The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[GAD]

1 hour ago, Div said:

Bit of a perfect storm unfortunately for the two younger guys.

4 spots available and up against 4 very well known faces, 2 of which have been on the SMiSA board before, 1 of whom is/was a popular and efficient SLO (hence he got the most votes) and one who has knowledge and experience of running a football club so will (hopefully) be able to effectively challenge the football board on behalf of us members who are paying our hard earned to SMiSA each month.

I'd like to see some sort of re-structure in SMiSA, as I think there has to be room for younger blood in the organisation, guys who have energy and time to throw at new ideas and growing the membership.

Getting the majority ownership of the club was amazing, but I sort of feel SMiSA has just treaded water since. There's no drive to get new members signed up, in fact it's probably been the opposite.

A battle between SMiSA and Kibble feels sort of inevitable now. The accounts to May 31st 2022 are due out very soon and expect that will be the trigger.

 

Feels like it won't matter what these accounts say, they will be "interpreted" in whatever way the people who want this battle see fit. Now any dissenting voices have been bullied out of SMISA and replaced by people who want to drive Kibble out it's hard to see a particularly rosy future on the horizon.

[Billy_Gunn]

Not the result I or many others wanted from the SMISA voting. Particularly as i've zero time for 3/4 of the blokes voted in, John's a great SLO.

It'll be interesting to see where SMISA, Kibble and ultimately the football club goes from here. There will now certainly be a seismic shift in focus within the SMISA and it'll likely be towards the Kibble and how their running of the place is structured and a major investigation into the '£1m financial black hole' TM* folk on Twitter.

I'll look forward to the result of said investigation and for SGG and his band of merry men saving our great club. I'm sure we'll hear tales from the old doak tree further down the line on how they rode in on their trusty steed to kill the big bad guys once again.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Billy_Gunn

[elvis]

2 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

Mate why do you even bother supporting St Mirren, genuinely? I think I’ve seen about 2 positive posts from yourself towards the team in the many years I’ve been on this forum, and these have came after victories where you had tipped us to lose heavily. We’ve made the best start to a season in the top flight in my lifetime, and every week I see you predicting a loss. 
 

Now you seem to have a grievance about the running of the club. By all accounts the current set up is not perfect, but it’s light years away from what it was like under Gilmour in his last few years. I had actually forgot about the Rangers debacle, and he had his face plastered over the back pages of the tabloids stating 10(?) clubs would go out of business if Rangers werent admitted to the Premier League. This turned out to be complete and utter fantasy, and the only team in Scottish league football that has went out of business in recent memory is Rangers themselves.
 

I won’t pretend to know any of the intricacies around the Kibble deal, and from speaking to people involved with the club I’ve heard great things about them and I’ve also heard not so great things. We fought for years to get fan ownership, giving the supporters a genuine association with the club through Smisa, as well as the ability to elect a fan representative at board room level. I’m very surprised that Gilmour received enough votes to get him elected, but it’s happened and we can only hope he isn’t there with the sole intention of creating disharmony at the club, which I fear he is going to do. 
 

Im also struggling to think of a reason why he would actually want to come back. He’s an older gentlemen who devoted a lot of his life to St Mirren, and I’m sure most St Mirren fans are grateful towards him for how he managed to leave his position with the club on good footing. I know he likes his cricket and golf, would he not rather spend his retirement years sitting back with a pint or playing a couple of rounds of golf each week? I’m sure his motives will become clear soon enough but it’s a situation I’m finding hard to understand. 

I personally don't have a grievance with the club I'm just going of of what is being said on here and for the most part it's not sounding great I personally think it can only be a good thing to have someone on board who has run a football club before and not just a bunch of guys who  although they mean well didn't /don't have any real idea what there doing hence why if the stuff being tossed around on here is true is more than likely why we are in the shit the amount of in fighting is crazy surely these people must know the harm there doing to the club.I don't know about kibble part in all this but the SMISA group sounds like a real shit show with people leaving right left and centre .

