At this point the fan backlash against MCT is wholly self-inflicted. As discussed after the Tele story with Crawford Rae, their communication with both their own members and the support continues to be reactive and only happens after people start asking questions of them, rather than appearing to have any kind of strategy to either keep people updated or more cynically to control the story.
As we said then, it's entirely feasible that delays to the takeover are entirely outwith their control and can't be helped at their end. Considering that we're now less than two weeks from the league season starting and approaching two months overdue that would still set alarm bells ringing regardless, but what can be helped is communicating about it properly. They're not even attempting to do this.
I saw on twitter that Graham Barr has a newborn baby (congratulations to him!) so understandably he's probably stepped away for at least a few days and no one could question not devoting much time to MCT as a result, but surely this is why you have a whole leadership team and a group of directors, so others can take over the communications side of things for however long he's away.
At this point with such a massive delay and the impending start of the league season, we should be getting an absolute minimum of two updates a week on the takeover. If there are no new developments then fine, tell us there are no new developments. That might lead to negative comments and concern every time an update goes out, but it's better than having total silence until you're forced into saying something by a story in the Tele or so many fans complaining about being left in the dark, with resentment and cynicism building up in the vacuum of being told nothing.
Tell us what you are doing aside from the ownership situation, because the continuous silence only creates an impression that absolutely nothing is going on or being done. I'm sure that's not the case and they are all working hard on various matters, but if none of us are told what's going on then thinking nothing is happening or that the silence is the product of arrogance or disinterest isn't only going to be widespread, it becomes the only rational conclusion with the information we have available. The silence until pressured to speak doesn't only apply to the takeover, answers about season tickets and direct debits only came after people kicking up a fuss on twitter as well. Perhaps these issues could have been addressed if they'd had someone ready to step into the General Manager role immediately from June 1st to manage things properly, but that level of planning just wasn't there.
I said before that even if you want to give the benefit of doubt they're making it extremely difficult. I really do want to give them the benefit of the doubt; I don't want to naturally feel cynical about everything Morton's owners do having been forced into that attitude by 20 years of Golden Casket's mismanagement, I want this to be a great success, I've been a member and put my money in ever since the debt cancellation was announced because I do believe this simply has to succeed. However there's just nothing to cling to to give the benefit of the doubt. They're not running a primary school tuck shop where we can say they'll learn as they go and it doesn't matter if they spill the juice all over the floor at first because they'll get better at it, it's a professional football club and volunteers or not we need some sign of competence. There aren't any.
It's simply not good enough and every single day of silence drains their credibility further in the weeks where MCT as an organisation can least afford to get things wrong. It's hard to imagine how this summer could possibly have been more shambolic or done more damage to confidence in their ability to run the club short of announcing that the takeover is cancelled. The first impression created this summer is critical to their success and getting more people on board, but there's nothing good to say about it.