TopCat

I think McGinn brings us back up to 22 (if you include O'Boy). Don't see more being added unless the likes of King or Garrity get decent League 1 loan deals lined up.

I'm not even willing to give this one a chance. A truly ridiculous signing from Imrie. Crawford was atrocious the last time, hasn't kicked a ball for a full year for a terrible St. Johnstone team and just turned 33.

MCT still generates some really weird, overly negative reactions. 3 years of fan ownership has delivered 3 years of championship football and a huge financial turnaround. That already counts as success for a provincial club at this level, no matter what happens next. No ownership model will make us immune to losing players or getting relegated. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than it was under the Raes. Its also a lot better than the alternative (which was, and still is, nothing).

I don't think the rambling nature of the update videos are helping with this impression. I'd much rather see a concise 5 minute segment on what's happened in the last couple of months, plus a summary of what the plan is going forward. If the fan zone idea is dead in the water, he should openly say that and give reasons why. Footballing discussion should be left entirely to Imrie as well.

I hope they are signing him. He was awful for Livi and Aberdeen and has barely kicked a ball at a much lower level since then.

I'd bite your hand off for Todorov and Grimshaw, we'd be a totally different animal with them in the team. Seems like wishful thinking that we'd get both of them though.

I think Imrie overdoes the public criticism at times, but neither of them are good enough for Championship football based on last season's performances.

Rangers all but confirmed to be playing at Hampden for the first quarter of the season at least. Unclear at this stage what impact this will have on the ridiculous, hipster nonsense of a club that is Queens Park.

I think this is one of the real limitations of the fan ownership model. Generating enough lump sum cash to do something like a fan zone upgrade or a replacement of the cow shed roof is a real challenge. Selling chunks of shares is probably the only realistic way to entice that level of investment.

I'd hope Broadfoot is only signed up as cover for seeing games out/winter conditions, but pre-season training probably hits a player of his age a bit harder than the others.

I don't really care what Muirhead does now, as long as he doesn't score against us. Even if he'd stayed, I suspect that he wouldn't have gotten near his goals tally of last season in any case. Hopefully our new, younger, quicker front line can get us more goals next season.

Its a simple question really, given that we've got a fixed budget: Should Imrie cut e.g. the striker/midfielder pot by 400 quid a week and give it to Strapp because he's that good/the fans like him so much? The obvious answer to that is no, particularly given his history of injury, falling out with Imrie and the fact that we were short of goals even before losing Oakley, Crawford and Muirhead. All of this is also based on the assumption that he even wants to stay with Morton/in the Championship, making the wailing about this particular bit of transfer business all the more ridiculous.

I don't have any great concerns that we're in a similar situation to Rae's big cutback after the 2nd place finish left him scunnered*. At least 7 or 8 clubs will undoubtedly have bigger budgets, but I also don't think they're likely to generate significantly better players with them (see Dunning's references to Ayr's various diddy journeymen as well as their current squad). The big challenge for Imrie this season is is that he's going to be operating in a more competitive central belt market and that he needs to find ~ 10 players (5 starters) from the rough diamond category we normally draw from. Even with a generous hit rate of say 70%, carrying 3 complete duds like Boyd in a 20-man squad could easily land us in bother. *note on the limitations of sugar daddy underwriting of club debt - you're also beholden to their whims. Rae caused that abysmal season and we'd likely have hit administration within a year if MCT hadn't gotten off the ground. This situation will likely happen to some of the clubs currently chucking money down a big hole.

Livi have had a similar clearout to us, Airdrie have had their promotion bounce, Hamilton are unlikely to be brilliant, Ayr are Ayr, Queens Park appear locked in a permashambles behind the scenes. Partick and Raith will likely lose players to the bottom 6. We've still got about 10 players to sign and its only May. The players we've lost weren't irreplaceable superstars at this level, and I include Strapp and Oakley in that.

The Record reporting that Gillespie, Blues and Broadfoot will be signing new contracts.

