northstbuddie

We should not forget Motherwell knocked back their offer, Motherwell the club that has been making major cut backs. So it's good enough for St Mirren but not good enough for Motherwell

In response to an earlier point about our first concern being 'they're foreign' and that tarring us with a bigoted 'Sevco brush'. No it doesn't. Absolutely 100% no.
My first concern is.... 'they're foreign'. Aye, because of Romanov at Hearts, Massone at Livvy, Stefano at Dundee, Anelka at Raith... could even mention Vincent Tan at Cardiff who did not seem to care much about the history and fabric (literally!) of that club, changing their traditional kit to something deemed a lucky colour in Asia? What about the Venkys at Blackburn. The first Americans at Liverpool were not popular, neither were the Glazers at Man Utd.
The major success stories seem to be Abramovich at Chelsea and Mansoor at City - but we are talking genuine off the radar wealth and massive glamour clubs in one of the world's top leagues here, not a relegation threatened small club in a relatively minor European league, with no recent history of threatening European qualification or, well, pretty much anything bar bobbing along quietly with March 17 2013 popping up after 26 years.
Let's say a consortium of Billy Davies, Ally McCoist and Graeme Souness announced they were buying St Mirren. I would get it, would understand it - they are football men, the obvious Rangers connection between them would not worry me. I could GET it.
I do not get at all why an Argentinian consortium would be any good for St Mirren. No more than I would understand it should I learn that a handful of Scottish lawyers and businessmen were buying a club in, oh, let's say Mexico.
If I were a fan of a Mexican 'St Mirren', playing to 3,000 every week and always in the shadow of the big Mexico City clubs, and heard a bunch of Scotsmen were buying us, guarantee you, 'WTF!' would be my reaction there too.
In regard to the consortium doing what's right - for St Mirren. I believed that five years ago. I said they have earned the right to be trusted, but five years down the line, with their The Rangers reaction fresh in my mind, and the silence and stupor surrounding the last three to four years of their tenure, and the ultimate failure of the long drawn out 10000hours discussions - my faith has been seriously diluted.
Worrying times if this deal is true. IMHO.

IT'S ABOUT THE SOUL OF OUR CLUB.
(Aye, I'm aware of how poncy that sounds...)
For some years now, I've grown more and more disenchanted by Scottish fitba (commercialised fitba in general, I guess).
Scotland became a sham when it hired a foreign manager and played so many not-quite-Scottish players in it.
(I've still been to every Scottish game south of the border since 1979... it's been by chance, lately - my heart's not in it.)
Not only Scotland, of course. "If they do why shouldn't we?" What's the point of having National teams if the National part of the deal is so diluted? Champions League gives you sight of all sorts of foreign prima donnas if you like that kind of stuff, night after boring night.
I will only bother to watch Scotland and St Mirren. At least I would once upon a time... but the fairy tale is no longer as attractive.
St Mirren? Aye, it's my team. Every visit to Paisley is scheduled to somehow get to see the Buddies (and my Buddies), if possible. Is my heart in that? I think it still is, despite the onslaught of negativity and that grey, dull concrete box. When my Buddies are not around I still go alone and have been lucky enough to bump into other Buddies (some first met via this forum!).
I get pleasure out of meeting with London Saints... maybe it's just to hear Buddies talking normally... but it's usually fun, and a few beers in which to drown our sorrows.
There's the Sevco fiasco, where a club that has ripped millions from the general public to finance its vainglorious pursuit of success, has died but the authorities pretend it survived an event no other business has survived. Ever! Cheats running a so-called 'sport' for the benefit of other cheats - and all, it appears, acceptable to the managements of all other clubs in the Leagues. Only a fans revolt made them see partial truth and fairness, but they're still trying to cheat.
Apart from the opening line above, I never now type or speak of 'US' or 'our' or 'we' - I no longer find it easy to identify myself with temporary, highly paid, transient hired hands of whatever nationality. (Thommo and Cheesy are absolved... )
I know I wouldn't be missed. I know there will be those who would say, "f**k off, then, you're hardly ever here. we don't need you". I would just be one of the thousands who no longer bother...
The idea of our/the club being passed off to non-Buddie hands is possibly the final straw, a shite state of affairs... Especially if, indeed, it would be simply to serve as a tax-avoidance vehicle.
Where's the soul in that?

It wouldn't surprise me if we get to the end of another season with the club unsold.

