The Falkirk FC Thread

[Dawson Park Boy]

1 minute ago, ShaggerG said:

They said last week that they hoped to keep the pitch beyond next year.

A detailed appraisal regarding all pitch options is currently being undertaken.

[Grangemouth Bairn]

12 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

Not reporting it factually I don’t think it is scaremongering. The majority of loss is inherited from last summers commitments. 

But the part about doubled is correct ?

[ShaggerG]

4 minutes ago, Dawson Park Boy said:

A detailed appraisal regarding all pitch options is currently being undertaken.

Aye, I know, but they're not expecting to replace it next year. It'll be the year after hopefully although they didn't rule out keeping it for up to another 3 or even 4 seasons. It will, of course, come down to money, although Mr D Lapsley reckons that a new grass pitch will cost 350k.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

But the part about doubled is correct ?

I don’t know what the loss will be. But if you look at the lack of a commercial focus, the bloated off the field staff levels we had, DOF, shite players on long contracts, managerial pay offs, drop off in crowds and no transfer income the numbers won’t be pretty I guess. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, ShaggerG said:

Aye, I know, but they're not expecting to replace it next year. It'll be the year after hopefully although they didn't rule out keeping it for up to another 3 or even 4 seasons. It will, of course, come down to money, although Mr D Lapsley reckons that a new grass pitch will cost 350k.

When that pitch was laid it was said to last 7 years well maintained. It is not going to last much longer than 1 or 2. 

[Grangemouth Bairn]

3 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

I don’t know what the loss will be. But if you look at the lack of a commercial focus, the bloated off the field staff levels we had, DOF, shite players on long contracts, managerial pay offs, drop off in crowds and no transfer income the numbers won’t be pretty I guess. 

What a fucking terrible way to run a company. An absolute shambles.

[Guest]

Just now, Grangemouth Bairn said:

What a fucking terrible way to run a company. An absolute shambles.

It’s nothing new this. At least we seem to be trying to address the fundamental issue now at least. 

[Grangemouth Bairn]

Just now, Back Post Misses said:

It’s nothing new this. At least we seem to be trying to address the fundamental issue now at least. 

Absolutely, I meant previous regimes. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

Absolutely, I meant previous regimes. 

Without fans turning out and buying into FSS and probably Patrons investing it is a tough road ahead. 
On a side note the narrative about the new commercial manager is just not true. The club went through proper process and anyone involved in the decision who to appoint had either affiliation or relationship with any candidates was not involved. I know this as I asked the question at a Patrons meeting. But hey ho why get in the way of a good story to suit an agenda. 

[PedroMoutinho]

5 hours ago, Sarah67 said:

 

We both went along to the early session the other night and I’ve tried to summarise the best I can for any fans who weren’t there. Just trying to be helpful so please don’t shoot the messenger! 

 

After a brief introduction from Keith Gourlay, the opening section was from Kenny Jamieson and was around the performance in 2021/22. Summarised as:

• for context, 450k is the average yearly operating loss in historic years
• we’ve had 17 operating losses in the last 20 years he said
• we had 720k in bank at start of 2021/22 (we were lucky due to apparently receiving a sell-on clause for Will Vaulks and some residual Rawlins investment)
• since taking over in 21/22 the new board are running at 2 times the normal operating loss (anticipated loss this year will be a staggering 900k+)
• serious current cash flow concerns he said, club is not in a healthy position
• KJ confirmed it is “the worst cash flow position at the start of any season since we were at Ochilview”
• he said they just paid the wages a few days ago but that there is very little left in the pot now
• begging bowl went out for more FSS members or anyone who wants to throw in 10k to join his patrons group
• this FSS plug was repeated about four times during the night and leaflets left on all our seats too

 

He said income needs to be boosted by 300-400k via the appointment of Graham Stewart, who was introduced to everyone as our new commercial manager, apparently he’s been brought in as he’s related to one of the patrons group a gentleman sitting along from us said so he is a known face to them. If Graham isn’t successful at boosting income by 300-400k then KJ explained the only other option for the club is to run at an operating loss and ideally he wants to cap the operating loss to a maximum of 400k a year. So taking about 10% off the average 450k figure he gave previously. This year is over double that though. 

