sutton, Mensing and the like.

I know it wasn't everyone. It does seem bizarre.

If your board were claiming they had the money to pay 1 or 2 of these players 4 figure weekly salaries (as they'd need to have done) why couldn't McInally have got 3 or 4 half decent players in on £600 or £700 a week salaries?

[midTONs]

Hieronymous_Bosch, on Sep 16 2007, 19:28, said:

I know it wasn't everyone. It does seem bizarre.

If your board were claiming they had the money to pay 1 or 2 of these players 4 figure weekly salaries (as they'd need to have done) why couldn't McInally have got 3 or 4 half decent players in on £600 or £700 a week salaries?

I believe the manager asked for the money the chairman was willing to spend on McGowan, he said he would get 2 maybe 3 quality players in, he was told NO.

The reason behind it.... Feck knows, you tell me.

[LargsTON]

LargsTON, on Sep 16 2007, 19:07, said:

Morton are a shambles, a total fucking mess and Rae is a MAJOR part of the problem.

midTONs, on Sep 16 2007, 19:34, said:

I believe the manager asked for the money the chairman was willing to spend on McGowan, he said he would get 2 maybe 3 quality players in, he was told NO.

The reason behind it.... Feck knows, you tell me.

As I was saying....

Douglas Rae is beginning to unravel all the good work he's done in the past few years and I do have a degree of sympathy for McInally.

[midTONs]

LargsTON, on Sep 16 2007, 19:40, said:

As I was saying....

Douglas Rae is beginning to unravel all the good work he's done in the past few years and I do have a degree of sympathy for McInally.

Sorry Bob I never read the whole thread (think I was sleeping ) but your right.

[Dunning1874]

LargsTON, on Sep 16 2007, 19:40, said:

As I was saying....

Douglas Rae is beginning to unravel all the good work he's done in the past few years and I do have a degree of sympathy for McInally.

I agree about having some sympathy for McInally, but he has to take a large part of the blame. He was the one who identified 2 unrealistic targets in Sutton and Mensing, and had no plan B in the likely event of them turning us down, for example, lowering our standards and going for Neil McFarlane and Liam Buchanan, 2 guys who were still available at that time and could easily do a job.
And he didn't seem to identify a centre back at all, a simply idiotic decision. Regardless of whether or not he thinks Harding and Greacen are good enough, we don't have enough defenders and we should have signed someone. I was saying all summer we should sign Bobby Mann, and no one agreed with me. Would people still say no to signing him come January, as we'll probably have a new manager rebuilding the team then?

[vikingTON]

Dunning1874, on Sep 16 2007, 19:54, said:

I agree about having some sympathy for McInally, but he has to take a large part of the blame. He was the one who identified 2 unrealistic targets in Sutton and Mensing, and had no plan B in the likely event of them turning us down, for example, lowering our standards and going for Neil McFarlane and Liam Buchanan, 2 guys who were still available at that time and could easily do a job.
And he didn't seem to identify a centre back at all, a simply idiotic decision. Regardless of whether or not he thinks Harding and Greacen are good enough, we don't have enough defenders and we should have signed someone. I was saying all summer we should sign Bobby Mann, and no one agreed with me. Would people still say no to signing him come January, as we'll probably have a new manager rebuilding the team then?

Supposedly Bobby Mann is as slow as a Big Brother series now.
Still, I shudder to think what Shipman will do to the comedy duo on saturday.

This post has been edited by vikingTON: 16 September 2007 - 19:00

[Rudy]

If all the problems all stem back to Dougie Rae then what difference will it make getting rid of JM and bringing in a new manager?

If what MidTons says is true then Dougie Rae can fck right off.

[Rudy]

Dunning1874, on Sep 16 2007, 19:54, said:

I was saying all summer we should sign Bobby Mann, and no one agreed with me. Would people still say no to signing him come January, as we'll probably have a new manager rebuilding the team then?

Yes, I'd still say no. Guy is a complete diddy, even compared with Greacen and Harding.

This post has been edited by garymcc1874: 16 September 2007 - 19:14

[LargsTON]

LargsTON, on Sep 16 2007, 19:40, said:

As I was saying....

Douglas Rae is beginning to unravel all the good work he's done in the past few years and I do have a degree of sympathy for McInally.

midTONs, on Sep 16 2007, 19:49, said:

Sorry Bob I never read the whole thread (think I was sleeping ) but your right.

You picked me up wrong, mate.

All I meant by quoting you was your point backed up what I was saying.

[Swampy]

Hieronymous_Bosch, on Sep 16 2007, 18:45, said:

I think the fans fell for the hype a bit. Too many were stupidly preening about having been "linked" to half decent players, to notice that none of them were signing and you were left with Kieran Mcanespie.

The thing is, I'm not even *that* bothered that we didn't get Sutton.

I am completely and utterly gobsmacked that we did not sign at the very, absolute, tiniest bare minimum, a centre-back.

[midTONs]

garymcc1874, on Sep 16 2007, 20:00, said:

If all the problems all stem back to Dougie Rae then what difference will it make getting rid of JM and bringing in a new manager?

If what MidTons says is true then Dougie Rae can fck right off.

Thats what I was told, Gowsa was The Chairmans baby not the Managers, the manager gave the chairman his valuation and the the Chairman added 15k to that price, then went back in with a bid just shy of 100k. JM asked for the money to bring in a few players and was told no, in fact if Gowsa had not said at the end he was no longer interested in going back to Morton I reckon the Chairman would have went in with more.

