Greacen2000

PotY - Storer by a long way IMO. Wilson is the only other one even worth mentioning in this category Goal - O’Halloran Best signing - Kris Moore worst signing - Sonny Hart Best game - 2-0 win over Dunfermline. 5 would have flattered them never mind 2, and at the time it felt like we were on the cusp of putting together some decent form (only for us to go on and lose 4 on the bounce) Worst game - 3-2 defeat to Partick. Not our worst performance of the season by any stretch but the sheer kick in the balls factor after being 2-0 up at half time was hard to take. Arbroath away with the crazy winds is a contender too in terms of it barely meeting the minimum requirement to even be described as a game of actual football. Obviously stenny was our worst result of the season but at the time I wasn’t as pissed off about it as I was about losing to Partick.

9 assists and 6 goals for Calvin Miller this season compared to Cadden getting 6 assists in a stronger team. I preferred Cadden to Miller during his time with us and he has done it in the top flight for longer, but on current form it has to be Miller

There are a decent amount of former ton players currently playing at a higher level and doing well so I thought I would try to come up with the strongest XI we could have at our disposal if we had been able to hold onto all our best players over the years. The only limitation I’ve put on this is that they just still be playing (or at least be of an age where they still could play if they don’t currently have a club), so it’s ok to include loans. In some cases I’ve picked players based on how they performed while with us (Muirhead, Grimshaw) and in others it’s based on the career the have had since leaving(Shankland, Findlay, Mcpake) a few honourable mentions - Kiltie & Cadden were both excellent for us but on current form I had to begrudgingly pick Miller I really wanted to get Jamie Brandon in there but with me lining up 4-4-2 and already having Mcentee & Grimshaw in the team it just wasn’t possible Welsh & Baird both deserve a shout at CB and even as I type this I’m wondering if I should have picked one of them ahead of Iredale. I could maybe have moved Iredale to LB and fitted one of them in but I really wish we had kept a hold of Strapp so I wanted him in there. Oksanen didn’t make a big impression while here, but he has gone on to get a big move to a club that regularly play in the UCL as well as becoming a Finnish international so he deserves a mention too. I don’t really follow Finnish or Kazakhstan football so haven’t seen enough to earn him a spot in the team Arguably Maciver & Oakley are better shouts than Muirhead but he was one of my favourite ton players in recent years and I love having a maverick type in the team so he gets the nod to partner Shankland up front in goal it’s very hard to pick between Schwake, Hamilton, Mullen & Storer in terms of how they played during their time with us - they were all excellent. Hamilton & Mullen don’t get much game time these days so I’ve ruled them out that basis. Arguably Schwake should be in there ahead of Storer by virtue of the level he is playing at (lining up against the likes of Messi as well as appearing in the concacaf champions league), but I’ve went for Storer just because of just how good he has been for us this season. Bold statement and totally moot point coming up, but I would say this XI would comfortably hold their own in the premiership and have a good chance of competing for top 6. I know that realistically we could never have kept this group of players to make it possible - it’s just a bit of fun thinking about “what if?”.

Fair enough, and yes I was looking at the players more on their individual merits rather than the squad as a whole. It should go without saying that if a better alternative is available in any given position then we should pursue it and let the incumbent move on. Beyond that, clearly there are calls the gaffer needs to make such as whether or not it’s the best use of resources to have 2 fullbacks on each side. He also has the opportunity to bring in players suited to how he wants to play as opposed to trying to make the most of what he has inherited mid-season supplemented with a couple of loans. That said, I wouldn’t be too upset if we did end up holding onto 15-18 of the current squad as long as we bring in quality replacements for the ones who move on. If we keep all of my keeps plus extending/signing the loanees from my list plus say 1 of the maybes, that would give us a starting point of 18 players who we know are capable at this level, while letting go of 7. If we could replace those 7 with 3 or 4 quality additions then I think we would have the makings of a very strong squad. Realistically not all of my “keep” players are going to stay even if we make them an offer, and the same goes for the loanees, so the actual turnover is likely going to be higher regardless of who we offer deals to.

