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Folk still trying to absolve Houston of blame

This post is going to be fucking massive, apologies in advance. If we go for the viewpoints at either extreme with the Raes and discard any nuance in between, you can look at it either of these ways: 1. Douglas Rae is the benevolent hero who saved Morton from liquidation and continues to save the club. He continues to cover losses every single year and Morton would be right back into financial trouble if he left because the club simply isn't capable of breaking even and we should count ourselves lucky that we have a businessman willing to plug those losses. If he was to turn around and walk away tomorrow the best case scenario would be falling into a spiral the way Clyde did, but we'd be more likely to go the way of Clydebank. 2. Douglas Rae is at best a blithering incompetent who doesn't have the ability to run Morton as a sustainable enterprise or at worst a mendacious megalomaniac who is perfectly happy for Morton to run at loss as it increases his grip over the club due to the increase in debt owed to him, as he hopes to get back the money he feels is owed to him when the club was only making losses in the first place due to his shambolic administration of the club. I've gone for hyperbole with both of those but you get the idea. There are elements of truth in both of them. Regardless of the fact that other businessmen were interested in stepping in and that fan organisations put up money towards it too, the reality is that Morton were in serious danger of liquidation and Douglas Rae was the one who stepped up to prevent it, get Hugh Scott out of the club, get a CVA through and keep us at Cappielow. That will never be forgotten, he will always have goodwill for it and rightly so. However, that entirely merited goodwill doesn't mean he can get off with bad decision after bad decision since. Due to the circumstances of his takeover he was given nothing but adulation and hero-worship in his first few years, and that the attitude towards him has cooled and in some cases turned to outright hostility isn't a cautionary tale about how fickle football supports can be but testament to just how badly the club botched things when Douglas Rae was seen as the messiah who could do no wrong. Every club in financial trouble has fans saying they're just happy to have a club if they make it through it, and it's true. However, this doesn't mean you should be happy to see the club stagnate or go backwards when you know there's no reason they can't be capable of better. When we had a second successive relegation to drop to the fourth tier in Rae's first season as Chairman there were no rumblings of discontent: at that point we really were just glad the club had survived, the fact that a team thrown together in two weeks before the start of the season was utter shite was no surprise and no one's fault really. Fast forward five years from that though and the club is still in the Second Division, having tossed money down the drain on transfer fees and clinging to full-time status while watching part-time teams finish ahead of us time and time again. At that point we're making a loss every year but still no discontent with Rae despite that; he told us that being in the First Division was necessary to break even and it was accepted, even though some could point out that we'd have got there quicker if he wasn't sticking by bad managers and it maybe wasn't entirely necessary to throw around £185K in transfer fees over five years in the third & fourth tiers. Then we get to the second tier where we're going to break even - nope, still six figure losses every year. The answer from the club is that they expected crowds to be higher, with the quite hilarious revelation that we budgeted for an average attendance of 4000 in our first season up in 2007/08. If fans want Morton to be in a better position, it's up to fans to bring a friend. Rae also really struggled to contain his fury with the support in that season when he finally accepted Jim McInally's resignation at the third time it was offered, with the reason given that the fans just weren't going to get back behind the players while McInally remained in charge. He's never forgiven the fans for that and it was around this time that a real us and them mentality between the club and support became entrenched, which if we're being honest has never entirely gone away although it's certainly been less pronounced under Duffy, to his credit. As we continued making six figure losses annually there was a growing feeling that while he should always be thanked for being the man who saved the club, the continued losses weren't down to it being impossible for Morton to ever break even while putting a competitive team on the pitch but instead down to incompetence in the boardroom. If clubs like Raith and Queen of the South could not only break even but do it while finishing above Morton then what exactly was Morton's problem? Neither of them had money rolling in from selling their old ground to a supermarket, they didn't have a new build stadium generating revenue seven days a week and their average attendances were usually smaller. Were there hundreds of thousands of pounds of overheads associated with Cappielow that didn't apply to Palmerston or Starks? Were we paying hundreds of thousands of pounds more in wages than them but showing nothing for it? Morton had gone from being a full-time seaside league club to being a mediocre second tier club never threatening a promotion challenge and we had seven figures of debt to show for it. Why couldn't we have got into that position without a penny of debt? A few years on, a few years of continued losses, we finally threaten a title challenge but end up finishing 11 points behind. For that second place finish we got prize money of £67K. Then we go and get relegated in hilariously awful circumstances with Rae again covering himself in glory with some of his comments throughout the season, but the creation of the SPFL happens and prize money is restructured. When we come back up we're getting £211K for finishing fifth, while we get to quarter finals of both the Scottish & League Cups with TV money and share of the gate at Parkhead, along with our highest average league attendance in more than a decade. Having made an operating loss of £320K in 12/13 while second with our prize money of £67K, none of those cup runs and a considerably smaller average attendance, in 15/16 with those advantages we made an operating loss in 15/16 of... £275K. How do we manage that? Is there some unforeseen cost in the intervening years that has sent the overheads of Cappielow flying up? There is absolutely no chance we were paying nearly as much in wages in 15/16 as we were three years previously, so what has wiped out that massive increase in revenue? When you see it like that, it's easy to see why someone does conclude it suits the Raes to run at a loss. Even last season we've finally, finally made an operating profit - it was £130K. That should be great news and the natural reaction is cautious optimism, but that's come in a season where we made £90K from the League Cup semi-final prize and TV money alone, before considering the four way split of the semi-final gate money, having a televised Scottish Cup tie with a share of the gate at Ibrox, and finished fourth, with £274K in prize money and a playoff tie. We obviously aren't going to get that kind of revenue from the cups every single season and not making it out of the League Cup group stage this season probably wipes out that £130K compared to last season immediately, while we can't guarantee finishing top four either. Are we really going to continue to see the debt increase if we continue getting solid mid-table finishes? It's hard to avoid concluding someone at Cappielow is guilty of gross incompetence if so. Douglas Rae's long-term legacy at Morton should be as the man who saved the club from administration, but he's the one who has jeopardised that. Ultimately if he burdens the club with £2 million of debt with nothing to show for it then he becomes the one jeopardising the future of the club. No one doubts that he really is a Morton fan and wants what's best for the club, but is he capable of seeing when he's harming it or the potential risk in passing it over to his son with that debt still hanging over it? If he wants what's best for Morton he should accept that he's the one who put the club in this position and write it off rather than chasing after 'his' money.

