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Guest Ecosse83
3 minutes ago, Hank von Hell said:

That's a really low bar to be fair and nothing to crow about.

The question is - is it really? 

The first question last night highlighted how poor recruitment has been. Just about every poster on here could have signed 95% of the players we have without much effort at all. 
 

I’m not keen on Holt but I don’t think he came over too badly when talking about the youth setup, maybe he should take a wage cut and just focus on that in the future! 

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35 minutes ago, Hank von Hell said:

That's a really low bar to be fair and nothing to crow about.

The question is - is it really? 

I think the majority of fans don't believe a word of it, we seem to keep recruiting poorly year after year no matter who is responsible for it.

Edited by Harry Kinnear
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11 hours ago, FFC 1876 said:

The Holt line about Jaime Wilson is laughable. He's 23 not an 18 year old kid having his first go at first team football. The fact they admitted he was signed as the starting striker as well makes it even more laughable. 

It sounds like total arse covering to me. Wilson spent his youth career at full time ICT and whilst he won't have had a full time deal there, he'll be well aware how full time football operates. He then moved to Australia to try and make a football career before returning and playing for Dumbarton - as far as I'm aware football was his primary endeavour and wage during these times. He's not some late bloomer who needs to find his feet in the game. If Holt says they went for 14 strikers and Wilson is the one you ended up with, I'd suggest that he was bottom of the barrel stuff signed to get you through the Betfred Cup matches and him being punted out on loan soon after would confirm that was probably always the plan. Stuff about him coming back a better player is just cliched pish to cover the fact he won't play for Falkirk again and they made a mess of your summer recruitment. 

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2 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

It sounds like total arse covering to me. Wilson spent his youth career at full time ICT and whilst he won't have had a full time deal there, he'll be well aware how full time football operates. He then moved to Australia to try and make a football career before returning and playing for Dumbarton - as far as I'm aware football was his primary endeavour and wage during these times. He's not some late bloomer who needs to find his feet in the game. If Holt says they went for 14 strikers and Wilson is the one you ended up with, I'd suggest that he was bottom of the barrel stuff signed to get you through the Betfred Cup matches and him being punted out on loan soon after would confirm that was probably always the plan. Stuff about him coming back a better player is just cliched pish to cover the fact he won't play for Falkirk again and they made a mess of your summer recruitment. 

Nah if that was the plan he wouldn't have got a 2 year deal they've genuinely signed him as a starting striker then realised actually how honking he is.

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10 hours ago, ShaggerG said:

A couple of people are saying that Holt said that Wilson would be our starting striker but I heard it as they didn't expect him to be, i.e. he'd be back-up. (Which would make sense, albeit that he hasn't even turned out to be that)

I completely acknowledge though that I may have misheard that.

I’m sure he said Wilson was not someone they expected to start every week but hoped he would be a useful option as this is apparently his first chance at full time football! 

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12 minutes ago, PedroMoutinho said:

I’m sure he said Wilson was not someone they expected to start every week but hoped he would be a useful option as this is apparently his first chance at full time football! 

Yeah we'll need to watch the rerun to clarify that as it wasn't clear to many of us whether he said that or as I thought at the time  the opposite. And why then sign ompreon at the same time who surely they must have thought was another project. Fine if you've got a nailed down starting striker but that was far from the case .Him blowing about him scoring 4 goals last season which was more than dowds and Keena was excruciating.

Edited by Shadwell Dog
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46 minutes ago, Harry Kinnear said:

I think the majority of fans don't believe a word of it, we seem to keep recruiting poorly year after year no matter who is responsible for it.

If Falkirk want to know how to recruit players and have their finger on the marketplace.

Then go no further than delve into the clubs own records of how Jeffries & Brown went about their business in identifying players they wanted to sign.

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As someone said previously deans is half way up Dave Cormack's arse and last night his statement was simply Aberdeen lite. If you listened to Cormack's pish on sportsound then you don't have to bother listening to deans last night.  No point in continually sacking managers, need stability, Yadda Yadda Yadda and when pointed out that there are absolutely no signs of improvement that doesn't seem to matter. It's head down batter on don't worry we'll still win the league honest.