Scott Brown & Steven Whittaker leave Scott Browns Ayr United by mutual consent

Already signed Murdoch - not ready to be number 1 but happy to have him signed & hopefully he can get some game time. Depending on what other goalies we sign he should probably go out on loan to get experience Moore - has been a class act since he came in. Absolutely delighted to have him signed up. Robertson - seems to have done well at EK. Looking forward to seeing him compete for a place in the team next season Brophy - unlike some on here I’m happy for us to have him signed for another season. If he stays fit then he will get double digit goals & that’s a very rare commodity at this level. Keep Wilson - what a player. Absolute baller Blues - unglamorous and often the brunt of unfair criticism. Always gives full effort and works unselfishly for the team. Also has a very decent finish on him. Moffat - can flatter to deceive at times but has looked better under Murray so I would be inclined to keep him Delaney - a few months ago I wouldn’t have been fussed about him but has really impressed me of late & has shown some great ability going forward. Owens - seemed a strange signing at the time but has looked absolute class. Defensively solid & comfortable on the ball. Get him signed. Ballantyne - very solid player at this level. Comrie - solid dependable player at this level Longridge - good experience, solid performer who can cover a couple of positions & has a good aerial threat from corners etc. MacPherson - excellent player at this level. I know he didn’t start well & also came with some “baggage” that upset a few folk, but he has become a really important player for us. You can see how much we struggled after him coming off yesterday. Maybe Gillespie - has had his best season in years. Probably worth keeping for his leadership & experience even if he won’t play every game. Shaw - Clearly has the ability & physical attributes to be very effective but disappoints & frustrates more often than not. I’m probably leaning toward letting him go but his involvements in both our goals yesterday show how useful he could be if the gaffer can get a tune out of him. Garrity - good player but lacks consistency. I’m on the fence with this one Release Taylor - looked promising before his injury but hasn’t had any game time since coming back. Clearly the gaffer doesn’t fancy him so no point keeping him around Mckay - like Taylor, not much point keeping him around if he isn’t in the managers plans. Crawford - looked really good at the start of the season before getting injured. I was looking forward to seeing him back in the team but it hasn’t happened for him. Another one who clearly isn’t part of the gaffers plans so need to let him go. O’Halloran - If he is moving into a coaching role then probably worth having him registered as backup but thats about it. Loans Lyall - send him back, good player but it just hasn’t worked out this time round. Main - would be fine with us keeping him as he offers something different from Brophy and has good experience at this level. Storer - unlikely, but if we could get him signed or extend the loan for another season I would be delighted Johnson - I would be ok with him extending his stay here if Storer goes, but we would need to bring in another keeper for a bit of cover/competition. Ideally we would be wanting an upgrade Lopota-White - If there’s a possibility of signing him we should do it. Not the finished article but has the tools to be a top player at this level.

Should have been 3-0 up at half time so very frustrating that we gave away a scrappy goal after missing a sitter and ended up riding our luck for the entire 2nd half. Massive 3 points so I will take it regardless of how poorly we played on the 2nd half.

partick have defended well tonight, created a few chances & are well worth a draw. So for karmas sake I hope they concede a late sucker punch - ideally from a soft penalty

Going into the game a defeat was always the most likely outcome given the relative league positions & form, but to lose in that manner is a massive kick in the balls. Very soft penalty and absolutely ridiculous red card. Even after going down to 10 we played well and did more than enough to come away with a draw at the very least. Losing a last minute goal is hard to take, made worse by how poorly the defence & keeper dealt with it. Missing an absolute sitter to equalise just adds insult to injury. From the outside looking in, most will look at the 4 defeats on the bounce and assume that we have completely collapsed and are in freefall, yet watching those games there have been positives to take from our performances as well as mitigating circumstances such as injuries, bad luck, sendings off & poor refereeing decisions. Very fine margins have made the difference with us taking 0 points out of our last 4 where we could very easily & deservedly have taken 3-5. I really hope that this run hasn’t dented the confidence of the squad too much as I definitely believe we still have enough to stay up. All our remaining fixtures are very much winnable and if we keep playing like we have been and also get some key players back for the run-in we should be fine but we are running out of fixtures so need to start picking up points soon.

