Gretna - Living (and dying) the Dream

[qpsnapper]

Re the talk of Gretna flying up the leagues faster than Sevco, they actually started spending money the season before they won the Third Division, and any semi-competent manager would have had them up at the first time of asking, but we are talking about Rowan Alexander here.  I think it says it all that he's not been seriously quoted for a job since he left Gretna.

Re Skyline Drifter's point about people not really picking up about the financial situation, I think it was picked up pretty quickly amongst fans who went to games, people were asking how were they affording all the players and staff they were hiring on 500 or so crowds, as mentioned anyone who questioned it was written off as jealous and bitter.  Crap like Mileson was going to set up a trust fund so the club would be ok after he had gone was a common theme I seem to remember.

The inability of the sports media to look into the story and get to the bottom of it astonished me, the laziness of your average sports journalist who couldn't be arsed to write anything other than the fairytale shite he was being spoonfed by Mileson/Alexander sums up the pathetic state of our press. 

[Swordfishtrombone]

My main memory of them is Mileson always being in the paper photographed beside Llamas.  I appreciate this doesn't add much to this thread but I will always associate Gretna with Llamas. 

Edited November 17, 2017 by Swordfishtrombone
I see Hibee Jibee has already covered the Llamas

[DA Baracus]

II3 hours ago, Distant Doonhamer said:

Tosh was a sub that day. Link below to the report on our archive official site and also edit to add youtube highlights of the game which capture the matchday experience well.

 I love that the first line in the report is Oh how long have we waited for this!

Living the Dream

 

 

The football in that clip is horrendous. The chat was fairly amusing though, especially the guy talking about a hot date (do folk talk about any other kind of date?). Did someone film all of that on their phone?

I'd forgotten about the llamas!

[Distant Doonhamer]

23 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

The football in that clip is horrendous. The chat was fairly amusing though, especially the guy talking about a hot date (do folk talk about any other kind of date?). Did someone film all of that on their phone?

I'd forgotten about the llamas!

Spoiler

 

The chat is absolutely the highlight. 

[ICTChris]

That video is brilliant

I never went to Raydale, doesn't look like I missed a lot.

[killiefan27]

2 hours ago, qpsnapper said:

Re the talk of Gretna flying up the leagues faster than Sevco, they actually started spending money the season before they won the Third Division, and any semi-competent manager would have had them up at the first time of asking, but we are talking about Rowan Alexander here.  I think it says it all that he's not been seriously quoted for a job since he left Gretna.

Just to clarify, I was very much at the wind-up! Have to say I didn't realise they'd started spending money the year before, but overall I was just trying to wind up the ***s

Edited November 17, 2017 by killiefan27

[Francesc Fabregas]

In February 2016, I recorded a podcast with Colin McMenamin, who spoke at length about his time at Gretna, particularly about the club's financial problems. Still worth listening to (and there's some good stuff in there about Dundee's administration too).

CLICK (and then slip to 26:50 for the Gretna stuff).

[Ron Aldo]

I could never remember whether their owner was Brooks Mileson or Miles Brookson.

Good riddance. I don't need that kind of confusion.

[Stu]

23 hours ago, senorsoupe said:

Interesting that in BBC's "Scotland's Game" documentary that they did last year all the journalists featured were really quick to call out how much of a scam or ponzi scheme (even though by definition it wasn't a ponzi scheme) Gretna was yet when Mileson was pumping cash into them these journalists were awfully quiet.

I seem to recall after they went tits up Jim Traynor writing some ridiculous column having a go at the naysayers who had been calling them out since day one for not enjoying the fairytale!

21 hours ago, qpsnapper said:

Re the talk of Gretna flying up the leagues faster than Sevco, they actually started spending money the season before they won the Third Division, and any semi-competent manager would have had them up at the first time of asking, but we are talking about Rowan Alexander here.  I think it says it all that he's not been seriously quoted for a job since he left Gretna.

Re Skyline Drifter's point about people not really picking up about the financial situation, I think it was picked up pretty quickly amongst fans who went to games, people were asking how were they affording all the players and staff they were hiring on 500 or so crowds, as mentioned anyone who questioned it was written off as jealous and bitter.  Crap like Mileson was going to set up a trust fund so the club would be ok after he had gone was a common theme I seem to remember.

The inability of the sports media to look into the story and get to the bottom of it astonished me, the laziness of your average sports journalist who couldn't be arsed to write anything other than the fairytale shite he was being spoonfed by Mileson/Alexander sums up the pathetic state of our press. 

Aye, the year before was when they nicked Martin Cameron off us on the back of him scoring 19 goals for an utterly shite Saints team (admittedly four were against East Stirling). Did Alexander not end up on a five year rolling contract?!

