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Sons' sorrow


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For a start that tone is out of order for a guy who works his socks off on behalf of this club, and on a voluntary basis. Targeting the good guys shows how little you know about the situation at DFC.

Secondly, I'd be very careful to check the accuracy of your closing sentence, as that is potentially dangerous territory.
Agree with your first paragraph in its entirety. However, according to the press report following his trial, the Sheriff directed that he be placed on the Register.
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Didn’t our groundsman allude to not being able to buy/rent equipment to help drainage of the park earlier in the season but the club refused.
I know he posts on here and might be able to enlighten us.
By the sounds of it, there are a pack of wolves at the door that the club is struggling to keep away. No easy answer.


I think you are on the right trail. The groundsman, I think he posts on here as Dumbarton Rock, has previous for breaking confidences at the club. I think he was on a while ago saying he had been told before not disclose issues on social media. As a paid employee of the club he must be on thin ice disclosing an email like that.
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Agreed. He doesn’t know what the ‘going rate’ for a decent part time player imo. Only way I’m happy keeping up this record of budget signings is if we announce a strong 11 including boab Thomson and a few other Morton rejects.
It can't be hard to find out in football circles what players are on.

If he didn't know last year, he will now.
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Aitken didn't overspend his budget so that has nothing to do with it. Last years signings shouldn't have any impact on this season's budget, other than Rory Loy who is contracted for this season as well.


Aitken not only overspent his budget, on more than one occasion, he racked up a decent bill on the credit card. All of which needs repaid at some point.
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That makes it sound like the club is unable to pay bills we owe or something. One daft message, that was posted on here with absolutely zero context, doesn't mean we have "a pack of wolves at the door". If the budget is as low as folk are making out then it sounds like we are cutting our cloth accordingly. I've certainly not seen any evidence of people chasing us for money.

I'm still waiting on optimistic telling us what it is or what it is in reference to. If it is in response the groundsman asking for money to do stuff to the pitch, or something along those lines, it's an absolute non event. I'd rather that money was put towards a playing budget.

I meant it sounded more than the club “keeping the wolf from the door”
Cobbling something together for the last two games doesn’t sound great no matter what the situation was.

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Aitken not only overspent his budget, on more than one occasion, he racked up a decent bill on the credit card. All of which needs repaid at some point.
Any money outwith his budget must have been sanctioned by the board, the blame can't be attributed to him for the impact of that being felt now.

I didn't rate Aitken as a gaffer at all but for folk to be partly blaming him for this seasons budget is unfair IMO. It's up to the board to manage finances and ensure it doesn't impact on the following seasons budget.

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I meant it sounded more than the club “keeping the wolf from the door”
Cobbling something together for the last two games doesn’t sound great no matter what the situation was.

What if he's asking the groundsman to cobble something together (non funding related) to keep the pitch in a good nick for the last two games of the season? A total non event if so.

Unless optimistic gives some context, to a private message that should never be anywhere this forum, it means absolutely nothing. It could quite literally be in relation to the most minor of things.

Leaving the guesswork and theories aside, whoever has leaked it and allowed it to end up on here is well out of line IMO.
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Layne might have more to offer than you think, at least in a footballing sense.

Aside from the obvious legal and injury issues there looked to be a player in there somewhere. Oddly enough, it's hard to sum him up without making unintentional nods to his conviction. He's often described as a "nuisance" or a "handful", and is known to "put himself about". :wacko:

Much like us you seem to be bargain hunting, hopefully it's not reflected in the league table at the end of the season but we're both in desperate need of some quality.

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I always thought he was when he played against us, but he was by and large awful last season. Jumped out of tackles, looked to really struggle with his mobility and was absolutely horrific in front of goal. He looked like a guy who was absolutely hating his football.
This clip probably sums up his time with us...
 

Jesus that’s horrendous at the end.

Dom Thomas looks good though. It’ll be interesting to see where he ends up next season.
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The thing I don’t understand is, why would Duffy stay on if the budget is really as bad as it looks?
I doubt he needs the money so badly with his punditry and columns that he couldn’t have been out of work for a few months.
He could’ve easily walked away with his reputation in tact after doing a solid job keeping us up. Plenty of jobs will open up after the first quarter of the season that he could’ve walked into.
Doesn’t add up.


Don't see why he wouldn't stay.

What other job is Duffy going to get that suits his personal situation with his other work and where he stays as well as Dumbarton? Queens Park maybe?

Guy is 60 now, be limited chances for him and he's on his way down
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Relegation cost the club somewhere in the region of £175,000. The old board were also somewhat lax in their attitude towards ground maintenance and did little to control finances. The current board have inherited a shit storm of various issues that it had to address, from loan repayments to creditors who could otherwise have made it difficult for us to issues with the ground.  They've imposed financial discipline but it's been costly and reduced crowds last season haven't helped.

No point in dressing things up. It's a difficult time for the club right now. There's a balance to be found between gambling with the future of the club and working with sustainable budgets. Investment would clearly help but one off investment isn't something you can rely on and ad-hoc director loans as were common in years gone by create the kind of financial holes that you can't easily dig yourself out of. Our crowds dropped by a couple of hundred following relegation. Home fan numbers reduced. Away fan numbers certainly reduced. Getting the club back on a more controlled and stable financial footing takes time and means difficult decisions.

Unfortunately there's no magic money tree. If we want a bigger budget for players then we need to earn it. We need bigger crowds. We need more sponsors. We need increased commercial revenue. If we can't earn it then we can't spend it. It's not all doom and gloom but we do need a degree of realism right now. The club needs to look after it's finances, address the competing issues of player recruitment and infrastructure repairs/maintenance and it needs to do so in a way that doesn't risk the future of the club. Throwing money around may have been an option on championship prize money and crowds but we didn't always spend it wisely or on the right areas. That's been addressed over the past 18 months but we've all seen what financial reality looks like. The alternative without increased revenues would be dangerous.

Edited by BallochSonsFan
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I think several seasons of typically losing more than winning and generally playing with backs to the wall has taken it’s toll on crowds. A winning team is the only thing that will tempt people back. 

But reduced income = reduced on-field quality, so we’re caught in a vicious circle and left reliant on Duffy’s young recruits performing way above expectation (you never know!).

Ultimately, relegation in front of further reduced crowds is a realistic possibility.

Strap in.

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