an86 Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 Assuming Lesser is going to be a building site in the not too distant future, is it likely to be Toryglen again for training/reserves? I'd rather give the SFA nothing and find an alternative venue tbh. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirvy Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 Did el presidente not talk of building around existing facilities so could still be used 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
an86 Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 26 minutes ago, dirvy said: Did el presidente not talk of building around existing facilities so could still be used He may have done and I may have missed it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The man with no name Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 I see Fort William won last night. The 9 players they brought in from ICT obviously paying dividends. Even Fort William taking steps to improve. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiders4ever Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 44 minutes ago, The man with no name said: I see Fort William won last night. The 9 players they brought in from ICT obviously paying dividends. Even Fort William taking steps to improve. You should also note that despite being semi-professional it was their first win in four years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The man with no name Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 22 minutes ago, spiders4ever said: You should also note that despite being semi-professional it was their first win in four years. They have brought 9 players in on loan from Caley Thistle. The point is that they recognise they had to improve to survive and have done so. Football is evolving at a rapid rate. It's move with the times or face extinction. Every Club has to look at itself and be 100% selfish. What we need to do to mitigate risk we have to consider. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
an86 Posted August 1, 2019 Author Share Posted August 1, 2019 2 hours ago, The man with no name said: I see Fort William won last night. The 9 players they brought in from ICT obviously paying dividends. Even Fort William taking steps to improve. 52 minutes ago, The man with no name said: They have brought 9 players in on loan from Caley Thistle. The point is that they recognise they had to improve to survive and have done so. Football is evolving at a rapid rate. It's move with the times or face extinction. Every Club has to look at itself and be 100% selfish. What we need to do to mitigate risk we have to consider. Whilst I'm delighted for them, I'd suggest that it's a loophole that will be closing very shortly. Expect a maximum of three loans next season in the Highland League. It's morally dubious given ICT's desire for a Colt team in the league. However, they've broken no rules and you can't really begrudge them a bit of joy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiders4ever Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 1 hour ago, The man with no name said: They have brought 9 players in on loan from Caley Thistle. The point is that they recognise they had to improve to survive and have done so. Football is evolving at a rapid rate. It's move with the times or face extinction. Every Club has to look at itself and be 100% selfish. What we need to do to mitigate risk we have to consider. Absolutely but we need to forecast as best we can the outcomes of all proposals rather than a simplistic push for change. Some people think that going professional is the answer without fully considering the consequences and other options. Going professional is not a guarantee of success - East Stirlingshire and Berwick Rangers. What professional clubs have a youth system anywhere as good as ours? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
an86 Posted August 1, 2019 Author Share Posted August 1, 2019 1 hour ago, spiders4ever said: Absolutely but we need to forecast as best we can the outcomes of all proposals rather than a simplistic push for change. Some people think that going professional is the answer without fully considering the consequences and other options. Going professional is not a guarantee of success - East Stirlingshire and Berwick Rangers. What professional clubs have a youth system anywhere as good as ours? I don't think anyone has suggested that professionalism is a silver bullet. For me, the future health of the club depends on retaining league status. The best way to give that the best possible chance of happening, in my opinion, is by having the widest pool of players to choose from. The only way to do that is professionalism. Failure to adapt to the changes around us will lead to the pool we're fishing in becoming even shallower and the inevitable consequence of that, in my opinion, will be relegation sooner rather than later. If we hit the Lowland League as amateurs, we probably don't have a youth system to speak of and the sell to come and play for us becomes even harder. Berwick Rangers 3 Bonnyrigg Rose 5 should be a scoreline that wakes folk up to the reality of what Lowland League football will look like. I'd also point out the utter futility of having a youth system that we spend money on, only to be raided for players by Premiership clubs for no fee before they've reached our first team. It's not sustainable unless we're getting some reward from it, which is not possible if we remain amateur. We could very well be relegated if we go pro, but the risk of not doing it is bigger than the risk of standing still as the whole landscape changes around us. The Shire and Berwick comparisons don't hold up, in my opinion, because every club has different circumstances. Shire don't own their ground and Berwick are massively disadvantaged from a geographic perspective. We'll be neither of these things. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The man with no name Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 3 hours ago, spiders4ever said: What professional clubs have a youth system anywhere as good as ours? My understanding is that if we remain amateur the Youth system will go. It costs too much to keep running without any return. The only way to get a return from it is offering the youth players professional contracts. