Maboza

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/call-to-arms-over-threat-to-scottish-club-badges-1-3746851

I dare say that there may be some potential gains from incorporating 'Paisley' into the name of the club - such as Paisley St. Mirren. It could be argued that it puts the club on the map a bit more to an extent and could potentially attract the people of Paisley to have more of an emotional attachment to the club. Despite that, on balance, I would not vote for such a change as I'm more of a traditionalist and wouldn't like to see our club name changed after all these years. What I would like to see is us to get our old badge back. It seemed to be changed in the 90's without as much as a whimper when Lord Lyon took us to task for daring to have castellations on our crest. That sort of pompous crap is an absolute shambles in this day and age and they should never have got away with making us change without a fight.

How much could Celtic realistically value Scott Allan at? £250-300k? He's not really done much other than have some decent form at Hibs and Dundee.

If we're talking about 'investing' then the concept of signing players on the hope of selling them on for profit is unfortunately a very risky business. No matter how good our recruitment is, the ability to get a good transfer fee on a player requires us to realistically have 12-24 months left on their contract at the point we're selling. That pushes us into the situation of having to sign players on 3-4 year deals when we factor in that we'd actually need a season or two for them to actually play for us and put themselves in the shop window. There's not many players in Scotland on 3-4 year deals. When you look at how many transfers don't work out for us then you can see why. Off of the top of my head, and without much thought, I would like us to look at avenues to make the club more professional in terms of the business and marketing operations. Everything from the matchday experience, merchandise, ticketing, social media, TV channel improvements and partnerships in the community. I'm sure we could maybe learn something from Glasgow Warriors. They used to have pitiful attendances but over the space of 10 years have progressed to being close to sell-out attendances at Scotstoun for nearly every game. Granted there are a number of factors there, increasing success for GW, an improving national team and a less competitive market than football in the west of Scotland. Nevertheless, adding 2000 to our gates could be a long-term, considered strategy - rather than rolling the dice in the transfer market.

How many season tickets did we sell this season and last season?

5-0 Saints. Reilly, Cammy, Cammy, Ryan Flynn and captain Stephen McGinn.

As good and clear a summary as you will find amongst the extensive debate on this thread. Well done! My own simple thoughts are that St. Mirren FC should always be run as a break even club. This should take into account player budgets and club running costs. Something like a 4G training pitch has a lifespan and cost associated with it and is therefore a planned spend. So are things like training balls. This is the clubs responsibility to budget for these. Any additional revenue boosts (player sales, cup runs, higher league finish than budgeted, etc.) should primarily be banked into the club accounts to cover tougher times but may also allow for a very modest loosening of the playing budget to provide opportunity for improvement. Here we have a situation where we have received the most transfer income in many years and cup revenue last season. None of which budgeted for. We're looking at winning the league now and coming out on top for revenue for the league this season alongside increased attendances. Still, we're being told that finances aren't sufficiently rosy. If that's the case then it's indicative that the spending on the player budget this season has been a gamble. It may have worked out but I don't like that precedent. Already we have someone saying that this £50k is needed as it will indirectly support that playing budget next season. The figures for league placings were dropped in to show the huge financial disadvantage from 1st in Championship vs the SPL teams who will be our competitors next season. I'm sorry but the recent transfer revenues received more than make up that difference and could have been the springboard for providing a comparable playing budget for Year 1 in the SPL if we really want to get involved in that game. If the money is needed for playing budget then ask the members to vote based on that. The whole approach to this from SMISA seems a bit of a mess. I don't blame Gordon in asking for the cash and other proposals but I do question how wise it is to respond so favourably. The extent of this SMISA cash (cow) resource wasn't so readily available to the previous board. Had it been available previously it would have made their job as Chairman/Board considerably easier and easier to get a more expensive and higher quality product on the pitch. We've got an ambitious chairman but I think the SMISA group need to tread very carefully. As far as I understand I don't think SMISA has marketed itself (to date) as anything other than a vehicle for the takeover. I think it's fully expected that members will drop off as others have also said. SMISA should be making an effort in my opinion to push the vision of the benefits to the club for continuing membership beyond the 10 year period. I think this should have been promoted from the outset.

