Greacen2000

he did’t represent them but has more of a relationship with our sponsor than any of the MCT leadership, and had only remained in place on their insistence. nobody here is saying that it was a good idea to post his allegations on official club channels, and MCT have acknowledged it was a mistake to do so. It happened - move on no tippy toeing or hypothetical hurt. Just the fact that Dalrada contribute a lot of money to the club and if there’s a way of moving forward without entirely burning our bridges with them, I’m in favour of it. I only mentioned an alternative to Dalrada because you started going on about how you had some ideas about “a comparable local sponsor”. As I have made very clear in literally dozens of posts on this and other threads, I am not happy with the power dynamic in our dalrada relationship as it stands. Where you & I seem to differ is that I would like to at least try and address these issues without “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. your hypothetical “short shift” that would be given to other imaginary partners is completely irrelevant as it only exists in your mind. The fact of the matter is that Dalrada were only given these concessions because the GMFC board and interim MCT board failed to present any alternative sources of funding, and the vote was timed in such a way as to make it highly coercive, almost amounting to “accept this or go into administration”. If the same people had been on both boards, the timing had been the same & the amount of money the same, I highly doubt that any imaginary alternative partner would have been given the short shrift you claim.

I am assuming no such thing. All I’m assuming is that in good faith, the MCT board are acting in what they see as the best interests of the club, as opposed to the suggestion some on here (not you) have made that Dean, Russell et al have suddenly become shills for the supposed Dalrada controlled puppet board of GMFC. In lieu of a comparable alternative I think it is prudent for them to try avoiding damaging the relationship with our sponsor. If you have ideas for a comparable local alternative then you might be better focusing your efforts on engaging with MCT and putting them in contact with them as opposed to mewling about it on here. wrong again - if anything, all I’m assuming here is that it’s the purpose of the MCT board to represent their membership while acting in the best interests of the club. At times, there will be people on here & in the MCT membership who don’t agree with their actions. When this happens, there are processes in place to enact change if you don’t think the MCT board are doing a good job (as toby mentioned earlier). As I said above, until a viable alternative is on the table, I think it’s a good idea for MCT to try and avoid needlessly pissing off Brian Bonar if there’s a chance of forging a productive relationship moving forward. If of course you have an alternative sponsor waiting the wings I would strongly suggest you take this proposal to the MCT leadership. nor do I, and I’ve never suggested so agreed - once the statement is published, the cat is out the bag so to speak. There are countless examples of inadvisable tweets or comments made on social media by celebrities which have been deleted, only for the deletion of the screenshotted content to become more of a story than the original content. In the interest of transparency I think leaving the statement up while posting a follow up statement was the right thing to do

No. I’m not happy to be held to ransom by a sponsor. What i said was that(if the intentions of said sponsor are true) then I think it’s a good idea for the MCT board to go about their business in a way that will hopefully put them in a position to deal directly with Dalrada without the need for the likes of Laird/Robinson etc to be kept in place at their behest. I am not in any way giving support to the GMFC board, let alone claiming that they are “the adults in the room”. All I’m saying is that MCT slating the GMFC board & questioning the veracity of the claims made by our former advisory club chair with no formal decision making power might not be the best play at this stage if we are to maximise the chances of continuing the relationship with our sponsor on a basis where the tail stops wagging the dog.

The MCT statement & also Toby in here have acknowledged that it was a mistake to allow our former advisory club chair to air his allegations through official club channels. Move on. i think it’s unreasonable to expect MCT to come out all guns blazing and criticise the club & question Lairds allegations. Regardless of our and their own feelings on the matter, they are duty bound to take them at face value until any evidence to the contrary is at hand. Coming out gung ho and giving both barrels to Laird & the club would do even more damage. Back in the summer, Bonar insisted upon Laird & Robinson remaining at the club because he didn’t have any experience of dealing with the MCT board and he needed people who he could trust. Taking the diplomatic approach is the right thing to do at this time of we want to build Bonars trust in MCT and start to see them as people he can deal with

Oh well maybe not then

The same thought did cross my mind when Murray was confirmed. I would be delighted as there’s definitely a good player in there if he can get a bit of form back. I wonder if we might see him come here with Adeloye heading in the opposite direction. From what I have read on p&b it seems like most rovers fans don’t fancy him. I thought he might be the kind of player Imrie could help improve but if they have signed another striker then maybe he isn’t part of their plans.

