The Falkirk FC Thread

[The Moonster]

14 minutes ago, HopeStreetPieStall said:

The problem for me was working with a scout who is a registered agent, who then recommended players that were then signed in the basis of that recommendation and in some cases without Hartley seeing them. That should have been raising flags in any competent board. 

 

I'd like to know how many of the players we signed were associated with Mitch before he broaght them to Shartleys attention. 

 

12 minutes ago, Hank von Hell said:

I am not saying they should have vetted every player, I am talking about allowing the process to happen that did.

Hartley said early doors he wasn't prepared to travel down to England to view players live - red flag I'm afraid.  Jim Jeffries used to sleep in the car when he did this FFS.  You can't sign players off YouTube videos, but we did and see what happened - do you really think these players put any of their faults on these 4 or 5 min  videos.

In my opinion Lang & Campbell were starstruck & eventually played by Hartley. He arrogantly said  he didn't want the job and did not apply for it , he got lazy and did not bother to watch any of the duffers live - we paid the price.

In football recruitment is everything. Our recruitment process was flawed & a total failure. The process therefore is wrong and that's on the board for allowing it.

I think that's fair criticism, the board are accountable for putting that system in place so should take the criticism for it failing. That's different from expecting the board to question signings as they're happening though.

[Hank von Hell]

13 minutes ago, HopeStreetPieStall said:

The problem for me was working with a scout who is a registered agent, who then recommended players that were then signed in the basis of that recommendation and in some cases without Hartley seeing them. That should have been raising flags in any competent board. 

 

I'd like to know how many of the players we signed were associated with Mitch before he broaght them to Shartleys attention. 

It sounds dodgy but Wolves had something similar in the Championship (and now in the EPL) with Jorge Mendes .

After complaints the EFL found nothing wrong (bottled it).

The main difference was that we were operating at the shitty end of the stick, and no-one that our scout/agent/consultant brought in massively improved the squad, quite the opposite in fact.

There were no complaints , just the sound of laughter.    

  

[cappiecat]

This scout/agent guy must have his troosers specially made with a huge back pocket.

[knee jerk reaction]

3 hours ago, Hank von Hell said:

The blame for relegation , if it comes, lies squarely with Lang & Campbell.

They led us on the strategy , and indeed boasted about it pre-season, that has ultimately caused this disaster.

To allow Hartley absolute carte blanche to sign who he wants based on the newbie Superscout's  say so, with no due diligence was an outrage.  There was no control over him , no one asking questions like "have you seen this guy play live Paul?" Managers  (esp egotistical ones) with the keys to the cookie jar will fill their boots and sign as many players as possible if no one above (like a CEO for example) is making sure the club is getting value for money and there is no risk to future of the club. 

Well guess what it went spectacularly wrong and it f*cked us up.  The domino effect was that Ray was left to punt all the crap , recruit a new squad from the slim pickings of the Jan transfer window, then make this bunch if strangers into a team , get them fit and used to system all whilst trying to get off the bottom of the league.    

Margaret promised us "significant change" when she was appointed , at least on that she has delivered.  

Was this not proved wrong though? Bainsford bairn being in and around the club posted that Hartley had seen most if not all the players and had been after some of them for months. 

As a board if Hartley in the summer said Nelson, Robson and the jak had been our best players this season all from EPL reserve teams and he was now looking to bring in the young Chelsea player, Lewis from the same team as the jak etc, why without hindsight would the board say no? Blame the board for some pr disasters, possibly for getting rid of the academy (project brave/finance could be to blame here, I really don't know the truth, depends who you listen to) but the position we're in is down to Hartley. The manager is responsible for the squad and the football unless we want a team picked by a committee of directors!

