This Board’s last chance.

[Barrymoped]

We had them where we wanted them and we didn't press our advantage. We pissed away the chance to bury them for a decade.

Gerrard literally told us what we needed to do, fix the roof whilst the sun was shining, and we refused. That doesn't take away the fact the opportunity was there. If we get the chance again, we better learn our mistakes from 55.

Once more, where was the cash coming from to do this? We were absolutely potless that summer due to a combination of over investment to give Gerrard the tools to stop 10IAR, which worked.

But then Covid came along and massively exacerbated our losses. Then Gerrard himself failed to get past 10 man Malmo in the CL qualifiers.

Even then, we weren’t burying them for a decade no matter what because they got lucky and appointed the right man in Fat Ange, then gave him £40mill to spend on players.

 

[MartinS93]

Aye by luck more than anything, they chased Howe for months then were scrambling about looking for a manager when he said no eventually, threw a double six and landed on the Aussie who treated the Scottish league with the contempt it deserves.

But that's an example of forward planning. Chances are they would have had a shortlist of managers from top priority (Howe) to 'well, he fits the clubs model' in fat Ange.

Our recruitment would suggest we don't even have a model to base our signings on.

 

[KensingtonBlue]

How could we have buried them for a decade?

If we properly reinvested and build the team, there is no chance Postecoglou would have won the title in his first season. That was an embarassment of a title to lose given where they started off that year. The hoardes wouldn't have tolerated that and he would have been sacked, they wouldn't have CL funds, and the house of cards would have continued to crumble. We'd be on 4 in a row by now and they'd be chasing. It's not out of the realm of possibility that proper investment post-55 could have left them in the dark

 

[KensingtonBlue]

Once more, where was the cash coming from to do this? We were absolutely potless that summer due to a combination of over investment to give Gerrard the tools to stop 10IAR, which worked.

But then Covid came along and massively exacerbated our losses. Then Gerrard himself failed to get past 10 man Malmo in the CL qualifiers.

Even then, we weren’t burying them for a decade no matter what because they got lucky and appointed the right man in Fat Ange, then gave him £40mill to spend on players.

The cash could have come from a proper sustainable business model which involved selling assets at their peak e.g Kent, Morelos, Kamara, Borna, Goldson etc. We had no plan and now this is where we are.

 

[RTD-BEAR]

Been saying it for long enough. We were a mess before Gerrard came in. I put that down to them having to deal with the sh1tshow they had been left. However in my opinion Gerrard came in and drove the standards that were required and held the board to account on those things. Since he left I feel like that has regressed back the way again.
I've said time and time again just because these guys are Rangers fans and have put their money in doesn't mean they are the right people to be making the decisions or the best qualified to be running our club.

Park is and was an issue

He had done tremendous to build his business and thankful for the investment into us which he will get back either through share sell or the advertising he has got through us.

But when he took over he had never been one to like people challenging him its his way or bye.....in his own business thats fine at us not so

We need a mix with different ideas and not just one view.

Our board is not diverse enough to give different view points

 

[Brasstacks]

We just need a huge transfer window and a bit more luck next season. With them in the CL (8 games) it will drain them and hopefully lead to more dropped points

Remember Dave King's house of cards - that still applies. We just need one title. Then everything will collapse over there and we can resume dominance

Back the team and the board for next season and we can still leave them in the dust.

"We just need". It feels like we are hearing the same noises year upon year.

A lot went wrong for them in 20/21 and a lot went right for us. It hasn't provided that house of cards moment and tbh I don't think we'd ever see that unless they seriously overstretched themselves on player wages and being unable to recoup from trading which is highly unlikely.

We may well have a long term plan (I am yet to be convinced) but our execution both on and off the pitch has been lead by the wrong people. I happen to think we've the right man in the dugout now but as the last week has proven supporters are incapable of giving him time - time that he deserves when you compare his CV to that of his predecessor.

There is potential for a sizeable advantage to build in Celtics favour but the one thing we have in our favour is the uncompetitiveness of our league which will 9/10 see a season come down to what happens over 4 matches with them. Our record in these games has been disgraceful of late but not and insurmountable task as competent Managers have proven in the past (Gerrard).

 

[MartinS93]

Gerrard literally told us what we needed to do, fix the roof whilst the sun was shining, and we refused.

No we didn't.

We had no money and were -20+ million going into that season after flinging money at him for 3 years.

He didn't fancy the challenge of refreshing the team, f***ed it against 10 man Malmo, then pissed off at the first opportunity he wasn't anywhere near ready for.

 

[JC72]

We just need a huge transfer window and a bit more luck next season. With them in the CL (8 games) it will drain them and hopefully lead to more dropped points

Remember Dave King's house of cards - that still applies. We just need one title. Then everything will collapse over there and we can resume dominance

Back the team and the board for next season and we can still leave them in the dust.

mate i admire your positivity, but where does this blind optimism come from. If we don’t qualify for champions league they are going to be financially miles ahead of us.

 

[Los Pollos Hermanos]

But that's an example of forward planning. Chances are they would have had a shortlist of managers from top priority (Howe) to 'well, he fits the clubs model' in fat Ange.

Our recruitment would suggest we don't even have a model to base our signings on.

I agree, after Gerrard we went for the lazy option in GvB then Beale.
Clement with no prior ties to us looks like they’ve actually done a bit of homework on him, hopefully he comes good.