Och my wee mediocre pal, if only you'd wake up and smell the heather. There's no Money, Money, Money in the Juniors anymore, so when the East of Scotland League comes calling asking clubs to Take a Chance on Me, they dinnae have much hesitation. It's the Name of the Game these days, and if you don't follow suit it will eventually be your Waterloo.

If Naveed were a few years younger [emoji1]

DAB's getting pumped at home by QOS. If anybody's needing a little 'cheer-up'.

Homophobia isn't acceptable and nobody should be trying to defend those comments. Quite simple.

Was fully aware that we were shocking before January, but for some reason this makes it look so much worse. Somewhere between the 19th of November and the 23th of December I forgot what it felt like to score a goal. Then Don Hartley, along with the January transfer window, arrived bearing gifts. #Juggernaut

Just watched Bertie being interviewed on BBC news Channel, he really is just a Unionist clown,reiterating that it's the " Governments of this Northern Lands that have let us down, one leaving us in the CFP for another 20 months,the other would return us to the CFP. I had a bit of sympathy for fishermen up 'till now,no more. Fuk them and their Tory supporting Unionist ways. They deserve the shafting they're going to get.

6 weeks off the fags

Funny names, but each to their own.

I sincerely hope when these thick fishing and fermer c***s go cap in hand to the Scottish Government to have their failing businesses subsidised they are told to get themselves squarely to f**k.

Don't understand the hate for Miller. Last non OF man to lift the Scottish league title, 65 caps for Scotland, and sacrificed himself so Luke Skywalker got a shot at the Death Star in 1977.

Had a happy 13-week scan today. Strong heartbeat and low nuchal translucency calculated score. Anyone recommend anywhere in Perth/Dundee/Edinburgh for an additional scan. Money, not a problem as I have a 5 figure income!

Go West - We Close Our Eyes

Chip shop liquidators

Ricky Little to make his 150th start for the Lichties v Stranraer on Saturday.

Beating Rangers 3-2 will go down as one of my favourites, 2-0 down to the run away league leaders with about 12 minutes to go and win. As with the Hibs away 2-2, again being 2-0 down and a man down with less than 5 minutes to go and snatching a draw out of it and if it had went on another 2 minutes Falkirk would have scored again. The 3-2 v Hibs in the playoffs was also a classic game in front of a sell out crowd and live on BT.

UB40 - You're Eyes Were Open

It's the omnishambles that will get us independence

Fleetwood Mac - Love That Burns

Be Bop Deluxe - Sleep that burns

Petula Clark - Don't Sleep In The Subway

Bray Wyatt to emerge from the lake of reincarnation, shaved, hair slicked back, wee pair of glasses and red braces on with a briefcase calling everyone tax dodgers. Magic.

F*ck you [emoji23][emoji23] Its not a bad job considering it was left over MDF and worktop from the new kitchen !!!

After our game against you next Tuesday we play Livi then have a double header against the Arabs. How about we give you the 3 points on Tuesday and we take Liam Smith, Reilly and Morgan back down the road with us?

I think our right-hand side of Bowman and Cadden keeping McGregor and Sinclair fairly quiet was fucking astonishing, tbqhwy.

