ascender

We've been slaughtered in the press in recent years for not playing enough Scots, now that we are playing a lot, there's no mention of it.

Mike.

Imagine some of the stuff you'd read about our players if you were looking for info on possible signings and went on to FF after any game. Some of the abuse we give our own players is way over the top and not at all subjective.

Mike.

But if that was the case Calscot, I'm sure we'd have heard about it. Nearly everything about his contract renewal has been leaked by one side or the other. Scotland's football community is too for things like this to be kept quiet, especially in this day and age.

If he wanted to leave, the Birmingham offer was the only one on the table. And with no guarantee of being first pick, turning it down was a massive risk because if he didn't play, his value and earning potential could have gone down instead of up. Fair play to him for working hard on his game though as I think he's been improving since he quit the Scotland setup.

Once he turned down Birmingham, we should have offered him a new deal, that would have let us know where he stood. If he didn't want a new deal here, we could have got him out the door to Birmingham, there's always ways to make these deals happen.

I know that the club does take a lot of flak for everything, whether fairly or not, but I just think contracts for any good player or one showing potential under the age of 30 are a really basic element of running a club these days, to protect yourself from losing them for nothing. If they don't sign, then you move them on.

Its a good post Cal and I agree with it, but often I think we forget that these are grown men we're speaking about here. They should be man enough to talk to each other and let the other know what their plans are, particularly when they claim to have a love for the club as Boyd does, you'd assume he wouldn't want the club to lose out on a fee. After all, did he not donate some of his signing-on fee back to the Killie youth setup to say thanks?

I know fans from other clubs think he's an arrogant ar$ehole, but everything I've heard about Boyd from people who know him is that he's a very down-to-earth and nice guy.

Mike.

The other thing about SDM still pulling the strings is that literally as soon as SDM retired, Martin Bain in particular seemed to grow a pair of balls so to speak. I took that to be on connection with working under a new Chairman who was either doign things differently or had given Bain more freedom to operate as he saw fit.

If SDM was still in control, I don't think we'd have seen any change from Bain and I think it was very noticeable, particularly in his dealings with the media over a few incidents.

Also, SDM said on numerous occasions that his kids weren't interested in the club whatsoever.

Mike.

The club should never have allowed things to get to this point in the first place imo. Regardless of the recent money problems, stuff like this should have been addressed 12 months ago.

Mike.

I'm surprised we haven't done (or at least tried) to do what some Spanish clubs have done for a while in that we sign players like this and immediately loan them back to their club for a further season or two while paying some of their wages. That way we don't sign players "for the future" only to let them rot in the reserves or on the bench if we feel they're not ready.

As far as McArthur goes, I've heard really good things about him from those who've seen him regularly, so I think he would be worth a look, but not as a priority.

Mike.

The thought of a Weir and Shittu pairing terrifies me if I'm being honest. Weir needs someone younger and more mobile alongside him for many reasons, which is why I think he's doing so well with guys like Bougherra and Wilson.

As for Henry, no thanks, he's a busted flush these day.

Mike.

Misunderstanding? Or no-one interested in signing him?

So cynical I am.....

Mike.

I can't see why we'd sell just now or why Boyd would want to go midway through a season to be honest. I suspect he's just considering all his options, he's going to be in no worse a position if he just waits until the end of the season to make a decision.

No-one is going to offer silly money for him because of his contract position and the fact our money problems are well publicised. So I really don't see any reason why he'd leave us before the summer. We might have new owners by then who will offer him a better deal to stay here.

Mike.

More conflicting stories this morning depending on which paper you read.

I'm just glad that we're not playing them at Tynie tbh. At least our defence is looking solid, I think that's something in our favour.

Mike.

Boyd wants to stay at Rangers but he is quite entitled to check out alternatives while the finance is approved/cleared for his new contract.

Exactly. But I can't see all our fans thinking this way

Mike.

