Jump to content

Responses To Brian Caldwell Updates


Recommended Posts

Why are we struggling exactly? Have Killie or St Johnstone signed anyone yet? Nope. I doubt they're panicking yet. I believe we offered contracts to two Scottish based players, Ridgers and Stevenson.

Ridgers joined, Stevenson signed a 2 year deal with Thistle instead of a 1 year deal with us. Dundee and Hamilton have signed a couple of crocks and a couple of first division players. Should we be concerned by that?

As TC said, contracts of English players typically expire at the end of June. I expect the majority of our signings will be players who played in England last season along with a couple of loans. Therefore expect the first couple of weeks in July to be our busiest time with regards to incoming players.

If you look carefully, I asked the same question. I'm nowhere near panicking. Killie and St.Johnstone can make up their own minds about when to panic but a massive difference with them is they aren't up for sale. I simply don't believe that the impending sale isn't having a negative effect on any transfer discussions we may be having. It might also be a question of let's see the dirty fivers for McLean or McGinn or both before anything significant happens. I sincerely hope that isn't the case. Last year a lot of our fans, including me, thought we would get a couple of decent signings in July. Did we? I hope you're right and everything is going to plan and in a week or two we've got at least three good signings that all our fans have faith in. That won't happen. Our fans are hardly ever happy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


If you look carefully, I asked the same question. I'm nowhere near panicking. Killie and St.Johnstone can make up their own minds about when to panic but a massive difference with them is they aren't up for sale. I simply don't believe that the impending sale isn't having a negative effect on any transfer discussions we may be having. It might also be a question of let's see the dirty fivers for McLean or McGinn or both before anything significant happens. I sincerely hope that isn't the case. Last year a lot of our fans, including me, thought we would get a couple of decent signings in July. Did we? I hope you're right and everything is going to plan and in a week or two we've got at least three good signings that all our fans have faith in. That won't happen. Our fans are hardly ever happy.

what won't happen is the three good signings .There may well be signings but with our budget i very much doubt they will be good ones
Link to comment
Share on other sites

But there IS contingency.

The contracts are written based on the known income. Relegation sees contract terms reduced accordingly.

What wasn't planned for was Rangers going bust. There was no contingency for that... and I can't see how anyone could possibly have planned contingency for such an event.

Other than slashing current spending and ending up with en enormous surplus, the only other way would be to build up a contingency over many years - something which would probably be quite sensible.

No contingency for sacking an under performing manager.

No contingency for a disastrous season which sees crowds drop away.

No contingency for a decent player coming along once in a blue moon allowing us to take a real gamble without risking zero balance.

No contingency for TV companies deciding not to renew their deal.

No contingency to allow development of the stadium.

No contingency for a major long term injury to our top striker for example.

Almost no contingency for a prolonged period of games being cancelled due to the weather too allow us to continue to pay wages without income.

No contingency for any unexpected disaster like a structural problem with the stadium, or flooding or fire etc - yes we'd be insured but that would take time to come through. We'd need a survival fund in the meantime.

Do players contracts have clauses covering all of those perfectly reasonable situations?

I've barely started and I've identified 8 irrefutable problems straight off the bat.

Edited by oaksoft
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a shame a question & answer thread has been hijacked by ill- informed , abusive posts & debate.

The rest of the forum can be used for this , this should be left purely as intended for questions & answers.

This thread could answer questions and reduce the need for pointless speculation & abuse.

^^^^^^^^^^

This. Inevitably and depressingly this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree with whydowebother, it might be a courtesy to avoid our usual tittle tattle and point scoring pish on here. In respect of both Div and the GM.

Drew, from (very) hot and sunny Crete. 34℃ forecast for Wednesday. Who mentioned point scoring...FFS!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Talking to people at the club I believe Brian may now be on holiday so suspect we won't be getting any more answers for a while.

He is on holiday but when he goes on holiday this time of year the laptop, the phone and the contracts go with him !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems to be sustainable as we appear to be balancing the books .If you want a full squad earning less than 1k a week then we will find ourselves in the first division,not the end of the world as far as im concerned,but dont kid yourself that we could maintain premiership status,we struggle to do that with the wages we pay currently

That's basically it in a nutshell. we're run like a first division club, our ambitions are like a first division club and as a result, very soon we will be a first division club!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's basically it in a nutshell. we're run like a first division club, our ambitions are like a first division club and as a result, very soon we will be a first division club!

I'm not sure I understand this view to be honest. It's a well documented fact that we have a 70% wages/turnover ratio, not ideal for any business, to try to keep us competitive in this league. We don't have a rich owner like Ross County who is prepared to subsidise signings personally but in recent years we have spent really good money, by our standards, securing players like Thommo, Teale, Kello and McGowan.

Just what is it that you want?

The current BOD want out. It's no secret but their continued stewardship of the club has seen us stay in the league and win a national trophy.

I, like many others I suppose, would like to see a better, more consistent, product on the pitch but that doesn't necessarily mean spunking money we don't have and ending up going down the route of so many clubs before us toward administration.

We're a small club with small crowds. How many times last year did we have only 3,000-3,500 home fans at a game? It's a nonsense to say we're run like a first division club, unless the definition of that is being sensible fiscally.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's basically it in a nutshell. we're run like a first division club, our ambitions are like a first division club and as a result, very soon we will be a first division club!

You omitted to say crowds of a first division club. So for that reason only it's quite an achievement to be where we are at this present moment and have been for some time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What losses have Motherwell made in recent years? Something like £750K in the red to get 2 second place finishes. Madness really.

We've been in the SPL since 2006, and we're running largely break even. I can't say we've a First Division mentality, sure we've finished bottom 6, flirted with relegation a few seasons, but it's been a decent run in the top league, won the league cup and a decent ground and training set-up.

Quite a lot of other clubs that have gone down in the time we've been there- Inverness, Hibs, Hearts, Dundee, Hamilton, Dunfermline, Falkirk.

It's right to look at increasing our income so we can minimise the paper losses because of depreciation, but we can't simply grab every player going and losing money to chase a few decent results usually ends badly. 70% wages to turnover is the max we should run at.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Big Yards would have us spend spend spend.

Which would mean death.

No I'd like us to at least make an effort to avoid relegation!every year for the past few years we have downsized, cut costs and we're always at the foot of the table.

It is not healthy for the club having this board hanging around unwilling to spend any amount of money that we have be it tiny or substantial. We need a buyer ASAP otherwise we will be in the first division very soon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A future buyer would have to keep us solvent also Big Yards.

Spending more than we make would be insane and would more than likely kill stone dead our beloved Club.

Part time for all is the answer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No I'd like us to at least make an effort to avoid relegation!every year for the past few years we have downsized, cut costs and we're always at the foot of the table.

It is not healthy for the club having this board hanging around unwilling to spend any amount of money that we have be it tiny or substantial. We need a buyer ASAP otherwise we will be in the first division very soon

Under the current board we have one of the highest % of income going straight back out on player wages. Perhaps a new board would be more frugal?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Under the current board we have one of the highest % of income going straight back out on player wages. Perhaps a new board would be more frugal?

Perhaps the new board will have fresh ideas of how to boost income rather than having a group of board members who no longer have the drive or intention to do anything!

Edited by Big Yards
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...