Morton Club Together Updates

[irnbru]

4 hours ago, MCT Team said:

 👍🏼

One of the agreed actions discussed last night was bringing back the feedback loop that members can input into and we'll take to the club for answers on, so that's certainly on the radar. 

 

Also, why are we taking stuff to the club to answer? Aren't we all supposed to be the club and part of the same thing? Everything that's been said gives the impression that there's a hierarchy with people in an ivory tower who think it's fan funded rather than fan controlled. 

[MCT Team]

7 hours ago, irnbru said:

The problem is sharing with members isn't community or fans being involved. It's a group doing stuff. It's being told, not contributing. There needs to be more engagement all of the time. Otherwise you've got animal farm in football form. 

Of course we want more member involvement, but there’s also an element of the board has been voted by the members and there will be aspects where there isn’t always member involvement with decisions. If members believe there’s things missing in our plans going forward then that will be addressed and fed into it, absolutely. That’s where the member involvement comes in here in this example, just at a different stage of the process. The board has kickstarted the discussion and then taking that to members. 

5 hours ago, irnbru said:

Also, why are we taking stuff to the club to answer? Aren't we all supposed to be the club and part of the same thing? Everything that's been said gives the impression that there's a hierarchy with people in an ivory tower who think it's fan funded rather than fan controlled. 

This is one of the key points that needs to be clarified and explained much more going forward. MCT and the club aren’t one and the same, they’re separate entities. The club is community owned but not community run. MCT members own the club, there’s a majority of MCT representatives on the club board but it’s not these individuals who run the club on a daily basis. There’s staff at the club who do, led by the General Manager.

If MCT members and fans see things happening or not happening that they want to raise, MCT can take this to the club to find out why it is or isn’t happening. 

[irnbru]

6 hours ago, MCT Team said:

Of course we want more member involvement, but there’s also an element of the board has been voted by the members and there will be aspects where there isn’t always member involvement with decisions. If members believe there’s things missing in our plans going forward then that will be addressed and fed into it, absolutely. That’s where the member involvement comes in here in this example, just at a different stage of the process. The board has kickstarted the discussion and then taking that to members. 

This is one of the key points that needs to be clarified and explained much more going forward. MCT and the club aren’t one and the same, they’re separate entities. The club is community owned but not community run. MCT members own the club, there’s a majority of MCT representatives on the club board but it’s not these individuals who run the club on a daily basis. There’s staff at the club who do, led by the General Manager.

If MCT members and fans see things happening or not happening that they want to raise, MCT can take this to the club to find out why it is or isn’t happening. 

I get it's not community run on a day to day basis and don't expect it to be but if there's not any proactive engagement with fans and members and it's a case of 'let us know if you see anything you don't like' then it's no change from how things were run before. The community needs to be kept involved for this to be a success. 

[TONofmemories]

I see no change from before, tbh. Very much reactive like the old regime as opposed to proactive. 

[Toby]

On 10/14/2021 at 9:17 AM, MCT Team said:

In case you haven’t spotted this yet on the SLO’s social accounts, the club is arranging a Q&A session with the new GMFC board. It’ll be recorded and put out across club channels. There’s certainly appetite for a live, in-person event so I’m taking this as an action to make sure our first MCT event gives fans and members that opportunity to attend. 

If you have any questions you’d like to ask the club board, don’t hesitate to ask them directly to the SLO or ask them here and I’ll pass them over to him. 

This sending questions to the SLO that can be vetted, and replied to with a scripted answer is, quite frankly, a load of shite. You know it, I know it, and everyone else knows it.

There are some very important questions that haven’t been answered and are continuing to be blanked, and until such time as they are answered honestly, I’m afraid it’ll become harder and harder to trust the consortium that is spending the fans’ money to run their football club.

When will someone accept the responsibility for handing Gus a two year deal after scraping survival last season?

Who signed off the signing of a registered sex offender?

What risk assessments and checks were put in place before signing said sex offender?

Having presumably conducted the necessary checks, what conclusions were reached in order to be sure that said sex offender doesn’t pose a risk to anyone at Cappielow or in the wider community?

When will a certain board member address the allegations about his improper conduct at Links Park in May?

These questions won’t go away, but under this format of sending them to the SLO to be ignored, they’ll only bubble away, creating yet more distrust between the consortium and those who are putting their money in every month to allow these guys to live the dream.

[irnbru]

2 hours ago, TONofmemories said:

I see no change from before, tbh. Very much reactive like the old regime as opposed to proactive. 

As far as I can see there's been 2 interviews with anyone from behind the scenes totalling 5 minutes from the last 3 months (one from Graham Barr and one from Chris Ross). 

Surely it wouldn't be too much for the others to do quick interviews to discuss their roles so people are familiar with who they are and to have regular updates from someone on what's happening. 

