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The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours


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4 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

eg no serious St Johnstone fan wanting Tommy Wright out for failing to make the top six having done so for six consecutive seasons previously

Worth mentioning we've had a wee collection of fans who've demanded his head every single season since the cup win.

They're having a great time just now.

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7 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Worth mentioning we've had a wee collection of fans who've demanded his head every single season since the cup win.

They're having a great time just now.

I thought that Wright may have been a possible target for Hearts or Hibs. Although you've not started well this season he's obviously been successful in the past and has had Saints punching above they're weight for a few years now.

A wee change of scenery may be what's needed for both him and the club?

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On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 15:54, TheGoon said:

Not really. We were going nowhere under him and it was time for a change.

Well your going to League 1 under Hopkins, which is a shame as we are doing all we can to get the Derby back on next season ;) 

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Dim 'Jim' Duffy was given an enhanced budget off the back of our play-off spot in the 2016/17 campaign with the aim of doing so again (or at least getting close). He failed to do so and so was rightly emptied. 

David 'Hoppy' Hopkin has been given a lesser but still more than sufficient budget to consolidate our position in this, utterly dire standard of division, yet has instead assembled a huge squad of utter jobbers and is failing to get the required results on the park. He should also be emptied.

The consistent failure of GMFC to retain managers has got nothing to do with unrealistic expectations from the board or fanbase or it being a 'poisoned chalice' and everything to do with the hopeless recruitment strategies of the Rae era board. The people they picked to do the job have underperformed on an objective basis every single time at the time of their dismissal.

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3 hours ago, ShaggerG said:

I thought that Wright may have been a possible target for Hearts or Hibs. Although you've not started well this season he's obviously been successful in the past and has had Saints punching above they're weight for a few years now.

A wee change of scenery may be what's needed for both him and the club?

Doesnt fit the look of a manager they want. A fat 50 year old doesnt look good in photos you see.

But aye, it feels like his time is done with us, one way or another.

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4 minutes ago, dregs 83 said:


A livi fan once told me it was always the second in command who was the brains of the operation- would make sense given the current position of each party.

Yeah, l've heard that as well.

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3 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Doesnt fit the look of a manager they want. A fat 50 year old doesnt look good in photos you see.

But aye, it feels like his time is done with us, one way or another.

To be honest he would look as acceptable as, and probably get better results than, the Rolf Harris lookalike who's been in charge at Hearts the last couple of years....... 

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19 hours ago, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

Do you not have to give Hopkin a bit of time? Think the Livingston wanted him sacked before he turned it around.

Regardless of what fans think, he’s going to get that time. While the budget cuts clearly aren’t quite as bad as the club and Hopkin like to make out considering the size of squad and amount of deadwood we’re carrying, he’s on a three year deal and there’s no way the board will chuck him so soon.

The only way I can see him not getting the whole season is if we were to end up ridiculously far adrift at the bottom in February or March to the extent where there was no realistic chance of survival - 10 points off 9th or something ridiculous like that. While we’re currently favourites for relegation, it’d still be a big surprise if we ended up cut adrift quite that badly.

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19 hours ago, dregs 83 said:


A livi fan once told me it was always the second in command who was the brains of the operation- would make sense given the current position of each party.

I would stop short at saying brains of the operation, though reading between the lines, he does have a very persuasive manner on those within the board and dressing room it would seem.

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10 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

Regardless of what fans think, he’s going to get that time. While the budget cuts clearly aren’t quite as bad as the club and Hopkin like to make out considering the size of squad and amount of deadwood we’re carrying, he’s on a three year deal and there’s no way the board will chuck him so soon.

The only way I can see him not getting the whole season is if we were to end up ridiculously far adrift at the bottom in February or March to the extent where there was no realistic chance of survival - 10 points off 9th or something ridiculous like that. While we’re currently favourites for relegation, it’d still be a big surprise if we ended up cut adrift quite that badly.

I'd go as far as to say that, with the addition of MCT money, the 'budget cuts' are a total fiction. It's a squad of 22 professionals, some on no doubt fairly decent money; Jacobs, Cadden, Nesbitt, Grant, even King won't have come for buttons and MIllar, McAlister, McShug will be on what they originally signed for. Unless we're getting the loans for free (highly doubtful), I'd be pretty confident this lot are costing more than last year's squad.

That's how bad it is.

