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Hoppy Gone (Potentially)


ChampTon

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Where’s Dave MacKinnon? After spending last week e-mailing Hearts fans to reassure them that we shouldn’t be on their naughty list, now the shit’s properly hit the fan, he’s nowhere to be seen.

Surely as the CEO he should have been Hopkin’s Line Manager? I get that you have to allow your manager to make his own mistakes, but he’s been allowed to create such an unbalanced squad without a second choice goalkeeper on MacKinnon’s watch. At what point did the alarm bells start ringing for MacKinnon here? If there was no further money available to bring in a keeper, MacKinnon should’ve been all over this long before it became a problem and we should not be in the position that the manager walks out the door because he wants money that he should’ve known fine well was not there.

Tuesday will be 20 years to the day since we last entered administration, 15th December 2000. For all Dougie’s faults I never thought that we’d have come full circle in that time. With no knight in shining armour waiting in the wings, and with a supporters’ group that is prepared to take over the club and allowing the current custodian to walk away with the deeds for the stadium under his arm, we’re now in a worse position than we were when Dougie walked in the door.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t have faith in MCT to get the best possible deal for the club going forward. If the club doesn’t die in the next six months, I can’t see any future for it lodging at Cappielow whilst Crawford plays a wee game at seeing who can get the most land with his pals James and Sandy.

It’s about time some of these guys put their heads above the parapet and risked their potential blazer and club tie by standing up to Crawford and demanding that this deal doesn’t go through without Cappielow remaining under Morton’s ownership.

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13 minutes ago, Toby said:

Where’s Dave MacKinnon? After spending last week e-mailing Hearts fans to reassure them that we shouldn’t be on their naughty list, now the shit’s properly hit the fan, he’s nowhere to be seen.

Surely as the CEO he should have been Hopkin’s Line Manager? I get that you have to allow your manager to make his own mistakes, but he’s been allowed to create such an unbalanced squad without a second choice goalkeeper on MacKinnon’s watch. At what point did the alarm bells start ringing for MacKinnon here? If there was no further money available to bring in a keeper, MacKinnon should’ve been all over this long before it became a problem and we should not be in the position that the manager walks out the door because he wants money that he should’ve known fine well was not there.

Tuesday will be 20 years to the day since we last entered administration, 15th December 2000. For all Dougie’s faults I never thought that we’d have come full circle in that time. With no knight in shining armour waiting in the wings, and with a supporters’ group that is prepared to take over the club and allowing the current custodian to walk away with the deeds for the stadium under his arm, we’re now in a worse position than we were when Dougie walked in the door.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t have faith in MCT to get the best possible deal for the club going forward. If the club doesn’t die in the next six months, I can’t see any future for it lodging at Cappielow whilst Crawford plays a wee game at seeing who can get the most land with his pals James and Sandy.

It’s about time some of these guys put their heads above the parapet and risked their potential blazer and club tie by standing up to Crawford and demanding that this deal doesn’t go through without Cappielow remaining under Morton’s ownership.

Bang on 

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1 hour ago, RealTonKid said:

This is just as much of the Trust's failing, as it is the Raes. They remained silent, whilst Dougie steered the ship toward the rocks.

I'm willing to bet you that MCT had no influence on Hopkin's removal or his appointment. Morton are not run as democracy, they are a dictatorship. The current board have little influence on major decision other than if one of them puts his hand in his pocket to try and improve things. But that is also limited to what can be achieved.  The only time MCT or any other organisation will have any great influence is when they take ownership of the football club no matter how much money they put into Morton. 

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
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38 minutes ago, Toby said:

Where’s Dave MacKinnon? After spending last week e-mailing Hearts fans to reassure them that we shouldn’t be on their naughty list, now the shit’s properly hit the fan, he’s nowhere to be seen.

