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Dundee is a war crime. An international war crime.

Sectarianism.

Modernity is a state of mind. Dens Park aspires to shabby. It barely scrapes the barrel of toxic wasteland.

I'm sure if we put a couple of benches on The Bing it would be a greater beacon of modernity than The Derry End.

When it comes to Dundee I’m sue I speak for everyone when I say I hope they get administration and that third time’s the charm on the road to liquidation.

Dundee FC is a disgrace, if we’re completely honest.

So... the history of Thistle on this is very complicated. But the tl;dr is the Club owns the ground in full and there are no immediate plans to redevelop any part of it. Back in 2009 the Main Stand and The Bing were sold to Firhill Developments Ltd (a consortium of then board members including former chair David Beattie, other high net worth Thistle fans, and the Club itself). This secured a £1 million cash injection into the Club, roughly halving its then bank debt (and therefore slashing our then debt interest). The investors in PropCo hoped to make their money back by getting planning permission for a mixed-use facility replacing the Main Stand and The Bing (small seated capacity, mainly commercial and residential provision otherwise). Planning permission was repeatedly sought but denied. So for ages it looked like it was a bum deal for the investors, as they'd never actually get their money back. Along comes Colin Weir, who in 2019 proposes to buy both the majority shareholding in the Club (for fan ownership) and to buy back the Main Stand and The Bing and give it back to the Club. The latter was supposed to happen within 7 days, and then within months, but took almost 2.5 years to happen (it eventually did happen just before the end of the last financial year). There were concerns that the Main Stand and The Bing might never return to the Club at all (remember, the Club owned half of PropCo, but never got any money from the sale as the other investors had a preference share arrangement) when 3BC kept breaking their promises. I'm also aware that *someone* engaged in exploratory work with architects to develop a proposal quite recently for the redevelopment of Firhill (think a Halo-style Kilmarnock thing) but it never got off the ground and the working capital that it would have needed would have been crazy.

Dundee’s to lose

Laughed out loud at this.

Smart money is on a Dundee win, I fear. While we have two clean sheets on the bounce our attacking threat is weak sauce right now. Mullen's goal against Ayr aside, we've only scored from penalties, Michael Beale being a bad Rangers man, or against lower league opposition in the last 7 weeks.

In Dools we trust.

He’s admitted budgeting for break even with a 2nd place finish. When your cash reserves at the end of 2021-22 are about £330k (down from £620k the previous season), Net Current Assets down from £280k to £80k, and you have no credit facility, and the prize-money difference alone between 2nd and 5th is about £240k, that’s absolute kamikaze budgeting, even assuming everything else goes as planned. To justify that sort of budgeting assumption there would have to be clear evidence of: (a) all major non-recurring sources of revenue (ie the Queens Park money) being replaced (probably a six figure sum) (b) new revenue in excess of last year’s operating losses being brought in (ie more than £200k of new income, plus whatever extra funding went into the player budget compared with last season) (c) no major new off-field expenditure this season that also didn’t apply last season (oh no we’re in an energy crisis and the roof needed urgently repaired over the summer) Otherwise you’re betting on more than one away cup tie against an Old Firm side: precisely the sort of thing we were repeatedly told the Club would never do.

Absolutely comical stuff. He doesn’t realise what he’s admitting here. That’s the clincher for me.

Sorry yes saw that later! I don’t think we expected to be consulted on these decisions (for the reason Sandy set out in this morning’s message). But under a functioning set of working together protocols you might have expected a bit of dialogue between letting McCall et al know and putting out the statement. I will make one observation: the statement was made at 8:12pm. The Women’s game at Petershill finished at 8:33pm. I’m sure people can fill in the blanks.

TJF does not own any shares. The PTFC Trust does.

It is difficult to think of any purely footballing reasons for McCall remaining as manager.

I think it's his birthday today. Not smart on optics, but perfectly plausible that someone has a mild enough illness that the medical advice is to rest, but that they're well enough for dinner out.

Fucking abysmal if we are completely honest.

It depends on how optimistic you are about the Rangers home crowd.

It shakes out at nothing like £500k. The away team receives a proportion of gate receipts after costs. £200k is much nearer the mark. Which is definitely not to be sniffed at. But I would be surprised it if leads to any significant transfer activity. Read into that what you will.

Brian Graham reporting for duty

Ochilview is possibly the worst place I've ever watched a football match. Queue stretching hundreds of yards to get let in, ten minutes late. A pie queue joined half an hour into the game and not getting served until the game's been going for an hour. This is the sort of hosting behaviour that should lead to a lifetime ban.

Merry Christmas Billy Dodds.

We have never knowingly undersold heating at Firhill.

Which is exactly why we nominated her. It was a total no-brainer. Having someone we trust like Caroline in the Club Board room means that we can focus on the other side of this: the fan ownership model and the Foundation's relationship with both the Trust and the Club. There are so many great ideas and opportunities unlocked by having a Club Board willing to work with TJF. There is a real feeling as well that the PTFC Trust trustees "get it" and that something can be thrashed out by the Working Group that all parties can work with.