LargsTON, on Sep 16 2007, 20:04, said:

You picked me up wrong, mate.

All I meant by quoting you was your point backed up what I was saying.

Ok stop sooking in.

[GreenOak_Ton]

Forget Bobby Mann.We should go for Chris Inness in january.He cant be enjoying his football just now with Gretna and how constant defeats could be wrecking his reputation.Then again he might not want to come to Morton with all the defeats theyre suffering too.(had to add that before some Midden supporter did)

[GreenOak_Ton]

Stop putting the boot into Douglas Rae.Do any of you remember ANY of our chairmen over past 40 years.There rests my case.
Dougie is a Morton man,always has been,always will be.He will never put the club at risk financially that could allow some bloodsucking parasite to buy him out.

[Stadio Delle Almondvale]

Are Morton fans panicking by any chance?

Why? Apart from Hamilton and Dundee you have won as many games as any other team in the division.

Sack the manager, get rid of the chairman and all our players are crap!

Jeezo, call yourselves supporters?

[Swampy]

Stadio Delle Almondvale, on Sep 17 2007, 08:21, said:

Are Morton fans panicking by any chance?

Why? Apart from Hamilton and Dundee you have won as many games as any other team in the division.

Sack the manager, get rid of the chairman and all our players are crap!

Jeezo, call yourselves supporters?

Some (e.g. me) are worried that the post-promotion high has worn off and we're now seeing our real potential ahead of the season.

The heads are down, no doubt about it, and it was good morale that saw us do so well against tough opposition like St. Johnstone last season.

I wouldn't cry myself to sleep if we sacked JM.

I don't want the chairman to go. I think, though, that he MUST delegate more. If he'd delegate more, he'd be the local hero again that he used to be.

A few of the players in the first team aren't good enough for the first division, but not all of them by any means. At its core the squad is talented.

Quote

Stop putting the boot into Douglas Rae.Do any of you remember ANY of our chairmen over past 40 years.There rests my case.
Dougie is a Morton man,always has been,always will be.He will never put the club at risk financially that could allow some bloodsucking parasite to buy him out.

I agree but this doesn't make him infallible.

This summer was a balls-up, start to finish. We have a handful of good signings to show for it but the missed opportunities are far more significant.

DDF will always have my admiration for taking over the club, redoing the stadium, building the training facility (probably one of the best in the SFL) and generally bringing back the feel-good factor... but he's in severe danger of undoing a lot of it if he doesn't change his ways a bit.

This post has been edited by Swampy: 17 September 2007 - 08:51

[Satans_Husband]

Stadio Delle Almondvale, on Sep 17 2007, 08:21, said:

Are Morton fans panicking by any chance?

Why? Apart from Hamilton and Dundee you have won as many games as any other team in the division.

Sack the manager, get rid of the chairman and all our players are crap!

Jeezo, call yourselves supporters?

Of course Morton fans are panicking. It's what they do most of the time these days. All is not right at the club but it's far from the disaster area that a lot of people seem to think it is.

[GreenOak_Ton]

Course we are panicking.Have you ever had to watch football in the lower reaches of the SFL?I wouldnt even wish that on St Mirren....thats how bad it is.
Lets get things into perspective though.We've played six games in this league and we've only been outplayed once and thats by the team at the top of the league.QoS game could easily have gone our way and the Livi game was one of those freaky matches where Ton are looking good for an equaliser and suddenly against run of play we are three down in a minute.A tactical mistake by McInally playing 3 at back in first half.If he had put shields at right back(his natural position) then we wouldnt even have lost that match on saturday never mind getting humped.
Roll on St Johnstone game this saturday.Hat trick for big Temps.
We'll probably get beat 4-3 though and then i will be on calling for JM's head too.

[LargsTON]

midTONs, on Sep 16 2007, 20:21, said:

Ok stop sooking in.

Fine. Read the thread properly then ya fat c**t.

[vikingTON]

Stadio Delle Almondvale, on Sep 17 2007, 08:21, said:

Are Morton fans panicking by any chance?

Why? Apart from Hamilton and Dundee you have won as many games as any other team in the division.

Sack the manager, get rid of the chairman and all our players are crap!

Jeezo, call yourselves supporters?

We also have scored the least number of goals in the league, and have picked up 1 point from 10 - not exactly encouraging.
Take into account a overly-meddling chairman and a complete moron in the dugout and there is indeed cause for considerable concern.
The players may do well if played in their natural positions - an option alien to the genius that is Jim McInally.

[DomDom]

Stadio Delle Almondvale, on Sep 17 2007, 08:21, said:

Are Morton fans panicking by any chance?

Why? Apart from Hamilton and Dundee you have won as many games as any other team in the division.

Sack the manager, get rid of the chairman and all our players are crap!

Jeezo, call yourselves supporters?

We've not scored a goal in the league in seven hours. We lost 4-0 against bottom of the league.

Oh, and before you go and watch us every week, please don't comment on a team that you have no clue about.

[snorkie]

GreenOak_Ton, on Sep 16 2007, 23:34, said:

Forget Bobby Mann.We should go for Chris Inness in january.He cant be enjoying his football just now with Gretna and how constant defeats could be wrecking his reputation.Then again he might not want to come to Morton with all the defeats theyre suffering too.(had to add that before some Midden supporter did)

Chris Innes parents stay opposite my house in Livi,next time i see him might try poach him for us