Surely as the CEO he should have been Hopkin’s Line Manager? I get that you have to allow your manager to make his own mistakes, but he’s been allowed to create such an unbalanced squad without a second choice goalkeeper on MacKinnon’s watch. At what point did the alarm bells start ringing for MacKinnon here? If there was no further money available to bring in a keeper, MacKinnon should’ve been all over this long before it became a problem and we should not be in the position that the manager walks out the door because he wants money that he should’ve known fine well was not there.

Tuesday will be 20 years to the day since we last entered administration, 15th December 2000. For all Dougie’s faults I never thought that we’d have come full circle in that time. With no knight in shining armour waiting in the wings, and with a supporters’ group that is prepared to take over the club and allowing the current custodian to walk away with the deeds for the stadium under his arm, we’re now in a worse position than we were when Dougie walked in the door.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t have faith in MCT to get the best possible deal for the club going forward. If the club doesn’t die in the next six months, I can’t see any future for it lodging at Cappielow whilst Crawford plays a wee game at seeing who can get the most land with his pals James and Sandy.

It’s about time some of these guys put their heads above the parapet and risked their potential blazer and club tie by standing up to Crawford and demanding that this deal doesn’t go through without Cappielow remaining under Morton’s ownership.

C'mon Toby , you and I know that MacKinnon is nothing more that a jacket over the back of seat and the fall guy when it goes tits up having had little influence in the decision making at the top. Your absolutely right when talking about organisation. MacKinnon should be the General Manager responsible for the running of the club with people reporting to him including the manager and he in turn reporting to the board who set the strategic direction of the club which he should then implement. Get it  wrong and he should be one of the first to go.  But we all know that's just not what happens at Cappielow. 

It's a one man band and the guy at the very top is the guy who makes all the decisions and should put his hand up when he gets it wrong but we all know that isn't going to happen. Change can't happen quick enough but I fear the scorched earth policy now in place will make it near nigh impossible for MCT to make a half decent go of things.  

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
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I tend to agree with the last para. None of the family have ever accepted responsibility for their disastrous tenure.

Dougie was an old fashioned autocrat whose word was law and would brook no interference from anyone. Fans were a necessary evil who were there to put their hands in their pocket and doff their caps to the great saviour. CR tries to give the impression that he listens and cares but it's just lip service. Bottom line he wants out at the earliest opportunity and least cost.

I genuinely hope the fans get behind MCT as I cannot see any other realistic solution for our survival. But I'm equally aware of the difficulties that they will face in trying to balance the books. 

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So what's actually changed between October and now to put us in this life-or-death situation? I imagine that, with reduced foot traffic in convenience stores and with kids being out of school and not taking part in extracurriculars, Golden Casket is seeing reduced orders from shops and thus is in a lean spell. That's very unfortunate, and I can understand further if they are belt-tightening everywhere (including of course Morton) to make ends meet. That's all totally fine. But wouldn't that also have been in the case in October? Wouldn't it have been the case in June? Why it is now that once again the alarms are going off and it's five minutes to midnight?

And moreover, how is MCT dealing with this internally? I get that they won't want all of their dirty laundry aired, but they announced back in early July that they were taking over. Presumably that was done with some kind of diligence into the club's viability over the short-term (there being no point in pledging a takeover to an entity that may not even be solvent by D-Day.) And given that MCT has signed over 100 grand of members' funds to the club, are they at all worried that it's just disappearing into a black hole?

This is just the same old same old. When MCT first launched they were talking about a doomsday scenario even then. Since then we've had a bloody pandemic and the message is exactly the same.

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To “WhowouldbeaMortonfan”

It looks to me that, in addition to your defence of Crawford Rae and blaming the fan base for our club’s demise, that the main tenure of your post is to request a viable alternative business plan for the future of Greenock Morton Football Club.

As a Project Manager of +20 years I have compiled many business plans and I was actually thinking of providing a proposed hypothetical business plan in response to your post. However I searched through your words for a reference to Crawford’s plan to retain the title deeds to the stadium and land, and found no mention of this highly critical part of the situation we find ourselves in. I would therefore conclude that you have some sort of allegiance to Crawford which is why you’re clearly an apologist for him and his record as succeeding his late father as custodian of our club.

