YulBrynner

I have not posted for a long time due to the childlike abuse - like this - you inevitably get in reply. I do not do social media for the same reason. It was a post simply to inform you all that Alan had announced his resignation in front of me and a very large audience and that it would be easy for anyone to confirm Ross had been made redundant for the short time taken to send an e-mail or make a phone call. It does not help your case to “shoot the messenger” when you simply don’t want to accept the message. These are the facts. They should not be ignored.

I was in the 1877 club at about 2.30pm on Saturday when Alan Wardrop announced that he would be resigning as a director of St. Mirren. I spoke to Alan and wished him well. He seemed unsure as to what that effect would be on the 1877 club and it’s members. There were around 150 other supporters and staff who were also there at that time and gave Alan a big round of applause. I think that Stephen Robinson, who had just read out the team list for the match, was still in the room at that time. I have known Ross Paterson for about 5 years. He was been made redundant last week by St. Mirren in a cost cutting exercise. If you drop an e-mail to the Head of the Ralston Academy Allan McManus [email protected] he will be able to confirm this to your satisfaction. You could also phone the Club on 889 2558 and ask to speak to Keith Lasley the Club’s Chief Operating Officer. I hope this is helpful.

Yul does not need 50 paragraphs - 3 words will do - YUL WAS RIGHT Yul know it makes sense !

Fools gold for everyone. Just $10 dollars Americano a month exchangeable for the blind trust and the waco like following of a Mirren Messiah, a Stranger who came out of the west. He said, ‘’I employ 400’’. It was proven he didn’t. The villagers ignored this truth. ‘‘Yea’’ he said believe in me. And they did. Lawd above, he even admitted he was using them and they not only accepted it but were prepared to foot the bill for it! They swallowed the stinging criticism of one of his posse, a cowpoke known as the Kibble Kid, a man not fit to lace the boots of the club ‘legend’ they persuaded to act as their frontman. The KK, a man who felt it appropriate to insult them and their club at the first public meeting held in their own new stadium (not his, he’s not a Saints fan either, shellik I think) and ask ‘‘it makes you wonder what they (the board) have been doing for the last ten years, followed by ‘‘why has it taken US to come in and sort all this out?’’ Hot damn and the followers swallowed this stuff content to bankroll a new outside outfit controlled by the Stranger where not a dime, peso or penny would go to the club. The Stranger and his posse (a couple of honchos and a whole lot of freeloaders in the boardroom at home games) continued to tell the fans they would have a say in the club. The villagers gathered in the village square. Some of them so blind tried to take their fellow Saints fans with them. They posted. Follow him, follow the Stranger, he knows best. We are willing to be an experiment, we know we won’t own the club but this is best. If it fails we will just go back to the way we were. It’s enough to make a St Sad sad. So they followed blindly without any REAL question or scrutiny. They defended him, made excuses for having dirt - as opposed to paydirt - kicked in their faces. They attended meetings, when they were actually held. They gave their private banking details to unknown strangers. Later some even posted that they hoped their bank details had not been lost. Boy howdy did they trust. Then the backers pulled the six shooters out when a whole selection of concerned FELLOW FANS voiced concerns. Their answer was to ridicule and demand alternatives, even though the alternative is and was the status quo (no not that status quo) until normal business practice is re-introduced. Nobody ever suggested that the board revert to individuals and do not act as a bloc of shares. There was no darned need for an alternative to be suggested. The agenda was being set by the board and the Stranger was a central part of that process. As sundown followed sundown some fans even started to do the Stranger’s job for him, because he was doing a fair impression of hiding out with the hole in the wall gang. Where was he? Where is he? Boo hoo why won’t he talk to us? One or two even suggested the cic was a done deal. Tumbleweed rolled by. Good results on the pitch helped divert attention. Transparent information was lacking. The fans can wait was the attitude. Meetings were called, meetings were cancelled ­– tomorrow ­- we only need three weeks. The wagons were circled. Where are those darned direct debits. Have they been returned to the senders? Will the forms be returned? Who is storing them? Are they registered to legally collect this information? Have any fans called the club to find out? No. They’ve given their personal banking details to the stranger who is informing them in a transparent and businesslike way each and every day. Don’t worry. Don’t question. Behind the scenes the Stranger has lost the support of all staff. He has brought nothing of substance to our club. He has proved beyond all doubt that marketing is not his forte. Cancel Christmas. We have no shop to speak of. No real Saints gear on sale. Leave your strip for days just to letter, then phone, call, send a pigeon, telegraph to find out what’s happening. JD staff still tell fans they don’t sell Saints strips. The deal is worth much less than Provans. His mini programme failed. The laundry was a washout. Soaking $1.50 from whippersnappers mobile phones has thankfully stopped. Other scary stuff never made it to the fans. The big backers on forums have gone to ground. Other clubs are dumbfounded. The club has not been held up and delivered into the hands of a bunch of amateurs funded by the fans and the taxpayers while they swan around the boardroom and pow wow about how the cic will pay its debts with smisa’s and fans’ dollars. WHERE DO SMISA STAND NOW? St Mirren fans who HAVE put cash into the club on more than one occasion meet soon. How about a statement before the club AGM SMISA pardners. The Stranger has not succeeded in swiping taxpayers’ loot and putting in place a three board structure that could only lead to disagreement and argument. There is no place for the Stranger in all of this. He is commercial director and has overseen a strip deal devoid of hard cash. A commercial operation he has put in shackles and darned well hog tied. Seen the club ridiculed in the press over laundry, church services, and a shambles of cic launch. All of this while posters who would have previously slaughtered Provans/ the commercial department /the club/the board for just an itty bitty fraction of this say hee haw or complain. There is no way back. Credibility is gone. Would you buy a cart from this man? The Stranger rode into our town with a fistful of counterfeit dollars. His and the cic’s credibility have gone. Time he rode out again on a buroo which is where I might end up with a script like this (I blame the six). He does not own a company that employees 400 and I may just be one of them! St Mirren is a football club. It and the fans come first. They do not deserve to be an experiment. The cic would ultimately destroy our club. For a taste of the future just look at the way ordinary decent fans have been treated by a stranger who has said he would inevitably be bossman. That’s the reality of the future management style of the cic. Why would any villager want to pay $10 a month for the privilege of being no more than window dressing? It was always fools gold. The cic is dead, worse the Stranger knows it. Mr. Brynner and his six side cics.