Apparently he was at the Villa game last night and they're keen to sign him on a pre-contract agreement while he's also spoken to McLeish about a move this month. I can imagine some of the stuff being posted on FF about now as a result....

Nice to see the Record claiming this news as an exclusive in their rag today.

While I don't think our overall range of training gear and kit has been as good since we ditched Nike, I think this season's strips have been top notch, the best in years.

Mike.

I understand that angle of the Fleck & Wilson story, I really do, but why did Smith come out and make the statement he did? Would it not have made more sense, if we believe he's in on it (so to speak) for him to come out and say that we can't afford to offer them the money they deserve? That way it looks like the bank is to blame.

Good article from Traynor.

Mike.

I was one of those gutted we didn't get Brown and Thomson tbh. I thought Brown showed potential to be that box-to-box midfielder with a high tempo that we were missing. I agree that Thomson has the potential to be even better if he can get back to the form he was starting to show last season.

Mike.

Told you dont panic as much as I have critiscized Wattie for in the past he is playing a blinder just now , everyone just calm down

Still don't understand what possible game Walter would be playing or hoping to achieve by coming out and saying both players want to leave the club though?

4 minutes of injury time?!??!?!?

It is all strange, but the worrying thing is that its Smith coming out and making a pretty clear statement, not just hinting at something or being vague about it. Not sure what he'd have to gain by stirring things up like this where those two are concerned.

As for Boyd, other stories said that the contract offer was "sanctioned" in so much as its within the strict wage budget that Bain has control over.

Mike.

So the papers did get it right. Really surprised and disappointed to hear that.

You would think so, but I believe that may not be the case.

Wow.

* insert shocked smiley *

Again, apologies if I'm way off the mark as I knwo feck all about high finance..... I guess the priority is the debt. If its correct that by paying off the debt, they're basically buying the club and everything that goes with it, then that's a clean slate to start with.

Given we've gone through a lot of cost cutting and have a very strict wage structure in place, would any new owners then consider asking supporters to invest which would generate a lump-sum of cash to then be used to supplement any other money that the new owners can put in for transfers and sorting out some of our poor commercial deals, re-paint Ibrox etc.

Mike.

If Lloyds are looking for the debt to be repaid (let's say �£25m) and SDM wants �£50m for his shares then it would be better to give some indication of this rather than wasting everyone's time, as there's no way that anyone iis coming up with �£75m.

 

However if the bank only need the debt repaid and SDM requires nothing 9or a minimal amount) then at least the guys trying to put together a deal would have an idea.

Totally understand that, but surely anyone with a genuine interest will have made their own enquiries to Lloyds or someone connected with the club, whether offiically or unofficially. I can't see some business tycoon looking for hints from the Daily Record.

I guess its all just one big game of poker now and Lloyds want as much as they can get. But at the same time, I'm sure they've made their position known through unofficial channels.

There's been a lot talked about the finances of these clubs over the last while and a lot of the steps being mentioned by all three sound very familiar. Things like debt for equity, bond issues, talk of selling parts of the club off and leasing them back etc. Are these all things that SDM has done in the past with us? TBH I can't remember the details of the various steps SDM has taken in the past to re-finance the club, but they all sound very familiar.

Man Yoo seem to be on an incredibly sticky wicket as their debt now looks like outweighing their equity by 2.5 times or something like that. The figures they're talking about are properly mental, looking like a total debt of over 1 Billion?!?

I suppose Hearts are slightly different because Romanov is also their banker, so as long as nothing happens to him, they're safe. Same deal with Chelsea and Abramovich. But by them swapping debt for equity, is that not just what SDM used to do with MIH, so he wasn't getting rid of the debt, just putting it against another part of MIH? Which again, is fine, so long as the parent company doesn't get in to trouble?

At what point do all these clubs run in to the danger of going to the wall? Like has happened here, while there's a good source of income and the potential to be run in the black, what good is that if its buried under a mountain of debt?

Sorry, loads of boring financial stuff, but I know a few of the guys here are well up on this sort of stuff.

Cheers,

Mike.