dunning1874

Have they? Was there anything that specifically required a statement before now? That's said without knowing how long Dalrada's payments have been outstanding, but it appears this has come out now in response to the uproar after the two results this week (which could have been avoided by a competent manager regardless of the reduced budget).

The headline news from that is Dalrada being late with payments, again. By the sounds of that the club, already having a reduced budget, are having to hold back money they could otherwise have spent because they don't know when Dalrada are going to pay what they owe. That's completely unacceptable, last summer they started an extremely public bunfight that did massive harm to the club's reputation in order to insist on the presence of several board members who would otherwise have been forced out there and then, in return for large sums of money. While the continued incompetence of their chosen board members has seen them all fall by the wayside, we now find out they haven't even paid all the money they've committed to.

Okay, capital expenditure to improve facilities and generate long term revenue is far harder to fund without a private backer, yes. That's exactly what the Estrella deal is for though, trying to bring that investment in without the ridiculous strings Dalrada attached that money had to be wasted on players. Maybe it won't be enough money, maybe they'll be the wrong investors, but the club have tried to attract investment and this is the interested party we've got.

How is "spend only what we bring in and hope we punch above the weight of the budget on the park" an idealistic pipe dream which needs examples, when it's the exact thing Morton have successfully done in four years of the last five? While your alternative plan of selling up to an unidentified billionaire who definitely exists, definitely wants to spend their money on Morton with no strings attached, and won't saddle the club with debt or take land away is not a pipe dream which needs examples, but hard nosed common sense? Only one of these suggestions is completely failing to acknowledge the reality of where Morton are in 2026.

If it turns out to be true then I'll turn my criticism to the board and take back what I'm about to say about Murray, but by far the most credible explanation for his comment that we might not sign anyone else and it's up the board to give him more money is that he's telling absurd lies to save his own skin. His gross incompetence as a manager could be marginally less annoying if he wasn't simultaneously proving himself to be a Jim McInally level charlatan who'll happily burn the club down around him in order to find someone else to blame for his own failures. The day before the Linlithgow game he was in the Tele openly talking about more recruitment, without the slightest suggestion that we were done. Then we lose twice in four days leading to entirely merited criticism of Murray for overseeing such poor performances and results, and all of a sudden this is what we've got to work with, don't criticise me, ask the board about more signings. It's a deflection tactic. If we were actually done for signings and the budget was now completely gone, why would he have used his last pennies on an 18 year old central midfielder - described by Murray himself as one for the future who we'll look to loan out - when we already have another five central midfielders, but only have four defenders and one goalkeeper? If it was true that the last of the budget had actually gone on O'Toole then it would be wild on Murray's part to misuse his budget in that way, but in reality even he isn't that incompetent: it just isn't true. He is shamelessly trying to gaslight the support into blaming anyone but himself, because he's already given up on being capable of getting results with Morton. Every word is calculated to try to protect his reputation so there's the least harm possible to Ian Murray's future job prospects whenever he finally departs Morton. The possibility that his reputation could be protected by actually trying to do a good job here in the first place has already been disregarded by him, so settle in for several more weeks of him lashing out and taking absolutely no responsibility for a mess of his own making.

I absolutely don't want it to be Miller, for the record.

Realistically we're probably stuck with an internal appointment when he goes as well which won't be popular, but rolling the dice on whichever of Gary Miller or a senior player is next in line while the window is open is still an obviously less bad option than the 0 points from 36 games he has us heading for.

Which also makes it much harder to have any sympathy for Murray complaining about the budget. Yes, it's undoubtedly the smallest full-time budget in the division, but it's still obviously better than Stenhousemuir, Linlithgow and East Fife. How much money has he cost the club through his own incompetence which could instead have been in his wage budget if he hadn't lost all of these games?

It's apparent that deflecting blame for this mess in the hope of salvaging any of his reputation once he's inevitably sacked is more important to Murray to actually trying to do anything to avoid the mess in the first place. Any excuse he can give that makes it someone else's fault will be trotted out. He can't get more out of players than the sum of their parts, he can't set a team up to shitfest to grind results out, he can't recruit to address the weaknesses and he can't acknowledge any of those facts. It's simply impossible for this to get better until he goes.

Not to mention that the Easdales already were involved with Morton in the recent past, pulling their sponsorship and ceasing all involvement as soon as they didn't have a family member on the playing staff.

They're actively engaging with someone buying 35% of the club right now.

Yep, our league positions under fan ownership have on average actually been better than they were while making a six figure loss under private ownership. Obviously the budget doesn't help, but the primary reason we've become relegation favourites this season is Ian Murray being shite at this where his predecessor wasn't.

No chance he genuinely believes it, but he'll say whatever bullshit he can to deflect from his own failings. A refusal to take any responsibility is par for the course.

Moore was given the new contract in early March and absolutely no one was disappointed about that, it was met with universal praise because at the time we were more concerned about not being able to keep him as he'd likely have better offers having had a really good season up to that point. He was the first player to sign a new deal, that wasn't a Dalrada decision, it was wanting to keep him because he was good. That he went off a cliff in the following two months to the point that he didn't look good enough for the division and continued where he left off yesterday maybe suggests some complacency on his part having received a contract, but it's mostly testament to Ian Murray's ability to have everything he touches turn to shit.

2 games in - Murray's choice, we could have played more friendlies Squad turnover - Murray's choice, we could have retained better defenders than those we're playing like Owens Inexperienced players - Murray's choice, no one's making you sign 'Laiith' Remember when 99% of fans derided Davie Irons for saying he only needed 45 minutes to realise some trialists were pish and wouldn't get a contract? He has once again been vindicated, no one should have needed more than 20 to know that Laiith Fairnie is going straight into in the worst Morton XI of the century. Genuinely levels below Henk Van Schaik.