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5 minutes ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

If Falkirk want to know how to recruit players and have their finger on the marketplace.

Then go no further than delve into the clubs own records of how Jeffries & Brown went about their business in identifying players they wanted to sign.

The likes of Brown and Jeffries and Hughes and Rice travelled up and down the UK looking for players. All Holt and sheerin do is stick a few search options in a pc and see what it comes up with.

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Recruitment, tactics, investment etc etc all shit that I have an opinion on but understand it's an opinion that holds very little weight. The one thing I know where my opinion means something is opposing the continued contempt that this board hold for the fans. Every single time they opens their mouth the priority is to attack us. Colburn and Deans last night, Sheerin's last interview, online Q&A, season ticket statement. All had within them a moment where the fans were derided. I fact if we go right back to when the chairman of this football club was appointed, his opening line was to have a go at the fans. That just shows you where his and therefore the boards loyalties lie. They are not with us. 

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9 minutes ago, Bairney The Dinosaur said:

Recruitment, tactics, investment etc etc all shit that I have an opinion on but understand it's an opinion that holds very little weight. The one thing I know where my opinion means something is opposing the continued contempt that this board hold for the fans. Every single time they opens their mouth the priority is to attack us. Colburn and Deans last night, Sheerin's last interview, online Q&A, season ticket statement. All had within them a moment where the fans were derided. I fact if we go right back to when the chairman of this football club was appointed, his opening line was to have a go at the fans. That just shows you where his and therefore the boards loyalties lie. They are not with us. 

I've mentioned it before, but what the hell is our supposed "expert" PR guy on the board doing? He himself came across as an arrogant p***k at the last Q&A and the PR side of the club has been an absolute shambles for the last year or so. Board Q&As are the ultimate PR exercise and yet again, they screwed it up. 

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14 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

As someone said previously deans is half way up Dave Cormack's arse and last night his statement was simply Aberdeen lite. If you listened to Cormack's pish on sportsound then you don't have to bother listening to deans last night.  No point in continually sacking managers, need stability, Yadda Yadda Yadda and when pointed out that there are absolutely no signs of improvement that doesn't seem to matter. It's head down batter on don't worry we'll still win the league honest.

What wasn’t mentioned is that the reason we’ve had such high turnover of players and managers is that we continually manage to recruit even worse replacements for those we let go.

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10 hours ago, superandy_07 said:

Finally got round to my notes, apologies if stuff has already been covered

I have missed stuff out but hopefully be covered by the recording that will follow 

It was uncomfortable but felt it got easier for them after the first 20 mins

  • Started with an introduction by Gary Deans

  • Gordon Colburn was up next

Talked about his family ties to Falkirk.

Understands that the situation has changed, the club has been on the decline for several years.

Board needs to be held accountable, same with supporters are accountable and some actions by some of them have been not consistent with Falkirk FC values — threats and attacks are not acceptable at all.

Mentioned that supporters need to support the players as players are scared to do things on the pitch(!), big laugh ensues, followed by saying that we’ve lost players due to the supporter behaviour around the club (I thought this may have been youth academy players but might have heard that wrong).

 

  • Bit of back and forth between Gary and the floor before moving onto questions 

 

  • First question was an absolute belter, very well researched with lots of stats, the main point about the win rate of teams that have won League One and how we’re nowhere near that.

Gary took this on and talked about how recruitment before was a disaster with Lex Miller, Lee Miller and David McCracken dealing with this, coming out of those meetings terrified realising there was no real plan. Also made a comment that it doesn’t make a difference who is chairman. McFarlane also agreed that recruitment has been bad, we need stability, comparing previous players like Mercer and Leitch to Williamson and Nesbit, and that the team needs space and time needed to improve.

 

  • First online question (over 60 emails submitted!) - FFC being run like a boys club with the board being filled with nepotism

Gary refutes this completely, responds that there seems to be an undercurrent that the fans want to sack someone, get someone to walk. Why do teams raise their game against us? We have lots of ex-Falkirk players playing against us, because of the revolving door of players and staff. Said the end of last season was the worst moments of his Falkirk supporting life. 

