EanieMeany

Not really a major thing as such, but you’d have thought the SFA could have stuck blue and white ribbons on the Scottish Cup when they sent it down to Cappielow.

There's maybe some circumstances were a reduced price could bump the crowd up, but even at that it's rarely likely to be to such a degree that it covers the loss. Perhaps for a game of significance a small deduction could bump the numbers up a bit, but even at that I wouldn't be sure. In an ideal world, prices would simply be cheaper but I guess there's not a great deal anybody can do about that. The best way to go about increasing attendances for next season would be making some really good additions in the summer and the club making an absolutely fuckin huge noise about how great things are and that the aim is to win the league as well as having strips and season tickets etc on sale early. I don't think anyone in the town who might have some inclination to go to games could have missed the buzz about the place since Imrie came in, and building on that is the key to increasing attendances. Apart from the summer after winning the Third Division, this is by far the best placed Morton have been in a summer for some time in terms of genuine optimism and belief in the coming season. Tl;dr: Put a good team on the pitch, one that's a genuine contender and exciting to watch and that's how you get people to come and watch.

Saw one of their players, Anton Dowds, liking a tweet with a link to the article about their mutant fans and players’ treatment of Dean Shiels. Even their own staff hate them. It’s all just incredibly funny, it has to be said.

Assuming the season ends with the same kind of mood around the place as there is, that could make a cracking public event with a few other bits and bobs around it. Oliver and Strapp, god love them, seemed like they were struggling to read the questions at times never mind answer them Good on them though, it's entertaining viewing and it's good to see players having a laugh with each other. I'd guess that these wee contests might not have worked so well a couple of months ago.

At music festivals, stewards simply lift a rope up to stop people crossing paths/roads if a vehicle is approaching. Surely a similar thing could be done at Cappielow? Even if half the stairs are barriered off, leaving a section open until anybody is coming in or out the “dressing room” then raising a rope-barrier would allow people to move around during the game and also allow a good chunk of the crowd out before any opposition player even starts heading in that direction after going over to their fans? Also, I’d like to think clubs are kicking up a fuss about this dressing room room nonsense in general. It’s utterly absurd that it’s still in place.

Aye, it's night and day compared to previous ones. Seems Chris is getting settled in to things now and there's what feels like much bigger strides forward in the last month or so than have been made in god knows how long until then. It's really amazing the difference a month or so makes, and how much can be achieved in such a short time. Obviously the task is to keep progressing and not just settling for a few wee upgrades, but it seems there's a much better mentality around the club and the forecast looks promising.

Strip choices are rightly the kind of decisions that should be put to MCT members, but I do think the phrasing on the website article was a wee bit clumsy, i.e. in the way it was described as "fan engagement". Obviously MCT is a form of fan engagement, but it could have been worded a wee bit more clearly. Anyway, not the end of the world and it's a perfectly fair way to go about it.

On a slightly related note, which I've been reminded of by these strips... With McGills now being the main sponsor and their logo replacing the Millions one, what's the deal with the away strips still being sold with the Millions logo? Are Golden Casket effectively getting a free season out of it because it's too much hassle to change the replicas, or was there some kind of agreement to extend the sponsorship?

Just had a quick look at their the options on their website. I suspect you could get strips that don’t scream “pub league team with low budget” quite as loudly from Pro Star.

Those 4 choices are horrible, especially that red thing. I hope this isn’t just a case of taking the cheapest shite available as it’s just going to leave us in square one, but with worse strips than we already have.

Excellent stuff. There's still a lot of major issues on the commercial/marketing front, but the improvements in the last few week are really impressive and it seems like a corner has been turned. Again, a long way to go but it's genuinely pleasing seeing big improvements on and off the pitch. On a slight downside, can't help thinking that players not knowing the year and details of our Cup win doesn't really say much for the strength of the Centenary commemoration drive. Edit: Whilst this sort of thing is a good idea any time, I wonder if Imrie has maybe been involved in getting it going? Probably not I suppose, but given that the relationship between fans and players hasn't exactly been great for a while, these wee videos are a really timely addition in helping to try to remedy that as well as improving on the pitch. Obviously the main gripes with the squad come down to performances, but the anonymity (for want of a better word) of the players - at least partly caused by going so long without fans - hasn't helped either, so it can only be a good thing to share a wee bit of their personality to let people get to know them a bit, as it were.