A few County fans seem to rate him. He clearly divides their support. That's something, given that we're pretty much unanimous on the likes of Marwood, Reilly, and Ball

NYCFC are just following our example - playing crap opposition pre-season.

NYCFC are just following our example - playing crap opposition pre-season.

Why, has something else happened.

I don't follow your posts so I don't know what you've said before. I'm glad you've joined today though - there is really no excuse for any fan not to join up at this time. As Div said, it's now very easy to join up online and I did so as soon as that option became available.
I entirely disagree that there was anything "Rangers-like" about John White's response. I think it was entirely reasonable to question why a consortium would want to buy the club.
I don't think the membership of SMISA is terribly high, and I don't think it is feasible to expect them to mount some sort of organized attempt to take the club on, as you put it. The money is not there, and the manpower is not there.
I also disagree that they should have been more supportive of 10,000 Hours, although that was obviously not why 10,000 Hours failed. I wasn't a member at the time, but as far as I could tell, their members took the time to look into it properly and came up with a reasoned standpoint.
As for being resigned about fan ownership, I think we have to be realistic here. I believe that it is the only sustainable model in Scottish football (OF apart) and will become the norm, although that will take time. It will not happen at St Mirren until:
1. A consortium buys the club, everything goes tits up (which it inevitably will: any consortium will want to sell the club on at some point) and either we go into administration and managed to salvage the club, or we go out of existence altogether and the fans start the club again from scratch, or
2. We get relegated, the selling consortium do not manage to sell the club before then and their selling price inevitably has to take a hit. At that point, it might be possible to revisit the 10,000 Hours model.
I think it will definitely happen, but I don't see what SMISA, or anyone else, can do about it right now (unless a black and white Ann Budge comes forward).

I think there was a leaflet drop earlier this season. As far as I know, though, it's the same small band of people running SMISA and I can't believe many St Mirren fans haven't heard of the organization. It's easy to blame folk who already give up a lot of their time to run SMISA for not doing more leafleting, but that's not the reason why most of the folk who spend their days posting on this board are not members. As more join up, there will no doubt be more new keen faces who will be able to "be visible".
There are too many people sitting back and expecting someone else to mount a realistic campaign. Get off your backsides, join SMISA, help shape its aims and goals. Or sit and post on message boards all day and moan about the club being sold down the river.

If you consider for a moment how what we are being drip fed will play out perhaps playing the long game will reward the fan/community ownership aspiration shared by so many.
As far as we know the Argentine business model of swamping the club with a selection of various degrees from piss poor - to competent young Argentine footballers has one absolute certainty! That being not if it crashes to the ground a horrible messy burning wreck of a cockamamie idea....
But rather when?
If by then (i give it one season absolute tops) we have a solid Smisa whose members number around at least our current home gate average. Then we could be in a post administration/liquidation position to buy the club for a nominal amount and set out on the journey back through the leagues with a great young side maturing along the way!
Ffs look at Hearts, they are flying, they cut out the old pros like Sutton and Stevenson and actually built a team and club that thrives on what it can produce itself. And they haven't done a season yet! When promoted how far up the premier league do you think they could rise? I cant see many teams that will be able to stop them, much like Accies this season. Perhaps its time we cleansed our club of the players, coaches, managers, directors and attitudes that go with bringing in old so and so on loan or free transfer because i quote "they COULD do a job for us"
This may be our opportunity to rise like the Phoenix from those Argie flames as a club reborn. I ask in all seriousness who wouldn't swap the dire fair, results and atmosphere surrounding the club at present, for one that we have all bought into that sees a proud young team and back-room set up tearing up the leagues.
It will need an auld heid as director of football to mentor a young new manager (i'd give Thommo a go)' but not a collection of assistant coaches who got the job just because they were the most senior players. What Hearts are doing should inspire us, ffs they are even achieving it with Levein!
The selling consortium want a sum of money we all know the club really is not worth given what it generates at present and what its commitments are. But if as a strong Smisa we take it out of admin/liquidation..? Who says what we can or can't achieve...
A final thought to contemplate as the River Plate mob settle in for the inevitable stormy ride. Why do you think invariably the appointed administrators/liquidators at crisis clubs sell to organised supporters groups..?
Simples! Thats the main revenue stream, and all the businesses customers. If they are properly organised its a no brainer to make them the preferred bidder.

Or Rangers.

It is. But it's blatantly obvious that this has started at boardroom level with the cheapskate appointment of TC and the sanctioning of bargain basement signings who were plainly never going to be up to the job.