 

They said they didn’t think the club would literally have ran out of money in recent months and when asked why not, the reply  was “I’m sure the board would’ve found soft loans from somewhere”…. but there was no indication at the session of where that would actually be. It did make us both worry a bit that it sounds like the new controlling group don’t actually seem to have any rainy day cash. 

 

Non-footballing costs have been reduced, because four people have walked out recently. The board confirmed we now only have the equivalent of 9 full-time staff left at the entire club and both Nigel Serafini and Gordon Wright said it’s the volunteers in various areas who have basically saved us and that they are vital because if we lose them, then our costs will increase further and put even more strain on the current finances. 

 

KJ acknowledged that the new board have worked in business but that none of the new board has any football experience and since they decided to fire Gary Holt they have now inadvertently created a football knowledge gap, but he said that we shouldn’t worry as Martin Rennie has guided them in terms of football structure on what “a well run club looks like” and they are following his guidance, plus info from other people they have spoke to.

 

The next bit of info was the one that was really contradictory, having just said that they wanted to control costs given how bad the finances now are, they went on to say they actually want to spend more cash on a new grass training facility of all things. They said they are close to exploring/sealing options and wouldn’t say what. It’s a badly kept secret though that they’ve apparently done a deal to spend roughly £30-35,000 to hire Little Kerse, as coaches of youth teams down there have known about it for a few weeks now and have been openly talking about it when we took our grandson down to his training recently. It seems a strange decision especially given the serious cashflow concerns mentioned and I can’t help but feel it’s just a waste of money. Neither of the two of us could see how they needed this and if it turns out to be true and we do indeed move training to Little Kerse then to spend what little precious money we have left like that is just wrong, as that sort of cash should be given to the manager to get us a competent striker for once. Personal opinion only and each to their own I guess. 

 

We’d also lose the slight advantage of being used to our own pitch if we train instead on grass all week. The very thin justification offered for it all was that grass would help “player recovery”. Personally, I’d still rather have a striker. 

 

Continuing pitch chat, they said that no cash has been put aside by them for pitch renewal yet. The money from the upcoming Killers gigs will apparently be ring-fenced towards pitch renewal costs, but they admitted later during the Q&A that it will only pay a small portion of it. They have no idea currently where the rest of the cash is coming from. 

 

Everything about finances was depressing to be honest. Douglas Moodie gave one positive and said it previously took six and a half weeks to generate a set of “management accounts”, but under his guidance and a new finance software system they have bought, they can now generate these reports within two days. Sadly, it seems all that’s done is maybe make them realise how much of a worry the cash situation is!

 

Overall, while a couple of them spoke well in terms of delivery of the content, the actual content itself didn’t stand up to much scrutiny, especially the financial stuff. As a result my husband and I both left really disheartened. I applaud them for trying and sincerely want them all to do well as they are fans the same as we are, but at the moment it doesn’t yet feel like a safe pair of hands and there seems to be a lack of outright leadership as they’ve still not chosen a chairman. Thankless task though I’m sure and not one I’d do, so I can understand their hesitation at stepping up to the role. 

 

We couldn’t make previous fan event sessions as our daughter has an auto-immune condition and had to isolate for long spells until she was well enough to get fully vaccinated, but we both went along to the early session the other night as we wanted to genuinely engage with the current board and so that we knew we had made an effort to actually meet them in person and listen to what they had to say, but we both came away a little downbeat, mainly due to the financial concerns. 

 

The one bit of critical feedback for them we’d give is that they need to stop blaming everyone else but themselves. It’s not a good look. They’ve been in place about 8 months now and we both genuinely understand they won’t fix every problem overnight and we are genuinely grateful to them for trying, most fans have been supportive too rather than give them any sort of hard time, but constantly trying to say that every negative in or around the club is still somehow someone else’s fault fully 8 months later just no longer cuts it I’m afraid. They need to accept that it’s now their performance, not anyone else’s. 

 

They’d genuinely have gotten more respect from us both if they’d actually stood there and publicly admitted they’ve made mistakes just like previous boards have too i.e. wasting an alleged £2,500 per week on an overweight Leigh Griffiths who only scored two goals, a supporter posting on Facebook that they were apparently seen at Goodwillie’s house trying to sign him, not to mention the totally failed appointment of Martin Rennie as manager. 

