BinoBalls

You’d be surprised.

So by the sounds of things Harrison Clark has been on loan at Arbroath and at Kelty. Glad he’s had that experience and pleasantly surprised we’re getting someone who already has some experience instead of a fresh-faced untested player who may take a while to settle.

ok. I stand by my point that both sides need to stop assuming there’s scheming masterminds controlling people to do their bidding. It’s frankly a little ridiculous, there’s barely a day goes by someone doesn’t say it. The saddest thing about this whole debacle is it’s got a decent amount of the support at each other’s throats, and most of it over silly little things. So many people assume the worst motivations are behind everything. The benefit of the doubt is never given. People talk to others on their own “side” offline, which helps reinforce hardened viewpoints, then shout at the other side on social media. Both sides utterly adamant they’re in the right. Both sides convinced the other side is undemocratic. All sense of perspective has gone.

There’s another SAFC thread on this forum for on-field matters.

Why do so many people on each side accuse others of being plants / stooges / puppets / useful idiots etc? It’s been a theme for months. On here and on Facebook. It’s just people expressing different opinions. Just because someone disagrees with you, it doesn’t mean they’re guided by some shadowy figure trying to control the narrative on social media. This isn’t counter espionage, it’s just a fucking football club.

We definitely need a striker. We’ve got 2 decent ones (Thomson and Carrick) but neither are especially renowned for goals, plus a gamble from someone a few leagues down who most likely wont be hitting double figures in his first season at this level. We’ve never replaced Andy Ryan. Hoping for someone decent up front and not a squad filler. Loans are ok but I doubt it any loan player — usually untested youngsters — is going to be a regular goal scorer.

Unfortunately those of us who don’t know him personally can only speculate as we don’t know any better. You’re in a special situation where you’re privy to what’s going on. I agree some people get far too worked up and kick him excessively, but all I’m doing is relaying how things appear to the average fan. And I still don’t get why he can’t have access to SAFC Twitter himself. It literally takes 3 seconds to switch between accounts. Surely that’s the easy solution?

Ok thanks for the explanation. I’d have hoped Stuart himself could just become a 3rd person with access rather than using his own account unless Twitter restricts access to 2 people. Also — I wouldn’t say it was twisted into a “dictatorial act” that I’ve somehow fallen for — it’s just something I’ve noticed for years and I’m not alone. I don’t think he should have called his Twitter handle @forthbank_news and then stated it’s his personal account featuring photos of his grandchildren. It just winds up people who don’t know him. Anyway. This isn’t an important point in itself. I just included it to illustrate sometimes I question his judgement. But he’s a volunteer doing his best and I dare say I’d make mistakes in his position too. I just think some of his decisions are completely avoidable own-goals that don’t do his PR any good.

Hugely encouraging result today. Reluctant to get my hopes up for the season ahead but definitely positive signs in the 2 league cup games so far.

A fair summation and I appreciate the perspective. I’m just not sure we need or want a “hardhead” to be the person with the most power / responsibility in the framework of a fan-owned club. I also, ironically, worry his “nice-guy” determination to be friendly and loyal to those close to him is partly what led to him making strange managerial decisions in the past — such as: * hiring a 27 year old Greig McDonald as first team manager (quote: “he’s someone I see as having a great future in the game”). I remember chatting to former player Graeme Donald and he said he was dumbfounded at the move… he said McDonald was a nice guy but “never” manager material. * renewing the contact of Stuart McLaren when almost the entire support felt we were getting worse, only to have to bin him soon into the next campaign. * renewing the contract of Kevin Rutkiewicz during a season we finished outside the playoffs despite having Andy Ryan up front, only to have to bin him soon into the next campaign. I’m of course speaking with hindsight and I’m trying to be fair, but I just don’t think he’s the best person we could possibly find to lead the club. I watched Ben’s “behind the scenes” video of what went on during a match. I am absolutely sure Stuart Brown tries his best and does all sorts of things for the club but he’s also — and I mean this politely — an old man. Watching him hesitantly punching the attendance figures into a computer was like watching someone who had only just been shown a keyboard. Again I don’t mean that as any disrespect but it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that we have a dynamic team behind the scenes. I also question why he occasionally sends out official club tweets from his personal Twitter account, and why he declared that he was working on his succession plan, as though he alone could anoint the new King. You’ll assure me he’s not arrogant but these are alarming behaviours. So yes — I accept he is a nice guy at heart and he’s taken a lot of flak and he’s done his absolute best for pretty much no reward. And I’m grateful for all of that. But his judgement is questionable and stubbornness is seldom a desirable trait in a leader. I think his time has come to an end and I think we should look forward now.

Always amazed me that the original Trust Board seemed to do literally nothing regarding membership renewals or getting new people to join. Like really basic stuff just got left. I don’t have all the facts but I believe Jim Thompson is the man responsible for that mess. I believe when Robert Clubb joined he sorted all that out. I have never met Robert Clubb in my life but on forums he always came across as a fair-minded, intelligent man, definitely not the hysterical man-baby type. Yet even he expressed some exasperation that his attempts to engage with the Club Board on various matters he’d looked into to improve governance were ignored. When decent, capable people started to complain Brown et al had been ignoring them, it suddenly added more weight to all the previous complaints of the same nature. Managing your stakeholders is a key part of running a company and from my point of view it looks like Stuart Brown has consistently failed to do this with just about everyone who has served on the Trust Board through the years — regardless of if they were aggressive, meek, incompetent, or capable. And that’s one of the reasons I think he should now resign with dignity, before this whole thing gets even uglier.

