GiGi

Bonar wouldn't have the money spent on anything other than the first team, so you can then only look at the managers who spent the money. The people that enabled Dalrada are not there any more. However the club board made a huge mistake this year in allowing the budget to be pinned to Dalrada funds, when they were already behind on payments and their business struggling was known. I'm sure if the wider support, or at least MCT members as club owners, were aware of missed payments we'd have agreed it would be madness to bank on them propping up the budget again this year due to the potential consequences if it went tits up. Now it has and we're asking for money to pay the contracts they were meant to pay. We shouldn't turn out in the home kit again without their name blocked out, it's a kick in the teeth to see their logo on the hoops while we're in this position.

Good look for the parent clubs checking on their loanees to see we had spare subs and Murray left them sitting down. Fuck sake.

Ye have single handedly destroyed the spirit of all true football people at this special time of year.

I don't think it's appropriate that Renfrew was "briefed by Estrella before the AGM" as claimed. I get that he was part of bringing EFG to the table but it's bold to claim MCT were not being open with members while evidently still talking to Estrella. It sounds like the accusations of going behind the MCT directors backs was not too far off if that is the case. There are reasonable points made about the decision of the board to hang their hats on the unreliable Dalrada this year which has left us in this situation, but the personal attachment to Estrella over all else is clear and makes Mr Renfrew himself an unreliable narrator.

They're loan signings, so it'll likely be freebies. Do clubs usually tell you how much (if any) of player wages they cover? Probably not even allowed to.

Given his age I'm willing to give him the benefit of doubt that he will come good or at least better when his confidence isn't on the floor. But he has looked really poor.

Yeah we've potentially burst the budget for a full time squad that's less fit than Arbroath and Stenny's. What was the point?

Just what we needed. Too soft, and not because of the teenage fullbacks who seem the only ones willing to put themselves about. Waste of a worldy save as well. I get scoring a goal and stuff is a nice step forward but I can't bring myself to happy clap a home defeat to Arbroath off the park.

I agree with irnbru and the soup tbh. The club have been plenty active on all the media bits about the fighting fund and sponsorship, but have just posted the same poster 4 times since 10th August about the game we've had 2 weeks to prepare for. While it's important to drive in revenue, the bread and butter way to do that is extra ticket sales through the gate and the club could clearly be doing a lot more to do that.

The Tele have been quick enough to get every piece of bad press out in the paper and online. It's their round now. Club should be asking for a front page on Friday for a call to arms to get us a big crowd out for the game.

If nothing else, the collapse of the EFG proposal seems to have been a hefty boot up the arse for GMFC off the park.

Sticking a bunch of angry guys in a room has been largely unproductive so far and would only be more so now. In work you'd say don't have a meeting that could be an email and this is one of those times. Just tell us the factual, financial position of the club and avoid a night of listening to rehearsed petty recriminations.

I don't see the need to have an EGM, but we do need a consolidated, cards on the table update on the club's finances that is supported by MCT as the majority owners. Facts only, without Dalrada are we projected to run out of money to pay wages, and if so by when? At some point later we will need to know who made the decision to run with a Dalrada-reliant budget and who went to a potential investor to ask for an emergency loan to avoid a points deduction. The fact that we're at fighting fund point now and not then is a pretty brutal failure in transparency but that can be dealt with after laying out the immediate concerns.

I think given the issues Dalrada have been having since last year coupled with 6 figures worth of late payments, it was madness to build a break-even budget around their sponsorship again this year. Especially given Brian Bonar was happy to give up shirt sponsorship anyway, you have to think we could have found an alternative to Dalrada to act as the baseline for the budget on what would probably be much reduced terms. And if the Dalrada money did appear it could be used to supplement the budget or kept back for some other purpose. Easy to say with hindsight maybe, but I can't see that anyone would have been comfortable placing the club's financial security with Dalrada had they known what was going on, for the sake of trying to stay full time.

I get the need to make every effort to raise more funds. I don't think this is the best way to go about it. Competitions and introducing a bit of fun and participation can raise money without calling it a fighting fund, making it look like a choice between a flat donation or oblivion for the club.