Edited November 2, 2022 by elvis

[ZingaliMan]

It's like Tory infighting lol. As long as the finances are sustainable I will be happy. Clearly budget is up looking at the squad however Kibble have helped to save the club money by using their staff in turn upping the clubs income. Surprised to read so much hostility towards Gilmour if it was not for him we would not have a football club. As I wrote as long as finances are sustainable if so Gilmour does not need to be there . If finances are bleak then Gilmour is the right man for SMISA at this time. 

[IrishBhoy]

29 minutes ago, elvis said:

I personally don't have a grievance with the club I'm just going of of what is being said on here and for the most part it's not sounding great I personally think it can only be a good thing to have someone on board who has run a football club before and not just a bunch of guys who  although they mean well didn't /don't have any real idea what there doing hence why if the stuff being tossed around on here is true is more than likely why we are in the shit the amount of in fighting is crazy surely these people must know the harm there doing to the club.I don't know about kibble part in all this but the SMISA group sounds like a real shit show with people leaving right left and centre .

I’m not trying to act like I have any insider info, because I don’t, but a friend of the family is involved with the club, not in any sort of managerial or decision making role but he regularly speaks to people that are in those sort of positions. Some of the stuff he has relayed to me doesn’t sound great with regards to the management of the club, but it’s not the armageddon some people online have been predicting. I don’t fully understand why the Kibbles involvement seems to be cause of such consternation, but that definitely seems to be an issue. I have wondered how the partnership between them and the club works, with them being a registered charity I would imagine there are certain guidelines they need to follow when providing any sort of funds for outside companies. I’m sure there are people on here who may be able to explain how the partnership works, it has always been heralded by the club as nothing but positive. 

 

[Div]

I think like most things to do with the club the truth about the Kibble is somewhere in between.

I don't think for a minute that they are hellbent on destroying the club and are recklessly taking us on a spending spree that will take us to oblivion.

Nor do I think they are faultless. Mistakes have most certainly been made along the way since they came in, and to be honest they do seem to have an awful lot more control and influence than I thought they would have as a 27% shareholder.

They've brought a lot of good things to the club as well.

We appear, to me anyway, to be a much more professional organisation in terms of the way we present and market the club. We are doing a load of good work getting youngsters along to the games, attendances are up 12% and I think the appointment of Keith Lasley looks pretty inspired. He "gets it" in my opinion.

The accounts aren't going to be pretty though and as such I can't imagine the AGM will be either. Should all be out in the open at least and we'll know where we stand. They are usually issued mid to late November so we don't have long to wait.

[elvis]

52 minutes ago, IrishBhoy said:

I’m not trying to act like I have any insider info, because I don’t, but a friend of the family is involved with the club, not in any sort of managerial or decision making role but he regularly speaks to people that are in those sort of positions. Some of the stuff he has relayed to me doesn’t sound great with regards to the management of the club, but it’s not the armageddon some people online have been predicting. I don’t fully understand why the Kibbles involvement seems to be cause of such consternation, but that definitely seems to be an issue. I have wondered how the partnership between them and the club works, with them being a registered charity I would imagine there are certain guidelines they need to follow when providing any sort of funds for outside companies. I’m sure there are people on here who may be able to explain how the partnership works, it has always been heralded by the club as nothing but positive. 

 

I honestly don't think kibble are the problem as there being talk of bullying within the SMISA board what kind of way is that to represent supporters.

[elvis]

10 minutes ago, Div said:

I think like most things to do with the club the truth about the Kibble is somewhere in between.

I don't think for a minute that they are hellbent on destroying the club and are recklessly taking us on a spending spree that will take us to oblivion.

Nor do I think they are faultless. Mistakes have most certainly been made along the way since they came in, and to be honest they do seem to have an awful lot more control and influence than I thought they would have as a 27% shareholder.

They've brought a lot of good things to the club as well.

We appear, to me anyway, to be a much more professional organisation in terms of the way we present and market the club. We are doing a load of good work getting youngsters along to the games, attendances are up 12% and I think the appointment of Keith Lasley looks pretty inspired. He "gets it" in my opinion.

