EanieMeany

Haha, cheers! Nice to know somebody pays attention at least.

Ledger is in today's Tele saying he was offered a longer deal last summer but turned it down, and that he feels he probably wants to go somewhere closer to him as most of his career has been away somewhere and it was a mutual decision for him to leave. He speaks very highly of the club and says he hopes he'll be able to get back to watch the team again. I think it was probably the right thing for him to go this year, but it's also a bit of a shame as I think he's a decent player who just had a bit of a patchy season rather than someone who is inherently not up to it. We can't really afford to take the gamble on that of course, but nonetheless he was really good last season and had some good spells this one so if he goes to a non-Championship team then I wish him well.

I'll take a 5% commission. Anyway, whilst I get that this is a moot point, upwards of £300 to watch a football club for which even a top-half finish in the second tier of Scottish football is a rarity will never not seem excessively expensive, especially when it's in a stadium which, as much as I love it, doesn't even have hot water taps in the toilets. Ticket prices are what they are, but nonetheless Morton fans are paying premium pricing for a sub-par product - the club's expenditure may well be going up, but so is everybody else's and if that continues then the sheer, blind loyalty that allows that situation to persist ad nauseam might begin to falter. The demise of the streaming option and the signs of what the squad might look like are not huge selling points as it stands, so whilst surviving relegation and the arrival of Imrie have brought a bit of optimism, the club can't just sit back and expect punters to just part with their money without showing there's going to be something in return. As for MCT, I think there really needs to be a serious bit of reflecting on what it actually is. I've had my reservations about the overall project from the off and whilst there has been some progress, I'm not convinced that it's doing the job it could or should be doing. I was particularly struck by the Tele referring to MCT as a "fan investment group" recently. Now obviously that's what it was initially, for good or ill and it's not a new term, but seeing it described as that at this stage of the game was a wee bit jarring, not least because its probably the blunt truth. Is that really what the ownership of a club should be? I really don't think so, but it's hard to avoid the feeling sometimes that it's no more than source of funding and the conduit for a wee clique to entrench themselves in the boardroom with no accountability. I'm not sure exactly what the perfect version would look like, but I think a socio-type model would be the most appealing, whereby there's some kind of rewards/entitlements based on contributions. For example, £10 a month would get you £x amount off strips, %y discount of hospitality, access to a couple of events throughout the year etc - the SSC membership is probably a good comparison for a basic package, with increasing benefits for higher contributions, edging towards the Business Club thingy. All of this as part of a revamped organisational structure that had clear aims, hierarchies, targets etc etc, and the clear understanding that MCT representatives on the board were there on behalf of members and accountable directly to them and not just there on a free-lunch ticket.

This is a wee bit concerning tbh. No point re-treading old ground over the ins and outs of how the season went as it's been discussed plenty elsewhere, but in short the manner of our survival really was not so convincing that keeping pretty much the entire team is a great idea. If all of those players re-sign, then any new additions are going to have to be extraordinarily good to transform the team into a much more formidable proposition capable of actually winning games and scoring goals on a regular basis. Offering Oliver a new deal is particularly bizarre, he can have his moments but for the biggest majority of the time he just doesn't offer very much at all and that's been the case across several seasons with him. It's hard to know what his role is even meant to be especially if it's going to be the 4-3-3 Imrie has hinted at; even with a large budget there's no obvious sense in keeping him. I'd rather keep McLean than Lithgow if its a choice between two slow, ageing defenders (I actually wouldn't mind keeping McLean on overall, so long as it was as a squad player with other reliable options ahead of him), but since Lithgow is already signed up then the ruthless decision would surely be that McLean has to go although I guess there might be a coaching element to any new deal for him. Not entirely clear what "in discussion" means, right enough. On that, it's possible that Lithgow may choose to leave as it's very likely he's not going to play very much at all next season if Imrie wants a back 4. You can't imagine he's got too long left in him either, so he may well want to go somewhere he'll be a regular while he still can. Time will tell what the nature of the new deals are and it might be that they're on reduced terms that are unlikely to be accepted, but if we end up with almost the exact same players in front of the defence it's unlikely that next season is going to be particularly exciting tbh.