 

Me and my husband, plus our kids, their partners and our grandkids will all do our bit and renew our season tickets and we’ve all signed up to FSS to help too, even though it’s difficult with all our bills going up just now, plus supporting our daughter while she was off work ill, but the undoubted overriding worry we both came away with chatting in the car on the way back to Larbert is that given the serious cashflow concerns and the money blown on Griffiths, multiple personnel payoffs and various other things, it seems like we may be heading down the path towards administration and we both truly dread the thought of that happening. 

 

If you can, join up to the FSS. It sounds like it’ll be badly needed. 

 

 

 

 

 

A few odd bits in there for me:

1. The begging bowl and rhetoric about how potless we are doesn’t seem commensurate with where money is being spent.

Why if funds are so limited was circa £2k a week spent on a player who was not fit, was never going to be fit and in any event was not going to get the service required to get us into the playoffs?

Why do we all of a sudden need to spend money on grass training facilities when our current ones were perfectly adequate to get us to 2nd in the championship? We’re still in league 1 because of poor recruitment, not training facilities that other teams in our league could only dream of.

2. Why on earth has Martin Rennie had any role at all in designing a ‘football strategy’? I wouldn’t have him designing a bath running strategy, never mind a football one.

3. Why are key appointments seemingly being handed out to mates of patrons?

Edited June 6, 2022 by PedroMoutinho

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, PedroMoutinho said:

A few odd bits in there for me:

1. The begging bowl and rhetoric about how potless we are doesn’t seem commensurate with where money is being spent.

Why if funds are so limited was circa £2k a week spent on a player who was not fit, was never going to be fit and in any event was not going to get the service required to get us into the playoffs?

Why do we all of a sudden need to spend money on grass training facilities when our current ones were perfectly adequate to get us to 2nd in the championship? We’re still in league 1 because of poor recruitment, not training facilities that other teams in our league could only dream of.

2. Why on earth has Martin Rennie had any role at all in designing a ‘football strategy’? I wouldn’t have him designing a bath running strategy, never mind a football one.

3. Why are key appointments seemingly being handed out to mates of patrons?

Did you go and ask those questions last week? 

[Grangemouth Bairn]

19 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

Without fans turning out and buying into FSS and probably Patrons investing it is a tough road ahead. 
On a side note the narrative about the new commercial manager is just not true. The club went through proper process and anyone involved in the decision who to appoint had either affiliation or relationship with any candidates was not involved. I know this as I asked the question at a Patrons meeting. But hey ho why get in the way of a good story to suit an agenda. 

I’m sure in 2022 we’ll have an HR Department we’ll versed in ‘Conflict of Interest’ policies particularly where the governance of financial enterprises involved. No way a ‘friend’ of anyone on the board would be appointed in such an important position.

[Bainsfordbairn]

17 minutes ago, PedroMoutinho said:

Why do we all of a sudden need to spend money on grass training facilities when our current ones were perfectly adequate to get us to 2nd in the championship? We’re still in league 1 because of poor recruitment, not training facilities that other teams in our league could only dream of.

We finished second in the Championship in 16/17. That was five seasons ago. If the claim that the pitch was meant to last seven seasons is accurate, then it's LONG overdue replacement, which is why I was surprised to hear it said at the meeting that we might even use it next season. 

By the end of the coming season it'll be ten years old. (laid in the summer of 2013) 

[AL-FFC]

42 minutes ago, PedroMoutinho said:

A few odd bits in there for me:

1. The begging bowl and rhetoric about how potless we are doesn’t seem commensurate with where money is being spent.

Why if funds are so limited was circa £2k a week spent on a player who was not fit, was never going to be fit and in any event was not going to get the service required to get us into the playoffs?

Why do we all of a sudden need to spend money on grass training facilities when our current ones were perfectly adequate to get us to 2nd in the championship? We’re still in league 1 because of poor recruitment, not training facilities that other teams in our league could only dream of.

2. Why on earth has Martin Rennie had any role at all in designing a ‘football strategy’? I wouldn’t have him designing a bath running strategy, never mind a football one.