Darn it’s good to be back in the saddle. Yessiree, even though some Saints villagers actually complain about ma Texican language its good to be back in the ol homestead. Can you believe that rancheros, complaining about darn western wurds? Tell you what though pardners, I’d rather use this lingo than some of the downright shockin, not to say un-preacher like language we have seen on this here elektrikal thingamy but specially on the un-ofeeshul outlet. This is bad. Wash your mouths out. Spit in a Saints spittoon cowpokes. You know who you are. There are some cowboys who try to take the high ground just at that there far bluff. Funnyslobbers you might say. And bluff seems to be their business too. Shockin, specially as some of the whippersnappers amongst us read this stuff. Stop it and speak proper, remember the young folks. Meanwhile back at the ranch. Looks like the story we picked up at SMP was a dandy n all. Seems the hero, the legend, the frontman in all of this here tawdry tale, a gringo who has not been seen or heard from in public since he and the Kibble Kid (remember him?) rode off, seems to have had something of a change of heart. The Stranger is no longer his posse leader. This is sad as he is a genuine Saints legend. Neigh doubt about it though as we heard it almost from the horse’s mouth (we say almost as a talking horse would just be plain ridiculous). Least ways from what we’ve been a hearin he’s a Saint in the shadows trying to keep his screen image intact. Could things be patched up for public consumption? We doubt it. On set the deck of cards down at the saloon is surely marked. The black and white dice is loaded just as the cic is loaded against Saints future progress. It’s bluff time sure enough, but time is running out. Word around the stockade is that another big player in this screenplay is slowly changing his position from what it was at rehearsals. This is good. And rumours abound about some of the backers of the cic hoping for a ‘position’ in the big cic picture. This does seem to be correct. This is bad. If the cic was to go ahead everything should be done above board and for the benefit of St Mirren and the supporters (That’s not a fourth board, just a turn of phrase. Lawdy!) Time will tell. Meantime the Stranger has upset more of the goodies at the big house. This is bad. Spirits are low, a bit like the stock in the club shop. We followed the drove road east and came back to the township with a point to deposit in the El Banco EsPL. It was a good start and a chance for us who made it to catch up before I head out on the range workwise at sun up. At least I will make it back for the Aberdeen game. Who knows, the cic may even be Don to death by the time the stage pulls in. Before I head for the bunkhouse and just to labour the point. The only thing hereabouts running out of steam is the cic itself. That parliclar choo choo should have left the Saints Station long ago. Quiet isn’t it. A wild dog howls at the moon. Yul, not mechanical but thanks for the moniker, and the truly Magnificent Seven. tbc

Hotdiggity Buddies, we finally have a shop. Not open on Morton Day but managed to get it open on Open Day. A 300 mile ride on the range and thanks to the wonders of the postal telegraph service I return to the township to find that the telegram I received from a fellow Mag7er is true. This is good news. At least young whippersnappers can now be catered for. That’s the least a club, any club should have. Now let’s hope the next step will be an outlet in the township where the good folks live. Take the club to the community, don’t expect it to come to us. Shame not much goodies in it – strips and t-shirts – even a hoodie ! – No hats for us cowboys. Don’t think I saw a scarf – maybe they are under the counter, or have to be made to order – do you have to say what length you want ? Some pens, calendars and mugs (for puttin the coffeee in). Generally poor show - maybe more items to come on the next delivery stagecoach. Told at the Seven Shack that the good Buddies of SMISA are throwin in their hard earned loot with the Stranger’s gang. This is a surprise. Yep, good luck to them. They have worked hard over the years to promote the club. Surprised that they have chosen to give their dollars to a cic outfit rather than direct to St. Mirren as I always thought that was the purpose of their fundraising. Can’t see what they will get for $50,000 other than a ‘thanks partners’ and possibly a place or two on the board below the board below the board. That’s a whole lot to risk after so many years of fundraising. Might have been better to loan the cash, interest free direct to the club. Get a good lawyer cowpokes! Just hope they have tied up their deal tighter than our defence was last season. Got the mini programme for the Morton showdown. Does it page for page offer less value than the old yin ? Hardly any reading partner. Look forward to seeing the real one at the first league (s)howdown – hope it’s a whole lot bigger and better. Only back for two days and have to hit the trail again probably before you read this. Thanks to my ol friend Animal for his hospitality and for sending this – beans and whisky round the campfire – you can’t beat it partner. Sorry some villagers think you are me. This is not right at all hombres. It’s a lot of BULL and we’ve HERD it before, to believe this would be a big miSTEAK. Looking for more news when I get back. There’s six of us in the township again. No doubt I’ll hear by Pony Express from one of them. Heard a crackin tale at SMP on Saturday. We’ll wait and watch. Stay in the saddle Saints. Yul grow to love it.

Yipee a yah, Howdy fans. Go away for a week and a half and lots and lots happen at hacienda SMP. It’s a long ride back from the deep south haulin goods and chattels. Great to see new hombres signed to join our team. This is good. New uniforms on sale at three outlets, vests and pantaloons only and strange sizes especially for the bambinos but even though there are complaints about quality and size availability this is good. None of the villagers who have criticised previous kit quality post a word of criticism of these despite other fans commenting. This is strange. Boy howdy have they all gone quiet on the west end front. This is also strange. One of the Mag 7ers, not me, speaks to an SMFC community staffer and gets the low down on the cic before getting some fresh ayr and a ballgame on the far wild west coast. The low down is not good. He is told bluntly that should it go ahead it will fail. This is bad. A post then appears on the official site that contains much the same content. Is the source the same? A wild dog howls in the hills. There is almost no reaction. Worse still word is that all is not at all well amongst the ranch hands at the hacienda. They have had it with the Stranger according to the hombre. He says that the Stranger has no idea about football and is a bit on the whacky side when it comes to ideas and what to do with the shop. He says ‘if you think the laundry was wild just wait’. We will wait. Shame though, Mrs Yul was looking forward to me lugging a cartload of linens to the Stranger’s match day wash house and had saved a whole silver dollar just for the Saint Suds operation. I’ve come back to no news. No word. No merchandise. That’s St Mirren branded merchandise, not even bog standard black and white bar scarves to be had at any trading post around the township. This is bad. It’s a third of a year since the Club sold an item, a badge, a scarf a T shirt, a polo shirt (horses, I’d buy some). This has cost thousands now. A Sevener was working through at Motherwell. Their shop is in constant use. It’s actually run by Provans who pay saddlebags of pesos to the club and operate an emporium on site. Gawd only knows what will be available to the Saints posse at the Morton shootout - if anything. They have a shop and may well be turned out in their finest for the trip to Paisley. Best we can hope for is some nickel and dime set up if we are lucky. Two Mag7ers are currently in Spanish territory. They usually stock up on Saints Tees before going. Slanj got one hundred and eighty eight of your Scotch poonds outa them instead this year for Scotland branded goods. Greaves sold them new tops on top of that. All cash lost. A marketing triumph. How many others are in the same situation? There is no doubt that the Stranger is costing the club. Speculation on both forums has asked about the shirt sponsorship deal and we’ve been patiently waiting for some kind of announcement other than the low key one we’ve seen. It’s the first in our history that we did not crow about how good a deal we have got. No explanation how much Fila paid. The Stranger did the deal according to the cheerleaders. Even they have not commented on how good a deal it is. It looks like there is a good reason for this. JD/Carbrini/Fila this is the equivalent of The Sun having the News of the World on our strips. It looks as if our marketing is costing us as the Stranger stakes his claim. Probably busy looking after his 400 staff as one Sevener puts it. Oh dear. This is a worry. We could do with some caffine at this point. Better gather round the ol campfire - until the coffee house at SMP opens of course. Another sure-fire winner! Cic? Cic it into the long prairie grass. All of this is a sign of the future. Don’t ignore the smoke signals. We’ll keep lookout for more signs. Well pardners, time to ride the range. Yul, To be continued…