 

  • Gary Holt

Clarifying his role - he has zero influence on first team matters (team selection, tactics, subs etc). Quoted stat 65 players have come in the door, 63 have gone out along with 13 non-playing staff coming and going. Not always going to get recruitment right, but we can’t get it right with a constant revolving door. Gary does not sign players alone, he concentrates on shovel work that comes with scouting and dealing with agents etc, Sheerin has final say.

We made an approach for 14 different strikers, including Scott Robinson and Declan McManus (willing to also pay his transfer fee), but were blown out of the water in terms of wages.

 

  • Paul Sheerin

Total accountable for the performances so far. Felt the real tension from Saturday's game.

The team needs the support of the fans. Paul is still learning with this being his first full time appointment. He trusts that the team will get it better. We’ve been let down by individual errors and not got the blend right upfront or the back, can’t score goals and can’t keep clean sheets. Sheerin has been more involved in recruitment since he's joined the club.

 

  • Phil Rawlings

He felt there wasn’t enough investment behind the scenes. Said that the club was an accident waiting to happen and it did last season. We have the biggest wage bill in the league, including the investment in youth squads.

We need to get promotion, we are going to make it happen the best we can but we need stability, and can't expect to do the same things the club have done in the past.

Asking for patience, mentioned how long it took Stoke and Orlando to get to the top, we are trying our best to get there stating there hasn’t been a concrete plan before. 

 

  • Expenditure - questions on the increased costs of board level investment

Commercial income will be down, the loss of Kieran and Totten are a blow. 

The club is in a period of investing in the future.

Right now they are planning to be in Championship next year, if by January that seems unrealistic they shall review.

Small mention of SPFL Club Review, how there could be a danger of criteria for the top league (think back to Brockville), whether that be grass pitch only for example.

Gary was really cagey about part time being an opportunity next year if we don’t go up.

 

  • Navy Blue Group 

Colburn stated there was a number quoted but came with conditions - offer started at £500,000 and later on became £600,000, but no formal offer was made. They refused the approach as the offer was non-negotiable, a meeting was setup but was cancelled the day before by the NBG.

Gary said the door is open, someone from the floor shouted “On your terms”.

GD responded with to deliver a document, to invest, you need to discuss it. The investment didn’t fail because of the conditions of Gary walking, you have got to talk about these things, discuss them and be reasonable.

 

  • More Sheerin tidbits

Big Ernaldo Krasniqi - still has a lot to learn defensive, was seen as an opportunity to develop a Huddersfield relationship, was also cost effective, works hard and he will get opportunities.

Steven Hetherington - seen as one of our most important players, met with laughs

Felt he needed to give Paddy Martin an opportunity, Paul Dixon he also feels hasn’t been good enough over the past month (Dixon himself agrees).

 

  • Gary Deans wrapping up

Knew tonight would be difficult with a lot of frustrations but went better than he expected.

Thanked everyone coming and giving us space to give answers.

They are doing their damndest to get back where the club needs to be.

The fans are vital, proud to be part of the support the club has.

 

Bed time now zzz

A very well written summary.

I have to say , if I am reading your summary correctly, its very unprofessional for any Falkirk official to refer to players now playing for other clubs in  a public forum in any negative manner,” comparing previous players like Mercer and Leitch to…….”

Not sure its smart to talk about your own players in a negative manner either by the way but thats probably evidence of the culture that exists at the club and why the players have probably lost faith in the manager .  . In any other walk of life the lawyers would  be on the phone!

Just to say, Mercer started really badly with us, was low in confidence and is now playing really , really well. Scored a belter on Saturday. I can see him scoring another belter of a free kick against you boys at our next home game. He and us will be really hoping he does that( as remember these boys have family and friends who probably dont read the nonsense on fans forums but may read what an official of a professional football club say).

Hope I picked up what you wrote wrongly but if true, really poor.

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1 hour ago, Its not only a game said:

A very well written summary.