The problem being that the current board staying has gone from drifting stagnation, which most of us accepted and understood to actively hurting the club in a very short space of time which most of us don't understand. This won't get better or steady itself in time. We are now approaching the end game for SG and Co.
I never thought I'd see the day when I felt this BoD were unhealthy for SMFC but that appears to be the case now.

As I said earlier, I don't think the English consortium are without fault, eg, for a group seriously expecting to takeover St Mirren FC it looks fairly clueless if they didn't know SG, the chairman of the BoD and lead member of the selling consortium, was on holiday in South Africa and had been since mid-December and wasn't expected back until near the end of January. That said, it looks like it was the club that leaked news of their bid to the media, leaked news of who their managerial choice would be, leaked news the deal was off and leaked news that one of those putting the bid together had been in jail for fraud. A few weeks after expecting to conclude the sale they then hear of more leaked news that there is a done deal with a different bidder. I'm not surprised they have hit back, especially when on their version of events, the reason for not concluding the sale on 24th December was one board member could not attend the meeting and sign the deal.
I think the way things are going our board are managing to turn SMFC into almost as big and messy a soap opera as The Rangers International Football Club, with the number of takeover stories we've had, unsavoury characters we have been saved from, 10000Hours being rejected at the 11th hour, and meanwhile in the last 7 or 8 months they binned DL by letting his contract run out and told him after the end of the season so there was no farewell to the fans, appointed Tommy Craig and kept on backing him when it was clear he wasn't up to the job, backed him at the AGM and then sacked him 1 week later, have placed Teale in charge for an unspecified interim period and only asked him to improve things. Their main activity would seem to be buying up SMFC shares so they can increase their stake from 51% to 75% to improve the chances of a sale of the club while they knock back investment offers from SMISA and while the player budget is cut. We are now almost halfway through the January window with no signings, 5 players leaving the 1st team squad so far, star striker injured, our only centre half suspended and still no news on what is happening with shortlisting for the managerial vacancy.

I think we're still dodging bullets, what mess this club is in & we can only blame current BOD, IMO. May I add.

We are doomed based on the indications from GT that we are currently looking at 2 or 3 signings up front and in midfield.
No mention of shoring up the only defence in all the senior leagues in the UK without a clean sheet to its name after 5 months into the season. However I'll give Gary the benefit of the doubt and maybe he just forgot to mention a CB was also a priority in the transfer window.

It seems somewhat ironic that our club has a reputation for leaks when we seem to hear feck all directly from the board.

I've not read their statement in full and to be honest I am not all that bothered if the English bid was a non-starter due to a lack of credibility behind their company and the people they were using and had lined up to takeover. What I am concerned about is St Mirren FC. If the English bid was laughable and if their broker's fraud conviction was known about months ago, why spin things out for 6 months, why have them heading north on 24th December under the impression they are going to complete the deal or at least sign he deal?
I don't think we come out of this well if there is truth in leaking a bid we didn't intend to see through or leaking Thompson's name or in claiming we had found out at the last minute about the fraud conviction.
My guess is the club strung them along to try and make it look like a few genuine bids were on the table and try and get a higher price for the sale, and that this statement is an attempt to hit back and scupper any deal or lower the cost of any deal to the winning consortium.

You are right fella, just giving the guys the chance to put their side across.
Whole situation is a right mess. In the background of all this we have a team that is heading at full speed into the Championship, that is really all I am concerned about at this precise moment in time.

Of course, if you actually listened to what he said he thought there was nothing in the game up until the goal.
Which there wasn't.

Also, a new manager would need time to assess the squad and time is what we have very little of.

I fecking hope not
I felt sorry at times for Goody today as he battled to keep score down today
He's our best centre half and central midfielder at the club and if allowed to leave this month it would tell us what we need know about our club presently

Those of us that were actually at the game would say that we played reasonably well - actually quite similar to the first game of the season against Motherwell. But four months later we cannot accept that we were just unlucky (again) - it was the same old story - attractive football in the middle of the park, but a leaky defence and powder puff up front.
However if GT can make one or two (or three) effective signings over the next couple of weeks we still have the nucleus of a decent team - ALL IS NOT LOST YET!
We can still catch Motherwell and overtake Ross County but we need fans to actually turn out at games and provide their support instead of sitting at home and posting negatively on here!

Sorry mate, a narrow defeat isn't good enough.

On the bright side the pre-season friendlies in Argentina should be cracking day out.