The last 3 results have really put us back in it after it looking like we could start looking up rather than over our shoulder. I really hope we get Storer back soon as he has been the difference between lose vs draw or draw vs win so many times for us this season and we could really do with having him back for the run-in. It really is mental that we are still only 6 points off 4th (albeit with an extra game played) but at this stage I would bite your hand off for 8th. Let’s get this shitty season over and done with & rebuild for next season (hopefully in the championship)

The question as I recall was 2-fold, more along the lines of “is it true that Xander stepped down after months of protests against him, and has MCT reached out to Zwolle or fan groups for more details on this?” There was an awkward silence in the room & Xander said something like “Emm was that a question for me?”, then the MCT reps advised that the answer to their part of the question was “no”, before moving on. So from my perspective he did not answer it at all. Maybe a more specific question aimed at him would be useful along the lines of “how do you reflect on events that led to the fan protests prior to your departure?” Or something like that. If the answer is that they had to make a business decision and unfortunately upset a lot of fans as Bram van Polen was a club legend, and looking back could maybe have done a better job on how the situation was managed & communicated to Bram & the fans or something like that, then I would be absolutely fine with it (I don’t want to put words in the guys mouth and have just made this up as an example) Ultimately I would just like to see some acknowledgement of it from Xander and get his side of it, as without this it’s a bit of an elephant in the room. Seeing photos of Zwolle fans brandishing banners calling for Xander to leave could understandably make some people wary of him so better to address it. There’s every possibility that it was a tiny minority of vocal fans and that most of them were fine with him - I have no idea (which is why I would quite like more information on the matter)

Yeah that’s pretty much in line with my own findings & how I see the situation, but I would still like to hear how Xander reflects on it as it felt like the question was dodged (or maybe he didn’t understand it) at the Q&A. Ultimately a CEO has to make tough decisions & not every one of them is going to satisfy fans. It’s hard to argue with results on & off the field during his time at the club.

I believe the vote was due to close last night so hopefully we will see an announcement of the results at some point today. I have heard enough at this stage to vote yes/yes, but before going all in on this, I would like the following details to come out during the exclusivity period (assuming we proceed) 1. the reasons behind & timing of Czaikowskis departure from Zwolle 2. assurances around what happens in the event of Estrella defaulting on their financial commitment to the club (eg shares being transferred back to mct) 3. confirmation that there aren’t any tax issues arising from a sale of shares 4. exact details of how & to what extent EFG can exercise veto rights over financial decisions (eg setting first team budget) if those points are answered I would be happy to see us go forward with the deal

We charge £150 for a season pass & £80 for a half season, so it actually works out a bit cheaper than £20/month, but I do appreciate that means opposition fans who might otherwise fork out for a months pass to watch a single game won’t do the same for a half season pass. On the other hand the club has to get the balance right between providing a service that generates revenue vs potentially cannibalising other revenue if it leads to decreased gate numbers. I buy my tickets week by week because of my work & family situation, and know for sure that there have been a few times this season that given the option I might have streamed the game instead of attending so at £20/month there’s a chance this could end up costing the club money. Maybe the answer is to allow pay per game for “overseas fans” and price it the same as a match ticket. Not sure if there are maybe rules to prevent this?

