The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours

[Mod1967]

well done Morton see ya at Somerset next season 

[cappiecat]

8 hours ago, Rudolph Hucker said:

On June 1st Greenock Morton Football Club will move into fan ownership in the form of the Morton Community Trust. While members of the Trust have been working in tandem with the current regime this season they still have a huge task ahead of them both in getting the running of the club onto a competent basis and in appointing a management team & playing staff good enough to keep us from finishing in the bottom two next term. I wish them well, and I hope that many more supporters will join MCT in the months to come

Wrong again!

Greenock Morton Community Trust (Morton in the Community) has no part whatsoever in the fan ownership and running of the club.

Morton Club Together is the fans group who have taken over from the Rae's and will be running the cub. Should you wish to be part of this endeavour, they can be contacted here -

https://mortonclubtogether.com/

[Rudolph Hucker]

 a night like last night, and that’s all your small-mindedness can come up with.  Your only post on the matter; not a thing about the game, the performance or the result.  Sad, but not unexpected.

And you think I’m not already a member? To coin your phrase, wrong again. Still, enjoy your weekend. If you can manage to.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Rudolph Hucker

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Now the season is over here's my keep/release list. I know yer all eager to see it but you can stop DMing me now

Keep

Michael Ledger - solid as an option at full back or centre back

Markus Fjørtoft - gives me the fear and always seems like he has a slip or howler in him but looked a lot more solid as the year went on

Brian McLean - was flabbergasted he got an extra year after looking finished last season but can't really fault him this year

Kyle Jacobs - solid midfielder we probabky wont get an upgrade on

Gary Oliver - always been a fan of Oliver but he's useless up on his own. 

Craig McGuffie - can be anonymous a lot of the time but often the only attacking player who looks like he'll make something happen

Lewis Strapp - gets better every season

Reece Lyon - also improving and scandalous how often he's left out for Blues

Luca Colville - needs more game time to really stick on a role but I'd give him it

Aidan McAdams - I don't rate him half as much as other fans but he's a decent keeper and still young

Chris Wylie - Just so we can be certain we have a keeper on the bench next season. Radical thinking I know

Release

Sean McGinty - We look better without him on the pitch

Chris Millar - legs were gone last season and hardly played this season

Robbie Muirhead - his only good performances this uear were against seaside league teams

Kalvin Orsi - hard to dislike the guy but he's not getting any better

Cameron Salkeld - hard worker and good running at defenders but his 2nd touch is a tackle and his shots end up as throw ins

Cameron Blues - what does he do?

Rabin Omar - never got a chance in his favoured position but never looked up to it

James Wallace - a team that couldn't score never gave this striker a chance which says a lot

Justin Johnson - forgot he was even here

Unsure

Aidan Nesbitt - flatters to deceive too often. I'd probably give him another year but not upset if he goes

Jamie Butler - no idea if he's any use as he'a been injured. also doing the GK coaching. If he can get fit to be a back up while doing that then no harm in him staying. 

Darren Hynes - been left rotting in the reserves for a long time but didn't look awful when he got a chance but he's 22 now and probably time to let him get first team football elsewhere

Lewis McGrattan - a lovely cameo v Motherwell but not seen enough to judge

Alexander Easdale - another one I'd leave up to the folk who've seen him in training/reserve games

 

[cappiecat]

39 minutes ago, Rudolph Hucker said:

 a night like last night, and that’s all your small-mindedness can come up with.  Your only post on the matter; not a thing about the game, the performance or the result.  Sad, but not unexpected.

And you think I’m not already a member? To coin your phrase, wrong again. Still, enjoy your weekend. If you can manage to.

Epic flail.

[Pick that one out Marshall]

Well done Morton

[Rudolph Hucker]

37 minutes ago, cappiecat said:

Epic flail.

Yes, in the circumstances it was indeed, but I won't hold it against you and it's good of you to admit it.  You probably can't help being so po-faced, even after last night's game.  More to be pitied than scolded, IMO.

Now, go post about someone who might actually give a f**k, it'll be much less frustrating for you. 

Edited May 22, 2021 by Rudolph Hucker

[Dunning1874]

Moving on from the excitement of last night, I don't think we can let the enjoyment/relief of the swording we dished out cloud how much of a state the season was and there's a massive rebuild needed.