[Bairnardo]

Was this not proved wrong though? Bainsford bairn being in and around the club posted that Hartley had seen most if not all the players and had been after some of them for months. 
As a board if Hartley in the summer said Nelson, Robson and the jak had been our best players this season all from EPL reserve teams and he was now looking to bring in the young Chelsea player, Lewis from the same team as the jak etc, why without hindsight would the board say no? Blame the board for some pr disasters, possibly for getting rid of the academy (project brave/finance could be to blame here, I really don't know the truth, depends who you listen to) but the position we're in is down to Hartley. The manager is responsible for the squad and the football unless we want a team picked by a committee of directors!

I dont think there is an arguement to say the board should have intervened at the time. We have done this to death and I said my piece. Hartley fell on his sword for that and rightly so but at the emd of the season when the consequences of the entire direction of the clib come to pass, so those at the top must also fall on theirs.

[NUMBER 7]

With relegation being nigh near certain, the financials associated in Financial Year 18/19 must be horrendous. The Fans Share Issue, "IF" it comes to fruition, these funds must be held and used only for the intended purpose, to compete for Promotion to the Premiership as and when we might ever be in a position to allow this to happen, and not plug the Black Hole of our ongoing  clusterfuck, or funding getting out of Division 1. If we are in Division 1, tough, we'll just have to suck it and cut back accordingly.

The  other saviour might be Will Vaulks.  If / When Rotherham are relegated, i can't see him hanging around in Div 1 and a summer transfer for a decent fee should come their way with a decent kick back to ourselves. That might be our salvation out of all this. Thanks Will for extending your contract.

  

[ShaggerG]

1 hour ago, NUMBER 7 said:

With relegation being nigh near certain, the financials associated in Financial Year 18/19 must be horrendous. The Fans Share Issue, "IF" it comes to fruition, these funds must be held and used only for the intended purpose, to compete for Promotion to the Premiership as and when we might ever be in a position to allow this to happen, and not plug the Black Hole of our ongoing  clusterfuck, or funding getting out of Division 1. If we are in Division 1, tough, we'll just have to suck it and cut back accordingly.

The  other saviour might be Will Vaulks.  If / When Rotherham are relegated, i can't see him hanging around in Div 1 and a summer transfer for a decent fee should come their way with a decent kick back to ourselves. That might be our salvation out of all this. Thanks Will for extending your contract.

  

I think our very existence could depend on this and I think the BOD probably do too.

[Marshmallo]

51 minutes ago, HopeStreetPieStall said:

Downside is any fee coming in will probably buy the board a bit more time. 

In what way? 

[Guest]

I can see CC hiding away, hoping it will all blow over and in the meantime he can try to create a narrative that diminishes his responsibility in all of it. I can see a “sick of it all” MSG wanting some cash to relinquish their shares as they have zero motivation to be anything more than a well supported 2nd tier club that pays its bills and has no appetite to challenge the obscene overheads, but ML.....what the hell does she get out of this? Is it simply ego driven?

KK is the one who probably has the most interesting story to tell. By all accounts, he has driven the commercial side of the club fantastically well. He must sit there and wonder what’s the point of going the extra mile to bleed every conceivable revenue stream dry only to then watch ML and CC piss it away on lousy decision after lousy decision.

[HopeStreetWalker]

2 hours ago, ShaggerG said:

I think our very existence could depend on this and I think the BOD probably do too.

This is so like the post Prentice era of Miller , Little and Hagart in the 70's no hope , no future it was dire stuff. This time we cannot borrow from the bank with the stadium as collateral. An uncomfortable few months await us.

[Bairnardo]

I can see CC hiding away, hoping it will all blow over and in the meantime he can try to create a narrative that diminishes his responsibility in all of it. I can see a “sick of it all” MSG wanting some cash to relinquish their shares as they have zero motivation to be anything more than a well supported 2nd tier club that pays its bills and has no appetite to challenge the obscene overheads, but ML.....what the hell does she get out of this? Is it simply ego driven?
KK is the one who probably has the most interesting story to tell. By all accounts, he has driven the commercial side of the club fantastically well. He must sit there and wonder what’s the point of going the extra mile to bleed every conceivable revenue stream dry only to then watch ML and CC piss it away on lousy decision after lousy decision.