For this reason I will only submit an alternative (hypothetical) business plan on the condition that Crawford’s divorce from the club includes transferring ownership of Cappielow to the fans.

Please note also that there is at least one very successful businessman on the board of directors who has experience of producing successful business plans. Why don’t you ask him to present a solid plan?

I can also tell you that I’ve had quite close dealings with the club over the years and unfortunately have found their commercial  and business acumen and levels of communication have been the most amateurish I have come across anywhere in my business career.

Finally I would ask this question:

Does your request for a viable business plan for the sustainability of the club, signify that Crawford Rae didn’t have one?

I hope that helps answer some of your concerns.

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1 hour ago, DreamOakTree said:

To “WhowouldbeaMortonfan”

It looks to me that, in addition to your defence of Crawford Rae and blaming the fan base for our club’s demise, that the main tenure of your post is to request a viable alternative business plan for the future of Greenock Morton Football Club.

As a Project Manager of +20 years I have compiled many business plans and I was actually thinking of providing a proposed hypothetical business plan in response to your post. However I searched through your words for a reference to Crawford’s plan to retain the title deeds to the stadium and land, and found no mention of this highly critical part of the situation we find ourselves in. I would therefore conclude that you have some sort of allegiance to Crawford which is why you’re clearly an apologist for him and his record as succeeding his late father as custodian of our club.

For this reason I will only submit an alternative (hypothetical) business plan on the condition that Crawford’s divorce from the club includes transferring ownership of Cappielow to the fans.

Please note also that there is at least one very successful businessman on the board of directors who has experience of producing successful business plans. Why don’t you ask him to present a solid plan?

I can also tell you that I’ve had quite close dealings with the club over the years and unfortunately have found their commercial  and business acumen and levels of communication have been the most amateurish I have come across anywhere in my business career.

Finally I would ask this question:

Does your request for a viable business plan for the sustainability of the club, signify that Crawford Rae didn’t have one?

I hope that helps answer some of your concerns.

To all forum members, I have no agenda other than to see Morton be sucessful. I have no allegience to CR or anyone linked to the club. However having been on the outside for so long, I do feel I have a different perspective than many of the local fanbase and mostly all who post reguarly on this forum.

Like it or not, accept it or not, the Rae family have put millions (no puns) into the club and the level of debt within company accounts verifies this. By underwriting the club, providing cash flow, paying the bills and keeping the lights on, any person in any business is entiltled to do whatever they see fit.

The objections on this forum are too ill-conceived to be plausible and are generally without basis or support.

Sure CR may have sh*t away the money but its his money, not your's or mine and he is entitled to do whatever he chooses. The fact that virtually nothing has worked out over the last number of years, it could be argued that its his fault. Why, because he apppointed the manager and gave him virtually free reign to build the squad and select the team. I'm sure he did that with the sole reason to loose as much money as possible and alienate the fan base...... 

Coming back to DreamOakTree's point of experience and business plans and so on....I to have the experience to put together a plan, forecast, sales targets or whatever. However, the main difference between sugesting, formulating and implementing is ownership if the idea. In my experience, if anyone had an idea and brought it to management and as I found out very early on in management that you need to do it all by yourself if you want it to happen. That's a great idea they would say, so why don't you go away and develop it, while continuing to exceed expections. Which takes me to the point I trying to make....a lot of baseless suggestion have been made without the substance to back any of it up. 

Another point peaople seem to be getting hung up on, MCT is also contributing money to fund the playing staff. I see 10K a month being banded about. Surely 10K a month is just the tip if the iceberg. I would have thought we would need at least 75K a month just to stay afloat and keep the bills paid. It should also be understood the majority of the monthly costs are wages and are a business expense with very little return if any. So with respect to all who make their monthly payment to MCT, myself included, our investment in our club as it stands, simply is not enough to keep it going as a viable option.