Hopkin's only chance of turning this around is to find a way of emptying what you rightly call deadwood and make a quantity for quality swap in January.

Oh, and has anybody mentioned the 'goalkeeper'...

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I think Millar and McAlister may have accepted a modest wage cut in the summer - their career is quite clearly winding down here anyway - and the same could apply to McHugh who wouldn't exactly have had stunning offers on the table from elsewhere. I do not believe that the current squad is actually costing more than last year's but the resources have been squandered on the string of utter jobbers that this clown and his no-mark mate 'Dave Timmins' have brought in.

Alan Moore got as much on a far lower budget by signing the likes of Peciar and to a lesser extent Habai from a foreign market, which the club refuses to learn from.  

 

 

Edited by vikingTON
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I have a question for the morton fanbase? what is it you expect from the team? Do you see yourselves as big enough to be in the premiership? As you will probably know i am a thistle fan and i see us as a yoyo club who will move between the championship and premiership, so what is it that excluding a fantastic season or two you would deam as a realistic objective year in year out?  Personally speaking and i don't mean to be negative but i see Morton as a mid table championship team but i am open to hear what you guys/gals think.

 

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Midtable in the Championship is objectively speaking the level that the club should be performing at more seasons than not. There are plenty of clubs who have kicked on from that level to play in the top flight within a short period of time though and when a complete tinpot outfit like Hamilton or Livingston are playing there year in year out then that should be the ultimate goal of any full time professional club in the country. The Rae family under Dougie spent the best part of twenty years throwing money around to do that but made a complete, rip-roaring c**t of it at just about every single turn; so long as his chinless wonder extended family are left in charge now then the immediate path for the club points steadily downwards to an Airdrie-esque level of apathy and decay. 

 

 

 

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Literally any full time club in this division is capable of playing top flight football. As VT says, Hamilton & Livingston are no bigger than anyone here and there’s also St Mirren & St Johnstone kicking about as well. Even in the season Livi went up and we finished 7th under Duffy this “what do Morton fans expect?” nonsense was getting wheeled out. A good manager and a few decent players will get you out of this division, and it’s far from impossible to become established in the Premiership upon doing so. 

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13 hours ago, Yambam said:

I have a question for the morton fanbase? what is it you expect from the team? Do you see yourselves as big enough to be in the premiership? As you will probably know i am a thistle fan and i see us as a yoyo club who will move between the championship and premiership, so what is it that excluding a fantastic season or two you would deam as a realistic objective year in year out?  Personally speaking and i don't mean to be negative but i see Morton as a mid table championship team but i am open to hear what you guys/gals think.

 

What are Arbroath, a League One/Two team?

What are Alloa, a mid-table League One team?

What are Livingston or Hamilton, a Premier League, Championship, League One team?

What are Ayr Utd, upper League One/Lower Championship?

Partick Thistle could be described as a yo-yo team between the top tier and the third tier. They haven't looked out of place in the third tier this century, but I doubt many Partick Thistle fans would be happy if they weren't challenging near the top of the Championship next season. 

Morton fans are like any other set of fans, they want the best for their club. Morton, as a club, shouldn't be incapable of winning promotion to the Premier league. Mid-table Championship is the place we've most often found ourselves and the place that we're most likely to find ourselves given our resources, but most fans of any club don't aspire to just hang around that base level. 

Jim Duffy, for example, was given time and support by Morton fans when it seemed like he was building towards something. Season 15/16 we did a good job of consolidating our position in the Championship, albeit we fell away a bit in the end. Season 16/17 we built on that and looked like real challengers before falling away rather spectacularly. Season 17/18 was going brightly as well, and we looked to be a club who were going to comfortably be in the play-offs, before another spectacular collapse. There was a very clear pattern there, and good reasons why Duffy's time was up. It doesn't mean that Morton fans are going to demand to challenge at the top every season, or that they see themselves as a Premier League club, but that has to be what we aspire to, and it should look like we are making progress towards that goal. 

In short, there's a big difference between the mean level of a club and the level the fans of a club should look to their club to aspire and plan to reach. Morton are a mid-table Championship club who should aspire and plan to reach the Premier League. 

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15 hours ago, Yambam said:

As you will probably know i am a thistle fan 

Nope, never heard of you.

Even so, you have my deepest sympathies.

 

ETA - and yes, we should be upper half of the Championship most of the time with occasional forays into the top tier.

Edited by Rudolph Hucker
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