BishopBrennan

Mods.

I will double my MCT subscription if someone at the club cuts the power and hot water to the away changing room just before full time.

I know that it's been raised to the 'powers that be' at the club at least once, and that was at the start of the season. As you say, the stewards themselves may not be the root cause of the issue, but it's something that the club need to take action on. Stewards are representatives of the club and if they're not treating customers in the correct manner then it's up to the club to ensure they either change their approach or seek alternative employment. The incident VT mentions in the OP could quite easily see us alienate a young fan forever. That's not good enough.

Mods.

Today was yet another 'sliding doors' moment for MCT. I made the point on the podcast that the attitude the players have towards the fans is either reinforced, or even stems, from those inside the club. Today's replies to James Binnie, in particular, were incredibly galling and pulled back the curtain to the views that exist inside MCT. That showed a complete lack of self-awareness from whoever was tweeting from the MCT account, and I'd be incredibly interested to learn who it was. We've now had 18 months of middle-management business jargon from the folk in charge. Rather than hit us with bluster and bullshit bingo - get your fingers out and start showing tangible results. It's been spoken about and planned internally since the takeover was announced. It's also worth bearing in mind that, during this time period, an individual with outstanding professional commercial credentials was so frustrated with MCT that he felt the need to walk away. Cut the bluster. Cut the bullshit. It's time to shit or get off the pot and admit you're out of your depth. I absolutely cannot believe that we're sitting here, less than 48 hours after Sir Douglas has returned, speaking negatively about both Morton and MCT. What a shite situation, on the back of the biggest opportunity both parties have at a second chance to win over the fanbase. An entirely underwhelming announcement of Sir Douglas getting the job and now this utter tripe. It certainly isn't the 'Big Bad Morton Fans' that are to blame for wanting a bit of positive engagement and the completely unreasonable request of *checks notes* the club maximising their commercial activity at Christmas. In fact, if we need to up commercial income, I might develop and sell my own MCT Bullshit Bingo drinking game. 'The club definitely need to improve X', 'Moving forward', 'I don't disagree', 'We're committed to', 'Jumping through hoops' and 'Engaging with fans' are all one shot each. This could get messy.

One uninformed decision (amateur directors appointing a DoF), followed by a series of decisions being made with a more informed decision-making model, is going to have a higher success rate than the current model. Increasing the expertise we have in our football decision-making model increases the amount of footballing decisions we're going to get right. Absolutely nobody is suggesting that a DoF appointment is going to be a magic wand that means we never get another footballing decision wrong. It's optimising our football decision making to ensure that we are, at the very least, guided and advised by someone with industry expertise. Nobody in the fanbase would accept amateurs signing off on the club's books or writing up the takeover agreement between MCT and Golden Casket because they'd an amateur interest in accountancy or law for thirty years. The potential consequences are catastrophic. The fact that our representatives on the Morton board are in favour of this approach in footballing operations, the most important facet of the club, is as unacceptable as it is staggering. Anyone, upto and including the people on the current club board who have appointed themselves as football decision makers, who can't comprehend the case for a DoF are simply choosing not to.

Absolutely. With a good sporting director overseeing the footballing facets of the club, and Chris Ross overseeing the business facets of the club, we are fan owned and expert run. That's the pitch we were given when asked to get involved in this project. Whilst we've amateurs making footballing decisions, making an arse of it, and refusing to answer the fanbase on the back of it, we're a million miles away from that.

The justification for not appointing a sporting director in the Morton Q+A concerned me hugely. I'd argue the exact opposite point - Morton simply can't afford not to appoint a sporting director. MCT membership is nowhere near where it was predicted to be at this point of the first season; MCT's credibility seems to be dwindling by the month; and, largely thanks to MCT's first footballing decision, results on the pitch are pish. I'd say that appointing a successful SD/DoF would go some way to turning the tide on all the biggest issues currently facing MCT.

I know of at least one person who submitted a question related to the Lithgow signing.

I’ve just watched the Q&A (twice), and to say it is uninspiring is being generous. I have absolutely no qualms with the footballing aim of the season being Championship survival, along with striving for sustainability. Between Lesley Ann, who could sell snow to the Eskimos, and Chris Ross coming on board with a solid background of income generation, I’ve got no concerns that the club will maximise revenues. I took issue when my question about football expertise on the board was kicked into the long grass. This issue has been raised for the best part of a year now, both internally and externally, so blustered ‘we’re considering it’ type answers really don’t cut the mustard at this stage of proceedings. This is particularly galling when our football decision model thus far has left us as the lowest scoring team in the SPFL with a manager we don’t seem able to sack because of the length of deal we offered. Stability can quite easily be achieved at this level with one year rolling contracts. If only there had been someone in place at the time to advise the board of that… I don’t buy the ‘when finances allow’ argument either. It was acknowledged at least once in the video that a winning football team on the pitch helps boost crowds and engagement, which were stated as key aims of the club in the near future. So, improving footballing performance has tangible benefits to the rest of the club. A good appointment to oversee footballing operations could quite easily justify their salary through an increase in league prize money alone. I'd go as far as arguing that Morton can't afford not to appoint a Sporting Director. To examine the worst-case outcome, MCT overseeing a limp-wristed relegation in their first season will affect their credibility massively. I’d argue that MCT are quite a way behind where they expected to be at this stage of the project in terms of their membership numbers, gaining the trust of the fanbase and their overall credibility. I’m open to all accusations of hyperbole, but if MCT do not change the current manager and/or their governance model, and the club go down this year, it will be the first nail in Morton Club Together’s coffin. And a large one at that. I can see absolutely no positive case for amateurs continuing to make footballing decisions at the club who already have a professional reputation that is lower than a snake’s arse. I also found the choice not to name Gus’ immediate line manager strange. Where exactly does that decision fit into the ‘open, honest and transparent’ policy we were pitched? Taking the current state of affairs at face value, and giving MCT the benefit of the doubt, it is poor decision making that I’d label as ‘penny wise and pound foolish’. Ineffective football decision making at board level will hinder the club’s results, reputation and therefore engagement and ultimately finances. If you were to take a more cynical look at the current set-up, it would appear that we have a director who simply wants to play Dougie Rae on our money, whilst lurking in the shadows to avoid any potential repercussions. Neither of those scenarios are acceptable, and both could quite easily have disastrous consequences.