Howdy fellow Buds, I return for a pow wow with the two Magnificent Seveners not on vacation and find instead of exciting updates from the Stranger absolutely diddley squat, nada, zip. Just what is a happnin with our football club? The cic support seems to have gone very very quiet. Coyotes can be heard in the distance. To the sound of faraway harmonicas and the whisper of tumbleweed a hush has fallen over the prairie. The village sleeps. This is very strange. One or two rumours appear to suggest that a major lender/funder has hitched up their wagon and disappeared into the sunset. This may explain the silence. The supporters of the cic have also fallen into a slumber. Why no criticism of the lack of marketing over the past three months? Some of these cheerleaders have in the past slaughtered both Provan’s Emporium and employees of the club itself for a lack of choice of goods, scarves and strips and it’s been nothing like this. Whoever heard of a premier league club with NOTHING on sale only 20 days before a first game? Marketing? How much has the club lost in cash over this period? No sign of Saints even existing in the township. No publicity. No logos, nothing. Maybe by the time I get back next week we may just have a rail in a shop inside the high street emporium. Maybe a few strips on hangers at Braehead and Silverburn. Whoopee wonder how many Buds even care about Silverburn? To cap it all we now see on the official site the utter embarrassment of the Stranger’s latest brainwave. Need a story for the press. How about a good signing? Nope. Okay let’s try a brilliant home friendly to get the pulses racing? Nope. A new visible town centre shop then, because pardner’s that’s what we need. Nope again. But we need a story in the press about the cic. Wait a minute gang, got it. We’ll publicise taking in washing. We’ll go to the press and give them this startling ultra modern approach to supporter cleanliness, after all it’s next to godliness, isn’t it? CLICK HERE AND WEEP Dear Supporter, Please bring your dirty washing to SMP at each home game. Walk to the ground in all weathers, from the distant town centre, in the winter snows and rain. Don’t waste time in the pub, even though we won’t let you in to our cic bar we will take in your smalls. Just bury your self respect on the way along Greenhill Road. While you are acting like a normal football supporter bawling your wee lungs out we will be acting like an abnormal football/community centre laundermat, and apart from taking yet more business away from our hard pressed local businesses we will do your laundry while the game is on. Please retain your placcy bags for re-use and form an orderly queue both at drop off point and on uplift. Please ignore the insults/humour/derisive comments from the supporters of visiting football clubs as they pass you after the game. Yep pardners - football clubs. That’s what we are supposed to be but by the time we have been reduced to a laughing stock by the stranger you might care no more. And remember, all stewards at St. Mirren Park will have been warned not to ask your lady friends what they have in their bags. Hang on, we’re laughing too much to keep typing, please give us five…. … ah, that’s better, I nearly spilled ma pint, oops sorry darned whusky! So a Sunday national makes fun of our club with references to taking in washing and Widow Twanky. Marketing? Gawd. Is this what it will be like with the cic? You betcha, there’s been enough warning signs over the past six months and more. This man and his posse know nothing about football or our club. Time’s up. The final whistle must surely sound on this farce but does the BOD have the strength to put a stop to this? We three hope so for the good of St Mirren Football Club. Wait til the other riders get back! TBC PS. Yul forgive us if we continue to scrub our long johns n bloomers in private.

Jeepers pardners, A week and a half away, the bronco almost broke down and the varmits on the webby thing are at it again. I thought that we was a speekin inglish. Try this for size and all in darned fact sized, bite sized pieces just like mama used to make! It looks a bit like a recipe too, a recipe for disaster. A football is round. The Stranger never talks football. We are a football club. The cic does not discuss football. Our first duty is to our supporters, to be the best football team possible. We are a football club. That is what we do. That is what we are. That does not matter one itty bitty bit to the Stranger. The cic will lead to less dollars to spend on the team as it meets its interest on borrowings out of the fans’ pockets. The cic will be unable to fund promotion if we were to be demoted. Working ‘within budget’ really means accepting your place at whatever level you find Saints playing at. A second division budget in the second division. The fans won’t own St. Mirren. Read that again. The fans are doin the Stranger’s work for him and happily admit that some other fans have signed up without having heard of the cic until the day before. This is presented as a good thing! The cic depends on blind faith. The pro-fans have produced every excuse under the blazin Texican sun for any delays or shortcomings from the Stranger, time after time, after time. The pro-fans talk about Saints being a cic. Saints won’t be a cic. Spartans are a cic. One hundred percent. Stenhousemuir are a cic. One hundred percent. Saints will be a football club, with an OUTSIDE company that SOME OF OUR FANS HAVE CHOSEN TO FUND holding 52% of the controlling shares. Those fans will be members of that outside body. Nothing else. Nothing more. Around three times more Saints fans will remain as shareholders than fund the cic repayments for the Stranger, so that this self-claimed multi-millionaire doesn’t have to put in so much as a nickel. There’s a screenplay in here somewhere. The shareholders are therefore more representative of the fans than the cic will be. No dispute there. So will the non cic members. So will the season ticket holders. Saints are already owned by the fans. Some fans have more shares than others. The fans will meet the Stranger’s costs for him as he tells them they will have a say in the club. They believe this kind of stuff, some of them. They really do! They won’t. They will have at best the same power as a disenfranchised shareholder. What kind of say do fans really expect to get for ten greenbacks a month, come on! Some fans have been made promises of positions of influence. Beads for the natives. Some others have been offered a seat on the board, below the board, below the real board for their support. The Stranger won’t invest in the club. The fans are bankrolling the Stranger’s experiment. The Stranger must be laughing at them - all the way back from the bank. Welcome to the world of a poorer, possibly permanent lower league St. Mirren. Welcome to the world of the Stranger. Do we really have to telegraph this in capitals, do we really have to spell it out? D A N G E R Regard this as negative all you promoters of the outside company that will control your football club. When you lose interest, when you decide to stop bankrolling this joyride, when you have contributed to locking your football club into a straitjacket like this, how will you feel looking in from the outside like the rest of us? Will you all post on here to say you were a part of this if it does go through? Or will you take some solace from the fact that we can help retrain some Kibble Kids? Will you stick around for the next ten years? Will you? And then what? Or will you just shrug them ol shoulders and say as you do in the ol country, oh well it didnae work. What time is the supporters cart to Station Park? The Stranger sits and watches as forums fill with I hope, I guess, I assume, we think etc. This is not a negative telegram, just an observation from all seven of us down here at the telegraph shack. Have someone translate, or maybe actually make the effort to understand our posts. Either that or just colour this in. None of the Magnificent Seven’s questions have been answered. Not by one pesky poster. And you can all damned well read too. Shame on you all for being willing to take this kind of Stranger’s risk with our damned football club, for being happy to see fellow supporters who have helped the club survive in the past ‘shafted’ as one former club secretary put it at one of the Stranger’s meetings at SMP, and for paying a ten dollar bill to give the Stranger this privilege each and every month. Gee pardners, just one other thing. Try buying a Saints scarf in this township. Marketing expert? Don’t make us laugh. Yul, no ful. TBC