As it stands it's all a bit faceless with little info coming which leads to distrust and rumours so something as simple as this would help everyone. 

I can see Chris has been posting match interviews on the website which isn't a very good use of his already limited time to run a club. 

[TONofmemories]

From what i gather the folk behind the scenes know absolutely nothing about running a football club, or football in general which is never going to bode well. Happy to be shown otherwise. 

The GM role was always going to be a hard task and the reality is hes probably doubling up on things like posting on the website which shouldnt really be under his remit. Be surprised if he hangs about for any period of time tbh, but that's just my own opinion. 

New era has a massive doom and gloom feeling about it. Folk aren't bothering, be it to attend matches or buy streams. It's over to MCT to fix that. 

They set the bar by awarding a 2 year deal to a guy that just about scraped through playoffs vs lower league opposition. 

[capitanus]

5 hours ago, TONofmemories said:

From what i gather the folk behind the scenes know absolutely nothing about running a football club, or football in general which is never going to bode well. Happy to be shown otherwise. 

The GM role was always going to be a hard task and the reality is hes probably doubling up on things like posting on the website which shouldnt really be under his remit. Be surprised if he hangs about for any period of time tbh, but that's just my own opinion. 

New era has a massive doom and gloom feeling about it. Folk aren't bothering, be it to attend matches or buy streams. It's over to MCT to fix that. 

They set the bar by awarding a 2 year deal to a guy that just about scraped through playoffs vs lower league opposition. 

Gus McPherson has a proven track record of managing at this level, and his achievements in the game are respectable.  He may not be a universally popular choice, but a case can at least be argued for him. However, they set a very low bar by recruiting a convicted sex offender. 

Edit to add:  This has happened without our permission. They will do anything other than acknowledge that one.

Edited October 19, 2021 by capitanus

[vikingTON]

34 minutes ago, capitanus said:

Gus McPherson has a proven track record of managing at this level, and his achievements in the game are respectable.  

What was Gus McPherson's outcome/achievement in his last job at this level prior to Morton, nearly a decade ago? 

Some laurels won a generation ago do not make you a credible or competent football manager at this level in 2021. 

Edited October 19, 2021 by vikingTON

[Cappiecat 1.2]

55 minutes ago, capitanus said:

Gus McPherson has a proven track record of managing at this level, and his achievements in the game are respectable.  He may not be a universally popular choice, but a case can at least be argued for him. However, they set a very low bar by recruiting a convicted sex offender. 

Edit to add:  This has happened without our permission. They will do anything other than acknowledge that one.

Accidently downvoted this, trying to close another pop up ad and missed.

[capitanus]

5 hours ago, vikingTON said:

What was Gus McPherson's outcome/achievement in his last job at this level prior to Morton, nearly a decade ago? 

Some laurels won a generation ago do not make you a credible or competent football manager at this level in 2021. 

His last job at this level was Technical Director at St. Mirren who successfully established themselves as an bottom-half SPFL Premiership side during this time there.  

As i said above, he may not be the universally popular choice of manager, but since were a complete bin fire of a club he's probably as good as we're likely to get.  We're not going to get the brightest young managerial prospects beating a path to our door, or the best of the tried and trusted managers, therefore the best we'll ever likely to get is the Duffyesque types who are out of work and keen to get involved again, which is exactly what we've got.

[capitanus]

5 hours ago, Cappiecat 1.2 said:

Accidently downvoted this, trying to close another pop up ad and missed.

just click on your red dot and change it if you wish.

[9 Strathblane Crescent]

18 hours ago, capitanus said:

Gus McPherson has a proven track record of managing at this level, and his achievements in the game are respectable.  He may not be a universally popular choice, but a case can at least be argued for him. However, they set a very low bar by recruiting a convicted sex offender. 

Edit to add:  This has happened without our permission. They will do anything other than acknowledge that one.

It's fan owned not fan run. You'll want to have a poll to see who plays on Saturday.

[MCT Team]

I’m passing every piece of feedback received on here to the club board.

I’ve been informed that this format of Q&A was suggested to them, and so I’ve certainly made it clear that there’s a big appetite from fans for a live, in-person version to be held soon too. We’ve had discussions at MCT board level for anything we do in the way of Q&A’s/events will have options for fans to attend in-person or online options for fans who can’t attend. 

[TONofmemories]

If there's been discussion why not just so thanks for the suggestion but revert to having an attendance based (in person/online) format? This all seems very convenient knowing fine well there'll be some really difficult questions to answer. 

[Toby]

13 minutes ago, TONofmemories said:

If there's been discussion why not just so thanks for the suggestion but revert to having an attendance based (in person/online) format? This all seems very convenient knowing fine well there'll be some really difficult questions to answer. 