Fowler would surely be in line to be due a hefty pay-rise to go south as his assistant. More than he would receive as manager for us. Allan McManus more likely I would reckon.

Goalie

Maybe to help some morons think twice about slating a young kid who is trying to make it in the game? He managed to overcome that. Some players that have the ability but aren't mentally as strong or don't have the same strong support network around them, might not have managed to succeed in the way Lewis has. Then again.... some morons will just continue to be morons.

"I got written off here by St Mirren fans when I was coming through - that's part and parcel of football," Morgan said. "People want big names and I think any player in Scotland maybe doesn't get the credit they deserve, the level of football is better than most people give credit for. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42563192 Interesting comments from Lewis. The young man deserves even more respect for his loyalty and willingness to repay the club through performances, transfer fee and desire to help win the league. All of that despite being on the receiving end of abuse from some of the numpties in our support.

Not sure on the accuracy of this site but by my calculations on dates it equates to €210,000 compensation. He signed in Sept 2013. (so was with us for 2 seasons as a Premiership club) By the time his contract expires in the summer it would be an additional 3 years at Championship level. http://trainingcompensationcalculator.com St. Mirren Football Club Scottish Premiership - 2 years Compensation: 120 000 EUR St. Mirren Football Club Scottish Championship - 3 years Compensation: 90 000 EUR Total: 210 000 EUR

The comp is nothing near £300k. He's only been with us since he was 15. Think closer to £100k/£150k.

I'd also like to think that he'll get a fair crack at the first team. You only have to watch our games to see teams attempts at stifling Morgan, doubling and sometimes trebling up on him. That won't happen at Celtic as they have threats throughout the team. Even when teams clock on and he is doubled up on, you'd expect Celtic to work better as a team at exploiting the space that it creates around the rest of the park. I really hope he gets a good chance for them. I'm no great fan of James Forrest for Scotland but he seems to do well for Celtic. I think Morgan has more of an end product even at such a young age.

Of course! Silly me!!

If McGinn does go to Celtic the big danger to our chunk of the transfer fee will be if there's some sort of swap involved (i.e. Liam Henderson going to Hibs). This would give Hibs the opportunity to agree to inflate the value of the incoming player in order to reduce what we would then be due for McGinn. Similar to what we did with Clyde when we signed O'Donnell / Malone and twisted the figures so that one of them cost £2k and the other £28k. If I remember correctly!

Are they selling tickets for Dumbarton end up until k.o. ?

At what age did Mallan join us? With him being with us longer than McAllister and also being older, we would be due a handsome Development fee if he went to an English championship club. Probably why we're happy to dig our heels in on this one.

By that theory we would have been able to maintain/repair Ralston from the sales of previous talented youngsters (see McLean, McGinn, Naismith) that were sold on the cheap.

Regardless of whether it is the right amount or not - surely the board could have held out until summer. If they are saying that they couldn't, then I think we've got some serious questions about the viability of this football club from year to year.

Yeah but my point (more a question) is... If we only developed him from 16 to 17 (1 year*) then the development fee is only based on that is it not? *I have no idea at what age we signed him.

How long was he in our youth system? Wasn't the majority of his development at Rangers?

Can't imagine it would be worthwhile for them to erect a temporary stand. We would be unlikely to take more than maybe 1200 I reckon and I can't imagine they'd have much scope for a home support increasing much beyond their 1/2 of stadium either.

Spot on. His attitude to the younger players is appalling for such a senior pro. I don't have a problem with players being crabbit buggers on the park as it's often a sign of a desire to win. Gowser was a moaning faced wee cvnt but with Clarkson he just seems be go around the park like an angry man and last week he was on Morgan's back and this week it was McAllister getting it. He's out of order in my opinion. All of that said - the booing of him as he was coming on to the park was absolutely moronic.

We've got to play 3x against Ayr and twice each against Dunfermline and Dumbarton. Quite simply - we should be looking for 21 points from those games. Try and continue to improve, scrap and grow in confidence and see where it takes us.