I have to say , if I am reading your summary correctly, its very unprofessional for any Falkirk official to refer to players now playing for other clubs in  a public forum in any negative manner,” comparing previous players like Mercer and Leitch to…….”

Not sure its smart to talk about your own players in a negative manner either by the way but thats probably evidence of the culture that exists at the club and why the players have probably lost faith in the manager .  . In any other walk of life the lawyers would  be on the phone!

Just to say, Mercer started really badly with us, was low in confidence and is now playing really , really well. Scored a belter on Saturday. I can see him scoring another belter of a free kick against you boys at our next home game. He and us will be really hoping he does that( as remember these boys have family and friends who probably dont read the nonsense on fans forums but may read what an official of a professional football club say).

Hope I picked up what you wrote wrongly but if true, really poor.

Don’t think you’ve picked it up wrongly. Macfarlane used the examples of Mercer and Leitch to try and argue that they’ve been replaced by better players.

I’m sure his words were ‘Williamson is a much better player than Mercer and Nesbitt is much better than Leitch’ or similar. He seemingly had further examples prepared that he didn’t get to.

I did find it quite unprofessional tbh. Will be interesting to see if it makes the recording.

Edited by PedroMoutinho
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6 minutes ago, Its not only a game said:

A very well written summary.

I have to say , if I am reading your summary correctly, its very unprofessional for any Falkirk official to refer to players now playing for other clubs in  a public forum in any negative manner,” comparing previous players like Mercer and Leitch to…….”

Danke

I think the person asking the question led with saying that the players that have came in are no better than Mercer or Leitch etc

Holt MacFarlane responded with is Williamson better than Mercer, is Nesbitt better than Leitch, yes they are

Edited by superandy_07
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11 hours ago, ShaggerG said:

So is that a yes or a no then? :unsure:

I don’t think BPM can speak for the NB group as a whole. Deans saying that “the NB weren’t reasonable” is hypocrisy 101. Saying that “they pulled out, not us” was a nice and neat way of stating the outcome, but of course, laying out why it ended as it did is a conversation Deans would rather not have out in the open.

Now that is not to say that the NB approach was bang on the money. There were several things in terms of strategy that were less than ideal, but ultimately the Board didn’t want it to happen because Rawlins wasn’t for power sharing in any sort of meaningful way, and you had a BoD that put themselves first.

Gary Deans saying that if he stood down, he would get his life back. Now, I have only ever heard one other guy utter that self same statement. It was Tony Hayward, Head of bp after the Gulf of Mexico disaster. I think he lasted a matter of days.

So why isn’t he prepared to just go get his life back? Is it because he is so selfless and altruistic, that he is driven by the need to devote his life to Falkirk Football Club? Or is it because being Chairman opens other doors to him, and allows other opportunities to come his way? I know what I think, and it’s reinforced by the manner in which he selected his Board…….an interview process that involved Mr Deans, Mr Bateman, and a lawyer whose name escapes me.

Colborn is an interesting one. A member of the original Patron’s Group (who sought to bring around radical change in the club in terms of governance) and who now sits there as one of Deans apostles doing everything he can to maintain the status quo.

For me, getting rid of hired help is neither here nor there. The SD and CEO roles can be kept or erased at any time. The people in those jobs can be kept or removed. It’s not the “easy to do” stuff that will bring about real change. 
 

Its a BoD that feel themselves bullet proof provided they do what Rawlins tells them to do, and provided SA and MR continue to choose the “do nothing” option at each AGM.

 

Edited by Duncan Freemason
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2 hours ago, PedroMoutinho said:

I’m sure he said Wilson was not someone they expected to start every week but hoped he would be a useful option as this is apparently his first chance at full time football! 

Aye, that's what I heard too. Maybe my hearing's not as bad as I thought.

When we signed him my first thought was that he would be back-up with another striker (or two) expected. We heard last night that they'd made good offers to Robinson and McManus so that would seem to make sense. Nothing against the lad because I think he's a good player but I don't think they expected to end up with Ruth as our no.9

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