Whoooa pardners, hold them horses - this is a warning. Hi y’all, Yul here just pulled into town after another week away. Can I just put a coupla cowpokes straight. I am just lil’ ol me - honest injuns. I won’t go into the techie reasons for explaining the way the Magnificent 7 posts are posted. Maybe I don’t know how to use this new fangled elektrikety. But there are reasons. It’s amazing that when you look back the Magnificent posts and see how many of the questions we raise are answered; the pesky stuff like a top heavy club and no extra dollars for the team. As always the response is limited to attacking me/us rather than a direct answer. Some villagers even have the cheek to claim not to understand them due to my westerneeze. What a load of bunkem. Of course you understand them. Anyway pardners having returned home to the township I leapt down from the stage to find that ‘The Stranger’, the one who told three meetings that he could go to the bank and just buy OUR CLUB for $2million greenbacks (and that was preferable to spending 5 million of his quaint Scotch poonds after the darned taxman had swiped a share) had arranged to ‘invest’ $100,000 in our club. This does not make the SMISA posse look too darned bright, them having swallowed his tale of INVESTING his OWN cash in SMFC. They believed that because they had put some degree of faith in the Stranger. They were wrong. Strange from a Stranger that he didn’t arrange to have this cash wired to him from his own account and lend it to the club interest free. Him being dead against putting the club into ‘any kind of debt, so we just thought, let’s have a go’. After all he wants a big fat zero from the club, doesn’t he? Instead he chooses to bring about a loan situation that is, IF he is to be believed, quite unnecessary. He is now the Loan aRanger, which is appropriate as he should be wearing a mask if he pulls off taking over a Premier League Football (remember that?) club in this way. Then we have not one, but two reports to the Mag7 of seats on the SMFC board being offered as sweeteners to well known supporters, one a pesky reporter who was at the Stranger’s table at the annual Saints shindig last week. Now I return to find that once gain as a delay is announced - that’s another delay - but the board are being patient. Nope partners, the board are being DESPERATE. Then as if by magic the request for well meaning, villagers who have faith in the Stranger to send in their financial details is also announced, a diversion if ever there was one. Truly he is a desperado himself. Give the impression of lots happening. Lawdy, the comments on the forums show how this works. Read them back pardners. ‘There’s no going back’,’ it’s happening’, ‘20% more for the team budget, etc. Scarey. The Heraldo newssheet heralds that the deal might go through. There’s lots of mights and maybes in all of this. And guess what, the ‘story’ is written by, ehm, now where did us 7ers see this reporter before? Oh yes at the Stranger’s table at the Shindig. Just co-incidence though? Fire, smoke… smoke signals, for heaven’s sake (oops sorry a touch of religion crept in there) read them darned puffs. Next up is the direct debits. Nope wait a cotton pickin minute here. Anyone can see from all of this just how entrenched views are becoming amongst the fans, on forums and in conversation. One forum is even bad mouthing the other now. It’s the human way. Folks around here will just take up tribal sides. The school you went to. The team you support, the street you were brought up in. That’s just a taste of what our Club will become if the CIC was to become a reality. In-fighting, different groupings, no overall agreement, fans who felt they would have a say finding out the world is not flat. Why, as the good book says, there’s none so blind as those who will not see. But it’s worth a punt, for a year, isn’t it? Let’s take a chance. There’s no alternative. Yessiree there damned well is and everyone knows it. So to Direct debits. To all who have sent in private financial details to a ‘Stranger’ or his sidekick keep your hand on the trigger. Would you have done so in this way for anyone else? Would you have done so with a company outside of St. Mirren that you don’t know/ Who has access to your personal banking information? How are they accountable to you? How secure is your private information? Where is it being stored? Has it been requested in accordance with regulatory requirements? Does 10,000 hours comply with the data protection act? Were you informed of all of this in advance? If you cancel what happens to your stored details? As ever I stand accused alongside my six colleagues of only posing questions. Guilty Sheriff. If this CIC was about the entire club, not divisive, no prospect of splitting our faithful supporters, no stabbing in the back decent fans both rich and poor who have put in dollars to help the club in the past, would be centred on football (that’s the game we play Stranger) meant real investment to help us compete on the pitch, did not involve a ‘well we’ll see some financial impact in seven to ten years’, maybe, if local heroes were not now concerned for their reputations, if some directors wished they had never gone along with this, if shareholders had been consulted first as they were told they would be by the Stranger himself, if the Stranger knew the first thing about football, ‘I’m a Scotland supporter’, first meeting,’ I don’t know about football’, third meeting, if as he said he had around 400 shares, if he really did have, as he said 400 employees, if he had not chosen to create a debt similar to the type he specifically said he was against, if the Kibble Kids were not showing some signs of cold feet, if he was willing to invest real dollars, if he hadn’t fallen out with SMISA, if he didn’t want to use taxpayers dollars, if he wasn’t asking OUR FANS to sign up to something he wouldn’t, if he would TRANSPARENTLY reveal the investing companies, if he didn’t depend on the confidentiality hoary old chestnut, if……………………. Maybe, I would agree this was the best thing since firewater in the ol saloon. We’re all on the same side, St. Mirren Football Club Limited. Is he, as you say in ole Scotchland? Aye right. We may have to call in the Pinkerton, no not Bobby, Agency on this one, only they could get to the bottom of all of this, our fans sure as hell, sorry heaven, haven’t. Now ain’t that the truth. Be careful Buddies. Yul and the other Magnificent Buds

