vikingTON

Like Donovan 'SPL' Simmonds.

'Injured' in 13/14 = actually a dung performer who contributed to the club's disgraceful relegation 'Injured' in 14/15 = actually a dung performer whose removal from the team directly led to us escaping the massive hole dug for us by his rancid midfield displays (among many other culprits) It's just as well McKee actually hid as often as he did, as if he were truly the all-action figure of cmdc's wildest fantasies then we'd probably be in the Lowland League right now getting pumped by Bo'ness and East Stirling.

It's also worth remembering that McKee returned from this massive injury lay-off of, erm, five league games to participate in the first team during the autumn of 2013. Our record in the following ten league games? W1 D1 L8, GS 5 GC 23. He's the world's shittest Allan Jenkins then. What, the League One season in which the team lost no less than eleven league matches and would have easily lost even more with the midfield getting regularly overrun by Stenhousemuir, Stirling Albion etc. every other week as well? The better players in that season were quite clearly i) Derek Gaston ii) Declan McManus (regardless of all his snake conduct since) iii) Peter MacDonald for his cameo turn from January. None of our truly dung midfielders or ropey defence - with the possible exception of Mark Russell as an attacking full-back - emerge from that particular campaign with more credit than a winners' medal itself deserves. Next you'll be making a case for Michael Miller or Jamie McCluskey's inherent ability (which is similarly zero). One of many honking player judgments that explain why Duffy is now back in the seaside leagues managing a pub team having expended his genuine usefulness at turning around The Famous a long time ago.

Well his soaring career arc down to *checks notes* 'Dumbarton' in the seaside leagues since really bears out the judgment of those beard-stroking intellectuals* within the Morton fanbase. * gullible morons

Yes who can forget how he single-handedly dragged the 13/14 squad out of danger with all of his Roy of the Rovers style, all-action performances in the middle of the park. Oh no wait: he was actually rubbish, hid as usual when the going got tough and so emerged with as little credit from that disgrace of a season as any other player in the squad with the singular exception of Sir Douglas. A useless, flea-hearted sand-dancer.

Why on earth should there be separate and carefully demarcated roles for far from critical backroom tasks when the club doesn't even know when it will have its main source of income back again for the coming year?

Waves of contradictory pish about whether MCT should or should not meddle in the first team signing policy, a point that is made irrelevant anyway by the fact that the contributions to MCT stand to actually make Morton a fan-owned club in the very near future. Your 'ahm no' gien munny just to pay shite players' hot take is therefore completely out of date - find another shite excuse for not getting on board with the program or better yet don't bother.

To put that number into perspective, it's equivalent to us selling 450 more adult season tickets than usual based on the coming season's prices, with the added benefit of providing a solid, year-round income stream to the club just as GC is heading out the door. It shows why the concept of an alternative funding mechanism to gate reciepts is fundamental to the club's development - the onus will be on MCT's directors to ensure that it's well-spent over the long-term to sustain this impressive milestone.

They're literally named in their joint statement m8. Another braying rap lecture from Leitch strikes me as punishment enough, he's been a self-promoting gobshite from the start of the pandemic.

You're the one having a tantrum that Morton aren't competing with fucking Valencia in the all-important phone case price wars M8, sit down.

Why would you want to buy a phone case with some random jobber outfit in Spain on it? Do you think GMFC are similarly relying on a flood of interest from the critical Murcia market to make the numbers work for them? Yet another case of Morton fans wetting their frilly knickers about a total fucking non issue.

You can't literally see Thomas O'Ware though as their opening day fixture against 'Montrose' will not be covered on Sky Sports' Main Event like Sir Richard's exploits last evening. Which is a terrible, wee shame for him.

No we fucking wouldn't, sit down. A classy display from Sir Richard as the composed, ball-playing centre back: as opposed to his clownshoes thug colleague Declan Gallagher who sold the penalty with a ridiculous lunge. That Scotland call-up is looking closer than ever.

According to Iron Man and his assorted flunkies on here, the academy wasn't going to require any funding from the club in the first place.

