CitizenSmith

Arranged for season ticket money to be refunded for both my own and son's STs. Stopped my direct debits. Over £1000 of income lost annually alone from my side of things. That's me done with over 20 years of involvement including one as chairman five or so years back. I have helped out on match days when required in the last few years but generally just gone along and supported the club I truly cared about, simply as a fan. This effectively clears out the old guard from the club the guys who have been going along for decades. The club's soul has been sold and all for a 1 year contract for a convicted child sex offender. Ally thanks for meeting up with and passing on the details of your meeting with the board. You're a sound guy and whilst I have made my mind up, as you say we all have decisions to make, I'll judge no one if they carry on attending games. One final moral dilemma? What to do with my £25 ew @ 25/1 on City to win the league. Answers on a postcard...

I know most of them and they are all good people, which makes this whole situation all the more baffling.

So are you saying breakfast could be me last meal as a City fan, it's like being on death row. The last few days have been awful, I keep on thinking I'm having some sort of episode, I cannot for the life of me understand who in their right mind thinks this is in any way a good idea. So many families go along, I feel for the boy in the Evening News who had taken the strips to Bolivia. 'I love it at City it's great', ask him, his wife and three kids again if this goes through. They just don't seem to get it, they are going to lose so many fans and deter so many potential fans. Or the guy from Football Nation who has said this has been one of the best kit launches ever, sullied and ruined if this goes through. If I were CMC or Bakerfield the new shirt sponsors I would be ripping up the deal, saying that they must have run something as controversial as this by the sponsors already you would have thought, no? I can see Spartans smirking in the background having lost so much ground to City, they get it all back and more, all except the league status. If you are the Spartans charity who have the long term lease at Ainslie Park, I would be fuming to have tenant that actively employs sex offenders. The more you think about it the implications for the club are huge. I'd be getting the lawyers in and I would say Max Clifford for the sh*tstorm that will be unleashed, but Max might be otherwise engaged for a while yet for quite apposite reasons. Think Spud from Trainspotting - not worth keeping those bedsheets after that, just don't do the same to our club, I beg you. For all those who have written to the club anyone even had an acknowledgement? I am hoping that the club are working this through properly and maybe an acknowledgement is not possible as it would be an admission of even considering the signing in the first place.

That about sums it up really. I find it hard to believe that City are planning on making this signing. City do not compete with Hibs or Hearts they are an alternative. They will attract a more studenty crowd, probably more left leaning on the whole, people who don't want all the crap that goes with top league football, and yes a few oddballs, every lower league club has their fair share! All of this was true of Meadowbank and having supported both Thistle and City I can see the similarities in the make up of the crowds. Yes it's 20 years on but the feel is similar, essentially that's what you get when you are a third team in a decent sized city, you get a different kind of supporter. Some would say it is easier these days with social media, but let's face it in 21 years Meadowbank Thistle never went out of their way to attract a crowd or have any community links, and ultimately it left them susceptible to the demise that befell them, franchised out of existence. Credit to City they have started fantastically well on this front, the Lowland League following has probably trebled and we attract loads of neutrals each week. The club have been innovative with their reduced entry scheme for Hibs / Hearts season ticket holders has been a success and generally I think we are seen as a great additional SPFL offering in Edinburgh by the less tribal folks at Easter Rd and Tynecastle. City have one big advantage over Thistle in that they have an established youth set up, with many players progressing through the ranks to play for the senior team. We have community links and you can see those running the club trying to further those links through charity partnerships with the likes of Bernardos. All great stuff, all the right things to do. We should be viewed at this stage of our development as let's face it a cuddly, non-threatening alternative to Hearts and Hibs that's how we grow, that's how we get bigger. That's why I find this touted signing completely insane. I only know the facts as to what he has been convicted of, I don't know him as the person he is now, but to be honest I don't need to know. What I do know is that City will set themselves back, losing hard earned support and limiting the supporter growth and do damage to their image and reputation at the very least in the short term, but probably long term too. You immediately lose your 'cuddly' status and with it so much goodwill. It has already been alluded to earlier in this thread but imagine the atmosphere at our games next season, elements of the away support I'm pretty sure will be very vocal on the matter. I'm sure the player has become quite thick skinned god knows the abuse he has taken at junior grounds, but do we want that at our games? Is that the kind of atmosphere that will attract bigger crowds, more families? Don't think this will be a short term thing that will blow over after a few games. You change the whole atmosphere at games as long as he is a signed player. There are financial implications too, I'm not sure how the existing sponsors will feel, but one thing for sure is that it will have a detrimental impact on future opportunities. How does it fit with the community feel of the club, how do the youth teams view this proposed signing, indeed wtf do Barnardos think? Why risk so much all for a bit of supposed 'quality' on the football pitch. If he was that good, some rancid team further up the leagues would have snapped him up by now, so I don't buy it. Maybe, just maybe, he is that good, but then ask yourself why no-one else has signed him, what does that make your club? I'm all for being different, in fact it's essential for City, just not this kind of different. Rant over.