Howdy one and all, Now please don’t be cruel to Yul, just give the following tale a bit of consideration. The Mag7 of us are still looking and searching the prairie for any sign of funding appearing in the el banco cic. To date as May closes there is diddlysquat. The same goes for news or progress. In the meantime the chuck wagons rolled into Renfrew on Friday night for the annual Saints shindig. Some folk no doubt took the opportunity to have a word with the Mysterious Stranger. Seems they were told what was basically a re-run of the last two to three months worth of financial fayre that we have all heard over and over again. Thankfully the fayre from the chuck wagons was much, much better! It was also noted that the Stranger’s club legend frontman with the TF brand was missing from the dinner table. What a missed opportunity to talk to St. Mirren supporting businesses, strange. The Stranger’s implied ‘bonanza’ for the club was at times more of a case of putting the Hoss before the Cartwright! He has not yet hit and there is no sign of paydirt in the near future The Stranger may not be planning to bushwack the fans, but to get what he wants he is depending on the blind faith of the villagers down the SMP trail. We don’t buy his story, there is more to this than we are being told. Given one or two comments we think he more or less regards GHR as GreenHorn Road, he is still convinced that he can convince those pesky villagers! (Add in here the latest number of pledges but not a dime, not a red cent). Despite what he told us we know that FOUR agreed financial deadlines with the board have now been missed. His pow wow with SMISA did not go well either which is really putting it lightly! They are definitely beginning to see the problems associated with this plan now. Glory, glory, thank the lawd! (Or as one recent poster may prefer, Taing do Shealbh). Since we last telegraphed you, our Mag7 smisar reports that the Stranger is far from happy at the ‘attitude’ of the fans at SMISA. Lawdy, lawdy while all of this has been happnin the telegraph road has been a buzzin with news regarding the Kibble Kid’s and the kibble kids’ part in all of this. The word on the wires is that some at the ole Kibble Korrrrall are far from happy. We’ll keep an ear to the rails on this as railroading it through seems to have run out of steam. Hold meetings, hold more meetings, give the impression of activity, chuf, chuuufff, chuuuuufffffffffffffff, sigh. Reading through some of the posts on both sites, even some of the backers (as opposed to dissenters) are now asking key questions regarding timelines etc. We welcome this. Since we rode into town we have (and we don’t blame anyone at all for this) been the subject of much yahoo from those who see the cic as a pot of gold for the club. They all mean well. Yet many still say they are willing to take a chance, or give it a go for a year. The forums are peppered with these comments. NONE OF US CAN AFFORD TO TAKE A CHANCE WITH THIS SCHEME. The safety and stability of the club is far too important. Once you decide to pay 10 greenbacks a month to a CIC and not to St. Mirren for the next big ten years then that’s it. The only way that will stop is if it all falls flatter than a cowpat. Then a cic would be trying to sell the 52% shareholding in one go rather than the natural turnover of shares and directors over a period of time. And another thing, this instant 20% promised increase in the boy Danny’s playing budget for instance. That’s around 260,000 of your quaint Scotch poonds. But part of the thinking included an extra 500 bums on seats to achieve this. That’s up there with saying rain is wet. Ya’ll had better have a think about that claim. If we get another 500 supporters to the games field it will be because the team are playing better. Can you just see the Stranger, the executive board, the cic board, the St. Mirren board all trying to take credit for the increase in income that that would bring! Cos pardners the team and the manager are so far down the food chain here that they almost don’t matter, which is after all what the Stranger has already told a number of our fans already! Right then cowpokes, for the record please stop accusing other posters of being me or me as being someone else. I’m not, they are not. I am me. Methinks a bit of paranoia is a creepin in here. Deal with it. Tapadh leibh, Yul …to be continued

Yeehah, We’re back again having just made the kick off on Saturday. Two of us made the shareholders meeting along with one who is not a shareholder. No checks at the door. Envelopes calling the meeting sent out with no postcodes and no town names in some cases. About 90 made it. You might think sending out the invitations only a couple of days in advance was deliberate! In what other sphere of his business would a Stranger (who claimed at the meeting to employ 400 staff, quote ‘I have a staff of four hundred.’) send out something as important as this in such a way? Okay, let’s clear this up once and for all. The Stranger does not run Maxi, his daddy does, he’s the son of the father, got it? One of our 7 was told at the meeting that his offishul business card has his name on it but NO DESIGNATION, not even director. NOW THAT IS STRANGE. A strange Stranger, what next? Thanks for the private messages of support. And LB you are right, it isn’t our job to provide alternatives to the CIC. That is the job of the board and nobody else. Maybe our alternative would be a limited company that currently has far more individual shareholders than have pledged to the CIC. 300 to 600 CIC members will not produce any kind of valid claim to be representative of the support or to be a club owned by the fans. WITH A CIC MEMBERSHIP, A CICer WILL PART OWN THE CIC,.END OF STORY. THE CIC WILL, as an entity OWN 52 percent of the club. Behind all this a Stranger will have 300 or more Saints fans paying out the money for him to take over our club. He will hold all the aces. He could use the stadium to hold concerts, events and such. He could set up a company to do this independent of the cic. He could then pay a peppercorn rental to the club and divert some profit to the cic. The events outfit could keep the profits. It could, oh yes it could. It could be part of a bigger plan. Then again. As the dust continues to swirl around the cic posse it still shows no sign of clearing. When a villager by the name of John (we/ I are not/am not John) asked the Stranger how many shares he had purchased the Stranger answered ‘I’m not sure’. You want to but over the club and you don’t know how many shares you have said John. ‘Well, I’m not sure, something like 300 or 400’ was the reply. Well I’ll be darned. The Stranger has a really bad memory. He has 30 or 40 shares that cost him around £7 each. That was easy for the three of us present to remember! We said previously that he seemed ok. Not so sure motive-wise now. By the end of Saturdays’s match the villagers (some of whom were knee high to a grasshopper and obviously had no understanding of what they were handing out) were carrying bundles of unused cic leaflets. This reflects the general mood we think. The bins outside the turnstiles were full of them though. The cic is now at the limit of pledges. Time for this fantasy is fast running out. The SMISA column in the programme virtually advised fans to think again. It was non committal, with good reason. The Kibble Kid was animated again at the questioning he received at the Shareholders jamboree. He is not a Saints fan despite asking previously ‘why it this has all been left to us, it makes you wonder what the board have been doing for the past ten years’. That’s rich. The Mysterious Stranger’s even more mysterious side-kick cut him off as he spoke. This was commented on by the two shareholders sitting next to us. One also told us that the board are out of patience with the Stranger. At least one wants out too. Maybe some people are beginning to see sense. This whole cic and caboodle has depended on the goodwill and loyalty of decent St. Mirren supporters who believe that they will be helping their club. IT IS THIS LOVE THAT BLINDS THEM TO THE REALITIES OF THIS POTENTIAL TRIP TO FOOTBALL’s BOOT (appropriate that don’t you think?) HILL. Well now, it’s almost time to hit the old saloon. This is no poker game we’re all in pardners. If the cic takes over then it’s a limitation on Saints ability to act, feel, invest and operate like a normal football club. Budgets are set yes, but in the normal scheme of things they are added to when and if necessary. We could not do that under a cic. As the funds have still not materialised after almost a year (yes we know… confidentiality, difficult, we can’t tell you but we have a basketball club on board, wait it out, we’ll have three boards, inevitably I will be on all three, and be chairman to boot) this is going nowhere. Taxpayers’ dollars, Paisley pesos amongst them, may be much, much harder to come by to buy St. Mirren. A cic is not for this purpose, look it up and don’t mention long term sustainability! Oh and another thing. Stop talking about the damn bar. It’s a bar. Not the International Monetary Fund. Any profits probably wouldn’t change a wheel on our wagon! Three wheels on my wagon, and I’ll keep rolling along… unlike the CIC… It’s cool to be YUL

