[Morton Club Together Updates]

The energy required for running a football ground is hardly scalable compared to that required to run a house!  Also my energy costs are up a helluva lot more than 36% since moving off my old fixed tariff and onto a flexible one sitting at the price cap! I can’t see why Morton coming off a business tariff wouldnt be similar!

The energy rises we’ve seen since March have also been astronomical and could hardly been planned for so I’m not sure what folk could expect the club to do in that respect 

 

[Squad for next Season]

47 minutes ago, Brian Skelton said:

Would imagine the top part-time teams would just be paying a bit less than we are paying. So with their other jobs we would struggle to attract the best.

I’m talking about keeping those players part time, rather than continuing to go after rank full time players that our budget allows 

[Squad for next Season]

Surely it's time to look at a couple of decent part time players?!  If our budget is that thin that it's impossible to get decent full time players we should be looking to get some PT bodies in.  It didn't do Arbroath any harm last season.

[Thread About Ex Player]

1 hour ago, Jamie_M said:

I'll happily shit on McInally with the best of them, but I don't actually see much wrong with that article.

You aren't wrong that the early start shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but he didn't really say much about that. His point was about the landscape shifting, which has been happening for a few years now (Tidser to Kelty one prime example) but feels like it has ramped up again this year.

McInally saying he is losing out on targets because clubs in the Lowland league are offering more could just as easily have been Imrie talking about losing the likes of Wilson, Oliver and Reilly to League 1 (and Ugwu possibly going down there also).

Whether it's for more money, or similar money but with less travel (seen people mention one of the reasons Jack Hamilton wanted away was for an East Coast club), it definitely feels like a strong factor right now.

Surprised Ayr are still managing to coax a bus load of ringers to head north from the non-leagues down south.

Cost of living is a bitch.

 

 

I get your point but nah he still gets zero sympathy from me on this. 

Fair enough it's a factor that's been exacerbated by the cost of living but to say you can't pull a squad together because of it is utter nonsense, every other club is going through the same in various extremes.  I don't see Elgin moaning about the same thing despite being arguably more geographically challenged.  Maybe they're doing the sensible thing utilising the talent pool they have locally (Potentially ICT and Ross County loans and the Highland League) rather than asking part-time players to make a ridiculous 4-7 hour round journeys from the central belt to play in Peterhead on their days off work.  

Peterhead have Aberdeen (yes, I know the League Cup match against them is a factor too but it's only one game) and arguably the 2 Dundee clubs to go to for loans (St Johnstone too at a push)

They could also try to coax the best of the Highland League to make the jump up.  It's a very risky strategy admittedly, but if the cost of living is making things so bad it shouldn't be too much of a risk. McInally and Peterhead have multiple promotions and relegations on their record and are still joined at the hip after more than a decade.  Why on Earth would they sack him now after a relegation in season where they couldn't realistically get a competitive squad due to extenuating circumstances outside their control?

I do agree that 9th July is a bit early for competitive football to be starting but we are where we are and it's been that way for 6 seasons now.  The cost of living has been an issue since March/April, if clubs aren't going to forward plan then that's their fault.  FFS we were signing multiple players at the end of May, when was the last time that happened?!

[Thread About Ex Player]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62030282

Poor old Jim McInally is having problems getting a team together as the League Cup is starting so early these days!  Got to feel for him as it's only its SIXTH season in this format so how was he to know! 

Plus now all of a sudden these lazy central belt, part-time players are having second thoughts of travelling to easily accessible Peterhead on a Saturday as they get more money playing in a lower league!!  

Lovely stuff.

[Why do you hate Partick Thistle?]

2005 2nd Division play-offs.  Hated them ever since.  Finished a distant 4th in a league of 10 and get promoted and also heard singing "lets all laugh at Morton" in the dressing room after the final.  Typical Partick, always seem to be a club that manage to gain a wee advantage from somewhere to keep them going on or off the pitch.  Needless to say I enjoyed their relegation at the end of 19/20 far more than I normally would've nay other club.

[Squad for next Season]

Sorry but that's utter pish.  The only player I can remember getting OTT abuse from the fans (and it wasn't even a majority) in recent memory was Brian Graham and I only thought that due to him being relatively young, not because he wasn't shite at the time.

Before that the last player I ever felt sorry for due to abuse from home fans was Andy Carlin and even then I think he was just a victim of the fans frustrations around the club's whole situation at that time.

Abuse after they leave the club is null and void as it's a football fan's god given right to hound a rival player whether they leave on good terms or not!

 

 

[Squad for next Season]

13 hours ago, so72 said:

Two players with previous at QotS, one from Dumfries and the other from Ayrshire, I think that is the biggest draw alongside probably being their highest paid players - certainly Reilly anyway. 

This is what I’m thinking too which is unfortunate as I’d have like both of them to stay. Seems like QOS might be throwing silly money at a squad they hope will get them straight back up in one of the potentially toughest League 1s in a long time!  Can you imagine the laughs if they, Dunfermline and Falkirk failed to come back up?!  