The £500 thing is to stop people in the UK from buying them as there is a broadcast blackout for Saturday 3pm games (overseas subscribers get a code they enter at checkout that removes the £500). Any attempts we make to update our streaming offerings would be limited by this unfortunately, although I do think some clubs offer audio commentary

They have about 40k followers on YouTube & Instagram, and about 20k on TikTok. Those numbers are so impressive that I am actually inclined to wonder if they have come from click farms/bots but maybe I’m just too cynical. I think Xander did mention that they have attracted 100k people to watch their match streams but the only way I can get to this number is either by combining their total # subs across the 3 platforms or maybe by taking the total # views combined from all their historic match streams (which usually get about 1000 views, with a handful of exceptions that had much more)

Taking the clubs I mentioned above, even with decline in population Inverclyde is comparable to Paisley & Kilmarnock so I still think there could be scope for us to increase attendances if we got things right on & off the park for a sustained period. In terms of online engagement & attracting international interest via social media & merchandise etc, it feels like it’s a bit of a free hit if the guys have stuff in place to let us try & do that without having to take any big risks

Very positive meeting with the exception of a few times it went off track with stuff like Easdales chat & disagreements over disbanding of the u18s team I thought both guys spoke very well and their footballing CVs are impressive (as are those of the others involved in the group). I am actually feeling less concerned about the exit strategy now than I was before. They were clear that a 3 year deal doesn’t mean 3 and done - they are looking at it as a long term partnership and there’s every chance it will continue beyond the 3 years depending on how it works out. Others have raised concerns about the comment that at some point in the future they could sell the group to another investor (meaning their share in the club would be sold to another party without our oversight). From my point of view this makes complete sense - these guys believe that by collecting a group of partner clubs, they can improve the performance & value of the clubs via their investment, expertise & technology. If this is a success then they could sell this group on to other investors and walk away with a profit. I don’t see the problem with this - it answers the ”what’s in it for them?” question, and is only going to have a chance of happening if they are successful in improving the teams in the group. It sounded like Xander was open to having clauses in the share transfer that would revert shares back to MCT in the event of Estrella going out of business or failing to meet their financial commitments - again, answering one of the big concerns I had over the deal. There were quite a few questions/comments (both on here and in the room) about their plans being unrealistic/over ambitious due to the size of our club, general malaise of our performances in the last 40 years & ability to attract more fans due to proximity with the big 2 in Glasgow. Personally when looking back at the past 40 years i see clubs like Kilmarnock, who were only getting 1500-2000 fans as recently as the last time we were in the top flight and more recently St Mirren, who as a fan-owned club have managed to establish themselves in the top flight through being well-run on & off the field. Both of these clubs are closer to Glasgow than us & for most of their existence would have been considered similar sized clubs to us, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that we could attract more fans if we had a sustained period of improved performance. This of course takes time, but represents an opportunity nonetheless. There were quite a few cries along the lines of “aye but this is scottish fitba, it’s different up here” etc. I actually think having input from guys with this background who aren’t shackled by perceptions of what is/isn’t possible in Scotland is a positive thing. If we are going to reject their ambitious vision & accept that we are the size & level we are, then at best will always stay exactly where we are and never improve.

I took that as meaning that rather than just being a “sponsor your local team” deal with local companies(or relying on the goodwill of fans like Brian), having a more robust approach to how they handle data would allow them to approach a wider range of sponsors by being able to provide stats on the levels of engagement & demographics that our outreach would give them. But yeah I get that at one point he uttered words along the lines of “we give sponsors the fan data”. Clearly they couldn’t share personal information due to dpa/gdpr etc (something these guys are definitely aware of) so that part of the answer was maybe poorly worded.

I think the risk of this happening is very low. It’s been made pretty clear that it’s the clubs decision on whether or not to use the products on offer(and with regard to the analytics stuff it was stated at the meeting that it would be up to Murray & his staff). If we do start using some or all of these services, a decision not to renew in the future wouldn’t require a special resolution by the board so Estrella would have limited/no power to force us into doing so. With them having 2 board appointees there are also legal responsibilities to be considered - I’m pretty sure it would be against company law for a director of company A to try and push them into an unfavourable contract with company B when the director has a stake in company B and the deal is unfavourable to company A.