The accounts aren't going to be pretty and as such I can't imagine the AGM will be either. Should all be out in the open at least and we'll know where we stand.

They are usually issued mid to late November so we don't have long to wait.

If JJmcG is to be believed. Bullying is not very professional Div.

[IrishBhoy]

4 minutes ago, elvis said:

I honestly don't think kibble are the problem as there being talk of bullying within the SMISA board what kind of way is that to represent supporters.

I’ve been a member of Smisa since the get go, but apart from casting the odd vote on where excess funds should be directed I have never had any other kind of involvement, and to be honest don’t want to.

I would hope grown adults involved with Smisa would be above bullying but it’s something that can happen at any level of organisation.

 Fair play to the people that are getting involved. I’m happy to pay my monthly fee for as long as I feel it’s beneficial to the club.  It would take something like Smisa losing their shareholding for me to reconsider that position. 

[IrishBhoy]

16 minutes ago, Div said:

I think like most things to do with the club the truth about the Kibble is somewhere in between.

I don't think for a minute that they are hellbent on destroying the club and are recklessly taking us on a spending spree that will take us to oblivion.

Nor do I think they are faultless. Mistakes have most certainly been made along the way since they came in, and to be honest they do seem to have an awful lot more control and influence than I thought they would have as a 27% shareholder.

They've brought a lot of good things to the club as well.

We appear, to me anyway, to be a much more professional organisation in terms of the way we present and market the club. We are doing a load of good work getting youngsters along to the games, attendances are up 12% and I think the appointment of Keith Lasley looks pretty inspired. He "gets it" in my opinion.

The accounts aren't going to be pretty though and as such I can't imagine the AGM will be either. Should all be out in the open at least and we'll know where we stand. They are usually issued mid to late November so we don't have long to wait.

Appointing Lasley has the potential to be the best thing the club has done for decades. Been majorly impressed with him so far, comes across brilliantly in interviews although he’s not just all talk, I think the significant increase in home support this season can be traced back to the initiatives Lasley has implemented. You could see what he was starting to achieve at Motherwell before he came to Paisley, I think it’s a real coup for the club. 

[Div]

1 hour ago, elvis said:

If JJmcG is to be believed. Bullying is not very professional Div.

There are no members of the Kibble on the SMiSA board. 

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, IrishBhoy said:

Appointing Lasley has the potential to be the best thing the club has done for decades. Been majorly impressed with him so far, comes across brilliantly in interviews although he’s not just all talk, I think the significant increase in home support this season can be traced back to the initiatives Lasley has implemented. You could see what he was starting to achieve at Motherwell before he came to Paisley, I think it’s a real coup for the club. 

Don't get me wrong, I love Las but I'm genuinely curious what you think Lasley "was starting to achieve at Motherwell"?

 

[IrishBhoy]

9 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Don't get me wrong, I love Las but I'm genuinely curious what you think Lasley "was starting to achieve at Motherwell"?

 

I could be wrong but was it not Lasley that had Motherwell giving out free season tickets to the unemployed and less well off. I must admit I don’t have any solid evidence but I always got the feeling that Motherwell were a club that were very much connected to the local community whilst Lasley was there, and I’m sure I read about initiatives Motherwell were doing to help males in Lanarkshire with their mental health/suicidal thoughts etc? I could be wrong but it was just a vibe I got from Motherwell that a lot of stuff was being done to help the community and get fans along to the games. 

[capt_oats]

15 minutes ago, IrishBhoy said:

I could be wrong but was it not Lasley that had Motherwell giving out free season tickets to the unemployed and less well off. I must admit I don’t have any solid evidence but I always got the feeling that Motherwell were a club that were very much connected to the local community whilst Lasley was there, and I’m sure I read about initiatives Motherwell were doing to help males in Lanarkshire with their mental health/suicidal thoughts etc? I could be wrong but it was just a vibe I got from Motherwell that a lot of stuff was being done to help the community and get fans along to the games. 

