Keep/release for 2026/27 season

[Jani Inenuot]

https://careers.estrellafootball.group/

We are now listed as part of the Estrella network, alongside some heavyweights of regional Portuguese football.

I assume this implies that we are receiving player referrals via their "talent" platform. I would hope that we're being given complementary access as part of them courting us and that we're not actually using budget on this shite.

[TONofmemories]

If this deal is still in the final stages, someone at the club should be all over them to reign them in. 

[Jani Inenuot]

I assume it just means we are a 'customer' of the platform, since one of the other clubs shown alongside us has already refused their investment.

[Jamie_M]

3 minutes ago, Jani Inenuot said:

I assume it just means we are a 'customer' of the platform, since one of the other clubs shown alongside us has already refused their investment.

This. Much ado about nothing.

[Chicken_Soup]

All I’m taking from Murray‘s comments regarding budgets is that we haven’t been able to sign the players he wants because we can’t afford them, including some of our own players from last season. I can’t be that we have no more budget to sign anyone at all.

It’s a similar situation we had under Imrie when his mantra was that we won’t sign any old player early on just to fill out the squad - we’ll wait for the right ones. Which always meant that we spent a good chunk of our time getting knocked back by our first choice targets, just as I’m sure we are now.

Murray is just deflecting because while this is going on, results and performances have set alarm bells ringing and he has zero credit in the bank.

[Stevie Aitken's Love Child]

Seen from twitter earlier that Celtic are close to agreeing co-op deals with East Kilbride and Dumbarton. I wonder if we've been scoping them out for a Championship arrangement as I don't think they have one at our level?

Edited July 21 by Stevie Aitken's Love Child

[Hej]

Why do we not have a cooperation agreement? It should have been top of the priority list when we started having to use non-Dalrada funds for the Dalrada covered wages. Or on the flip side, it's quite concerning that seemingly no top flight club wants to deal with us. We're in a desperate way and could really use some help.

[Jani Inenuot]

How many championship teams actually got decent players on co-op loans last year? Might be a way to put bodies on the bench for free, but could imagine teams being unhappy that their mediocre youth players aren't getting 'enough' game time - like Dundee United taking the huff with Airdrie.

[irnbru]

2 hours ago, Jani Inenuot said:

How many championship teams actually got decent players on co-op loans last year? Might be a way to put bodies on the bench for free, but could imagine teams being unhappy that their mediocre youth players aren't getting 'enough' game time - like Dundee United taking the huff with Airdrie.

Yeah, good to fill the bench but, assuming the initial agreement is based on the parent club getting some assurances about game time, it might not always be a good thing since it's a fairly limited pool - players have to be under 21, Scottish and can only three at the same time. 

I get the concept of it but haven't really seen much evidence of success. 

[Gmfcrg]

I’m surprised we’ve not had an agreement with anyone either. Graham Barr said on the statement last week that we were close to 1 or 2 loans to supplement the squad and boost the numbers. I’d imagine that would be before next Saturday, unless he was just telling us what we wanted to hear. Goalie, defender and another forward/wide option have to be priority, 3 solid loans in these positions could be the difference between 9th and 7th/8th, especially the goalie.

[Mini Ton]

Murray in the Tele has given another bleak interview, this time talking about wanting to sign MacKenzie Carse, with the direct quote:

“What we can offer now is so low. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to MacKenzie or the club, but I wouldn’t be signing it — that’s me being honest.”

Another CM is probably the last thing we need right now, but why does Murray feel the need to even mention this? How can the club encourage people to come to games when the manager sounds so depressing?

There’s also a mention about Murray still wanting to get a co‑operation agreement.
 

[Stevie Aitken's Love Child]

10 minutes ago, Mini Ton said:

Murray in the Tele has given another bleak interview, this time talking about wanting to sign MacKenzie Carse, with the direct quote:

“What we can offer now is so low. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to MacKenzie or the club, but I wouldn’t be signing it — that’s me being honest.”

Another CM is probably the last thing we need right now, but why does Murray feel the need to even mention this? How can the club encourage people to come to games when the manager sounds so depressing?

There’s also a mention about Murray still wanting to get a co‑operation agreement.
 

A mental thing to say in an interview. Honestly if it's so tough for him right now, just leave. His attitude right now isn't helpful.

[Chicken_Soup]

Let me check I’ve understood this correctly.

We want honestly and transparency from the club, we’re fan owned after all, information should be out in the open. We’re sick of the lack of updates from the club.

The manager gives an honest, transparent answer informing the fans why we haven’t signed our remaining trialist.

We want this information kept inside the club, away from fans, because it’s too negative. The manager is a fool for telling us this. 

Correct?