Because with this format, Gordon Ritchie won’t have to answer questions he doesn't want to answer from mischief makers in the support who are no more than background noise to him running his football club, rather than contributors who have helped him get into the position he now occupies.

[BishopBrennan]

2 hours ago, 9 Strathblane Crescent said:

It's fan owned not fan run. You'll want to have a poll to see who plays on Saturday.

Putting your obtuse nonsense to one side, there are certain issues that fan owned clubs should absolutely seek guidance from the support on. Votes on Colts teams being included in senior competitions is one such issue that I think it would be appropriate for the fanbase to decide en mass. The decision to bring a sex offender to a community club is another issue where the fanbase should have their concerns heard.

I'm not suggesting that some sort of fan vote on the issue was required, but it was a decision that should have been taken by more than one club director, as is my understanding of what happened in that instance. The signing of a convicted sex offender was always going to be contentious, bearing in mind this is someone who has yet to show any sign of (public) remorse for his crimes, which were absolutely vile. There were polarised opinions on signing Lithgow and that should have been recognised by the club. At the very least, there should have been a club statement issued alongside the signing announcement, explaining that Lithgow was remorseful for his actions and that anyone with concerns about this should contact the club. I think that would have been acceptable to most people within the fanbase, rather than the total ignorance that was shown to legitimate concerns around a sex offender signing for a community club. And that's before we get into the utter cowardice shown by the club in refusing to issue a statement after the songs at Firhill. The statement from the MCT socials the following week was nothing more than a transparent, and frankly shite, compromise. 

This isn't a criticism of Chris, who I think deserves a lot of credit for coming onto the Forum and taking positive and negative feedback on the chin, but it's becoming quite obvious that there's a growing disconnect and mistrust between MCT and sections of the fanbase. It's been mentioned before on this thread, but the lack of output outwith normal matchday content (interviews, highlights etc.) does concern me. We only seem to hear from the club now when they're trying to sell us something. No match previews, no match reports, nothing giving us an insight into what has changed behind-the-scenes since the takeover, no real attempts to genuinely listen to lapsed and frustrated supporters. This is miles away from what I envisioned when I was sold on the prospect of a fan owned, expert run Morton. 

Considering that we're only four months into fan ownership, that is a massive worry.

[capitanus]

6 hours ago, 9 Strathblane Crescent said:

It's fan owned not fan run. You'll want to have a poll to see who plays on Saturday.

No I dont, dickhead. 

But in a supporter owned club a decision as controversial as recruiting a convicted sex offender should not be in the hands of one or a few people to overrule the thoughts and feelings of a sizeable amount of the support on the matter.  That was and remains a fucking disgraceful decision.

[TRVMP]

To prove that there are polarized views on this - I don't actually have a problem with the club employing Lithgow. What he did was obviously reprehensible, but it was also many, many years ago with no sign of any repetition or further conviction. Other people are more than entitled to give him a wide berth, and I would judge nobody - particularly women, and particularly women with children - who did so. But I believe in redemption and I believe that people can get their head down and try to live a normal life and make a living.

But at the same time, I think the club, by ignoring the elephant in the room, scored an own-goal here. Obviously what Lithgow did was not comparable, but if you recall the Luke McCormick case, Plymouth always acknowledged "we are signing a guy who has done something terrible in his past - here's why we are doing it, here's what he says." By not doing that Morton showed a real lack of concern for those people I mentioned above who, for what may be extremely personal reasons, were shocked by this decision.

You'll never please all the people all of the time, but if you don't even try you please nobody.

[BishopBrennan]

2 hours ago, TRVMP said:

To prove that there are polarized views on this - I don't actually have a problem with the club employing Lithgow. What he did was obviously reprehensible, but it was also many, many years ago with no sign of any repetition or further conviction. Other people are more than entitled to give him a wide berth, and I would judge nobody - particularly women, and particularly women with children - who did so. But I believe in redemption and I believe that people can get their head down and try to live a normal life and make a living.

But at the same time, I think the club, by ignoring the elephant in the room, scored an own-goal here. Obviously what Lithgow did was not comparable, but if you recall the Luke McCormick case, Plymouth always acknowledged "we are signing a guy who has done something terrible in his past - here's why we are doing it, here's what he says." By not doing that Morton showed a real lack of concern for those people I mentioned above who, for what may be extremely personal reasons, were shocked by this decision.

You'll never please all the people all of the time, but if you don't even try you please nobody.

You're spot on there. We are on opposing sides of the debate, you were comfortable with the signing when I wasn't. But we've both recognised the need for the club to listen (something I don't think MCT do enough of currently) to concerned supporters and offer them a friendly ear at the very least. The club board, and in particular the director who took it upon himself to make this decision, showed ignorance and nonchalance in abundance on this issue, and I sincerely hope that MCT have learned lessons from the whole debacle.