Howdy from the bunkhouse Just back from taking a wagon train south of the border, down Texaco way. Despite what some upset villagers have said we’re sending this wire just as we did with the first two - without and before meetings called by the mysterious stranger. Only 3 of the Mag7 had a chance to make the long ride north. The mules were sluggish on the way back from that one I can tell you. Saddlebags empty of points and on a downward journey. Worrying times. Imagine trying to finance yir way back up to the SPL with a percentage of the CIC ‘members only’ saloon bar takings and to quote, ‘living within your means’ limitations. Plus a percentage of the magical 20% increased commercial income we are promised. Nope, I stand corrected, told we could/might get. Just like the 52 events we will have at SMP. Not to worry, the Kibble Kid and his Kibble Kids might club together with the worshippers to save us. Perhaps not. Word is the churchy folk are going to mothball their Paisley premises to allow for a return. Might say they’ve taken stock in Stock Street there! Shows the FAITH they have in the CIC. For ‘living within yer means’ please read ‘We’ve no cash, we’ve no chance of getting any more cash, we’re running short of cash cos the villagers have cut off their cash flow and the £10kers have decided to head for the hills. So we have to manage to a structure. We’ll cut our cloth and if it’s First Division then that’s what it will be. If it’s Second Division then - if it’s Third - no way back. Okay so we’ve been relegated before (as someone very prominent pointed out on the forums in the last couple of days) and come back up. Unfortunately he didn’t point out that the time before last it took about FIFTEEN YEARS and many dollars being injected from sources then outside the club. A decision was made then, a flexible decision based on circumstance and not LOCKED IN TO A CIC nightmare. Yikes! With apologies to Doris Day try reversing the CIC stage up that blind CIC alley in good ole Deadwood. We could put a £15 surcharge on season tickets though. That was something possibly worthy of consideration later said the Stranger at the last meeting. Brilliant! Even to consider this will cost the club money. We’ll give STH no options. A contact we have made a very valid point only last week on this idea. As you say in Scotchland, fans would disappear like snaw aff a dyke. HOW CAN ANYONE who does not wish to contribute a dime to the cic TRUST THAT ANY SEASON TICKET PRICE INCREASE FROM HERE ON IN IS NOT BEING SYPHONED OFF TO THE CIC? We think that’s a very good point. It shakes the trust between club and support to the core and is a very dangerous route to go down. While I’ve been away the telegraph wires have been a hummin with some of the latest news from the postal telegraph office on both the darned offishul shack and the anything goes version where some of the language is a itty bitty bit over the top. Shame on you we say. We are not banditos! The last time the Magnificent Seven had to help the villagers there was mucho aggro and not of the North Bank type but contained none of the poor quality language here. Watch the damned film. Darn, sorry about the language there. We 7 might be enough to make a Saint swear right enough but as the barmaid in the saloon said the troof hurts. Deal with it with a civil tongue please. And while we’re at it some folk have complained about actually havin to think about the CONTENT and MESSAGE behind the words we’re a settin an they’re a readin. Then they complain about that instead of ADDRESSIN the points but make no mention of the bad language used by some very poor posters. Read back and see pardners. Aneeehow, it seems a new fangled solar panel salesman is signing up, to sign up, to sign up for the mysterious stranger’s deal latest deal. This is being trumpeted once again on the wires as a great development by some of the stranger’s henchmen, that’s the well meaning guys who saddle up actually do all the work amongst the natives, convince them this is the best deal from the big men at the Casa Rancho then are left to the revenge of the natives if all goes wrong. But in actuality yet another vested interest joins or nearly joins the shaky, unannounced, very secret club that is the CIC or the Can’t Inform Calamity ( sorry again Doris) as it may become known. Still, as the freesheets say news is news. It might well have merit, but selling the club back electricity at a cheap rate in return for endorsement is hardly bell ringing support. It’s more a response to an obvious commercial inducement. You scratch my back etc. In the normal sense this would be considered good business if it wasn’t being presented in this way. On a brighter side we have been handed a few more bandoleers of cartridges by some of the villagers who are now asking questions of each other should the worst happen. The funny thing is that we’re going to use the bullets to fire back at them, and this isn’t even a comedy. Since we got back into town the big questions seem to be ‘If fellow villagers give up (for whatever reason) paying hard earned pesos into the CIC. What would happen - to the club - to the CIC - and why? Reasons don’t matter. Whether relegation, disillusionment, value for dollars, skills on the pitch, management style, league position. The villagers are now beginning to see the danger and debate it openly in public. The same, the exact same, problems would afflict any outside businesses daft enough to buy into this. They would inevitably act in much the same way AND COULD DO SO AT ANY TIME. Starve the CIC of pesos while the members - 300 plus - debate or call to sack the manager. Well they can hardly call to sack the board can they? Talk about airing yir dirty ponchos in public. Try keeping that quiet, what a potential way to run an SPL club, the wires would come alive and the newssheets would have a field day, we keep horses in ours, that’s ok. Now that would put pressure on a manager. Ridiculous. Wake up and smell the coffee on the campfire. The fans will HAVE NO SAY. The CIC board would veto anything like that while the gringo collects in the villagers’ hard earned dollars. Dollars that they pay for the privilege of being vetoed. You couldn’t make this stuff up. Must find a scriptwriter for this one. Oh well, time to get back outa town, Pronto Tonto. ‘til the next time pardners TMS