Apparently KK backed Andy Thomson in his dubious claim that they hadnt seen Kenny and Davids proposals and they needed more time (the 4th iteration of the proposals having jumped through hoops to satisfy the other board members)

The time which has of course been used to try and pimp the club out whilst keeping those of us who pledged our own money hanging on in some false hope.

KK then would appear to be no great friend to the fans, good job or not....

(Hiya Andy pal)

[Hank von Hell]

9 hours ago, Duncan Freemason said:

I can see CC hiding away, hoping it will all blow over

He's been doing this for the whole second half of the season to be fair including his apparent mute performance hiding behind Margaret at the fans meeting.

[Hank von Hell]

16 hours ago, NUMBER 7 said:

 

The  other saviour might be Will Vaulks.  If / When Rotherham are relegated, i can't see him hanging around in Div 1 and a summer transfer for a decent fee should come their way with a decent kick back to ourselves. That might be our salvation out of all this. Thanks Will for extending your contract.

  

When it happens we should name a stand after Will. Aside from being the amazing player he was for us , he first played for nothing when he arrived and will deliver a huge windfall long after he'd gone. What a hero.

    

Edited April 26, 2019 by Hank von Hell

[Hank von Hell]

12 hours ago, knee jerk reaction said:

Was this not proved wrong though? Bainsford bairn being in and around the club posted that Hartley had seen most if not all the players and had been after some of them for months. 

 

I think "proved wrong" is a bit strong. There are differing stories.

Indeed my nephew heard  it from Hartley himself at a corporate meeting that he hadn't seen any of the English players and that he didn't have to as he had complete confidence in Mitchell and had seen plenty of videos & done his research. 

Add to that Hartley stating multiple times that he had no intention of travelling down to England to watch players.

If the camera guy is wright and my nephew made it all up & Hartley did actually scout these players then he is an even worse manager than I thought , and that was a dogshit bad one. 

Anyway old ground..........  

Edited April 26, 2019 by Hank von Hell

[colliedug]

As a jags fan i genuinely sympathise with your plight cos we could easily be having the same conversations (and might still) i hope you sort out your clusterf##k of a situation as your a very well supported club in the championship (not patronising) home and away, you will be missed by many fans and may be for a while, I'm looking forward to going to Arbroath and "The Tatties Neuk" pub but sadly not at the expense of your club.
Good luck guys

[Stellaboz]

Pure hope yooz go into admin sos we can cal u cheets. Big fat cheets.

[Bairn Necessities]

I hope Lang and Campbell are gone the morning after relegation. 

Or else are forced to be admin for the COYB Facebook page for a year. 

I'm torn between the two .

 

[Guest]

Whether Hartley didn’t see one player or 15 the very fact that was allowed to happen was disgraceful.

[Guest]

13 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

Apparently KK backed Andy Thomson in his dubious claim that they hadnt seen Kenny and Davids proposals and they needed more time (the 4th iteration of the proposals having jumped through hoops to satisfy the other board members)

The time which has of course been used to try and pimp the club out whilst keeping those of us who pledged our own money hanging on in some false hope.

KK then would appear to be no great friend to the fans, good job or not....

(Hiya Andy pal)

Was unaware of this, and don’t know if it has been confirmed or not, but as arguably the one office bearer in the club who seems to have actually met and possibly exceeded expectations, I would be reluctant to tar him with the same brush as the other resident comedians.

I certainly hope the K&D proposals don’t wither on the vine, but clearly the T&Cs would now need to be revised to match the duplicity of the MSG. If indeed there is a 3rd party with money to offer, then the K&D proposal also has money to offer, and its those two entities that should be having a conversation, and the group wanting the money (the MSG) should have no part in that conversation.

If the two investment groups have no common ground, then fair enough, one can withdraw, but at no stage should the MSG be allowed to use one investment group as a bargaining chip against the other.

[Marshmallo]

1 hour ago, Back Post Misses said:

Whether Hartley didn’t see one player or 15 the very fact that was allowed to happen was disgraceful.

How do you control for that?