footballinsider

A lot is getting made about clubs finances in Scotland. Aberdeen, Dundee, Hearts, Hibs being up front with their fans and Celtic being sensible. They are all owned by wealthy individuals or consortiums. Cormack & investors Keyes Capital Budge & friends Ron Gordon All wealthy, but all making sensible moves now with their clubs & other business interests. They are successful in business as they turn off the expenditure taps at the right time & start planning with insight & being realistic as the country is facing an economic recession or depression. They are asking for wage deferrals & wage cuts from players & staff. They are making financial cuts in clubs departments & In some cases making redundancies. Not because they want too, because they are trying to safeguard their club for generations to come. Certain staff from clubs departments are being let go because the harsh reality is; there is currently no job for them and won’t be for some time. 3/4 of these clubs have signed players, because they need too as that department has a job to do in a matter of weeks - playing football (Hearts could win legal case ). Its all well & good clubs having money just now through season ticket sales & fans fundraising, but without sensible planning that will go down the drain quickly. Luckily Aberdeen & Hibs have TV money, not a lot granted, which will keep the income tap dripping out. Dundee & Hearts don’t, that tap is dried up. No one knows how long this pandemic/economic collapse will go on for. How long until academies can restart, how long until home/away supporters are allowed in stadiums, the list goes on. Best case is home & away fans are allowed in stadiums, Scotlands Covid plan is working and we no longer need Test & Protect. Back to normal for clubs which brings in cash £££. That is unrealistic though at the time of writing. The reality is no away fans in stadiums for some time & home season ticket holders being spread out (more stands need to be open which costs; stewards, electricity, turnstile staff, kiosk staff, police etc), no PATG due to Test & Protect scheme, supporters buying tickets in advance with the capacity reduced to 50% and no fans singing! Undersoil heating (££) will be on during the winter to make sure games are going ahead in a tighter calendar with not a lot of room for rescheduling. Covid testing will continue which cost money, PPE need to be purchased. At this point the players are playing so clubs have wages, bonuses, bus hire, PPE, electricity for stadium, general bills to pay - yet no or extremely limited money coming in. Worst case is no supporters allowed in stadiums until at least January or even until next season at the earliest. Country faces regional lockdowns, another wave and/or football suspended. No furlough option, staff & fans losing their own jobs - literally no income for clubs. In some senses next summer will be harder than this summer. This time next year the country will be in the middle of a recession/depression, high unemployment, attending football matches and saving your club will be the last thing on your mind. This year will have been difficult to find sponsorship deals, next year will be even harder as businesses will be going bust and laying off staff. Smaller clubs could suffer and do they have the infrastructure online/ticket facility as PATG won’t be allowed if Test & Protect is still in place, as the club will need personal details of who attended. Celtic aren’t planning of splashing the cash, why? Because there is a real chance of football being suspended again (More down to resilience factor for emergency services if there is another outbreak). No one can give a date of when this will end, no one has lived through this before. This isn’t a race to see who can hold off the longest before ‘announcing’ savings or not wanting to look ‘bad’ in the media or to your friends who support rivals clubs. This is a marathon to see which club will still be here in 5 years time and to say ‘we were sensible and we planned’. These clubs and some others are planning and being sensible.

Concentrate on getting your away top sorted than going on Taysides biggest club page. Your away top is honking, like your manager who wants out. Decent signing Dundee fans btw Rumours are Celtic going to watch Caulker until the January window, so you have him until then. All the best chaps, your good guys & girls.

This 'takeover' is going to be brilliant to watch! No Borthwick (Said in the press he is not part of this 'takeover'), just Thompson and Martin under a new name with Thompson creating a club in the states and Martin running United (as it stands just now), 'United FC Group Limited', with your club going down the community route like Stenhousemuir FC. You will try to create a link or buy a club in the states when Thompson is across there (Exact same as the OZ plan, mind that ). Enjoy your community club

Was just told we were "one of a number" of clubs who'd contacted his agent. Aberdeen, Motherwell, the two Edinburgh sides and some League One English club also interested. Dundee not even spoken to him yet. Well that is false. O'Hara and Dundee have been in talks for a few weeks, and he is expected to sign on. As stated in the press 2weeks ago by O'Hara himself. You should try and keep your gaffer happy, he wants out of St Johnstone, no wonder though. Anyway, Dundee are a decent club that are improving with McCann looking at 2 decent players, with Bain now gone and 2 others to go. Keep United down and St Johnstone in your back pocket, Dundee! Good night chaps.