Howdy again… Firstly thanks to all who have sent us telegrams of support. Some from far off haciendas many days ride away, special thanks in particular to you at the ole double (you know the letter) Ranch. As we sat round the campfire after the ride east to the Hibees Hacienda, five of us trailblazers discussed what is likely to happen next. In the wagon on the trail home back seat 7er had suggested that, at the up and coming pow-wow at SMP, Bossman Gilmour would say that demotion wouldn’t be so bad as there would be more pesos from el SPL banco if Saints were demoted. This led to a heated discussion that lasted until we crossed the Rio Cart in town. Eventually all five agreed that the promise of dollars would be used to make relegation under the CIC more financially acceptable to the fans. Later in the saloon it was pointed out that with Saints ham-strung by the CIC project that the club would have to accept its place as it would not be able to raise cash like a normal commercial business. This would, to use a popular phrase, ‘asset lock’ St. Mirren into the First Division with no prospect of funding our way back to the top league – indefinitely. Season ticket sales would then drop. Gate charges would drop to First Division levels and fewer fans would visit. The CIC has stated that we would have to live within our means. That would mean First Division income only - as the CIC would be unable to contribute due to its debt level. The fans would be busy paying that back. We would be by-standers as the street cleared and the likes of Morton, Dundee, or Hamilton decided to shoot it out for promotion. As the fans then get fed up they drop by the wayside, CIC income drops. It would be a vicious circle. So being beholden to the CIC will severely limit our ambitions sure as sun-up follows sun-down. Another telegram then came in telling us that there seems to be problems with some of the investors. That is to say there have been some very recent knock-backs. We’ll keep you posted but this comes as no surprise to us. What we expect to see as a result is an increase in attempts to find more dollars from the fans. Greedy eyes are being turned to cash stashed away by some fans’ groups according to one of the seven who is acting as lookout elsewhere. Getting some of this booty will perhaps help fill yet another one of the business £10k places. This will no doubt be heralded as a triumph but if it does come to pass will just be yet another chip-in from WITHIN the club or from businesses associated with the whole project. We now wonder how odd the promoters of the CIC amongst the fans will find it when the list of 12 is finally pinned to the tree in the village square and is made up so. We laughed at the Stranger’s explanation as to why 12 – because there’s 12 unused seats in the directors’ box. At the Thursday pow wow at the big house, before the Stranger spoke the Bossman suggested that Saints fans may prefer to play Falkirk and Morton rather than struggle against Killie and Aberdeen in the SPL, that the football might even be better. He also in effect said that r*ngers and c*ltic had to be considered at each and every turn. He said that without TV money we would all be in the brown stuff and they would take the huff. This would lead to them appealing to UEFA and trying to get into the league in England. If as he suggested we might be happier playing Falkirk and Morton there would be no real TV money anyway. Well I’ll be darned, of course, the club would receive an extra fistful of dollars if relegated. So why bother then with r*ngers and c*ltic at all? In every explanation the Bossman included the words r*ngers and c*ltic, they seemed to be the ever present factor whether with league set up, the number of games, the TV money. If his argument is that the football would be better without them and acceptable to the fans, where’s the problem? Soon he hopes we will have a CIC. The club then lives within its means, this presumably means that if relegated we accept our mid-table place in the First Division. The Executive Board won’t interfere in decision making, unless that is it feels it has to interfere! The fans fund the buy-out. The Stranger is chairman, well he said it was ‘kind of inevitable’ at the pow wow. Local churches pay £500 a year to use SMP, that’s £10 per week. The club takes the bar profit, what a barrelage deal we must have with the brewers. The CIC members sit in the CIC bar and spend their cash with the CIC happy in the knowledge that The Kibble Kid’s Kibble Kids (trainees) are serving meals at some events in the club’s own restaurant, thereby depriving some catering staff of paid employment, not very community minded there. No point hurting one section in order to help another. On another track one of our 7 is insistent that I point out to all and sundry that comments that state that - ‘if the project fails it will be the fault of the fans or the community’ are as far off of the bulls-eye as it is possible to get. It has been stated by many posters that the ordinary villagers are no hot-shots in business. This is a reasonable assumption and no insult is intended we are sure. Whereas the ‘Consortium’ (basically the Mysterious Stranger and his faithful sidekick - his paid accountant) are experts who have studied the project and claim to know all that is necessary - and the grants and loans as we have been told are in place. They cannot surely place the burden of success on fans they have already stated do not have the necessary business acumen. So if the CIC experiment fails it will be THEIR fault and theirs alone. By then that won’t matter as they will have saddled up their ponies and headed west, leaving St. Mirren lying in the dust, the fans who placed their trust in this adventure ambushed and the whole ‘CIC and caboodle’ at the mercy of the lenders. Ok, we know there is only lottery and Government taxpayers’ dollars so let’s just say public money rather than lenders money. I think at least we can all agree on that. The Mysterious Stranger has now successfully taken us into May as he works away panning for taxpayers’gold and hoping that if it is not forthcoming that the fans will provide the paydirt required. One suggestion that is particularly out of order is to put £10 on the cost of a season ticket in due course to ‘spread the load’ according to the Stranger. This would be outrageous. Fans wishing to pay directly into the CIC should do so that is fine. If season tickets are priced up in order to TAKE EVEN MORE MONEY FOR THE CIC FROM THE FANS the club will suffer. Those not wishing to contribute may choose not to buy season tickets. Football is expensive enough. How ironic would it be that the CIC costs Saints money by effectively imposing a CIC levy - which is exactly what this would be - on those who do not believe this to be the way forward, so much for community. This can only be opt in not opt out. How presumptuous to even think this appropriate, even at this stage. At the meeting he announced that it would probably now be August before things hot up. How long will the Bossmen at the Big House give him to find the dough if that four month deadline comes and goes? Gawd only knows what this uncertainty will do for the planning for the new season. But again football and the football team were not mentioned unless a point was raised from the floor by a football supporter. What did impress the three of us in attendance was the willingness of the fans to support their club. Unfortunately some of the conversation in an extremely long (like this post) evening suggested that there is some kind of crisis at St. Mirren. There is not. Comparisons were actually made with r*ngers, no not the Texas version. Now they ARE in financial crisis. All we face is a majority shareholding being put up for sale. WE DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS. As the tumbleweed rolls by and the whistling of the wind replaces detail, timelines, information, any semblance of real transparency, any word of real progress and the secret funders and secret companies on the list remain just that - a secret - after TWO public meetings, we hope the CIC doesn’t ultimately stand for Cowboy Investment Company! £120 per season to help a Mysterious Stranger experiment on your club, it’s amazing what well meaning villagers will buy from a travelling salesman from the coast. His suggestion, (apart from the three board set-up) that the other 48% of shareholders gang together will split the club in the true sense. It would also create a fifth or even sixth group within the club. 52%, 48%, Exec board, CIC Board, SMFC board then the rest of the fans. Divide and rule stuff right enough. The only thing that matters is our FOOTBALL club. It’s been kicking about since 1877. It deserves better than this. If the directors have had enough then we suggest they resign from the board, ask the other major and indeed smaller shareholders to hold an EGM and then appoint a new board. Then just put your shares up for sale in the normal way. Despite what the Kibble Kid disgracefully said at the first public meeting you have done a fantastic job over the past 10 years or so. It’s banding together to form a group sale that is hindering the sale of any of the shares at all. IT IS THIS THAT IS PUTTING THE CLUB AT RISK - together with the experiments of the Stranger. WELL that’s aS FAR as we GO for the moment. The stage is pulling out. To be continued…