Without knowing what the salary is, I don't see why not. There's so many glaringly obvious failures on show at every other turn, I doubt we're going to need Saatchi & Saatchi's best minds to remedy them and start to put together something approaching a coherent strategy that includes reminding people that the (really quite shite) club shop exists more than a day before Christmas.

What exactly are the major successes of the club's commercial strategy (if there even is one) over the last few years? What great initiatives have been introduced that aren't outweighed by the huge list of failures? Barely a day goes by on here without complaints about the club's commercial failings, it's well overdue that someone who can deliver tangible results was brought in. There's no real room for sentiment in this, we need staff that are capable of turning the club round and it's not going to happen with the same people who've been responsible for the myriad failures that are routinely bemoaned on here. I'm sure people will point to the overall structure of the club etc as mitigation, but the fact of the matter is if you hold the position and take the wage, you take the responsibility and Morton's commercial work has been absolutely woeful. If we seriously want this club to be a success on and off the pitch, backroom staff who've been in place for a long time without results are not a significant loss no matter how much people might like them personally. It's a business, not a social club. The short version, it is not a loss to the club to be hiring a skilled, experienced commercial/sales manager who can (in theory) finally deliver a competent, credible strategy that maximises the club's income in place of someone who demonstrably did not do those things.

Not even remotely.

Perhaps I'm being unduly critical, but there's very little in the way of "we've done this" in here once again. "We are aware we might need to consider improving the merchandise" for a start, which is alarmingly non-committal given that it took the club getting pelters before they bothered their arse to make a cursory mention of their shop on...erm...Christmas Eve, and yet again we're getting the griping about how they need to facilitate games. It's a fuckin football club mate, it's not an unexpected thing to have to do even if there are COVID issues. Anyway, on the plus side, at least these wee clips are being made one way or another, so fair play for that, but at the same time the club website still tells us our next game is away to Queen of the South on 1st December under the matches tab. A wee video is all well and good, but it means nothing if really, really basic things aren't being addressed. Also, a genuine question: Chris Ross was appointed via a process to recruit a 30 hours per week General Manager, which was widely regarded as being a fairly unappealing prospect. If the role then became that of a CEO on full-time hours and a presumably wider remit and wage increase, perhaps it might have been worth advertising it again? Again, this is not at all meant to be a slight on Chris, but there could have been other, better candidates that would have applied on that basis but wouldn't have seen the initial role as a viable one.

Let's hope Billy Dodds isn't involved with any of them.

Derek Anderson said in the Tele recently that the club secretary had been “working with the MCT people” to develop the COVID protocols. Either they’re involved or they’re fuckin not.

This is what's bothering me about it. I freely admit that my interest in Morton these days largely doesn't get much further than the bare minimum to still be routinely frustrated by just about everything the club does, so whilst I'd still have rolled my eyes at this previously, the new manager has reignited a wee bit of interest again. I haven't been at Cappielow in fuck knows how long and didn't have any real plans on going back any time soon, but with the announcement of Imrie I was planning on going along on Boxing Day*: for once we saw a good decision by the club (although I suppose that depends on other candidates), and also a manager who's setting his stall out to change everything that's zapped my enthusiasm... ...and then this shite. What's the fuckin point? I'd maybe have still ended up going*, but it's just so fuckin demotivating to have something to cheer about and then read the nonsense MCT are coming out with. The actual content of the tweets is bad enough, but the worst thing is the attitude and approach they betray. It's pathetic, it's not on and whoever is responsible shouldn't be allowed anywhere near any organisation ever again. *Obviously circumstances have put paid to that, but still.