That pathetic loser Ray 'Ray' McKinnon will sign at least one of them for his tribute act.

I'm really not sure why you think that we need someone to interpret what they're really saying when their public statements couldn't be more explicit. And if £100k of cost-cutting only represents the secondary part of their straight through the door financial masterplan then it's criminal that we've not been shitting money for the past fifteen years. They'd win more respect by demonstrating an understanding of just how massively difficult a task turning this club around is going to be, instead of throwing around bold/unrealistic pledges. It might generate greater enthusiasm in the short term but custodians failing to deliver quickly breeds apathy and contempt, as we've seen time and time again.

Running a professional football club is an entirely separate challenge to anything MCT have done so far and there have been plenty of supporters' groups that were good at one and not the other. There is no other football club for us to fall back on, so just like any other owner we shouldn't be giving MCT a free pass for statements of intent that don't stand up to scrutiny.

I think that it is entirely unreasonable for MCT to state that they can waltz in and slash £100k no bother from the club's annual costs following years of austerity-lite policy in the late Rae era and with the current chief executive having already been tasked with achieving a break-even position over the past twelve months. They're not taking over the 2008 version of the club here. Somebody with access to the basic accounts can work out the precise figure but that must be easily more than 5% of the club's budget that they think is fat just waiting to be trimmed. If it were that easy to do then why are the other full time, second tier Scottish football clubs up to their eyeballs in crushing year on year losses though? All of the focus should be on revenue-raising where the previous regime has clearly left room for improvement on the commercial front as well as the need for a stack of fresh ideas. This whole 'it'll be fine cos we'll just cut costs and raise income at the same time!' shtick though is like something you'd hear from an undergraduate business student rather than responsible adults preparing to navigate the financial black hole that is a professional provincial football club.

Demonstrating such woefully piss-poor judgment in a private capacity (though in reality trying to further ingratiate himself with the Rae regime) is actually a more damning indictment than simply toeing the official club line. It's almost as if there's a reason why bean-counters do not regularly serve as chief executives of successful professional football clubs.

Given that 'Nick' was one of the chief cheerleaders on here for the hare-brained, 8-8-8 squad structure that got us relegated in utter disgrace in 2013/14. I'd take his advice on how to successfully cut costs at a football club with a shovel of road salt.

Erm yes, I can just imagine that 'fact-finding discussion' in which the club discloses to MCT that there's actually a big £100k value to do list of easy cost-cutting measures that they just haven't got round to, all while rummaging around the English ninth tier or something to find the next Gianluigi Buffon because the player budget is a pittance. I think we can safely file that into the bin of 'things that never happened'. If you're not going to disclose in what areas savings can be made then you also shouldn't cite a conveniently round sum like £100k that you're going to get off the books no bother because it lends you far less credibility and not more.

No, he's actually marooned in the vast, bleak wilderness known as 'scrambling for relevance', ever since his beloved Trust was punted with absolutely zero fanfare into the dustbin of history.

I meant marketing manager, though the idea that we would even need to have separate posts for this seems far-fetched enough to me: it's not exactly Walmart we're overseeing here.

But you're still immediately adding costs rather than getting rid of them, as MCT claimed they'd be able to do straight off the bat. And unlike the past twenty years, you can't just bung those on an IOU to GC or even in a worst case secure a credit facility against the ground. If you want to add a salaried commercial manager to a break-even organisation then you have to either increase your income first or something/somebody else needs to go at the club. I'm not convinced that this would be the best use of club resources but even if it is, the initial outlay before it pays off over time has to come from somewhere. There's no getting round the very tight financial position GMFC will be in from Day 1 of the new regime and blithe statements like 'och we can cut costs and raise income at the same time' before MCT have even taken over do not lend them greater credibility.

Appointing a marketing manager might well be a good idea in the long run but it quite clearly costs money up front rather than saving it. MCT claim from afar to be able to make cuts right now so I'm sure the chief executive will be thrilled to learn of the Byzantine splendour that he has overlooked over the past twelve months. Maybe it's got something to do with the secret toaster room again, or Max siphoning off the leccy and Wifi for the Norseman.