You're correct with all of that stuff in terms of what we do as a club but Lasley was our assistant manager (whilst also studying for his Sports Directorship degree). He didn't have the same role he's taken with St Mirren.

I think you're conflating things a bit.

A lot of the things you've mentioned are absolutely initiatives that became pillars of the club while Lasley was here but if you're looking at the main driver behind them then it'd be Alan Burrows first and foremost.

Don't get me wrong, Lasley may well have been a sounding board and I'm sure he's learned a fair bit while he was here but in terms of the person in charge of the direction of the club that was/is Burrows.

Edited November 2, 2022 by capt_oats

[IrishBhoy]

7 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

You're correct with all of that stuff in terms of what we do as a club but Lasley was our assistant manager (whilst also studying for his Sports Directorship degree). He didn't have the same role he's taken with St Mirren.

I think you're conflating things a bit.

A lot of the things you've mentioned are absolutely initiatives that became pillars of the club while Lasley was here but if you're looking at the main driver behind them then it'd be Alan Burrows first and foremost.

Don't get me wrong, Lasley may well have been a sounding board and I'm sure he's learned a fair bit while he was here but in terms of the person in charge of the direction of the club that was/is Burrows.

Well I will stand corrected as you will know better than me. I was going to mention Alan Burrows in my post as I know how much he does for the community and it did cross my mind that the stuff I mentioned was implemented by him. I think Lasley may have learnt a bit from Alan Burrows as he seems to be trying a similar approach at St Mirren. Motherwell and Paisley are very alike in that they sit on the outskirts of Glasgow, suffer from the majority of the town supporting one of the Old Firm and share the same sort of issues with regards to poverty/addiction etc. It’s good to see both teams trying their best to reach out to the community, and Motherwell seem to be doing a good job of it. 

[AW saint]

I think we need a bit of transparency from the club. Hopefully the AGM will shine a light on our finances etc. Rumours about that 4 players to leave in Janurary. Curtis Main being one. How true this is will become clear soon hopefully

[GAD]

We lose about 4 players every January. The only way this will be much different is if someone is paying us to take them rather than us paying for them to leave.

[McG]

3 hours ago, Div said:

I think like most things to do with the club the truth about the Kibble is somewhere in between.

I don't think for a minute that they are hellbent on destroying the club and are recklessly taking us on a spending spree that will take us to oblivion.

Nor do I think they are faultless. Mistakes have most certainly been made along the way since they came in, and to be honest they do seem to have an awful lot more control and influence than I thought they would have as a 27% shareholder.

They've brought a lot of good things to the club as well.

We appear, to me anyway, to be a much more professional organisation in terms of the way we present and market the club. We are doing a load of good work getting youngsters along to the games, attendances are up 12% and I think the appointment of Keith Lasley looks pretty inspired. He "gets it" in my opinion.

The accounts aren't going to be pretty though and as such I can't imagine the AGM will be either. Should all be out in the open at least and we'll know where we stand. They are usually issued mid to late November so we don't have long to wait.

Not far off it, the truth lies in the middle, kibble have definitely done a lot more good than bad and they are hardly going to buy a stake in the  club for 400k and then want it to go tits up.

We are a much more professional outfit now, crowds are up too etc.

We will shift 1 or 2 on in January but it’s nowhere near as bad as some people want you to think, been blown way out of proportion.

I expect Brophy and another to leave but that will be about it.

[McG]

34 minutes ago, AW saint said:

I think we need a bit of transparency from the club. Hopefully the AGM will shine a light on our finances etc. Rumours about that 4 players to leave in Janurary. Curtis Main being one. How true this is will become clear soon hopefully

Not true.

[elvis]

2 hours ago, Div said:

There are no members of the Kibble on the SMiSA board. 

I think the point is wether it was kibble or SMISA it is totally unprofessional these people are representing the club why the hell can nothing ever go smoothly with our club there's always something or someone ready to f**k things up .

Edited November 2, 2022 by elvis