For all the good times that we had under the Raes, the legacy they left was one of chronic mismanagement, neglect of the commercial side of the club, overspending on playing squad with little/no return, culminating in us being saddled with a large amount of debt. Had it not been for the work done by MCT, we could have faced an existential crisis or even found ourselves in a situation where the stadium was still owned by the Rae family. I wouldn’t say a bad word about Douglas Rae as he was a passionate fan and only ever wanted the best for the club. His only mistake was allowing his passion for the club to cloud his judgement at times, but I will always be grateful for him saving us & giving us some very memorable moments. Once he passed and the club was left in the hands of Crawford, it was very much a case of managed decline as the rest of the family clearly didn’t share DDFs passion for the club and understandably wanted to protect their inheritance etc.

I’m delighted with this - not to mention relieved after some of the names that were banded about in the last few weeks. Alongside the departure of our club chair, I’m actually feeling really positive going into 2026 - something I couldn’t have seen myself saying a week ago.

Why are you repeating something you already said(and got a response to) 2 weeks ago?

I assume that there is evidence of this intolerable level of personal abuse that Laird & his family have been subjected to, and that the club will be taking suitable action against those responsible? If not, then it should not be mentioned in the statement. The reality is that his position has been untenable due to his utter failure in every aspect of the role. Hopefully it is not too late to undo the damage he has caused

wonderful news to start the new year. Blaming personal abuse towards him & his family is disappointing but also unsurprising. He has been an abject failure during his time at the club and was only here on the insistence of our sponsor. Good riddance.

you don't need to worry about any of that stuff VT - we have a purely advisory "Club Chair" with no formal decision making powers on the case! He has promised to turn us into a proper full time professional outfit off the park by recruiting for key roles on an organogram he has made. nothing to see here, move along

If true then this is deeply concerning. Both that we offered the job to Rankin and even more so that he has knocked us back. It’s becoming ever more clear (as if it wasn’t already) that major changes are needed. I was in favour of avoiding the nuclear option and taking more of a “wait and see” approach but am starting to come round to the way of thinking that we ought to empty the individuals responsible for this shambles as soon as possible

Merry Christmas Peter. Possibly Brightons former home the Goldstone ground?