Apologies, got Waters' first spell mixed up with the Mark Russell return where him and Russell were playing together/in competition. My point on fitness and relationship with Imrie stands though. He's not Jai, but it's a question mark. I also don't think we should be breaking the bank for a left back in any case.

Completely agree with this - it's also worth noting that Strapp has a track record of injuries, falling out with Imrie and being kept out of the team by a mediocrity like Waters. A big offer for Strapp has a fair amount of risk attached to it - he'd be absorbing a bigger chunk of the budget and we'd need to consider more expensive backup options, rather than a cheap loan deal or a young player. We had Waters and Strapp on the books last season, presumably accounting for £1400p/w+ of the budget. That seems excessive for the left back position, even if the overall budget goes up.

If Imrie e.g. only rates him as a mid-table quality left back, then that's the offer we should make. It's down to the manager (and the club management) to decide who gets top-earner offers, not the fans. Imrie released Strapp in the past, I don't think it's a stretch to assume he's just not a huge admirer.

Doom-mongering rumours from ITK folk who are vaguely associated with the club should be treated with as much credence as folk in the Tele comments section spouting mental opinions about the council. Having some information doesn't equate to understanding. As for Arbroath, their strategy was clearly to be the best part-time club in Scotland. The size of their fanbase and financial backing doesn't lend itself to success in a full time model. Our strategy has been to scrape by at the bottom of the full-time level for the last 2 years and aim to gradually improve on that going forward. Arbroath having a bigger budget than Morton while we were at a financial low point isn't that ridiculous a proposition.

I know a few Ayr fans who seem to think they're paying more than a grand a week to a fair number of their squad. Oakley has been great to watch at cappielow, but there's no way we should be paying him e.g. £1200 a week.

Yep. Our overall goals total needs to increase next season. I'm not sure just adding an upgraded right winger to the Muirhead-Crawford-Oakley combo would have done that. Muirhead wasn't the greatest as a lone CF or in a pair with Oakley and Imrie got the best out of him by playing him on the left in a sort of a free role (relative to Imrie-ball). Oakley and Crawford then created plenty of space for Muirhead to exploit effectively from there. The big downside to that setup is that Robbie was never great at consistently pressing, tackling, getting to the byeline to put crosses in or tracking back (save a couple of short spells where he was focused enough for that last part), i.e. all the stuff you'd expect a competent left-mid to do. We won't be able to sign a replacement who will score 15+ goals in a season, but we might be able to get a player who can do all those other bits much better, assuming the system will now change a bit.

Gillespie and Broadfoot are both known quantities, perfectly capable of making 15/20 appearances next season. I don't have an issue with either of them staying on, assuming they're both just backup/late sub options. We also aren't exactly blessed with a plethora of coaching staff so a bit of experience in the squad doesn't hurt.

Imrie and Morton have revived the fortunes of a number of players who had hit a bit of a dip in their careers - Muirhead, Crawford, Oakley, Gillespie, Quitongo, Wilson and even Strapp (to an extent) fall into that bracket. I'm fully confident Dougie can continue to do that, particularly with a slightly bigger budget behind him. The likes of Muirhead, Oakley and Crawford moving on after a couple of years good service is always going to be the norm for us. Chucking big wages and multi-year deals at mid-table level players in in their late 20s in order to keep them is far riskier than trying to look for replacements who sit comfortably within our budget. I'd argue that Arbroath fell foul of this exact issue in the last 18 months - their premium part time squad ended up with too many miles on the clock.

Our win rate without Oakley (league games) is zero for the season. We beat Elgin and Stranraer in cup games in his absence.

Will our financial position be significantly worse than Ayr, Airdrie, Livi and Inverness/Hamilton? Falkirk, Queens Park, Dunfermline, Partick and one of Raith/St Johnstone/Ross County would normally outbid us in a straight offer but I don't see any reason as to why we couldn't compete directly with the first group for signings.