Why do they still give any coverage at all to Joey Barton? Last night they played some clip where Barton was doing his usual attention seeking shite on Talksport. Who fucking cares what a wee scumbag rat like him thinks? His opinions on Scottish football are utterly irrelevant. Even the folk they had on last night were pretty much saying as much, despite the presenter's best attempts to stir things up (and he really was trying very hard to make it in to a big issue).

Hoodoo Gurus - You Open My Eyes

Merle Haggard - Mama's Hungry Eyes

Josh Todd joins Queens on an emergency loan. Ie, we've played you four times, and you have three games yet to play against our closest rivals. Shrewd move, IMO. I hope he scores fucking tonnes for you!

Bryan Prunty > Everyone and everything to be fair. I didn't really focus on it in the article, but Ray clearly still has a lot of affection for DFC - you could just tell by the way he spoke about the club. It was really nice to hear considering he moved on long before I was born!

No more from Sunderland. Think we already took their best 2 players

Seeing as it's the international break and it's relatively quiet as we're heading toward the split 11 and 14 pts clear of 11th and 12th places respectively with 8 games to go I thought I'd post up the imminent contract situations plus 2019 as well. I noticed Busta commenting on Twitter that Aldred is still getting a hard time from Bury fans and it looks like they're pretty much guaranteed to be relegated, I wonder if we'd be looking to keep him on permanently or alternatively extend his loan for another season (his deal at Bury is up next summer apparently). If Kipré's someone who could move in the summer then you could be looking at a back 3 of Aldred, Hartley and Dunne. Obviously it depends on which contracted players we've got earmarked to cash in on this summer but of those who are out of contract in 2018 only Dunne, Rose and Bowman would really be considered established 1st team players. With all the "Tait for Scotland" shouts over the past couple of weeks I wouldn't be surprised if there was interest in him and given he's 28 just now if he's going to get a move to cash in this is probably the window for him to do it. There are a couple in the 2019 bracket who we should probably be looking to for extensions, *looks intently at Curtis Main and Craig Tanner*. For all we've got a settled XI plus some who are pretty competitive there are probably areas of the park that could obviously use improving/strengthening. Anyway, this is how it looks as far as I can see: 2018: Peter Morrison Russell Griffiths Ellis Plummer Charles Dunne (unless his extension has been triggered) Luke Watt Adam Livingstone Barry Maguire Liam Grimshaw Andy Rose Deimantas Petravičius Shea Gordon Ryan Bowman George Newell Dylan Falconer Loans expiring: Stephen Hendrie Tom Aldred Nadir Ciftci 2019: Richard Tait Cédric Kipré Gael Bigirimana Chris Cadden Carl McHugh Elliot Frear Ross MacLean Craig Tanner David Turnbull Curtis Main Jake Hastie

Aren't you worried they'll explode if they fall off?

Incredible String Band - Eyes Of Fate

Dusty Springfield - I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten

f**k the international break! I want to watch us play!!

You're a fucking joke you wanksocket.

Willie Millar is a fucking awful commentator

Worrying trend of Facebook and Twitter mummies going, 'evry1 shud leave Ant frm Ant n Dec alone. He iz goin thru mental health issues!!! You dont no wat its lyk' Turns out they are defending the c**t for getting in his motor smashed at 4pm yesterday in Central London and ploughing into 2 other cars, injuring a 3 year old girl in the process. I'm extremely sensitive to mental health issues but they can't be used as a fucking excuse or get out clause for something as reckless as drink driving you cretins.

Anybody else been watching this series of Shetland? I've loved it so far. Set up for the finale next week perfectly.

OP was pretty close tbf. Cowdenbeath will be relegated into the Highland League, Cove promoted into the Lowland League, Berwick placed in the League of Gentlemen and Ayr Utd moved to 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.

Maybe they're time travellers?

Never mind, you've got a surplus of l's to make up for it.

Yep, fully expect them to continue lapping up the Tory pish, then act all surprised when they get shafted (yet again) at the end of the transition period. Fermers next, please.

Davidson weaselling out of her red lined corner. Should come as no surprise - she'll still have some of the snake oil lubricant she and the Fluff Meister used when the DUP got their bung and "Scotland must get what NI gets" became "Scotland will take it up the back scuttle as normal". Still, this United Kingdom. What a fucking shitehouse.

Disagree. You don’t become garbage overnight. These players got us our highest league position in over 30 years last year. We’ve added 3-4 bodies and whilst I do agree with your thoughts on the players this year my point was that this squad has talent and shouldn’t be getting relegated automatically. Cerny, Barton, Keown, Osman, Edwards, Erskine, Doolan. The spine of the team is more than capable. Especially when you look at Accies, Dundee and County. Look at what Killie have done. Not with new players. But with a gaffer who is showing his class. I have no doubt the Jags players can perform. Why they are not i can’t confirm but maybe Archie has run out of steam. I hope not! The players need to dig deep now. It’s now or it’ll be too late.

Surely that should be 'are just as stupid..'?