As far as the stadium and land is concerned, of course CR is not giving that up? The team, name and league association is worth nothing unfortunately and thats why CR is happy to give it away. It relieves him of future debt and he is no doubt happy with that and why not....Who wants to be on the hook for unknown levels of debt, providing salaries for people, most of whom will be leaving at the end of the season. You would need to be a complete mug to do so. Unfortunately CR has woken up to this fact and we all are having difficulty dealing with it.

Bottom line, the only asset worth talking about is the stadium and land and lets be clear, its not ours, so why should be be expected to receive it free with the lucky bag MCT is looking to take over.   

Sorry forum members, I'm only the reality messenger.

Here's another point to ponder, I would suggest a large majority on this forum probably pay more per month to their moble phone bill, nextflix and sky accounts, never mind other subscriptions that they contribute to, than they do to Morton or MCT. This is not a name and shame, but most likely a fact. But nobody is gathering up a storm because netflix or sky have to many repeats, the actors are bollocks, the quality of programming is sh*te, or your phone call keeps getting dropped. Nobody is demanding to sack the the respective boards, lay bare the accounts, scream about the salaries that are getting paid and demand free stuff....Why not, because in my opinion, thats exactly what's been happening on this forum for years.

I've said my peace and that's me done, I have better ways to spend my time and energy wrestling the the respected members of this forum.

Here's hoping it all works our for the best for all Morton supporters. 

 

 

 

 

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A little edit to change the context and give an idea of how indefensible, sycophantic and obviously bad faith the arguments are at this point:

10 minutes ago, WhowouldbeaMortonfan said:

As far as the stadium and land is concerned, of course Hugh Scott is not giving that up? The team, name and league association is worth nothing unfortunately and thats why Hugh Scott is happy to give it away. It relieves him of future debt and he is no doubt happy with that and why not....Who wants to be on the hook for unknown levels of debt, providing salaries for people, most of whom will be leaving at the end of the season. You would need to be a complete mug to do so. Unfortunately Hugh Scott has woken up to this fact and we all are having difficulty dealing with it.

Bottom line, the only asset worth talking about is the stadium and land and lets be clear, its not ours, so why should be be expected to receive it free with the lucky bag MCT is looking to take over.   

Sorry forum members, I'm only the reality messenger.

 

 

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Brian Wake my Lord, Brian Wake

Oh Lord, Brian Wake

 

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1 hour ago, WhowouldbeaMortonfan said:

To all forum members, I have no agenda other than to see Morton be sucessful. I have no allegience to CR or anyone linked to the club. However having been on the outside for so long, I do feel I have a different perspective than many of the local fanbase and mostly all who post reguarly on this forum.

Like it or not, accept it or not, the Rae family have put millions (no puns) into the club and the level of debt within company accounts verifies this. By underwriting the club, providing cash flow, paying the bills and keeping the lights on, any person in any business is entiltled to do whatever they see fit.

The objections on this forum are too ill-conceived to be plausible and are generally without basis or support.

Sure CR may have sh*t away the money but its his money, not your's or mine and he is entitled to do whatever he chooses. The fact that virtually nothing has worked out over the last number of years, it could be argued that its his fault. Why, because he apppointed the manager and gave him virtually free reign to build the squad and select the team. I'm sure he did that with the sole reason to loose as much money as possible and alienate the fan base...... 

Coming back to DreamOakTree's point of experience and business plans and so on....I to have the experience to put together a plan, forecast, sales targets or whatever. However, the main difference between sugesting, formulating and implementing is ownership if the idea. In my experience, if anyone had an idea and brought it to management and as I found out very early on in management that you need to do it all by yourself if you want it to happen. That's a great idea they would say, so why don't you go away and develop it, while continuing to exceed expections. Which takes me to the point I trying to make....a lot of baseless suggestion have been made without the substance to back any of it up. 

Another point peaople seem to be getting hung up on, MCT is also contributing money to fund the playing staff. I see 10K a month being banded about. Surely 10K a month is just the tip if the iceberg. I would have thought we would need at least 75K a month just to stay afloat and keep the bills paid. It should also be understood the majority of the monthly costs are wages and are a business expense with very little return if any. So with respect to all who make their monthly payment to MCT, myself included, our investment in our club as it stands, simply is not enough to keep it going as a viable option.