Don't worry only the one dig at your club, lighthearted enough! I think the guys that have come in and the oldies that are still around running the club, have all been doing a great job the profile and perception of the club is as good as you could hope for. At this stage of our development, one year in having acquired a decent following, about to move home, looking to build on that first season, why throw away all that good work to sign one player. Sorry but doesn't make sense. I really hope this isn't true.

Ok so I've been going 20+ years. You don't hang around a small club like City and not end up on the committee so yes I have been involved in running the club. One of the successes of Edinburgh City has been the distance between the club officials and those running the football. In my time at the club I can only think of a few occasions when we intervened on playing issues, and each and every time it was to protect the club, it's reputation and our own outlook of things that are bigger than football. That space afforded to managers has seen a very low turnover on the coaching side if only that was the case at all clubs, eh Newcy. So it seems new and old City fans have similar sensibilities, a lesson for the newbies running the club this isn't a mini Hearts or Hibs, it is a very different animal. Whilst realising the club needed to be run more professionally, I had hoped that certain aspects pre SPFL City would be retained. We have come as far as we have without selling our souls for success, yes there have been ups and downs, but we got there on our own terms.

Yes Edinburgh City FC and those who run the club if this is true. Sorry, but won't be back if he signs and will be asking for my season ticket money for both me and my son to be returned. Biggest own goal - doing so much good work, and in one swoop all undone. This isn't the City I know, sad day...

In terms of player turnaround we have supplemented the LL squad adding a bit of experience and quality throughout the season. That said for the last game of the season 10 of the squad played in the LL for us. There is no doubt a step up. The pace of the game, the players are more streetwise and you have to be on it week in week out. There are some well organised sides in the LL League although you'd be very disappointed if you lost to a team in the bottom half as the quality drops off quite quickly. Could EK come up and do well absolutely, it might be easier for them as they have lots of ex SPFL players something we had very few of. If Cowden go down will they stroll the LL, no, but I expect them to be up there that's for sure. BTW I hope Cowden stay up not a big fan of EK, although to be fair what I should say is I'm not keen on the EK managers, the last two have been respectively a sore loser & a complete fud. I sort of hope both were windup merchants and don't actually believe the rubbish they come out with, but sadly I don't think that's the case.

That was quite the seethe you had going on there! Agreed Allan should have stayed on the park, Beattie's was done long before the end. Whilst we were the better side in the second half same couldn't be said of the first half, Cowden should been at least level. The park is difficult at this time of the season and both sides struggled on it today.

Self preservation on Munro's part as Ouzy has ripped him a new one on more than one occasion already this season. Not naive enough to think that money doesn't talk the point I was trying to make is there are other factors like travelling that a local player will take into account if offers are not too far apart. Tbf Ouzy might not be the best example, has always gone where the money is not that it did him any good, until we saved him from the worthless piece of paper that is a Selkirk contract! We actually paid a transfer fee for him you'd laugh at the amount as we were never big payers in even LL terms, as one player said to me you don't come to City for the money. There will always be players that only look at the money before making a decision some will take other factors into account. I know which ones I'd rather have at my club.

Yeah that and spending 3 hours plus travelling to and from training twice a week. Depends what floats your boat I suppose. Also for a young local lad the coverage he gets in Edinburgh must be a boost for him not quite the same effect if it were a few square inches in the Arbroath Courier or whatever it is.

Whilst normally I'd see a move to full time football for one of our players as a real feather in the cap for the club and the coaching team on this occasion maybe not so much. Huge risk in my book if we let See go in January with such an important few months in the club's history to come. If Ouzy is to go I'm sure the queue will be that wee bit longer come the end of the season, and we can take whatever compensation is due. Unless he gets a full time offer I reckon he would be better served sticking with City, absolutely no point moving to another part time club.

Who knows. So far only a couple of signings, saw both on Thursday against Hibs, time will tell if they will make the team better, certainly not going to judge them on one game particularly one where the opposition were clearly so superior. Dean Cummings comes with a great reputation in East of Scotland circles, interested to see if he can perform at this level. I see in another thread we are predicted to finish last by all and sundry. That may well happen, nobody yet knows how a team that has dominated the Lowland League will do in League 2. I guess we'll find out over the coming months. We could be anything, from relegation material to title challengers. Like the last two seasons more than anything the players attitude and application will be key. The talent is there, with a wee bit of luck and show the kind of hunger and desire they have shown in recent years I hope we can prove LL to L2 is not the enormous jump some assume it to be. Sure we won't win 85% of our games as we have done in the last two seasons, so mentally we need to adjust, as we will undoubtedly to a faster game in League 2. Our season might come down to how quickly the players can get up to L2 tempo, do it early and we'll be fine.