[Thread About Ex Player]

9 hours ago, gmfc23 said:

Was mchugh not the last morton striker to hit double figures in a season and he's wasn't exactly playing in a very good morton team. 

That's not advocating a return we could but probably won't get much better. 

I was at the QP Falkirk game a few weeks ago and few of the former Morton players on show looked in any way capable of performing at Championship level, McHugh especially who anonymous until he was subbed.

It could be as the game was a dead rubber no one on either side was exerting themselves but it was jarring to see how far players who got us to a National semi final had fallen, Quitongo especially 

[Squad for next Season]

Two signings, a new strip launch and it’s not even June!  How refreshing to have a manager and board that get to work pronto and don’t wait to scrape together the remaining dregs of the transfer market in August!  Long may it continue!

[Commercial Activity]

49 minutes ago, EanieMeany said:

Not paying a decent wage to a CEO is something that raised plenty of eyebrows on here at the time the job was advertised, and with good reason.

Anyway, the simple fact is that paying a fairly low wage is not going to work particularly well if it means somebody is going to leave after just over 6 months in the job and I think it would wise for the board to review the finances and try to increase the salary for the CEO position. It's probably unlikely that there's many particularly great candidates available for the wage on offer and for the size of the job involved, and there's probably also not a huge number of people in Ross' position, i.e. somebody with a bit of experience in other roles and ready to move into that kind of position for the first time, which means the chances of getting somebody good are reduced and if we do, they'll probably not hang about long either.

There's been a turnaround in the club's performance for sure, but at this point it's still just about getting the basics in place after decades of neglect. It's not going to be easy at all to move things forward if we're not able to attract or hold on to people who are up to the job.

But wages weren't the issue suggested by you or the poster you quoted.  The club being "a shambles" is what you feared the issue was.  So I ask again why?  Why do you think, currently as things stand, Chris left because he thinks the club is a shambles?  Besides the well documented issues with the ticketing website (which is pretty much out of the clubs control) what has occurred recently that points to a shambles within Morton.

I disagree slightly on the wages issue too.  If we managed to get Chris in on those wages then the salary must be in some way appealing.  I'm pretty certain a club like Morton with no big financial backer will constantly be reviewing finances but if there's simply no room to manoeuvre in terms of offering an increase then of course there's an issue with skill retention.  Sadly, football is by far not the only industry facing these challenges.  My own industry, the railway, is currently struggling with this just now thanks to the pandemic.

[Commercial Activity]

1 hour ago, EanieMeany said:

Sadly I'm finding myself thinking along similar lines here too. Since around the end of last year there's certainly looked to be a transformation in the running of the club and it seemed Chris was starting to do a pretty good job, but it was very much only the beginning of the journey.

People are going to move on, but whatever the reason it isn't really great news at all to be losing such a key figure such a short time with the club still a long way from being running at optimum level. There's a lot riding on the next appointment,

Why?  Why is it such a stretch to simply believe a lower half, fan owned Championship Club can't stretch it's budget to up an employees wage during a cost of living crisis and said employee rightly just exercises his right to go somewhere else for a better wage.

Seeing as the Imrie rumours turned out to absolute pish and the club has actually made half decent improvements in a lot of areas of the last year I can't understand why we continue to have the incessant knicker soaking from the fan base.

Good luck to Chris in all his future endeavours, he did a good job while he was here!

[Morton Club Together Updates]

2 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

On the other hand, if we had VAR on Saturday we'd all still be at Cappielow waiting for the match to finish after the amount of checks that would have been needed. 

I know it won't be at our level, but that was a top level ref. The level of refereeing better improve, or VAR will make things very messy. I'm generally in favour of VAR, but it has to be implemented really well or it makes the game worse (and general rules also need to be adjusted - the spirit of the offside rule, for example, has been lost in the showing off of technology).

It's probably something that needs to be done in Scottish football, but I don't have confidence that it will actually improve things. 

True but then we may have also finished the game with that very valuable point or even all 3!

Total agreement with the rest of your post, it needs to be properly implemented which I'm not overly confident the SFA/SPFL will do!  I've not really managed to see much MOTD recently so not sure if it's still as contentious in the EPL but the set up seems to working quite well in the Champions League and Europa League and the WC qualifiers for Scotland.

Our referees do really need to improve but they also need all the help they can get, especially during the paranoia twins games for example.  As for Collum (and quite a few officials) imo the problem is his attitude.  He clearly thinks our games are beneath him and I doubt very much he applies the same effort to championship level games as he would to the televised PL games as he knows far less people give a toss.

 

 

[Morton Club Together Updates]

So it turns out it was us that were the only club that voted against VAR!!  Bit of a riddy seeing as it was clearly stated Premiership clubs would foot the bill.  

ETA if we actually had VAR at our disposal we'd potentially be a good few points better off!!  Can't help but think the club have made themselves look really daft on this one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61173475

 

[Commercial Activity]

https://www.gmfc.net/1922-scottish-cup-anniversary-week-facts-11-04-22/

A page of Scottish Cup related facts updated through out the week!

