Zbairn

Was at a sponsors do in the Westfield Lounge tonight. KJ spoke and indicated that the gap had been plugged. Next target is to raise extra revenue to build a buffer for next season.

Fishing trip or agenda from a new poster! There has hardly been a season when the club did not run at a loss, simply saved by getting cash from transfers,”sell ons” or cup runs. I think it’s fair to say that our current predicament was not helped by previous Boards shelving The Academy or by gross incompetence in having to pay compensation and fines with respect to managerial appointments. Allowing Holt a free hand in squandering what little available cash we did have in giving out long term contracts to scouts and useless players who are still at the club, draining valuable cash resources was also scandalous. Although the club is not in the greatest of shapes, the current BoD indicated a wish to accrue £500k to give them a buffer/surplus to run into next season. £400k to break even. From what I heard this has almost been achieved through new investment by Patrons, new incentives from the Commercial Team and a slightly higher gate than budgeted. Your comment about “the future of the club at stake” is a total nonsense. As BPM previously mentioned, it just is not going to happen.

Pretty sure there was an extra sum over and above last seasons budget given to McGlynn.

interestingly, just found out recently that the playing budget is not just players wages. It also accounts for required ancillary staff (physio etc) and stuff like the players gps system, boots, training items etc....... Think SC is right in that the players budget was originally supposed to be the same as last season, but increased by 150k to allow McGlynn to bring in some players that might actually make a competitive football team. One of the biggest drains on the budget is Holts stupidity in offering long term contracts to players who should be in the Lowland League and we can't get rid of at present.

Deans was the butcher from Lauder, down by the Borders, I think. Fulston had a fork lift truck company. I think he originally came from Hamilton, but not sure.

Interestingly, he wasn’t the worst, if there is a ranking order. I’d save that slot for Deans Mk I. Then Fulston.

Deans Mk 1

ermmmmm no he isn't ! As far as I am led to believe, he didn't get his shares by buying them and then departed as soon as he could with a nice wee wedge. Always known to be a Jambo.

Nope. The most recent I can think of are “The Rawlins” and Colin Liddel. I’m sure there are a few more if you care to go back far enough.

Absolutely. Not to mention buddies being appointed, plus others who had no affiliation to the club whatsoever .

Pretty easy. Some members of previous Boards were not fans. This board is made up of fans…..end of!

This is just raking up old muck again. No one will admit if we did or didn’t approach DG. In the end it didn’t happen, let’s just be thankful of that. We have more immediate issues to resolve, like winning this league!

2 of 20 wealthier supporters = fans 2 of 600 supporters = fans Bottom line…end of! edited to add. The DG comment is an assumption. Regardless of people saying they are itk, no one has come out categorically and stated this has been the case. If the extra cash hadn’t been spent we would probably be looking at staving off relegation or at best mid table mediocrity. Then the crap re financials would really have hit the fan.

......a bit like Dunfermline selling their soul to some German mob to make ends meet. Sounds like a Brooks Mileson storyline to me As Peter Grant stated at the time "Its great that the German guys have come and seen Dunfermline as that potential club. That is what it is - potential - we need to go and make that a reality" ...... that reality was getting relegated last season !

I don’t think it’s as bad as people make out. The BoD have spelled it out that we probably will need around £400k to cover a potential operating loss by the end of the season. New investment, loans and other incentives are the way to cover this shortfall. A half decent cup run and draw would help a lot as well. This is not unusual for football clubs at our level. In the past we have been fortunate to cover this by Academy players being sold, the occasional transfer and sell-ons, a la Will Vaulks. The issue is for next season if we are to operate under similar circumstances, because the club doesn’t get promotion. The club needs to identify ways to run as an ongoing business. This could mean going hybrid part-time. It could also mean potentially giving up on the fan ownership model and selling the existing unsold shares to someone. Getting promoted would certainly help as the cash from the SPFL increases significantly. It would probably steady the ship financially but maybe not be enough to allow us to bring in the type of player needed for a push to the Premier league.

Think the question should be “what return did we get from the academy?” . Simplistically how much per year did we pay out and what did we recoup in transfer fees and add ons? That also doesn’t take into account game time in an FFC shirt.

The academy was the only thing that kept the club solvent for many seasons. You can almost plot our decline (and financial issues) with the closure of the Academy. it also allowed the club to bring in some cracking first team players on relatively low wages. The quicker we get something similar back, the better.

Well, somethings not right. He was running like a old cart horse yesterday.

Not totally convinced with that…….yet. There is still a load of football to be played. Although Dunfermline are still ahead of us they aren’t that great either. Grinding a 1-1 draw with QotS at home (allied with some other crap results) doesn’t make me think they are runaway contenders. in saying that, I’d rather be in their position in the league than ours.

We need a right back. McKay was woeful in positioning yesterday, almost playing as a right sided CH leaving so much space for their left winger. We also need a hard man in the middle to put a tackle in instead of the powder puff we saw yesterday. McGinn was really poor yesterday. Either he is carrying an injury or his legs have gone. Was painful to watch him trying to run around the park. He was our one bright spark in midfield at the start of the season, so I’m not sure what’s gone wrong. Have to disagree with BPM re Airdrie not doing much. Hogarth might only have had one save to make, but there were a few that whizzed narrowly past the post. On another day they could have scored 3 or 4. The long ball caught us out so often in the first half. Finally…..that referee was absolutely atrocious. I need to see the Algeria penalty again as it looked a stonewaller at the time.

McGlynn has steadied the ship, but I’m not convinced he has what it takes to make us outstanding. Nesbitt can’t tackle a fish supper and McGinn was woeful today as he has been for the last few weeks. No idea why Ola wasn’t started. The only positive thing is that the teams around us are just as bad and it could all go the wire.

Your comment is far too over simplistic. The size of the crowd is not directly related to players wages. Unfortunately we are currently being shafted by our local council with respect to costs of the stadium which is a huge burden on the club. A situation that directly falls on the incompetence of previous Board directors in agreeing a short term fix and selling the family silver. if it weren’t for these onerous overhead costs, then your comments may have some merit.

This is the biggest piece of drivel I have seen here in a long time.

It’s never been the target of the FSS to get 4000. I think they were perhaps hoping to get around 1200 to 1500, which is approx 30% of our normal attendance. Quite a few other clubs have achieved this level and it was hoped that we would be similar. Unfortunately not!

I think it has been made pretty clear on various media channels that we need to find around £400k. It's not a secret ! They have asked the wider fan base to help through calls to join the FSS (or the Patrons Group) but this has been largely ignored. Remember they were castigated for the comment re actual numbers joined versus potential core support. Around 600 members of a 4000 core support, is roughly only 15% of our fans signing up to this initiative to help the club. If the fans truly want fan ownership, we really should be doing better than this. One thing you cannot accuse the current BoD is that they haven't laid our situation out there for all to see. What we can perhaps argue is that we don't know the current status and where we are in respect to this shortfall. I'm also of the opinion and agree with LB, that perhaps the reason for the delay in the AGM is to make sure that the funding is in place to satisfy the accountants, prior to the AGM going ahead. Whether it takes place in December or January is pretty much irrelevant as long as the work to secure financing has been done.