[The Mantis]

20 hours ago, ICTChris said:

That video is brilliant

I never went to Raydale, doesn't look like I missed a lot.

So you missed a 5-0 win in the Challenge Cup in 2003. We won a league cup game 3-0 at ours in 2007 and whitewashed them in the league that season for a final tally of P6, W6, F23, A2.

[Sloop John B]

On 17/11/2017 at 15:54, Dunning1874 said:

You could feel that stand shaking as well. Chris Millar scored twice in three minutes to put us 2-0 up down there and there were tremendous scenes when the second went in, but you could genuinely feel the wobble when everyone jumped out of their seats. They'd added a back and a roof to it by then but it still felt dodgy as f**k.

That 'temporary' stand is still up somehow. I seem to remember at the time, Mileson smugly offering to replace the unused terrace at Palmerston with a similar stand as if it was the Sudtribune.

Gretna fans were unbearable on the bebo as well (The most 2007 sentence possible right there), seemed to chat a lot of shit about Palmerston despite the fact they played in a rickety hovel. 

 

On 17/11/2017 at 22:39, ICTChris said:

That video is brilliant

I never went to Raydale, doesn't look like I missed a lot.

It's the auld boy fist pumping on the stand after the third goal like it was an Istanbul derby that does it for me. I had so much bits of rust on me from boys slamming the rickety tin roof on that terrace.

That Queens team for the second half of that season is probably my favourite for the number of absolute boys on that team. Fat Dobbie, Shaun O'Connor, Stevie Murray, pre injury Jamie Adams, Eric Paton etc. After getting bodied so much by them the previous 3 times, it was so sweet to finally ram it up them and really kicked off yet another great escape. That being said a part of me does miss the animosity seeing as Annan seem to know their place as our unofficial reserve side.

[SimonLichtie]

I had a wee rewatch of the 'Living The Dream' Gretna documentary after reading this thread..... looking back, some of it is so fucking absurd that this thread doesn't even touch on it  Some unbelievable quotes from Graeme Muir, Rowan Alexander, Davie Irons, Bobby Robson  and of course the man himself Brooks Mileson.

Over the years I've read a variety of QoS fans explaining what happened with Gretna and their 'takeover' of Dumfries for a very limited amount of time, and as soon as I saw this thread I knew the same stuff would have (quite rightly) been said. The whole thing, from top to bottom, was absolutely rotten and the way the mainstream/ Old Firm media lapped it up was absolutely disgusting. I think if I was from Dumfries/ a QoS fan I'd have viewed Gretna as even worse than the two arsecheeks mentioned above; their behaviour and attitude was exactly what you'd expect from either of them, but they went out their way to try and take over the area QoS had represented for 100+ years.

Arbroath missed Gretna on their way up, thankfully, but we did play them once in a pre season friendly either just after they'd been elected into the league or the pre season after their first year, and it was a great wee ground with very welcoming people. Seeing the ground a few years later when they were 'on the up' was ridiculous, a good terrace behind the goal knocked down for some 3G training area that was used pre match to warm up on and a fucking golf stand behind the far side goal which would have held around the same number as the demolished terracing did. Even though Gretna 2008 are back their after a while playing in Annan, the ground has been ruined compared to what it was up until the early 2000s.

Brooks Mileson was a conman. He invested f**k all in Gretna. He managed to secure a large overdraft due to his personal wealth (of which a lot was very questionable by this point.....) and racked up a large bank debt while cheating Scottish football for several years.

[Barry Ferguson's Hat]

Having a heart attack and falling into a garden pond is a hilarious way to die.

[Girth]

Billericay are the next Gretna. Can’t wait for them to go tits up.

[Girth]

I had a wee rewatch of the 'Living The Dream' Gretna documentary after reading this thread..... looking back, some of it is so fucking absurd that this thread doesn't even touch on it  Some unbelievable quotes from Graeme Muir, Rowan Alexander, Davie Irons, Bobby Robson  and of course the man himself Brooks Mileson.
Over the years I've read a variety of QoS fans explaining what happened with Gretna and their 'takeover' of Dumfries for a very limited amount of time, and as soon as I saw this thread I knew the same stuff would have (quite rightly) been said. The whole thing, from top to bottom, was absolutely rotten and the way the mainstream/ Old Firm media lapped it up was absolutely disgusting. I think if I was from Dumfries/ a QoS fan I'd have viewed Gretna as even worse than the two arsecheeks mentioned above; their behaviour and attitude was exactly what you'd expect from either of them, but they went out their way to try and take over the area QoS had represented for 100+ years.
Arbroath missed Gretna on their way up, thankfully, but we did play them once in a pre season friendly either just after they'd been elected into the league or the pre season after their first year, and it was a great wee ground with very welcoming people. Seeing the ground a few years later when they were 'on the up' was ridiculous, a good terrace behind the goal knocked down for some 3G training area that was used pre match to warm up on and a fucking golf stand behind the far side goal which would have held around the same number as the demolished terracing did. Even though Gretna 2008 are back their after a while playing in Annan, the ground has been ruined compared to what it was up until the early 2000s.
Brooks Mileson was a conman. He invested f**k all in Gretna. He managed to secure a large overdraft due to his personal wealth (of which a lot was very questionable by this point.....) and racked up a large bank debt while cheating Scottish football for several years.

