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ascender

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Everything posted by ascender

  1. ascender
    I thought FFP was a bit of a busted flush now?
  2. ascender
    Good I'd much rather that than the usual four year deal, 20K a week on wages for someone who's had one good season for a middling Scottish club and/or is made of glass.
  3. ascender
    I like the way we're continuing to do transfer business with the minimum of fuss and there seems to be a (long term) strategy in place.
  4. ascender
    Yes. That's exactly the same as the sort of high risk, high value tax avoidance schemes we're talking about. Insert confused smiley here....
  5. ascender
    Pretty much, yes. There's always loads of these schemes around which are high risk because they "guarantee" that you won't pay as much tax as you know you should as you're exploiting a loophole which everyone knows will be closed at some point in the future and/or challenged by the taxman. ISAs and pensions as they are used by most don't fall in to this category. It's all about risk and to some part conscience - EBTs are like some of those tax schemes you read about celebrities having where they're hardly paying any tax but aren't doing anything illegal. Then the Daily Mail finds out and gets on their high horse. It's exactly like the EBTs, David Murrays accountants would have given him some different options with differing levels of risk and tax payable I guess. So I do get that part of the argument as avoidance is different from evasion and avoidance schemes can be seen as being morally indefensible. I think that's a well written piece though for the most part although there's a few wee inconsistencies which are disappointing.
  6. ascender
    I don't get this. We'd still have signed those players regardless of how Murray proposed to pay their wages. He just opted for the most tax efficient way possible as advised by his accountants. If it wasn't the EBT scheme it would have been another way which may have cost the club more money, it may not have.
  7. ascender
    This tie-in to a question I was going to ask about our finances. There seems to be a growing amount of "noise" online from people about just how precarious our finances are. Even when you have to consider that much of it is guesswork, is there still a cashflow problem at the club or is it just wishful thinking from our enemies?
  8. ascender
    Exciting stuff if true. With someone like Warburton in charge, you can see why a move up here could be an attractive proposition for EPL clubs wanting younger players to get regular game time as well as having big crowds and a bit of an expectation to succeed on their shoulders. That said, I wonder why it's not happened before? Was it simply because we weren't interested or didn't have the contacts that MW has?
  9. ascender
    "Hibernian head coach Alan Stubbs refused to be drawn on speculation". Funny that when he's been unable to keep his mouth shut about anything to do with bids for Allan over the last few weeks.
  10. ascender
    It's hard to get bothered about this... If he wants to sign for them then it's either complete nonsense that he'd only sign for us, or he's more interested in the money. After all, he could sign a pre-contract with us in a matter of months. We don't need players like that and it's not like he's a world beater. Of course he'd improve our team but there's others out there who would probably prove better value for money and who really want to play for us.
  11. ascender
    If it wasn't in his contract then he's pretty much on a hiding to nothing, so he should be having words with his agent.
  12. ascender
    Aberdeen haven't bid for him according to Mcinnes. Guess that's that until January now.
  13. ascender
    How much did Dundee United bid for Allan?
  14. ascender
    Oh I get that its part of the game and that he has to do it, but its amusing nonetheless.
  15. ascender
    What I love is that Hibs fans I know are saying we're just trying to force their hand and make them sell him to some other team just to weaken our main title rivals. And that we can't afford the money... No, he's just not worth a million quid or whatever inflated value they seem to think he is in this current market. Its crazy to hear Stubbs talking him up as well after his making the grand total of 0 appearances for West Brom and only reaching double figures in appearances once in nearly four years. Warburton's signings are all unproven so far, but if they come good it will just show what can be done if you don't go spending silly money,.
  16. ascender
    Was the rumour not that he was going to be signing for Celtic?
  17. ascender
    I'm just pleased that this seems to be a chance for a fresh start with new thinking around the place and hopefully he'll be given a free reign to transform the playing and coaching side from the ground up.
  18. ascender
    I've not been that impressed with him since he left us, but I guess if anyone can make an informed decision about him it's Davie Weir.
  19. ascender
    Its encouraging that they've moved so quickly and will be interesting to see how he does. Also what will his brief be I wonder? Try and get promotion at all costs or start the longer term rebuilding work and if promotion doesn't come this year its not the end of the world if he's making visible progress in terms of personnel and how we play? I just hope McCall has the balls to make some of the decisions that appear to be needing made (like dropping McCulloch) that others haven't.
  20. ascender
    Won't go down well with the media or some of our fans and bloggers who have made their mind up that we're spiralling towards financial Armageddon and no-one is in control.
  21. ascender
    Also a couple of papers today including a quote from Mather saying that we need to move players on before bringing anyone else in to balance the books. That sort of common fiscal sense won't go down well with some...
  22. ascender
    Berra would improve our defence without a doubt. Get a solid back line, make us difficult to beat and we're halfway there.
  23. ascender
    So the Webster and Gordon things have both been explained and it looks like neither will be signing. ...and relax. I guess if Alexander, Goian and Boca are all for the off, that would free up a lot of money in the wage budget for guys on sensible money with contracts allowing for increases/incentives as we go up the leagues.
  24. ascender
    I'm sure someone could come up with a "hilarious" flow/process chart to show how our scouting and signing policy works. Has the player played for us before, yes/no... Does the player have agent X, yes/no.... Does the player have a dodgy knee, yes/no.... If its just his signing strategy we're talking about then I think its fairly straightforward. He's looking for experienced players, who he's worked with in some capacity, who will be able to cope with Div 2 or higher and who will fit in to our current wage structure. Its not rocket science and its exactly in keeping with what I thought he'd do. Just like youth systems, you can't overhaul and expect results from a new scouting infrastructure overnight. So even if we had invested in this, it was never going to produce quick results. If Ally's only goal from the board is to get promotion next season (as I suspect it was this season past) then you can see why he's taking this approach. I guess the flip side to this is, if these guys are here to sign, then we could end up in a couple of years time with an experienced squad of players, with cover in all positions who will have played together for a couple of years by the time we hit the top division again. Then you can maybe add in a couple of more flair players and in theory are in a fairly strong position for day one against other SPL sides. The fact is, whatever idea of Barcelona-inspired attacking football we thought we might embrace, its not happened and its not likely to happen, presumably for a number of reasons and those are all for another (very long) thread.
  25. ascender
    There were two rumours about Webster (who's only 31 which I didn't realise) as I remember... One was that it was all "mental" issues with him and that there were no physical issues. The second was that it was all down to payments due to him in his contract which were never forthcoming. Given how much he played at Hearts, does that rule out number 1? As for Craig Gordon, surely we're not thinking of signing him, even if Alexander does go?
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