Under contract we have Lewis Strapp, Reece Lyon, Darren Hynes, Chris Wylie, Michael Garrity, Lewis McGrattan and Alexander Easdale. I expect Strapp and Lyon will be away for any sort of reasonable offer though as they're entering the final year of three year deals. The whole point of those deals was to ensure transfer fees, and particularly in Lyon's case I don’t see why he'd want to stay another year anyway having sat on the bench so much.

Keep:

Aidan McAdams - obviously

Michael Ledger - obviously

Markus Fjortoft - I debated having him in the next category and his tendency for bizarre mistakes will stop him ever being better than this level, but he's solid outwith those rush of blood to the head moments and worth keeping

Kyle Jacobs - obviously

Luca Colville - bizarrely underused this season but he's clearly a good Championship player

While I want to keep them, I'd very surprised if any of them don't move on to clubs which haven't been a total riot off the park. If you're good enough to have your pick of solid mid-table clubs at least, I don't see why you'd hang around at a club that's been this much of a shambles for the last eight months. We know that getting the Raes out the door is a great opportunity for the club to salvage our reputation and stop being seen as a joke, but you need to demonstrate some competence before players are going to buy into that.

I reckon you can then split the release candidates into three groups.

Release, but could see the logic in keeping them:

Craig McGuffie - disappears too often for me, but he is capable of popping up with screamers and you could make a case that if he gets a proper run of games it'll be a platform to deliver consistently.

Gary Oliver - with the extent of the attacking rebuild we need keeping one forward who's capable of competence might be worthwhile, but he's just not delivered enough for me.

Definite Release:

Jamie Butler

Brian McLean - had a much better season than last, but he has tailed off as the season's gone on and some errors have crept back in over the last few months

Chris Millar - if he's going to have a coaching role then there's nothing wrong with keeping him registered as a player for emergencies, but there's no way we can justify a new contract for a 38 year old who managed 5 appearances

Justin Johnson

Rabin Omar

Aidan Nesbitt - could make an argument for him to be in the previous category, but my patience with the lack of end product is gone. I consistently argued that he just needed a run of games that Hopkin had never given him; now he's had it he flopped.

James Wallace

Robbie Muirhead - maybe if he'd actually been played at centre forward more often than in defence by Hopkin he'd have had a better time of it, but three goals in two games v a League One side does not make up for the previous two years

Cameron Salkeld - athlete, not a footballer

Definite release and burn the stadium to the ground if anyone even thinks about keeping them:

Sean McGinty - obviously

Cameron Blues - actually had a decent game last night, but obviously

Kalvin Orsi - obviously

[baba douche]

Well done, it was men against boys last night 

[Colkitto]

1 hour ago, Dunning1874 said:

Moving on from the excitement of last night, I don't think we can let the enjoyment/relief of the swording we dished out cloud how much of a state the season was and there's a massive rebuild needed.

Under contract we have Lewis Strapp, Reece Lyon, Darren Hynes, Chris Wylie, Michael Garrity, Lewis McGrattan and Alexander Easdale. I expect Strapp and Lyon will be away for any sort of reasonable offer though as they're entering the final year of three year deals. The whole point of those deals was to ensure transfer fees, and particularly in Lyon's case I don’t see why he'd want to stay another year anyway having sat on the bench so much.

Keep:

Aidan McAdams - obviously

Michael Ledger - obviously

Markus Fjortoft - I debated having him in the next category and his tendency for bizarre mistakes will stop him ever being better than this level, but he's solid outwith those rush of blood to the head moments and worth keeping

Kyle Jacobs - obviously

Luca Colville - bizarrely underused this season but he's clearly a good Championship player

While I want to keep them, I'd very surprised if any of them don't move on to clubs which haven't been a total riot off the park. If you're good enough to have your pick of solid mid-table clubs at least, I don't see why you'd hang around at a club that's been this much of a shambles for the last eight months. We know that getting the Raes out the door is a great opportunity for the club to salvage our reputation and stop being seen as a joke, but you need to demonstrate some competence before players are going to buy into that.

I reckon you can then split the release candidates into three groups.

Release, but could see the logic in keeping them:

Craig McGuffie - disappears too often for me, but he is capable of popping up with screamers and you could make a case that if he gets a proper run of games it'll be a platform to deliver consistently.

Gary Oliver - with the extent of the attacking rebuild we need keeping one forward who's capable of competence might be worthwhile, but he's just not delivered enough for me.