Howdy Pardners.. So the Mysterious stranger has addressed the villagers. He spoke well and when the mood amongst the gathering began to fade after the first 45 minutes employed that well known tactic of turning to humour in order to bring the gathering back onside. He has been told what onside and offside is - although having professed to have been always a football fan (where have you heard that old chestnut before? - maybe someone should tell his dad at Maxi), he should have known this anyway. He is a salesman. There is no harm in this and he seems a decent hombre. However his opening sentence said it all. ‘THIS IS ALL ABOUT A CIC’. That should really have been along the lines of THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE FUTURE STABILITY, WELFARE AND GROWTH OF ST. MIRREN FOOTBALL CLUB. Sadly this comment only showed where his true interest lies. Again this does not make him a bad person, just a non-football fan who wants to use our club as a social experiment. The villagers lapped up the good news. They love their club and want the very best for it. Even as those of us towards the back of the barn struggled now and again to hear at times, questions were asked for by the Stranger. When some of these became a bit intense a proposal from the floor to leave the questions until the end suited his preaching style, wonder where that skill was developed? Once more, no harm in that. This had the effect of disengaging from some questions from a well-known newssheet and that new fangled wireless thing journalist who was obviously asking her questions in a particular way. From where we were sitting it was obvious that the top table were happy that this was stopped. The villagers seemed to appreciate it too although the two of us Magnificent 7ers (there’s still seven) in attendance could see why she was doing it. This is after all the pesky newssheet way. We don’t think she’s a dumb broad. Oops, sorry wrong soundtrack. A villager sitting at the front spoke early on and said that if he had been a shareholder then he would have been raging at the lack of respect that has been shown to so many people that have put pesos into the club over the years. This is a fair point and perhaps a sign of times ahead. After all at the club AGM the Stranger, when pressed on this point by a shareholder assured the questioner that the shareholders would be consulted first. That when he earlier said they would hear of progress in the local press and through something called the media was just a slip of the tongue. This was just prior to the big boss taking the microphone, whatever that is, away from him for the first time. The answer and reasoning as to why this courtesy was not adhered to was extremely weak in response. It is obvious to anyone with a sombrero that the CIC model has lots going for it. The magic word as you might expect is community. This is what the villagers are (literally) buying into. They are to be commended for caring about the community in the first place. It’s just a shame that St. Mirren FC is being used as an experiment to show that a vehicle designed for small to medium community projects is being used to PURCHASE SHARES AND CONTROL OF our football club. It was almost amusing to look around and see all the villagers discussing matters they will have no real control or say over, while the generals elsewhere rub their hands at the thought of all those locals doing the work for them and then paying for the privilege. Even when it was pointed out that we will have a raft of directors, THREE boards including the decision making EXECUTIVE BOARD and a process of management strata that ICI would be proud of all to run a fitba (as you Scots call soccer) team the villager present thought it was worth trying. Now some are saying that if it doesn’t work they will pull out after a year. That’s the point, doing that will bring potential disaster to our front door. That’s why the Stranger said that payments will be by direct debit. Any marketeer will tell you that folk are slow to cancel this type of payment. Others wanted to know what they get for their monthly payment. Surely that is against the spirit of all of this. You should be doing this for community, not to get something from it. This is the project’s weakness. Villagers will leave. Disillusionment will set in. Pressures will come onto the management structure of the club as opposing factions over THREE boards fall out … then? This is the human condition folks. When another pesky villager asked what would happen when people lose interest, stop paying into the CIC and if it goes bust, the Stranger’s answer defied belief. ‘We will have a problem. We will just have to go back to the funders’. Read that again. This is akin to buying your house, defaulting on the payment then asking the building society for more cash! Bet you don’t fancy putting your club in that position. So if you sign up you damn well better expect to stay. As for the funders, well they are a big secret. ‘We can’t tell you said the Stranger.’ A PUBLIC meeting and nothing is made public other than the sign up now message… better not mention we are seeking taxpayers’ dollars. Come on! A local hero, someone the villagers know and trust was asked to introduce proceedings. If he didn’t know before as to why he is there he does now as the Stranger told the villagers that he wouldn’t have expected them to listen to him so that’s why the hero was brought on board! The third member of the top table was no ranch hand from the Kibble Corral, no he is one of the top men. At one point during proceedings and in scathing tones he actually asked ‘why has this been left to us, it makes you wonder what the board (of SMFC) been doing for the last 10 years?’ Unbelievable. He said this sitting in a brand new football stadium OWNED by a Premier League football club and with a new training ground across town. What a lack of respect, breathtaking arrogance too. This is a proposal. NOTHING has been left to anyone. In fact the Stranger had already explained that the entire CIC project was his idea. He explained this very clearly and well. He has clearly brought this hombre on board, so for the Kibble Kid to virtually claim that he has seen fit himself to pick up from the current board and by association claim any part in the concept is a bit rich. He was plainly playing to the gallery. Incredibly the villagers applauded this comment. Bad mouthing any board is always acceptable to fans of any club we suppose. Far from us 7 to defend the board but this is bluster at its best. We bet some slugs and a fistful of dollars that he wasn’t a season ticket holder in any of those previous 10 years he referred to! Is he even a Saints fan? That’s one dumb question to ask if he is. To claim the moral high ground in this manner is shocking. He was visibly annoyed at some of the other questions too. Well, time to get back in the saddle. We’ll mosey on down to the saloon to discuss this more. No doubt you will too. One parting shot for the moment. Putting the club at risk is not acceptable. For fans to claim they will try this out and then leave puts the risk into sharp focus as does the only answer if all goes wrong and the £10k contributors – at the moment rumoured to contain FIVE of the current board and committed for one year only - decide to pull out. No wonder they too are a secret. It doesn’t matter what has been done at other clubs anywhere. This is St. Mirren and our club means too much to everyone to depend a house of cards like this for its survival. We have no debt. For a holding company to propose incurring debt to purchase the shares then to TRY to take on more debt if it doesn’t work out is no business strategy. And where is the football in all of this? Maybe the board should change THEIR minds and put their shares on the open market and allow the relative insurance of a mixed board to look after the club as it has done since we became a limited company. After all that is exactly what protected the club from Brealey. With the CIC there is no turning back. Any more of this and we will have to make a movie! …to be continued