stewarty

There's been sitcoms written with less of a premise than this... Sounds like a good time was had by all. Hopefully I'll be able to make it along to the next one.

Graham Hunter's podcast is generally really good, although him constantly bringing conversation back to himself can get a little boring. He's done Souness, Butcher, McaVennie, Nicholas, both Neville brothers, Howe, Redknapp, Beardsley, Waddle, McCallister and loads more. Well worth checking out

Sumaila has played 6 games for Ghana since 2011. Not sure when his last one was, but I don't think it was recently. As much as his youtube compiliations might whet the appetite of some, I think we would struggle to get him a work permit. I'm filing this one under "highly speculative"

James Don Blair ‏ @jamesdblair1 May 13More The @Club1872rfc constitution & key points to be included will be presented to members and members will vote on what it is to say 3/3 The new constitution will enshrine @Club1872rfc members rights to call meetings, take key decisions and appoint directors 2/3 To keep @Club1872rfc members informed our new constitution will be sent to members for consultation at the end of the month 1/3

Another great article - that echos much of the thoughts that I have myself. One positive action that is coming is a consultation on a member constitution - something the James Blair tweeted just last week. I think its vital that we contribute to this to ensure that the organisation is fit for purpose and progresses in line with the wishes of members. Another area I think should be looked at is expanding the size of the Board. I think the article mentions adopting working groups and the like, to tap into the wider resources within the support - and I agree that is a good idea, but a Board of 7 is vulnerable to Directors stepping down, for whatever reason. I would also look at establishing a longer term of office so that those in situ have the space to progress their ideas without having to look over their shoulder at re-election after only a few months in office. Perhaps some or all of that might be dealt with in the constitution, so again, I think its vital that we all help shape this vital document.

What will also happen is that those who have already made up their minds, will look to find evidence to support their view whilst underplaying evidence that contradicts it. Not saying thats the case with TB, but ultimately its a results business, and if he gets results he'll be hailed as the messiah. If he doesn't get results then the the knives will sharpen.

Whilst I think TB's views are pretty strong, I similarly have some early concerns but I don't think we can pre-judge based on the end to this season and am willing to give the guy time to bring in his own players and to have a settling down period whereby he has some space to get across his ideas.

Agreed. Its been obvious for some time that the Board is dysfunctional and that the executive team are too thinly spread. Added to having a manager who was clearly working his ticket and an under-performing squad - its no wonder its become so commonplace.

I think the problem for Pedro is that he has inherited a club that has become so used to leaking stories for particular agendas from the Board to the management team to the playing squad, that he's fighting against a tide.

Yet another area of strategy that the Board and senior management of the club are failing on... Part of the issue with positive PR is trying to handle all the negative PR that is generated. We're in a situation where there is far more negative, than positive. However that balance us very slowly shifting and whilst Level5 may have served a purpose (even if we don't know what that is!), its clear that we need to start setting the agenda in terms of projecting our strategy and values - a point that Andy makes very well. However, that will not happen in my view for some time to come, whilst we have so many legal and funding issues to resolve as we have no clear timescale on this. Then you add in that Celtic are very effective at managing their message and are winning so comfortably, this only serves to highlight our failings.

Also, for all the problems with MOH, fitness is not one. Seen him up close in Tesco Cumbernauld (he grew up in Moodiesburn) and he's fit as a butcher's...

Disappointing but sadly inevitable. Good luck to Billy. Hopefully he fulfils his potential.

On the latter re Wallace, he had surgery on his problem and was always expected to be out for a few weeks. Seems its something that he had been managing, but ultimately it went so far that it needed surgical intervention. He said on the official podcast that it had went well, so I'm guessing he will be going through a recovery and rehab process. As for public appearances - he has been photographed promoting various things in the past couple of weeks if i recall correctly. Would need to dig through various things on the website and he may well have travelled to watch games - how would you know?

I said similar yesterday - the western terrace at Headingly is notorious!

Was at the Wigan vs Leeds game yesterday. Game itself was quite competitve. Probably one of Wigan's best performances of the season, albeit in a meaningless fixture for them. Omar Bogle definitely in the Waghorn mould - a big unit and strong, gets into good positions but quality in final third was woeful. We were laughing at his shooting practice during the warmup. Anyone been to Elland Road? Leeds fans are utterly mental - dressed up as monks, ostriches, singing all game, pyro on the concourse...

there will always be exceptions to the rule but the general premise will likely hold more often than not over a period of time (at least in modern football)

The rumour for a while is that Naismith's kid is about to start school and he's keen to move back up the road. And Lafferty has been flying kites for a few months about coming back. Whittaker, I'm not sure. There was also a rumour that one of the first tasks for Jonatan Johanson was to watch Norwich play a couple of weeks ago.

Until the club gets on the front foot and can show progress on a range of issues, I think you will not be alone in not reneweing.

Greig Marshal has been appointed a few weeks ago and has started at the club. And yes, it is a key appointment to help facilitate good communication with supporters. Early days though.

I think what we need is to be able to buy into what the vision for the future looks like. There's no way that we can be given a warts-and-all strategic plan and budget for scrutiny, so we need to have faith that we have competent leaders at all levels, who are not only professionally competent to manage the club within defined boundaries, but are capable of designing and implementing the vision that has been laid out. At the Board level, we seem to have a degree of dysfunction because King is the reference point for all major decisions, disempowering the executive management team and thus delaying some decisions; in some cases, this seems to have added reputational anf financial risk to the business, as seen with the Warburton departure. At the executive level, we seem to have a wide range of strategic challenges, but only a couple of executives in place to address them. My own take is that Robertson and Dickson are good and experienced men, but simply have too broad a remit to be able to give everything its due attention. Again this exposes us to increased levels of risk. Within the football infrastructure, we've been promised a Director of Football and that this was a priority appointment. I think most have accepted that this is a reasonable strategy but its been a couple of months since this appointment was "imminent" but very little progress since then. Recruitment is a difficult process on so many levels, and I think most would be happy to take a bit more time to make the right appointment, but where are we and what timescales are we working to? Surely we needed to have someone in place to support the manager with summer transfer activity? What is the interim plan if that structure is not there? Investment? Well, who knows what the deal is here. As many have said, either we need to see the colour of the current board's money, or we get some clarity on the limitations placed on us. Tabloid hysterics aside, I think most can take a pragmatic view on this if we have some clarity on what is going on - and I fully understand that there are a multitude of constraints on this topic, not least the Takover Panel, litigation with Sports Direct, stock exchange listings (or lack of), restrictions on share issues following the AGM.... the list goes on. Unfortunately, however well intentioned our current leaders are, its simply not enough to provide vague promises that are not backed up with clear action. We've been through too much and we're inherently mistrustful. Its down to the leaders in our club to change that.

I'd rather he called to enquire about Garner, MOH, Forrester, Kiernan and Waghorn. £3.5m for the lot.

There's been a clear campaign of manipulation in the last couple of weeks, facilitated through an ever-willing press. I can see another strike happening if this is not checked.

Thats an absolute joke.

I'd be happy enough with that team, Frankie. And it is very strange that all is quiet regarding the DoF. Are we to move from McPartland's version of scouting and favourite agents, to Caixinha's via Pedro Mendes? I'm not sure that this will be sustainable either.

7 figures? Haha. Who are they trying to kid? I guess it could be true, but it strikes me as an agent trying to fly kites.