Where can I find this doc please mate?

[Savage Henry]

On 18/11/2017 at 00:01, qpsnapper said:

Re the talk of Gretna flying up the leagues faster than Sevco, they actually started spending money the season before they won the Third Division, and any semi-competent manager would have had them up at the first time of asking, but we are talking about Rowan Alexander here.  I think it says it all that he's not been seriously quoted for a job since he left Gretna.

Re Skyline Drifter's point about people not really picking up about the financial situation, I think it was picked up pretty quickly amongst fans who went to games, people were asking how were they affording all the players and staff they were hiring on 500 or so crowds, as mentioned anyone who questioned it was written off as jealous and bitter.  Crap like Mileson was going to set up a trust fund so the club would be ok after he had gone was a common theme I seem to remember.

The inability of the sports media to look into the story and get to the bottom of it astonished me, the laziness of your average sports journalist who couldn't be arsed to write anything other than the fairytale shite he was being spoonfed by Mileson/Alexander sums up the pathetic state of our press. 

Yeah.  I remember them paying something like £65,000 for Martin Canning from Ross County, which at the time was a staggering amount for a guy who was only just beginning to establish himself for the second time at County.  County didn't even haggle.  "How much?  For Martin Canning?  Okay."

[SimonLichtie]

3 hours ago, Girth said:

 

Where can I find this doc please mate?

 

 

 

[Broken Algorithms]

On 11/17/2017 at 21:01, qpsnapper said:

Re Skyline Drifter's point about people not really picking up about the financial situation, I think it was picked up pretty quickly amongst fans who went to games, people were asking how were they affording all the players and staff they were hiring on 500 or so crowds, as mentioned anyone who questioned it was written off as jealous and bitter.  Crap like Mileson was going to set up a trust fund so the club would be ok after he had gone was a common theme I seem to remember.

This gets trotted out by supports when clubs are being reliant on one individual all the time. If any other diddy teams fans see this come up in one of their threads, then alarm bells should immediately start ringing. It's happened with Gretna. Rangers fans are currently claiming Dave King's family trust will protect them. Pars fans claimed it with Gavin Masterton. The majority of owners in Scotland like being involved with their clubs and the bravado or media coverage that goes with it, but the reality is there's very few who'll back it up in a trust designed to keep a club alive. Even then it's completely at the discretion of those who are controlling the trust. 

Gretna were an utter shambles and I took great delight in seeing them go under. Obviously there's a few folk who'll have been involved pre-Mileson, but the majority of it was horrendous to see.  Their fans were full of shite, the media lapped it up to sell papers, and it was a completely hollow premise. It was delightful when they lost the final to Hearts. I still remember them rocking up to Starks and their fans giving it big licks when we had Dalziel as manager. Their story sums up the media problem with Scottish football. None of the papers ever linked Alexander to any job other than Gretna, yet lapped it up as the fairytale. It was nothing more than selling papers and getting TV show views for people in England, or clueless about the Scottish game. I've no sympathy at all for any clubs like Gretna, or Crawley in England when they end up in financial trouble. 

[cowdenbeath]

1 hour ago, SimonLichtie said:

 

 

Ended up watching that again, they really were a shower of c***s you would probably meet less wankers at a  sperm bank.

Shame they never showed the video cam of the Gretna dressing room after the defeat from QOS that would have been worth watching.

 

 

[parsforlife]

Yeah.  I remember them paying something like £65,000 for Martin Canning from Ross County, which at the time was a staggering amount for a guy who was only just beginning to establish himself for the second time at County.  County didn't even haggle.  "How much?  For Martin Canning?  Okay."

Crawley in England when they end up in financial trouble. 

Our negotiations with crawley when we sold Gibson to them were similarly mental.

In the summer

Crawley-We'll give you £50000 for Gibson
Leishman - try trebling it
Crawley- ok

Gibson didn't want to leave as his girlfriend was just finishing a degree, they came back in January(with only 6 months left on his deal) and still forked out a 6 figure sum , along with giving Gibson a ridiculous rise in his wages.