I was able to get a transcript from an archived snapshot of the videos metadata. The speech recognition is pretty ropey so it’s a tough read but the whole thing can be viewed here - https://filmot.com/sidebyside/hassHbhYkUU/auto.en/auto.en/English+(auto-generated)/English+(auto-generated)/Morton+Matchday+Programme+|+EP+6+|+Partick+Thistle+(H)/‘TonTV for your convenience I’ve had a go at tidying up the section with the interview between Gareth & Brian GR - Brian, first of all, thank you so much for for joining us for this interview today. I suppose how's it feel to be back over in Scotland and coming along to a Morton game? BB - Just say that it's nothing like San Diego. When I left San Diego, it was 78°, beautiful sunshine, and uh you know what it's like here. GR - Dalrada of course has played such an important part of Morton's journey in recent years. What does the the partnership mean to you personally? BB - It's kind of selfish. Um it's my way of giving back. Uh I came from humble beginnings in Beville Street just above Cappielow and uh I used to sneak into the stadium cuz my father couldn't afford a ticket. So this is maybe me repaying all the free games I had. GR - And one thing that your company and the club share of course is that community value. I suppose how does that connect with a community owned club like Morton? BB - It it's quite simple. I mean I think the thing that's struggled with Morton and MCT and the charity organization has been they all seem to work in separate silos. And I think for the first time I can honestly feel that's changed and it was a long time coming but I think we're on the cusp of that change. We’ve got to harness it. We’ve got to work together and we’ve got to drive forward and by doing that we'll fulfill anybody's dreams. GR - And you mentioned there a period of stability recently looking to to move forward and and really grow from a a business leaders perspective. What exactly are you excited about most for Mortons next chapter? BB - I want to see us in the Premier League. Uh I mean Billy Davis coming here to support Doogie Imrie is a bit like the old bull and the young bull. Dougie out there the young bull and Billy's the old bull. And it it's a balance that's we're very very fortunate to have. And I think by harnessing that, getting the right support behind them from all of the three organizations, the club board, the MCT, and the the charitable board, it'll work wonders if it can be done. GR - You of course run companies, successful companies across different areas. What parallels do you see between that and and the football aspect? BB - The only difference between that and the football aspect is that I don't have a fan base with the emotions that rightly and deserve to be heard and that's a bit of a distraction from a business point of view. So it's striking that balance is keeping the fans happy and at the same time running the business of the club and that's a challenge but it's a challenge it's easy to overcome. GR - And just finally as well have to ask of course here at the game today against airdrie what's the the one thing you love most about coming to a Morton match day ? BB - to see them win and I think it's been unfortunate over the last number of games and not not to cry over spilled milk but you know there's been some bad refereeing decisions I think acknowledged even by the Scottish Football Association but nobody can undo that. So, what we got to do is move forward, put all that behind us, and go score some goals and win the damn game. GR - Well, Brian, thank you for sitting down today and having a chat with us and again, thank you for the the support that the the company provides the the club and the community as well. BB - Look forward to doing it for a long time.

maybe it is just wishful thinking, but let me at least try to explain my reasoning to you... At the point of the deal being agreed (with the Laird & Robinson continuation clause), I can kind of understand Brian wanting to keep them in place, since against the background of monumental upheaval of both boards they were the 2 guys who he trusted (given that it was Sam who brought him in, and Laird who had travelled to meet him & carry out negotiations etc). He held a direct relationship with them, and wasn't wanting to hand over his money to a bunch of strangers. I might not like it, but I can understand why he did it. As a successful businessman however, I would like to think that Brian is capable of changing his views on a person once they have a track record against which their performance can be measured. As such I would love to see our MCT reps on the board (or at a joint board meeting), propose a progress review against the stated goals. Let Laird give them a readout of how well his plan to make us "a proper full time professional operation off the park by filling key roles" is going & let Sam give them an update on how well he is progressing against his targets of "generating net-new 6 figure commercial revenues" & "increasing corporate uptake of hospitality packages". The mechanism you speak of is to actually raise it formally in a board meeting where the request & response will be minuted and on the record. If Brians desire to make us more professional & successful on & off the pitch is genuine, then I would hope that making zero progress against the above goals is something he would not view favourably, and as such his position on keeping Laird & Robinson in place might soften when their abject failures come to light

Based on the complete arse the clubs leadership are currently making of everything else both on & off the park, there’s nothing to suggest that bringing retail in house would be any sort of an improvement. on the contrary, at this stage I would have more confidence in doing the opposite by handing over day-to-day running of the club to Smiths and entrusting them to hire a new manager etc. In all seriousness though - I am all for us having a partnership with a local business. They give us a prominent window display and town centre footfall - something that would come at considerable cost if we tried to do it ourselves(and that’s before we even start to look at staffing costs etc). when it comes to the online element of the store, I think smiths do a pretty good job of this. Yes by bringing it in house we could improve the margin we make, but only if we actually do a good job of running the thing. Based on the evidence of the clubs official website I have zero faith that we would do half as good a job as smiths do.