That's a fair point. I've noticed in a few of the Tele's Morton articles that there's a bit of a difference between what the story makes out and what's actually said which isn't really great even if it's not really about anything of significance.

If the majority of that squad is getting kept on, any additions are going to need to be very, very good indeed.

Whilst it might appear somewhat cold-hearted to object/raise an eyebrow at such a tweet, I think you could really get away with not acting like somebody who’s so utterly reviled by the fanbase and who treated the club so poorly is deserving of any mention whatsoever.

Aye, that is pretty smart tbf. There’s a couple of things that aren’t too bad but I just think most of it is basically just the same old bland stuff that’s been hanging in Smiths for years. It surely can’t be hard to come up with some genuinely nice leisurewear etc, the last I can remember in that vein was from Bukta.

I see the club have tweeted about some Joma stuff being available. Some of it like it it’s from the bargain bin of their factory tbh.

https://twitter.com/spfl/status/1518605964445982721?s=20&t=3mEV3QoG3zc08OyegWIu5A This isn't quite as bad/glorious as Telfer's goal against them, but it's still a belter and the gleeful laughter of the commentators is utterly delicious...as is the reply from Alloa This whole saga has been, objectively, funny as fuck and just keeps on delivering.

Put a couple of dud lightbulbs in and turn of the hot water in the away dressing room, just for a laugh.

Yeah, that's more than a bit of a dubious path to be treading anywhere, never mind on a public (and anonymous) forum. On a similar but different note, there's been a few comments on Twitter that I'd hope the club are keeping an eye on, along the lines of Morton "endorsing rapists" etc. I think that particular one may have been deleted but I'd hope the club doesn't just turn a blind eye to that kind of nonsense, especially coming from its' own fans. If anybody is stupid enough to be spouting that shite, they shouldn't be surprised if it has consequences.

Aye, I don’t really want to be getting into it too much tbh as it’s not really fair to go bringing a by-stander, of sorts, into it and it’s understandable that it’s not pleasant for him, but at the same time I’m not really buying any poor wee victim routine either. Anyway, with any luck the Alba characters will lose their seats next month and put an end to their constant bloviating but as far as this goes then it was what it was and there’s lessons to be learned from the club about allowing the actual stadium to be used for electioneering photo-ops. Otherwise it’s a storm in a teacup that means fuck all about anything.

Not condoning anything but I think we could all be spared that kind of pap, tbh. It might not be nice but when somebody makes such a fuckin clown of themselves at every turn, then I think we can do without the high and mighty whinging about them inevitably getting called a cunt. Certain people might do well to reflect on their own actions before starting to get on their high horse, tbh. As for pictures on the pitch, honestly who actually cares. McEleny can ram his “but I’ve got black pals” patter right up his hoop though.

Rightly so. It's a commercial transition and the club shouldn't and can't allow itself to be dragged into justifying itself every time it hires out a space to someone people don't like. Salmond is an arsehole and anybody that latches on to a party that exists to serve his ego is no better, but nonetheless they're a substance-less irrelevance to anybody outwith their tiny band of followers and whoever it is who needs to use them as a scare story on any given day. It's not some fascist group or the like, it's just some has-been wanker coughing up a few hundred quid to use a room to pretend he's still a big deal. It'd be doing their slow-motion car-crash a favour to cancel it and give them more attention than they'd ever manage on their own. If the club were to make the decision in the summer to remove all party political advertising etc and not accept any bookings or sponsorships etc on behalf of political parties then sure, I'd have no real complaints there but that's a different thing from arbitrarily cancelling a booking because people don't like somebody. There's more politicking going on in threatening to withdraw money from the club etc than there is in taking the booking, frankly.

The implications of impropriety on the part of a club employee are pretty distasteful tbh.

I’m glad Morton have rejected VAR as it stands as I have no faith at all that it’s going to result in an improvement to the game in any sense beyond a handful of decisions here and there, but the explanation offered is a wee bit bizarre and incoherent tbh. Complaining about the price when it’s not going to affect us any time soon is particularly odd, and just makes the club look a bit silly.