[SpoonTon]

I think it's a glimpse into just how bad things are behind the scenes. It's obviously pretty jarring seeing Murray give these interviews, and it doesn't feel very nice, but the depth of the chaos that's been going on must be pretty staggering. 

The egos around the club that thought a reluctant Bonar and a non operational company (Dalrada Tech Ltd) were the answer just because "money" have much to answer for. 

[vikingTON]

4 hours ago, Chicken_Soup said:

Let me check I’ve understood this correctly.

We want honestly and transparency from the club, we’re fan owned after all, information should be out in the open. We’re sick of the lack of updates from the club.

The manager gives an honest, transparent answer informing the fans why we haven’t signed our remaining trialist.

We want this information kept inside the club, away from fans, because it’s too negative. The manager is a fool for telling us this. 

Correct?

Perhaps he could give a similarly honest and transparent answer about his own management ability (Stenhousemuir, Ross County, Linlithgow), as well as his decisions to waste what available budget there is by stacking up options in a couple of areas (how many fucking central midfielders does this squad require?!), while signing blatantly obvious duds elsewhere. 

This was the same manager who declared that he saw nothing to be negative about from the only pre-season match that they deigned to play - in which we scored zero goals to set the stage for a truly disgraceful League Cup campaign so far. So either dishonest or delusional in his communication at that point. 

I don't care about the GMFC wagon-circling exercise around how 'hard' everyone is working behind the scenes. The manager is not doing a credible job with the limited resources at his disposal and so gurning about the latter to the press is risible. 

Edited July 25 by vikingTON

[DumfriesTon]

For fuck sake, why is he wanting to sign another central midfielder? One that was playing with Stirling Albion last season, a team that would have finished 10th had it not been for Dumbarton and Edinburgh City’s point deductions.
 

Utterly baffling squad building this season from him.

[Chicken_Soup]

7 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

Perhaps he could give a similarly honest and transparent answer about his own management ability (Stenhousemuir, Ross County, Linlithgow), as well as his decisions to waste what available budget there is by stacking up options in a couple of areas (how many fucking central midfielders does this squad require?!), while signing blatantly obvious duds elsewhere. 

This was the same manager who declared that he saw nothing to be negative about from the only pre-season match that they deigned to play - in which we scored zero goals to set the stage for a truly disgraceful League Cup campaign so far. So either dishonest or delusional.

I don't care about the GMFC's wagon-circling exercise around how 'hard' everyone is working behind the scenes. The manager is not doing a credible job with the resources at his disposal and so gurning about those resources to the press is risible. 

I agree with all of your points. I’m not sure why you quoted me as they’re completely unrelated to my previous post.

[SpoonTon]

It could be that Murray thinks he won't find a better centre back option than Wilson. Given that the only one he's managed to find couldn't get a regular game for Eastbourne Borough, that wouldn't surprise me. Also could mean that Savoury or Cochrane are out longer term (anyone know?). 

I'm not defending any of those judgements, and certainly not defending Murray last season, but I think it's a good sign of where we are that we cannot afford to sign someone who was at Stirling last season.  

[dunning1874]

31 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

It could be that Murray thinks he won't find a better centre back option than Wilson. Given that the only one he's managed to find couldn't get a regular game for Eastbourne Borough, that wouldn't surprise me. Also could mean that Savoury or Cochrane are out longer term (anyone know?). 

I'm not defending any of those judgements, and certainly not defending Murray last season, but I think it's a good sign of where we are that we cannot afford to sign someone who was at Stirling last season.  

If that's the case and he's again thinking of Wilson as a centre back above anything else, that would still give us five defenders (Ballantyne, Longridge, Moore, Fairnie & Wilson) and five central midfielders (Cochrane, Gillespie, Sandilands, Robertson & O'Toole), even if you strictly think of Savoury as someone to play further up the park and don't include him. Offering Carse or any other central midfielder any kind of contract in those circumstances is simply ridiculously stupid regardless of the budget constraints; in fact the smaller the budget is, the stupider the decision gets. Every penny available needs to go towards the defence.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, Chicken_Soup said:

I agree with all of your points. I’m not sure why you quoted me as they’re completely unrelated to my previous post.

A: It's not a display of honesty and transparency at all. It is buck passing that the manager only started to express this summer, from the exact point when he might be held accountable for his own performance. 

And it is also unprofessional to throw in a line about how he wouldn't sign the deal himself. Perhaps that was due to frustration, but achieves nothing other than to highlight the club's situation to wider media attention. The club is hardly going to succeed with its final ST push with this style of communication and leadership. It's hardly going to encourage agents to advise their player clients to consider a move to GMFC either. If he doesn't feel that he can do the job and is discontent with the situation (understandable), use the door now and give someone else a chance in football management instead. This Gus McPherson style holding position is untenable. 

Edited July 25 by vikingTON