You're spot on there. We are on opposing sides of the debate, you were comfortable with the signing when I wasn't. But we've both recognised the need for the club to listen (something I don't think MCT do enough of currently) to concerned supporters and offer them a friendly ear at the very least. The club board, and in particular the director who took it upon himself to make this decision, showed ignorance and nonchalance in abundance on this issue, and I sincerely hope that MCT have learned lessons from the whole debacle.

Putting your obtuse nonsense to one side, there are certain issues that fan owned clubs should absolutely seek guidance from the support on. Votes on Colts teams being included in senior competitions is one such issue that I think it would be appropriate for the fanbase to decide en mass. The decision to bring a sex offender to a community club is another issue where the fanbase should have their concerns heard. I'm not suggesting that some sort of fan vote on the issue was required, but it was a decision that should have been taken by more than one club director, as is my understanding of what happened in that instance. The signing of a convicted sex offender was always going to be contentious, bearing in mind this is someone who has yet to show any sign of (public) remorse for his crimes, which were absolutely vile. There were polarised opinions on signing Lithgow and that should have been recognised by the club. At the very least, there should have been a club statement issued alongside the signing announcement, explaining that Lithgow was remorseful for his actions and that anyone with concerns about this should contact the club. I think that would have been acceptable to most people within the fanbase, rather than the total ignorance that was shown to legitimate concerns around a sex offender signing for a community club. And that's before we get into the utter cowardice shown by the club in refusing to issue a statement after the songs at Firhill. The statement from the MCT socials the following week was nothing more than a transparent, and frankly shite, compromise. This isn't a criticism of Chris, who I think deserves a lot of credit for coming onto the Forum and taking positive and negative feedback on the chin, but it's becoming quite obvious that there's a growing disconnect and mistrust between MCT and sections of the fanbase. It's been mentioned before on this thread, but the lack of output outwith normal matchday content (interviews, highlights etc.) does concern me. We only seem to hear from the club now when they're trying to sell us something. No match previews, no match reports, nothing giving us an insight into what has changed behind-the-scenes since the takeover, no real attempts to genuinely listen to lapsed and frustrated supporters. This is miles away from what I envisioned when I was sold on the prospect of a fan owned, expert run Morton. Considering that we're only four months into fan ownership, that is a massive worry.

I'd be curious to know whether we reached an agreement to terminate his contract or whether we still have him on gardening leave at the moment.

That's a good point, I had forgotten all about him.

McElhone gave him a good run of games playing as the second striker in his 4-2-3-1, his output (or lack of) was the exact same as when he played on the wing. I still think it will click for Nesbitt at some point and he will add end product, but at the same time I'm glad it's not us waiting on him adding it to his game.

I collected both my tops yesterday and I'm absolutely delighted with the feel, fit and colouring of both of them.

'Well you couldn't do any better' has always, and will always be, the retort of the absolute moron.

Thank fuck for that.

I think the more pressing aim for the club's social media output is professionalism. The first objective has to be ensuring that updates and interactions are timely, professional and consistent. Once they achieve that, then they can start looking at being slightly more creative and engaging, but professionalism and consistency need to be nailed first. Let's walk before we try to run.

Josh McPake makes Scotland's U21 squad for their upcoming friendlies against the Bunfields.

I won't. A pain in the arse to get to by train, despite their daft wee village having a train station, and their stewards are arseholes.

Brechin are a horrible little club and deserve every single bit of misfortune that comes their way.

The Colt teams can fuck off. If the sole purpose is to expose their youngsters to senior football, what's to stop them forming a sporting partnership with League One/Two clubs? Hibs have recently formed a partnership with Stenhousemuir which involves players going on loan, as well as sharing scouting reports and other footballing operational benefits. It seems to be a partnership with a list of mutual benefits. Although I highly doubt youth development is the sole motivation for the Old Firm. That said, given the current state of play and the financial difficulties the lower leagues could be facing in the coming weeks and months, if this proposal is ever going to pass then it's going to pass now. The Old Firm have the resources to dangle a carrot that part time clubs simply cannot afford to turn down in the name of sporting integrity.

I don't have an issue with it to be honest. This is the sort of kit that usually would end up either being put in box and stuck in a cupboard, given away to friends/family of the players or kit man or re-used by the players (we've moaned on here before about the players using different kit issues at the same time and it not looking professional). Is there a whiff of the tinpot about this? Aye, without doubt. But given the lack of commercial imputus we've shown for the best part of a year, we're very much in the territory of something being better than nothing. It's money for old rope. That been said, get that guitar to fuck.