Definite Release:

Jamie Butler

Brian McLean - had a much better season than last, but he has tailed off as the season's gone on and some errors have crept back in over the last few months

Chris Millar - if he's going to have a coaching role then there's nothing wrong with keeping him registered as a player for emergencies, but there's no way we can justify a new contract for a 38 year old who managed 5 appearances

Justin Johnson

Rabin Omar

Aidan Nesbitt - could make an argument for him to be in the previous category, but my patience with the lack of end product is gone. I consistently argued that he just needed a run of games that Hopkin had never given him; now he's had it he flopped.

James Wallace

Robbie Muirhead - maybe if he'd actually been played at centre forward more often than in defence by Hopkin he'd have had a better time of it, but three goals in two games v a League One side does not make up for the previous two years

Cameron Salkeld - athlete, not a footballer

Definite release and burn the stadium to the ground if anyone even thinks about keeping them:

Sean McGinty - obviously

Cameron Blues - actually had a decent game last night, but obviously

Kalvin Orsi - obviously

Think a lot of who we release depends on budget. There will also be a period of upheaval as the new regime settles in.

Next season will be about consistency and consolidation. With the Board changes it might not be a good idea to have too many radical changes to the squad also.

The team performed reasonably well in defence and midfield. Our problem was upfront where we just couldn't get our forwards to score goals.

Orsi should never have been offered another contract and big Robbie just wasn't at the races.

Robbie has ability but never used it enough and Orsi was all energy and putting himself about but little ability.

I personally think we should offer Robbie a short term deal to December. If he has turned the corner then we have a player on our hands, if not, he goes in the January window.

I would also keep Gus as Manager, he knows the squad so we get consistency and I'm sure we could consolidate our position in the league with him too.

 

Out for definite

 

Omar

Wallace

Millar

Butler

Orsi

Salkeld

McGinty

   

 

 

[Bob in Denny]

Players discussed..

Okay, what about Gus?

[vikingTON]

10 minutes ago, Colkitto said:

Think a lot of who we release depends on budget. There will also be a period of upheaval as the new regime settles in.

Next season will be about consistency and consolidation. With the Board changes it might not be a good idea to have too many radical changes to the squad also.

There's nothing to consolidate on the park: finishing 9th was a failure in an utterly turgid league campaign. 

While I can see the short-term logic in limiting the turnover of the squad, I expect a large part of that to be out of our hands. After the binfire behind the scenes all season, players have a decent right to take most other offers on the table elsewhere. Which means that if we're craving 'less turnover' then we'd be making the same moronic decisions that Hopkin made in handing Blues and co. another deal last summer. 

Part of the rebuild is out of the club's hands: they need to be absolutely ruthless about the part that they do control to improve on the park next season. It is a big test of the new board on day one. 

[vikingTON]

2 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

 

Luca Colville - bizarrely underused this season but he's clearly a good Championship player

Based on what objective facts? I mean this from the perspective of other managers in the division: why would they be 'swooping' for a player who, rightly or not, has been on the fringes of a dung first team and hasn't popped up with many goals or assists at all as a supposedly technical and creative midfielder? 

I'm not convinced clubs other than perhaps Ayr would have Colville on their radar and only because of Hopkin's presence. 

Edited May 22, 2021 by vikingTON

[Colkitto]

9 minutes ago, virginton said:

There's nothing to consolidate on the park: finishing 9th was a failure in an utterly turgid league campaign. 

While I can see the short-term logic in limiting the turnover of the squad, I expect a large part of that to be out of our hands. After the binfire behind the scenes all season, players have a decent right to take most other offers on the table elsewhere. Which means that if we're craving 'less turnover' then we'd be making the same moronic decisions that Hopkin made in handing Blues and co. another deal last summer. 

Part of the rebuild is out of the club's hands: they need to be absolutely ruthless about the part that they do control to improve on the park next season. It is a big test of the new board on day one. 

I meant consolidate our placing in the championship next season. Can't see us making any inroads to challenge for the promotion playoff's, and we must at all costs stay away from the relegation playoff's too.

Think we'll need a bit of continuity with a nucleus of players from this season's squad. If players want to move on then fine they go with our thanks.

With at least one decent striker this season we wouldn't have been in the playoff's in my opinion. McGinn said in his post match interview had the season went to 36 games we wouldn't have been there.

I can see the attraction of starting with a blank canvass, but that has it's pit falls too. New manager   and a squad that takes time to gel could cost us vital points next season.