3. Why are key appointments seemingly being handed out to mates of patrons?

Rennie has been involved with clubs that were just starting out in the US and Canada and setting up, I don't get the flack he takes yes he done sh*t but I don't put that down to him I put that down to the shambles that Holt and Sheerin assembled he was on a hiding to nothing and the 6 brought in Jan were basically papering cracks and trying to pour a bit of glitter on a turd.  

As for the Griffiths one it was a gamble but you would think given his career it "could" being the operative word here have paid off in the same way that Stainrod and Waddle, McAvennie signings could have bit of morale and a statement signing to try and push up crowd numbers.

Not defending just offering another perspective on it.

[Dawson Park Boy]

1 minute ago, AL-FFC said:

Rennie has been involved with clubs that were just starting out in the US and Canada and setting up, I don't get the flack he takes yes he done sh*t but I don't put that down to him I put that down to the shambles that Holt and Sheerin assembled he was on a hiding to nothing and the 6 brought in Jan were basically papering cracks and trying to pour a bit of glitter on a turd.  

As for the Griffiths one it was a gamble but you would think given his career it "could" being the operative word here have paid off in the same way that Stainrod and Waddle, McAvennie signings could have bit of morale and a statement signing to try and push up crowd numbers.

Not defending just offering another perspective on it.

I think what you say is a reasonable take on what happened.

[Reggie Perrin]

1 hour ago, bejazz1 said:

Yes the last 5 seasons have been a financial abyss so it is/was a matter of time before the funds dried up.

It really wasn’t rocket science that we had to throw the kitchen sink (Like Killie did this season) should have been our only objective instead of kidding ourselves that we are a big club who wastes money every season on misguided clap like an infrastructure that required a DOF with coaches coming out of our backside and other drains in cash…In League One FSS.

No wonder the shit is hitting the fan now the only surprise is that it’s taken so long!

The shit hit the fan long ago but it is only now that it is being addressed.

[ShaggerG]

1 hour ago, Back Post Misses said:

When that pitch was laid it was said to last 7 years well maintained. It is not going to last much longer than 1 or 2. 

Just saying what was said mate.

[roman_bairn]

We finished second in the Championship in 16/17. That was five seasons ago. If the claim that the pitch was meant to last seven seasons is accurate, then it's LONG overdue replacement, which is why I was surprised to hear it said at the meeting that we might even use it next season. 
By the end of the coming season it'll be ten years old. (laid in the summer of 2013) 

And yet it’ll still be a better surface than most of the teams in the division.
I genuinely don’t get why replacing the pitch is a priority whilst we are in League One.
Wait until we’re promoted then use some of the extra income to part fund the upgrade.
In the interim our priority should be what we are putting on the pitch, not what we are using as a pitch…..

[1320Lichtie]

7 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

And yet it’ll still be a better surface than most of the teams in the division.
I genuinely don’t get why replacing the pitch is a priority whilst we are in League One.
Wait until we’re promoted then use some of the extra income to part fund the upgrade.
In the interim our priority should be what we are putting on the pitch, not what we are using as a pitch…..

That kind of attitude starts applying to other areas and next thing you know you’re massively underachieving and.... oh wait 

 

You should strive for the best standards regardless of what level you’re at and that should be the attitude of everyone involved within the club if you want to actually improve 

 

 

[Bainsfordbairn]

3 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

And yet it’ll still be a better surface than most of the teams in the division.
I genuinely don’t get why replacing the pitch is a priority whilst we are in League One.
Wait until we’re promoted then use some of the extra income to part fund the upgrade.
In the interim our priority should be what we are putting on the pitch, not what we are using as a pitch…..

I can't comment on other surfaces as I have no idea how they compare with ours, though I imagine newer ones will be better. As for replacing it, I would make three observations. 

Firstly is that the players hate it. There were reports from multiple people who spoke to last years playing squad at the Gala Awards, and in general the players were derided for complaining about how bad it was, given how bad they were too. But maybe they had a point? 

Secondly is the medical staff. I had multiple conversations with one who used to work with us and had compiled detailed statistics of all the injuries he'd treated which he attributed to the pitch. He was ordered not to discuss it with anyone by a former CEO. 

Thirdly is the injuries over the last two years, particularly late in the season. It doesn't take much research to see how many players we've been missing as the seasons drew to a close. 

If McGlynn thinks it'll benefit the players to train on grass rather than the stadium astro, then surely the club should try and make it happen?