As far as the stadium and land is concerned, of course CR is not giving that up? The team, name and league association is worth nothing unfortunately and thats why CR is happy to give it away. It relieves him of future debt and he is no doubt happy with that and why not....Who wants to be on the hook for unknown levels of debt, providing salaries for people, most of whom will be leaving at the end of the season. You would need to be a complete mug to do so. Unfortunately CR has woken up to this fact and we all are having difficulty dealing with it.

Bottom line, the only asset worth talking about is the stadium and land and lets be clear, its not ours, so why should be be expected to receive it free with the lucky bag MCT is looking to take over.   

Sorry forum members, I'm only the reality messenger.

Here's another point to ponder, I would suggest a large majority on this forum probably pay more per month to their moble phone bill, nextflix and sky accounts, never mind other subscriptions that they contribute to, than they do to Morton or MCT. This is not a name and shame, but most likely a fact. But nobody is gathering up a storm because netflix or sky have to many repeats, the actors are bollocks, the quality of programming is sh*te, or your phone call keeps getting dropped. Nobody is demanding to sack the the respective boards, lay bare the accounts, scream about the salaries that are getting paid and demand free stuff....Why not, because in my opinion, thats exactly what's been happening on this forum for years.

I've said my peace and that's me done, I have better ways to spend my time and energy wrestling the the respected members of this forum.

Here's hoping it all works our for the best for all Morton supporters. 

 

 

 

 

You are a complete cunt. The only way to describe you!

The sooner you and your family are removed from Cappielow, the better. 

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Heard it all before. Apologist bullshit for incompetence, fecklessness and ego driven vainglory. 

Before you attempt to blame fans for not having a business plan, P&L assessment, Marketing policy etc you may wish to consider that the collective wisdom of 18 years of the Rae's can be summed up by 'Bring a Friend'.

Take your alternative truth and fuck off.

 

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6 hours ago, TRVMP said:

So what's actually changed between October and now to put us in this life-or-death situation? I imagine that, with reduced foot traffic in convenience stores and with kids being out of school and not taking part in extracurriculars, Golden Casket is seeing reduced orders from shops and thus is in a lean spell. That's very unfortunate, and I can understand further if they are belt-tightening everywhere (including of course Morton) to make ends meet. That's all totally fine. But wouldn't that also have been in the case in October? Wouldn't it have been the case in June? Why it is now that once again the alarms are going off and it's five minutes to midnight?

And moreover, how is MCT dealing with this internally? I get that they won't want all of their dirty laundry aired, but they announced back in early July that they were taking over. Presumably that was done with some kind of diligence into the club's viability over the short-term (there being no point in pledging a takeover to an entity that may not even be solvent by D-Day.) And given that MCT has signed over 100 grand of members' funds to the club, are they at all worried that it's just disappearing into a black hole?

This is just the same old same old. When MCT first launched they were talking about a doomsday scenario even then. Since then we've had a bloody pandemic and the message is exactly the same.

I'm pretty sure the members payments stop around the start of next season so we'll need to see something positive or a lot of people won't bother renewing. 

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22 hours ago, WhowouldbeaMortonfan said:

Finally have gotten myself a new handle and account for the forum. For some reason years back, I could not get signed in and it was easier to sit back and read all the negative rubbish about ownership, managers, players, kit man, this coach, that problem....honestly if this forum was about sticking the boot in, complaining, back-stabbing and demoralising the folk in question, you lot would be top of the premier league, going for eleven in a row, have won back to back champions leagues and made millions into the bargain.  

I could go on all day about the entitled sh*t* that is written on here......its and absolute joke to think that Morton should be above and beyond general profit and loss, sucess and failure. How in anyones right mind can you figure, that a loss making business should continue to risk the entire business and the livelyhoods of many others on a failing and outdated model. 