[Why do you hate Falkirk?]

11 hours ago, TheGoon said:

Fifteen hundred pounds a week, and the rest. Match made in heaven. 

 

Ooooh that's got a strong, strong possibility of backfiring big time!  Griffiths, if his mind was in the right place and he was at his peak physically would be a great addition for any Premiership side let alone League One!  But he's chucked it  and is out of shape!  Maybe not O'Connor-esque when he was with us but he's heading that way!

This could be (and I pray is) absolutely fucking hilarious!

[Commercial Activity]

Yeah those choices aren't great, but as the email says it's a one season kit with an aim of getting bespoke kits for the season after next.

I'm guessing the home kit is being kept for another season as is the 3rd kit seeing as that's labelled 21-23 on Smiths?

[Morton Club Together Updates]

6 minutes ago, Jamie_M said:

Not overly fussed about bespoke as long as it's good quality, decent design.

Not the worst template from the catalogue with iron on badges like we were served up by Hawke that led to the fallout.

On Umbro, I bought a generic blue and white hoops Umbro top last year, wear it all the time.

Would quite happily take Hamilton's Adidas in blue.

Yeah that wouldn’t be bad but if quality is important to you I’d be wary of Adidas. Love their casual gear but I’ve not been impressed with the quality of recent Scotland tops. my last 2 are covered in bobbles and pulls and they’ve not exactly been through much

[Morton Club Together Updates]

20 minutes ago, irnbru said:

I'm not dead against it and would love a bespoke umbro or adidas. Just think the last few have been decent and apparently sold well so curious to know whether they are best value for us. 

I might have got lucky on the quality of mine tbf. Had a few mates with complaints. 

I would like to see a bit of consistency with branding, etc. It looks a bad daft having hummel, 1874, etc and changing all the time never mind about 10 different versions of the badge. 

Yeah agreed I’d only go back to a big brand that would offer a bespoke design 

The best top I’ve had quality wise was the first pin stripe shirt. The current home top seems good material but things like the badge being wonky and the team wearing different versions where the hoops don’t match up rip my knitting! You wouldn’t get that crap with a established brand (you’d think)

[Morton Club Together Updates]

8 hours ago, irnbru said:

I quite like the last few strips and not overly concerned about having a brand name. Would be interested to know if getting own own as opposed to a brand costs more. As far as I know we sold more of the fan designed tops then previous ones (at least for the first couple). 

Pretty sure Airdrie have got bespoke kits from Umbro so there’s no need to put up with the off the shelf template nonsense if we did go back to a brand name!

Plus with Umbro being a historic kit supplier for Morton there’s a possibility to get some decent retro gear produced!

[Why do you hate Falkirk?]

3 hours ago, TRVMP said:

Since our highlights aren't up I watched those ones. Falkirk had two good efforts at 2-0 down, right at the start of the second half. But other than that it was all QP. They really could have had more. As soon as that third goal went in the floodgates opened.

Their defence is even worse than ours, Falkirk.  Genuinely inexplicable how they're full-timers. 

Inexplicably Paul Sheerin is still the manager of Falkirk.

edit: Watched the second half highlights again and this is the kind of game I was talking about yesterday where there's two ways of looking at it. Was this a 6-0 game? No, not really. Falkirk should have had at least two. But they didn't. It's not because the fine margins went *against* them but because they didn't take advantage of their chances and they didn't take care at the back. Queens on the other hand *exploited* those margins. That's the difference between a winning side and a losing side, and the difference between a decent GD and a terrible one.

Not any more

[Morton Club Together Updates]

I'm guessing at the very least, the 4 MCT guys currently on the board are there as volunteers and don't take any wage?

It would be an absolute hoot if all 6 members with no football background at all were getting a wage while lamenting how expensive hiring someone with any football experience would be.

[Morton Club Together Updates]

19 minutes ago, irnbru said:

Maybe you could go for the vacant place on the MCT board and try to influence things? 

I don’t know the first thing about running a football club (hence why I’m saying we need people who do) but I’m sure if I joined and my first suggestion was “you all don’t know what you’re doing! GTF” I would be everyone’s best friend!

Still, great idea though! 

[Morton Club Together Updates]

44 minutes ago, 9 Strathblane Crescent said:

That will sound the death knell of the club. If people do that the club will quickly go into administration and eventually liquidation.

So basically the current board have us by the short and curlys?  Stop/don’t contribute and keep them in place or the clubs gone?

I’ll be honest I haven’t joined MCT yet and won’t the way things are going. I was sceptical in the beginning as I saw it as basically the Rae’s getting the fans to pay for the upkeep of the club saving them money.

I’m looking at this board and with the exception of Graham Barr who at least has some sporting background, wtaf do any of the other board members bring relevant to running a football club?!  2 of them have been there for 7 odd years and as far as I can see have contributed SFA?  Especially one who’s main remit according to Hawke was financial sustainability!

[Morton Club Together Updates]

I suppose we can all take comfort in the fact that we don't have this board:

Absolutely delicious viewing