Having read & re-read the document a few times I am feeling pretty positive about it. I think the money involved is fair in terms of valuation of the equity they would receive. Having a significant share in the club gives them some skin in the game and an incentive to make a success of it. I would definitely like the deal to be structured in a way that their shares are vested over the 3 year period as the payments are recieved, or if the share transfer happens up front then have some sort of reverse ratchet in place to return the shares to MCT in the event of Estrella not meeting their commitment. In terms of what happens after the 3 years, I would expect that will depend on how the club and EFG have performed over that time - I certainly wouldn’t expect them to just be walking away holding on to their shareholding while putting no more into the club - that would be in nobody’s interests including theirs. Having some sort of clause in there to cover any potential exit strategy would be good - maybe setting terms that give MCT first refusal on buying back their shares, or even just a portion of them to take us over 75%. The thing I’m most impressed with is the clear strategy to modernise how the club operates rather than focusing on short term investment on the field. Looking into the backgrounds of the guys involved in Estrella also gives me a lot of comfort that they are the real deal and aren’t from the Ketan Makwana school of made up LinkedIn spiv fantasists. On top of the cash investment and potential value of any tech we use, there is actually value in having guys of that calibre & expertise being involved in the running of the club.

Info pack went out with tonight’s MCT update. Definitely worth the wait to get so much detailed information in there. Absolute night & day in comparison to the document that we were sent by the interim board with details of this seasons Dalrada proposal. Great work by Toby & team thanks for your efforts guys

Not sure where he is fitness-wise but I noticed Stuparevic was released by Motherwell in January - could be a good option to offer him a deal til the end of the season if he has recovered from his injury. Murray said there was a possibility of bringing in more players if the right ones were available and we can still sign free agents if I’m not mistaken.

Same article suggests Brophys injury nothing serious - he was taken off as a precaution & Murray expects him to be available for Saturday which is great news too.

Dominant performance for the majority of the game - 5-0 would still have flattered Dunfermline. It’s hard to believe just how big an improvement we have seen under Murray (notwithstanding stenny) in such a short space of time. The entire defence deserve massive praise - Ballantyne & Delaney have somehow transformed into Cafu & Maldini, White has looked very solid (albeit with 1 or 2 dodgy moments we got away with), and Shug -just wow…what a player. I was worried when I heard Storer was injured, but Johnson has looked really assured. Mental to think that a makeshift defence with a CM at CB, and young loanee keeper & CB can have performed so well in the last 2 games. It gave me the fear prior to the Raith game, but my fears were unfounded. Garrity & Moff were both excellent, but again often lacked the final ball. In particular Moffat repeatedly got into good positions only to balloon a cross out of the park. He needs to just simplify things a bit & go for an easier pass instead of trying to float it in. Gillespie & MacPherson excellent in midfield too - Gillespie looked done under Imrie, but now he is playing 90 mins twice in 4 days. Brophy took his goal well but was breathing out his arse by about 55 mins and should already have been hooked by the time he went down injured - hopefully he is ok. Main looked better last night than against Raith - he kept pressing right up til the end when the rest of the team looked to have run out of steam. Nothing really came off for him but I’m glad to have him in & think he will be a useful player to have in the squad. Game management at 2-0 up and against 10 men was poor, and we could easily have let them back into the game. Maybe a combination of tiredness along with just naturally taking the foot off the gas when 2 in front. Definitely need to work on that. I never thought I would be saying this but I don’t miss Imrieball in the slightest. edit to add - not sure if any of you stand in the middle back area of the shed(dunning?) but someone in front of us was dropping the worst farts I’ve ever smelled for the entirety of the game. It was so bad that I missed the incident leading to the 2nd penalty as I was literally bowled over & reeling from the stench of a fresh one he had just dropped. Absolutely howling