The other thing here is that the implication from this kind of thing is that the purpose of MCT is/was to acquire a football team for people who, as far as I can see (and I may be wrong), have not been in any way elected or exposed to any real scrutiny. How else are you meant to read "the owners don't have any involvement with the club" line?

That whole stream of replies is astonishing. It's hard to really know where to start, apart from the fact that the club is utterly, utterly doomed if that's how its owner communicates to the public. Makes you wonder what kind of shite goes on in private if that's what they're willing to say publicly.

Not necessarily the biggest issue, but the video/sound quality in that post-match interview with Anderson is awful. People make full length films with a mobile phone these days, there’s no excuses for that kind of half-arsed shite.

Not sure what thread to put this in, but will stick it here as it relates to the overall running of the club. Darren Young (or a source "close to" him) said in the Tele the other day that he applied for the job and was interviewed at the time MacPherson got the job, which raises a number of questions. First, if there was an active recruitment process taking place, I'd suggest we shouldn't have to find out about it from an unsuccessful candidate months down the line. I get fan-owned doesn't mean fan-ran, but nonetheless it's a signifcant issue to keep quiet. Second, my impression was that the club (whoever that is) identified Gus as a short-term candidate to see us through to the end of the season. It was bit of a surprise choice and came out of the blue, but on those terms it wasn't a bad call at the time. The fact that it appears that a selection process took place changes the picture entirely though: Derek Young had done a by most accounts decent job in the league below us, whilst MacPherson had been out of the game for some time and performed disastrously in his last spell in our league. We don't know who else was in the running, but to take Gus over Young was a really bad choice, and makes giving him a 2 year extension seem even worse. Identifying Gus as steady hand is one thing, but actively choosing him over a better option is another altogether.

Right, maybe I didn't quite phrase the previous post as clearly as I may have. The Trust quite evidently became a discredited basket-case a long time ago and lost the faith of most fans many moons ago and rightly so, of that there's no doubt; at the same time though, there was also people who made a big effort to try to resurrect it thereafter and done a lot of good things that helped the club via a lot of time and effort. If people were as interested in putting themselves forward to contribute as they are to take personal pops at others who did do so, the Trust was entirely viable; indeed, MCT would arguably have been much better off taking over the Trust framework as their vehicle rather than the incoherent format it's taken so far. Some people are mouthpieces that hide behind keyboards and would never dare say what they do on here to others in person - something I'm well aware doesn't apply to yourself, and I'd more than happily have this discussion over a pint (and look forward to it too, it's always enjoyable talking all things Morton with you); others are all talk, no trousers. I also don't disagree at all that the lack of transparency from MCT is extremely poor, and frankly I have little faith in them; I'll willingly rescind what I said about them as there's a lingering suspicion that there's a huge element of self-lionising and lack of suitable skills or experience about those involved - for example, "the boy with the drum" being amongst their named group. With all due respect to him, it's not a qualification to be part of a club's ownership (for all I know he's very well suited to do so), but nonetheless I tip my hat to those who've got involved and again...although again, that doesn't at all earn a free pass. On a similar note, I'll also admit that I'm simply not interested enough these days to take any kind of active role in anything and to an extent this is all maybe a bit hypocritical, but which is why I admire anybody who does get off their computers and get involved.

I always find it interesting how the folk on here who are so quick to bang on about GMST have never at any stage put themselves forward to try to contribute in any meaningful way themselves, and in some cases wouldn't even look anyone in the eye if they were in their presence. I've no real interest in defending the Trust (frankly I don't really care that much about it ), but there were plenty of folk who latched on to it in its latter days who seemed to just like to be seen to be there who offered very little. Perhaps if the people who have still seem so worked up about it had put themselves forward to contribute the Trust could have fared a lot better. None of which is to say there wasn't a lot of issues with the organisation over all, but there's that and being tedious bores whinging about nothing over it. Same goes for MCT - I think there's no end of questions, some of which really shouldn't still be hanging unanswered, but at least the people involved have went out and made something happen.

Fair play to Ayr, getting their replacement in position early on for when Hopkin makes a cunt of it within a few months.