This is correct. It’s quite sad because the original motion — bin people with no replacements lined up on the basis we’ve been crap on the pitch — wasn’t something the vast majority could get behind, including me. The actions since then have shown me too many people on the Club Board — who need to be held to the highest of standards — aren’t fit (in my opinion) to hold that position. Mass signing up of so many people and voting on their behalf is so poorly thought-out it beggars belief. It’s been described as “a gift to the Trust” but it’s also an insult to those of us who were already members for years and took the time to vote ourselves. It was a two-bit dirty trick and key figures thought it was a good idea. Then came the voting to remove the entire Trust Board, including one person who had just been appointed with a 100% majority from the members. That put the seal on it for me. I have reservations about some of the decisions from the Trust Board as well. I think Liston’s motion should have been buffered and treated as a non-starter instead of being put out to vote. Or at least the blatant lack of replacements and the risk to the business of jettisoning people with no succession plan should have been made clear. I also think going to the police after the voting was completely unnecessary. So I question the judgement of many parties in this. As for all the public tit for tat stuff, it’s utterly ridiculous. Like a pair of teenage Old Firm fans engaging in a constant circle of rumours, finger pointing and whataboutery. It has to end. Change is needed to move this forward. Mr Brown has had a long innings and has done some good work off the pitch, but he’s pissed off a long, long line of people — and they surely can’t all be wrong.

Pleasantly surprised at that result and by all accounts we were well worth it. Still think we need a couple more decent players… the last couple of signings seem more like squad fillers than players you’d expect to get us challenging for promotion.

Ok I retract that, it was an honest mistake. But the CB got right behind the proposal so it still doesn’t sit well with me. Note I’m not on here to defend the TB. Raising that matter with the police seemed crazy to me. Mistakes have been made on both sides. I just want this all to end.

Kinda similar to others — I was firmly against removing the CB until they did that mass-recruit and mass-vote by proxy. At which point I was on the fence as it was such bad judgement. Then when they tried to oust the entire Trust Board without any reason that sealed it for me. I think we need change. And we need some non-petty people with half-decent judgement put in place.

Hoping for the off field problems to be behind us by the end of the season. And hoping we don’t get dragged into the relegation picture in the meantime. Lowest expectations in a long time.

At the Trust Board meeting they stated some people who had “voted” (in other words a director voted for them by proxy) had emailed to ask to be removed from trust mailing lists. So the truth lies somewhere in between. I don’t doubt the majority have signed back up again but I still think this was at best a very misguided and naive move. It looks so amateurish. Fair enough persuade others to join who care about it but if someone isn’t prepared take 5 minutes to join themselves and submit a vote themselves then I don’t think they should get a vote at all. And as speak as someone who also voted NO to the resolutions. Just desperately wish the people involved on each board would jettison the stubborn souls on their own “side” and get together and come up with a solution. We’re going to tank another season while the constant petty bickering goes on.

Absolutely sick of all this. Both sides speak up only to say what they’ve done is right and insist the other side is at fault. Meanwhile we’re still rank on the pitch, unable to replace players we’ve let go and getting royally spanked in both pre-season outings so far. Think I’ll take a year’s sabbatical and go take up cross-stitching on a Saturday afternoon instead. Maybe we’ll find some self-respect by this time next year.

I’m hoping at our level — where players are part time and signing for 1 season — that off field discontent won’t really be influencing anyone much. Let’s face it we appear to be very financially secure, probably more than most clubs. The issue is the tiresome war between the 2 boards. However if the in-fighting is genuinely causing us to struggle to recruit decent players then someone is sooner or later going to need to swallow their pride and step aside to try and find a way to unify the club. There are some divisive figures on both sides. The fans have suffered over a decade of dross now, we can’t keep wasting season after season because people would rather be protecting their own status or threatening the other side than doing what’s best for the football club.

So. Horsed 4-1 at Alloa. I didn’t see any trialists in the starting 11, and the club didn’t list any substitutions on Twitter. In last 3 weeks we appear to have signed one left back from Annan and that’s it. We have 2 strikers in total. The budget is apparently up 25% on last season yet we can’t attract players. Things aren’t looking too good. Is it going to be yet another season of pish?

1. Stenhousemuir 2. Forfar 3. Annan 4. Dumbarton 5. Stranraer 6. Elgin 7. Bonnyrigg 8. Stirling Albion 9. East Fife 10. Albion Rovers

Yes. As things stand it looks like we’re building a squad to challenge for 7th place again. At least this season we can finally stop getting our hopes up.

That should free up a wage to bring in another East Fife galactico.

Christ this is all so depressing isn’t it

Fair point that many came from the junior academy… however if you look at the list there’s clusters of several people with the same surname, I’m not convinced they’re all coaches. Think there could be a good few spouses signed up. It doesn’t sit right with me that, say, the wife of a U13 coach gets to join and have a say.