You must be having a laugh just because you throw in a few quid each week, that you can say what the hell you like about anything and anyone.....as a Morton fan its worse to read the sh*t* on here than it is to watch some of the poor teams and players that I have witnessed over many, many years. I'm not living in the town or country, but have watched my fair share of bad Morton teams as well as a number of poor Morton players.

Here's the thing, we have had a number of mangers over the recent years, and I don't recall much if any dissention at the appointments. As soon as its starts getting a wee bit tough, all the boot boys have been just waiting for their moment and so it starts again.......why anybody would want the Morton job or even want to play for them is beyond me. Lets be clear, just because you put a few quid in every now and again, does not give anyone the right to rip the pish out of anyone, associated with the club.

In all my years of watching and reading this forum, NEVER once have I read an article, which puts forward a suggestion for improvements, with a self-supporting plan to underpin the suggestion. This forum is frankly wee boys stuff, he said/she said crap. Anybody can sit on their computer and say, this is crap, he's pish, Crawford's that....that's the wee boys stuff I'm talking about. To be an business owner and particularly a football club owner, it takes a lot of balls to succeed. In football the risks are enormous and the rewards are minor, which make the risk, simply not worth the reward.

Which lead to my question and a reality check for everyone...who here is willing to risk their home, car, wealth, family and bet on Morton being sucessful, and when they are you'll get virtaully nothing back on everything you spent. Aye, it's you who will be left homeless and penniless. Nobody in their right mind would do it, so WTF should we expect Crawford Rae to do so? Wake up everyone, owning a football team is a way to loose your wealth, mind and happiness. Even more so when you have to deal with the sh*t% written on here. 

Does anybody recall the guy who bought into Livi? He won over 10 Million on the lottery and blew it all on Livi. Not a penny left and he's back working as a nurse. There's yir proof, what more do you need.......

TBH, I'm amazed Morton has lasted as long as it has. Despite what you may thing of the present ownership, if it was not for the Rae family, you all would be doing something else with your time. That may not necessarily be a bad thing, but I have a feeling it soon will be an option you will all have.

The harsh reality of DH leaving his position, is that he has been backed to a certain extent and has now been informed that it is no longer sustainable. Rather than getting rid of the players needed to keep the business afloat and support the remaining employees, he has decided he CANNOT make a decision which is the right one for the business. As I note above, it takes a lot of balls to make harsh business decisions, which will affect a few, but will provide a safety net for the remaining. DH, is abviously not a business leader, which obviously does not bode well as a manger, because his decisions need to be totally selfish and be what's best for the team.

On the back of DH leaving, what do we get....usual sh*t*, mis-management, Crawford this, McKinnon that, blah, blah and blah. Not one positive note in support of anything achieved or improved. The fact that Morton is still in business should be be a positive to all associated and all who want to be future associated with the club. People leave their jobs for all sorts of reasons and all the time. DH leaving should be seen as no different and viewed as another beginning.....although if we are honest, there has been too many new beginnings, but as a business minded person, I don't think its from the lack of trying or wish to be sucessful.

Managers have been hired and players have been signed, CR has put his money and faith in the manager and relies on him to bring in the players to build a sucessful team with the budget given to him. I don't think there is one manager who has been appointed and said from the outset "I cannot work with the budget and therefore I cannot give you the sucess your looking for". In fact I'm guessing every single person inteviewed for the mangers job, has said the opposite, DH included.  

Now it's my turn for a sh*t*fest of negativity........which brings me back to where it all started and the reason for this post.

 

 

 

 

 

So which one if the raes are you ? This rant is nothing more than you defending the family name. Crawford is a prick, he has no interest in morton. It was his dads passion and he has been dwindling it down since his father passed. Nobody from that family had the guts to tell Douglas when he was alive they didn't want to prop the club  up. 

Crawford wife has been vocal of the money morton are losing golden casket. 

So if you are indeed one of the raes just be aware every single fan knows what your family is doing to this club. The raes didn't save morton Douglas did. The raes are killing morton.

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