And Shankland doubles it

Findlay gives Hearrs the lead against Rangers

Wow, what an absolute doing. Shocking performance from start to finish. Just think how much worse it might have been if we weren’t so lucky to have the benefit from Billy’s vast experience in the game

sorry if i gave you the impression that my suggestion was implying that I think said goals are in any way credible or genuine. I don’t. But they do differ from Dales in 1 important respect - he didn’t hang around long enough to be judged upon his, whereas Robinson and Laird are still here. What I’m saying is that rather than taking the nuclear option of emptying Robinson and Laird at the earliest opportunity (which in doing so would carry the risk of funding being withdrawn) we should instead challenge them to demonstrate the progress(or lack thereof) made against their own self-defined performance goals I 100% agree. So let him be held answerable to it per my response to 1) It certainly seems that way, but I’m ok with waiting to see what comes out in the January meeting. fair enough. I agree with everything you are saying here & i very much want to expedite meaningful change as soon as possible. I’m just not willing to do it if it risks destabilising the club & jeopardising the funding to see us through at least until the end of the season (which would be the case unless Bonar has a change of heart on the requirement that Laird & Robinson remain in place). If moves are made to remove Robinson & Laird while Bonar still wants them to remain in place, then we will in fact find ourselves in exactly the same position as we were over the summer. I 100% share your fears here. I am just not sure that emptying Laird & Robinson at the first opportunity is the best move. My reasons being 1. as stated above it would break a condition of this seasons funding agreement 2. The club is already running on fumes from a leadership & administrative POV with no GM or Finance Director in place, so unless there are better options waiting to step in and replace them, I don’t think emptying 2 guys who are actively involved in the day to day running of the club is a good idea.

@Admin for the benefit of those who want to keep abreast of progress in the hunt for our new manager/coach but aren't interested in all the political shenanigans, it might be worth moving the last 2 pages of this thread into the "Developing MCT/GMFC Board Situation" thread as it has went way off of that topic(and yes, I know that I have been just as much a part of that as anyone else - sorry).

From the outside looking in I would agree, but I doubt Brian is seeing things from the same perspective that we are as fans. Laird & Robinson hold a direct relationship with him so are probably being judged on the narrative they set in those engagements more so than the things we are observing and discussing on here day to day. This can only last so long though - if failure to deliver on stated objectives continues then eventually they will run out of excuses, and hopefully Brian will see this for what it is. As our MCT representative on the GMFC board I would fully expect him to be in regular dialogue with the MCT leadership team, but only Graham or members of the MCT board can really answer this one properly.

Going down the vote of no confidence route now might not lead to the best outcome for anyone. Making moves to remove Robinson and/or Laird right now (or at EGM in January) would lead us very quickly to a similar situation that we found ourselves in during the close season. It is in nobody's interest to have MCT & GMFC back at loggerheads with each other, especially when we are still in the early days of rebuilding trust and trying to foster a productive working relationship between the 2 boards. In addition, the requirement from Brian Bonar that our funding is conditional on Robinson & Laird remaining in role would render any such move impotent insofar as we would essentially be choosing between remove Laird & Robinson and don't have enough money to pay our bills for the rest of the season maintain status quo and keep the money flowing in Add to this the fact that the club are already chronically understaffed (no GM or Finance director for starters), it might not be a good idea to remove 2 guys who are actively involved in the day-to day running of the club with no succession planning in place. As has been mentioned above & by Toby in the MCT thread, there are plans in place to appoint a 2nd MCT rep to the board in the near future. This will redress the imbalance in the board room, which I think this is the most sensible starting point for fixing the issues with how the club is being run. Both Robinson & Laird have publicly stated performance goals. If they fail to deliver against these, then I would hope that Brian's views on their removal might soften. If on the other hand they do deliver demonstrable results, then maybe they don't need removed after all. I am not happy with Robinson & Laird at the moment, and am especially unhappy that their positions are only tenable due to it being a condition of Dalrada funding. All I actually care about though is Morton being successful, so I actually want Laird & Robison to make a success of their roles. If they fail to do that and Bonar continues to insist on them remaining in place, questions must be asked.

tried this a couple of days ago - hilarious stuff