Morton Club Together Updates

[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.

[Guest 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.

[Guest 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.

[Guest 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. 

[TONofmemories]

Ive zero issue with it either tbh. He committed the crime (a long, long time ago) and has had several employers since. I'm sure hes remorseful for his actions, whether he went about apologising the right way or not. Its not really our business. A huge song and dance is being made about it IMO. This "we're a community club signing a sex offender" is complete nonsense and nothing more than a good excuse for people to get the claws in. Let's be honest, no one out with anyone with a real interest in Morton A. cares and B. probably knows who he is. 

I agree with TRVMP's assessment. Morton could have done a bit more, but the actual signing is a non-event tbh. 

Edited October 21, 2021 by TONofmemories

[irnbru]

24 minutes ago, TONofmemories said:

Ive zero issue with it either tbh. He committed the crime (a long, long time ago) and has had several employers since. I'm sure hes remorseful for his actions, whether he went about apologising the right way or not. Its not really our business. A huge song and dance is being made about it IMO. This "we're a community club signing a sex offender" is complete nonsense and nothing more than a good excuse for people to get the claws in. Let's be honest, no one out with anyone with a real interest in Morton A. cares and B. probably knows who he is. 

I agree with TRVMP's assessment. Morton could have done a bit more, but the actual signing is a non-event tbh. 

I think it all comes back to everything being a bit faceless and a severe lack of comms. 

Don't really have a huge problem either but if we had a board member or general manager who gave regular updates and said something along the lines of "the manager identifies players and, as a board its our duty to do due diligence, contractual or otherwise, before completing the signing." No real need to address individual signings directly but at least have some accountability on show. 

Obviously not everyone would be happy as some are dead against this signing but it would show the decision making process and give some comfort to show its all been considered. Instead there's a growing lack of trust. 

[TONofmemories]

I agree in that we should have addressed it somehow,  but the faux outrage is OTT IMO.

[irnbru]

1 hour ago, TONofmemories said:

I agree in that we should have addressed it somehow,  but the faux outrage is OTT IMO.

I can see why people are unhappy but when there's little information or clarity about anything controversial it tends to get blown out of proportion so complete silence is only going to magnify things regardless of what options are. 

[bob_the_builder]

I suppose we can all take comfort in the fact that we don't have this board:

Absolutely delicious viewing

[TONofmemories]

At least they have the balls to face a fanbase though. Doesn't seem at all scripted either. 

[TRVMP]

33 minutes ago, TONofmemories said:

At least they have the balls to face a fanbase though. Doesn't seem at all scripted either. 

Looks scripted to me, this fucking welt thought he'd give an inspirational speech, then one guy claps, then another guy, then everyone's on their feet cheering, hoisting him aloft and dousing him in Gatorade.

Every other chairman/board member in the country must have watched that through their fingers. It's fine to say that stuff when things are going well but Falkirk just got humped 3-0 at home and they're as close to League Two as they are to the Championship. What on earth possessed him?

[TONofmemories]

When i say scripted i should have said vetted. It looks an open forum to ask whatever to me.