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick1867 Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 1 hour ago, an86 said: We could very well be relegated if we go pro, but the risk of not doing it is bigger than the risk of standing still as the whole landscape changes around us. Correct. Let's be honest, if we ended up as an amateur team in the Lowland League, it wouldn't be long before we are relegated from that to the South of Scotland league. Then again, maybe the amateur principle is more important to some folk than what division we play in and perhaps the Scottish Professional Football League isn't for them 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiders4ever Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 3 hours ago, The man with no name said: My understanding is that if we remain amateur the Youth system will go. It costs too much to keep running without any return. The only way to get a return from it is offering the youth players professional contracts. I haven't decided what avenue I would prefer the club to go down. The reason is that the figures and projections have not been made available. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Reilly Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 I haven't decided what avenue I would prefer the club to go down. The reason is that the figures and projections have not been made available. I decided some time ago that my preference would be to go pro based on the information I had available. Attending the meeting last week has given me more information and strengthened by belief that we should go pro to give ourselves the best chance of staying in the spfl and retaining our youth system. HOWEVER, I fully understand those who want to see some figures etc. for both options before making any formal decision. I also dont think it has ever been suggested that those projections wouldn't be done before a formal decision is made. The purpose of the meeting was to gauge whether there is enough support in principle to make it worth the time, effort and money involved in putting those projections together.I too would be very interested to see how the figures weigh up, and personally my hope is that the outcome of the poll is that there was enough of a majority in favour of going pro that the committee will now move forward with putting together more detailed information so that a formal decision can be made asap. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hampden Diehard Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 (edited) 8 hours ago, an86 said: I don't think anyone has suggested that professionalism is a silver bullet. I think you use silver bullets to kill werewolves, but I get your drift. Professionalism plus one bad season and / or a duff head coach and we could be dueling with Edusport et al in front of a hardy hundred folk in what passes for a pyramid. Doesn't bear thinking about. The President talked about a "managed decline", a very apt phrase, if we don't become professional. There needs to be a good deal of joined up thinking if we are to move forward with confidence. My own suggestion to set fire to Hampden and collect the insurance was rejected. Edited August 1, 2019 by Hampden Diehard 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
an86 Posted August 1, 2019 Author Share Posted August 1, 2019 2 minutes ago, Hampden Diehard said: I think you use silver bullets to kill werewolves, but I get your drift. Professionalism plus one bad season and / or a duff head coach and we could be dueling with Edusport et al in front of a hardy hundred folk in what passes for a pyramid. Doesn't bear thinking about. The President talked about a "managed decline", a very apt phrase, if we don't become professional. There needs to be a good deal of joined up thinking if we are to move forward with confidence. Aye, we won't be immune. Far from it. I do feel that having a larger pool to pick from gives us a better chance of not being relegated. That's all it gives us, though. Plenty can go right and plenty can go wrong. Whatever course we take will not be without risk. Regardless of what happens, it's almost unthinkable that we won't be ropey enough, at some point, to find ourselves in a dogfight to stay in the league. We have to hope that time only comes when we've built ourselves some solid foundations. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowden Cowboy Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 10 hours ago, spiders4ever said: What professional clubs have a youth system anywhere as good as ours? Celtic. Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, the Fife clubs via FEFA, Hibs, Hamilton, St Mirren, Motherwell, Dundee Utd, Kilmarnock are better according to MPO stats 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiders4ever Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 36 minutes ago, Cowden Cowboy said: Celtic. Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, the Fife clubs via FEFA, Hibs, Hamilton, St Mirren, Motherwell, Dundee Utd, Kilmarnock are better according to MPO stats I had meant to say outside of the Premier. My understanding is that we were downgraded because we didn't offer professional contracts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hampden Diehard Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 Feck yer MPO stats! We're precluded from playing these teams in league matches, but we reached the semi final of the Scottish Cup last year beating Ross Co and Hibs. How good would we be if we were allowed into the top division? Celtic. Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, the Fife clubs via FEFA, Hibs, Hamilton, St Mirren, Motherwell, Dundee Utd, Kilmarnock are better according to MPO stats 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick1867 Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 14 hours ago, Hampden Diehard said: I think you use silver bullets to kill werewolves, but I get your drift. Professionalism plus one bad season and / or a duff head coach and we could be dueling with Edusport et al in front of a hardy hundred folk in what passes for a pyramid. Doesn't bear thinking about. Yes, but staying amateur plus one bad season and we could be dueling with relatively ambitious pro clubs like Kelty Hearts in the Lowland. At least if we were pro in that league we might have some hopes of competing with them to get back in the SPFL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hampden Diehard Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Yes, but staying amateur plus one bad season and we could be dueling with relatively ambitious pro clubs like Kelty Hearts in the Lowland. At least if we were pro in that league we might have some hopes of competing with them to get back in the SPFL Agreed. Trying times to be a side swirling around the nether regions of Div 2. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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