If “fans” withdraw funding from the club for this then that’s an audience you have to live without, tbh. I’m no fan of Alba but they’re a bunch of irrelevant cranks except as bogeymen in the heads of unionists and pearl-clutching liberals alike and it makes no difference to anybody if they hire a room for a while. Meanwhile, a serial sex offender wears the captain’s armband every week

The lower the wage, the fewer excuses there are for being an officious arsehole.

Been meaning to ask btw...at the Kilmarnock game there was a handful of stewards lurking about in all-black rigouts, their badges had something about "consultancy" on them. I seen somebody asking one of them something at the turnstiles and they said they weren't involved and they seemed to just be around that area. Wonder what that was about? Had thought maybe they were there to observe our own, given the club had said they were looking into it after the Partick game.

Since we criticise them (not unfairly), it's only fair to mention the guy at the front of the Cowshed just at the end of the roof towards Sinclair Street who was really good. He helped one wee boy get a high five from Cappie and get a tshirt, and also had another bunch of wee guys in front of him who weren't causing any trouble as such, just a bit lively now and again and had a bit of a laugh with them and was able to quietly say to them if they were getting a wee bit much just to stop any of them falling and getting hurt. It's what stewarding should be, so good on him.

I’d be inclined to lean towards no as it’s not going to improve the standard of refereeing. The money would be much better used on funding full-time officials, regular review meetings etc etc instead of having the same rubbish officials still managing to get things wrong watching a TV. I don’t think it’s a solution to poor officiating, it’s a way to not have to bother finding one and the same old whinging and moaning will carry on as normal (or worse) when wrong decisions are still being reached or when something or other isn’t reviewed. It’s a waste of time and money until such times as the core problem is addressed.

I'm not sure if it's just because the current strip really stands out, but it feels like you see a lot more people around the town with it, so if we can get more children wearing them too even if it's just because they've went to the training camps or whatever then it definitely adds to the presence, if you will, of the club on the streets. It'd be a perfect time for the club to be getting on top of the training/leisurewear etc too, on that front: the more Morton stuff you see about the place, the more it makes it look the club has a big presence in the town. If we can kick on next season as we hope we're going to, then a combination of that and getting posters in shops etc*, then you have the ingredients to generate a really big buzz about the place and get more punters along. *Whilst we're obviously not Barcelona (or rather, they're not us), if you go around the city you'll find almost every wee shop there is selling some kind of Barca-related stuff which is maybe something we could look at (I'm sure other cities are like that but it seems more apparent there). It wouldn't even be money-spinning as such, just wee things that make club seem omnipresent that newsagents etc could stick on their counters be it pens, bouncy balls or whatever else - hell, even ask Golden Casket to knock up packets of blue and white Millions and put them in a wee box with the badge on it. Just have Morton stuff absolutely fuckin everywhere it can go, and fuck it, even devise some sort of grandiose "Greenock is blue and white" type slogan. Flood the place in Morton, make it look like every cunt that lives here supports the team and eventually they will (maybe). On the first and second paragraphs, I think that could in theory be a worthwhile approach if you had all the right circumstances: for example, if we got off to a flyer and were around the top of the table come the end of , say, October and had the closest rival or whatever at Cappielow, then possibly a reduced price could be worth a punt to try to entice casual punters back along and hope the game goes sufficiently well that they then come back for more. It'd be a gamble, but if you're going to cut prices then that'd be the best place to do it I reckon. On the bold bit, maybe a, say, 6 game ticket that saved £9 compared to the gate price in being available in the summer could be a way to get money in the bank right away. It'd probably be difficult to do with the current ticket website if you were basically letting people have pre-bought vouchers seeing as it can barely handle normal sales, but it'd maybe be something out of town fans etc would buy up front, people who don't make many games but might manage a handful.

This article contains a bit more of his comments, culminating in the quite magnificent, Hagrid-esque "I shouldn’t have told you that.” It's absurd to start with but that just elevates it to a higher plane altogether. Incredible stuff.

Not a new thing by now, but Gareth the social media guy (unsure of his surname, sorry) has been doing really spectacular work since he took over. The graphics for the Cup stuff in particular are excellent, really well done. That it’s taken until 2022 for the club to fully embrace the internet is quite an indictment of the previous regime but even at that, the standard now is remarkable by any measure and both Gareth and Chris Ross deserve a lot of credit for the improvement.