[vikingTON]

The only nucleus we're likely to keep from this squad (apart from Strapp and Lyon who are under contract) are the mediocrities, ringers and downright McGinties who were part of the reason why we finished in the play-offs though. So we either embrace a clean slate approach from the start or we make compromises for stability's sake and hand out contracts to players who haven't earned them on their individual contribution. That's a risk of its own with little chance of a reward on the other side of the coin. 

Any manager worth their salt should be happy at having the chance to build their own team from scratch, whether that's McPherson or a new pick. 

[The Ghost of B A R P]

Said last week l’d keep (without listing the ‘boys’): McAdams, Ledger, Fjortoft, Strapp, Jacobs, Lyon, Nesbitt, McGuffie.

The two I’ve shifted on during the play-offs are McLean (I know!), where the issue is just age. If he’s intending to continue, we could do with the experience (and wee touch of class, which we won’t find elsewhere). And Oliver, who showed last night that the problem is more with how we play than how he plays.

The ‘total clearout’ route is mental, because it’s delusional to think we’re going to be able to appoint a manager and bring in an entire squad of better players (the reality is likely to be McGeever/Van Schaik levels of utter dross).

Colkiitto is of course right that money, rather than just us making choices, will determine a lot of this; and VT’s right that some of these guys will probably accept better paid offers elsewhere.* All the more reason to sign the guys you think are good enough and you can afford.

As for the manager, his post-match interview suggests to me he’s more likely to be away than stay. If he does go, it should be because MCT have a better option lined up. Spending two or three weeks now to get a new manager in would be beyond mental.

McPherson also gave some insight into what he saw behind the scenes when he came in, describing it as a ‘miracle’ that the players managed to dig it out in the circumstances. We’ll never know if that’s over the top, but it’s a reminder that player/team performance has to considered against the back-drop of a raging bin-fire...

So if he stays, it’s because there isn’t a better option and we back him.

Same goes for any player we re-sign.

 

[*I’m here for the absolute seething lolz when McGinty signs for Ayr or QoS... or Thistle.]

[vikingTON]

That's just nonsense on stilts from start to finish. A competent manager (say Stewart Petrie for argument's sake) could absolutely find better players than Hopkin's job lot of utter pish last summer. His task would be made harder, not easier, by having a bunch of mediocre players already contracted to the club, that he either has to play or move on. And most of the players that you want to keep will not be giving the club that option anyway, so this idea that 'clean slate' approach means that we choose to release Ledger or Fjortoft is a straw man argument. They'll most likely be off anyway, so the continuity that you're craving means 'giving new deals to duds'.

Oliver is a textbook example of this mentality. He left us after a disappointing campaign in which he did next to nothing, then went to Queens where he had a disappointing spell and did next to nothing, then came back to us and couldn't shift Kalvin fucking Orsi out of the team - yet after one very good performance it's suddenly 'the way we play' that's the issue? Erm no. The last three years of evidence is much more telling here: he's a good League One standard player but doesn't deliver regularly enough against the higher standard of player in the Championship. Move on.

Edited May 22, 2021 by vikingTON

[vikingTON]

NB: All of this is overlooking incidentally the first decision that MCT should be considering that would determine the management and player choices: do we persist with a failing and (literally) bankrupt model of full-time professional football, or do we adopt a more flexible model instead?

Now is absolutely the time to make that change if MCT wishes to do so, because we are not committed to any significant financial costs for full-time employees. It is also far too important a medium-term decision to put aside in aid of a gormless 'consolidation' effort next season. 

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by vikingTON

[AsimButtHitsASix]

I wouldn't be against McPherson staying but, if he did, I wouldn't expect much. One hand he had three golden opportunities where a single goal would have kept us up (v Hearts, Alloa and Arbroath) and we drew them all. Then suddenly he switched it up and we were free scoring in the play offs. I understand the argument it was against lower level teams but he seemed far to keen on not losing when we needed to points on the board. Maybe if he got to hand pick the players he liked he could build a team and play more to that team (and his) strength. 

[madton]

2 hours ago, Colkitto said:

 

I personally think we should offer Robbie a short term deal to December. If he has turned the corner then we have a player on our hands, if not, he goes in the January window.

  

 

Would you have said that at the end of the league campaign?  I'm guessing no.

We can't hand out deals based on one moment of magic or one good performance in 25.  I'm guessing we will go with around 16-18 senior players with Hynes etc as backup.  

Overall, he has been  horrendous for us. He may well go on and do it elsewhere  but he's had his chance, never took it and needs to move on.