BishopBrennan

All candidates were emailed this week to confirm their candidacy and to set out the roadmap from now to the end of the election period.

I bought that too, it's lovely.

MCT are far worse off for Robert's departure, he's been brilliant to work with and he will be missed.

If you email communications@mortonclubtogether.co.uk then I'll take a look and get that sorted.

I loved hosting the podcast, but by the time we called it a day we had covered a lot of matches, and in fairness there are only so many ways that the same panellists can react to the same types of matches and incidents. It was also a huge time commitment to ask of people on a regular basis. The preparation, recording, editing and distributing takes up a hell of a lot more time than people probably realise too. The decision to stop also coincided with me moving back abroad, and I wouldn't feel overly comfortable hosting and stating opinions on a match that I've only watched on a stream compared to someone who is watching from inside the stadium (especially when the matches kick off at 11pm local time on a Saturday night). If someone wants to resurrect the podcast I'd be more than happy to show them the ropes and help them get set up, but I don't have any plans to begin hosting it again, especially while I'm living in another country.

I see six of the eight colt teams playing tonight were knocked out. Fucking bin them.

Who was it that replied to you?

I recently visited The Workers Stadium in Beijing to watch Beijing Guoan in a 2-0 win against Zhejiang. The stadium is lovely; it has a 68,000 capacity and was around three quarters full when I visited. The standard was better than I was expecting, although there was a real lack of composure and creativity in general, which meant neither team could keep possession for any meaningful period.

The club AGM has been announced for later in the month.

I just renewed my season ticket and I have to say that the Fanbase app is wonderfully easy to operate. The fact you can buy season tickets, match tickets and hospitality all in under two minutes is a massive improvement from previously.

I think the number of votes that were cast before the EGM probably supports that idea.

I think overall the meeting has to be considered a success, largely thanks to Brian Bonar reassuring us regarding any future share issues. I do think though that, yet again, MCT need to address online attendees having their questions ignored in favour of questions in the room. This has been an ongoing issue, and although there is some mitigation because of the venue change and the technical difficulties, there needs to be a bit more structure in these meetings to make sure members attending online have their questions heard. Ahead of the meeting, my main concerns were future GMFC share issues, the club chairman and the credibility of the MCT representatives on the club board. Brian Bonar dialling into the meeting via Zoom was a very welcome development, as he allayed the fears many supporters had that Dalrada may have nefarious intentions regarding the running of the club and their representation in the boardroom. I do think however, the fact that Mr Bonar convinced more people within five minutes than the two documents and video released by MCT/GMFC directors, is rather telling of how poorly the proposal was relayed to the membership. The sheer volume and range of questions, along with the turnout at the meeting, highlighted how many supporters did not feel they were in a position to make an informed decision. This underlines just how lacklustre the presentation of the proposal was. Both the club and MCT need to learn from this and quickly. This is underlined by the fact that GMFC/MCT refused point blank to release the proposed agreement, citing commercial confidentiality as the reason for this refusal. Brian Bonar then refuted this outright, saying that he’d make the agreement available to anyone who wished to view it. Again, this gives little confidence in the capabilities of those negotiating and communicating to the membership on behalf of MCT. For all Brian Bonar’s very charming performance at the meeting did reassure me that future GMFC share issues would not be a concern, the opposite could be said of the performance of the club chairman. I felt Laird presented in an incredibly arrogant and self aggrandising manner. Given his role in hiding a transfer embargo from the club’s majority shareholders, I’d assert that Dalrada may be the only stakeholder in the club that are pleased to see Laird continue in this role. The complete lack of transparency regarding the links to his son’s football coaching and analysis company seems to be an issue that has not been answered, given his complete denial of any knowledge of this in the FAQ document. I for one am very concerned that our club chairman has never been subject to the SFA’s fit and proper assessment for club directors, and the motivations behind the decision not to enlist him for these assessments. Regardless of the outcome of the vote, this is incredibly concerning and something I feel fans deserve answered definitely, rather than the chairman consistently trying to dodge this issue. With John Laird confessing that the transfer embargo is still an ongoing matter at the EGM, this brings me to the subject of our MCT representatives. For all both Robinson and Barr seemed to offer rather mealy mouthed apologies for their role in this, my position is that the damage has already been done. The confidence of the membership is absolutely vital to MCT, and for such an egregious breach of trust to be willingly conducted by both these individuals, and the knock on effect this caused within the MCT board, is risible. I'd also remind the membership that this is not the first time Graham Barr has wheeled out the 'learn lessons and do better next time' line. MCT need a clear plan on how they plan to re-establish the trust of the membership. I’m incredibly pleased that Dalrada’s involvement in Greenock Morton will continue, and that certainty can be provided to Dougie Imrie as quickly as possible to allow our squad building to commence. That doesn’t paint the whole picture however, and I think both boards must be willing to reflect on how poorly they have performed over the last few months. We need an MCT that thrives and continually pushes the club forward, and the behaviour of some of our representatives in recent times has rocked the organisation to its foundations. I'm glad Dalrada are on board, but we must do better.

The Championship teams for next season have been confirmed as - Airdrieonians Arbroath Ayr Big Spending Raith Rovers Dunfermline Morton Partick Queens Park Ross County St. Johnstone

I may be missing something, but there seems to be a direct contradiction here. John Laird's son seems to be the sole proprietor of 'SJL Soccer Coaching'. On the SJL Soccer Coaching Twitter account, it states that they 'conduct match, team & player analysis reports for clients, as well as opposition reports for clubs'. Someone may have misinterpreted a football analytics company for a football analysis/coaching company, but for Laird to claim he 'has absolutely no knowledge of any such connection and is unsure what is being referred to' appears highly dubious.

That's exactly my thinking. If we have to suffer relegation and part-time football to keep control over the club we've had to fight to gain control of, it's a price worth paying in my opinion. I'd never advocate us cutting off our nose to spite our face, but unless we are absolutely certain of the intentions of anyone looking to involve themselves in the club, then we should approach it with scepticism.