 

[The Goalie]

You don't get every new signing right though. That never happens, if you have a 50% success rate you're generally doing. And it was the spine of the team from Postecoglu's first season that have got them over the line again.

12/13 league titles? It would be a m8nor annoyance if we were getting pumped in the CL every season but winning league after league.

There probably has been Copenhagen have done excellent in the CL this season. Can't think of that many more in the Champions league. Couldn't care less either tbh.

There is a reason they have binned their head of recruitment and it's not because he had a 50% success rate in the last 18 months.

 

[John Wilson]

Nonsense.

Guys signs a deal. With 18 months left you either get him to resign or you sell. If he won’t extend you move him on. Simple as that.

Yet we’ve let Morelos and Kent in recent years bugger off for nothing. Barisic had interest at one point and now he’s away for nowt.

The board can show it’s got a clue by getting us on a player trading model rather than a player buying and leaving for free model.

That would help bridge the gap.

You quite literally cannot sell a player who does not want to move.

 

[The Goalie]

If we properly reinvested and build the team, there is no chance Postecoglou would have won the title in his first season. That was an embarassment of a title to lose given where they started off that year. The hoardes wouldn't have tolerated that and he would have been sacked, they wouldn't have CL funds, and the house of cards would have continued to crumble. We'd be on 4 in a row by now and they'd be chasing. It's not out of the realm of possibility that proper investment post-55 could have left them in the dark

And how did we do that given we had no money to spend , were on a FFP watchlist and had massive losses coming out of the Covid season?

 

[KensingtonBlue]

And how did we do that given we had no money to spend , were on a FFP watchlist and had massive losses coming out of the Covid season?

We would have had plenty money to spend if we have a proper player trading model and long term plan. At that point we had significantly valuable and sellable assets e.g Kent, Morelos, Kamara, Borna, Goldson etc. We could have raised significant cash for those, instead we let them all run down their contracts (and deterioriate on the park too). It was like we were a deer in headlights, we had no idea what we had - and before we knew it the opportunity was gone.

 

[MartinS93]

There is a reason they have binned their head of recruitment and it's not because he had a 50% success rate in the last 18 months.

I didn't say they have had a 50% success rate in the last 18 months.

Their recruitment under the fat aussie in his first season was spot on and its the team that have won them the last 3 leagues while losing 2 league games to us in that same period, one of which was a dead rubber.

What difference does the last 18 months make?

 

[The Goalie]

We would have had plenty money to spend if we have a proper player trading model and long term plan. At that point we had significantly valuable and sellable assets e.g Kent, Morelos, Kamara, Borna, Goldson etc. We could have raised significant cash for those, instead we let them all run down their contracts (and deterioriate on the park too). It was like we were a deer in headlights, we had no idea what we had - and before we knew it the opportunity was gone.

Gerrard made it clear he didn't want to sell any of those players though.

And after we won 55 , how many bids were received for the players you mention?

 

[The Goalie]

I didn't say they have had a 50% success rate in the last 18 months.

Their recruitment under the fat aussie in his first season was spot on and its the team that have won them the last 3 leagues while losing 2 league games to us in that same period, one of which was a dead rubber.

What difference does the last 18 months make?

No you said..

This is the sad reality, EVERYTHING the scum do in the footballing department is the right way to do things.

I pointed out given their recent recruitment and the fact they have binned the head of recruitment , as well as their terrible record in Europe , i did not think that was an accurate statement.

 

[Der_Metzgermeister]

Some are saying the board need to spend tens of millions, while others are sarcastically questioning where the tens of millions will come from. I don't think either of those matter.

It's the scouting and player recruitment we need to sort out, once and for all. That mob got Hatate and O'Riley for about 1.5mil each. Despite the media gushing over their £70m~ bank balance, they're not buying players for 8, 9 or 10 million a pop.

Get the scouting sorted. Recruit young players who have shown promise and the rest will fix itself. THAT is what I want to see the board do.

 

[John Wilson]

Play hardball. Reserves until they leave. See how many big contracts they get offered elsewhere when they've not played for 18 months.

It seems we are the only club in the world who talk about a player trading model and then make excuses about not being able to implement it because we can't stop players running down their contracts. It's a nonsense.

Ajax, PSV, Porto, Sporting Lisbon, our pals across the city all seem to manage it fine.

Who was the last big asset to walk out of Celtic on a Bosman ?

The issue with that is that

a) if they are tearing it up for us and have a high valuation, we'd be cutting our nose off to spite our face leaving a quality player in the ressies for a year, after which they can sign a pre-contract. Alternatively, if it was say a 4 year contract and the player was under 28 when they signed it, once 3 years have passed they can buy out their contract. Look up the Webster ruling.

b) it we want them gone because they are stinking up the place, they aren't going to get near what we are paying them elsewhere, so it's financially worth them playing for the reserves.

 

[SDF]

Some are saying the board need to spend tens of millions, while others are sarcastically questioning where the tens of millions will come from. I don't think either of those matter.

It's the scouting and player recruitment we need to sort out, once and for all. That mob got Hatate and O'Riley for about 1.5mil each. Despite the media gushing over their £70m~ bank balance, they're not buying players for 8, 9 or 10 million a pop.

Get the scouting sorted. Recruit young players who have shown promise and the rest will fix itself. THAT is what I want to see the board do.

Bingo.

There's not a single Celtic player who we couldn't have afforded.

Hatate and O'Riley were under £3m combined.
Maeda was £1.6m.
Furuhashi cost £100,000 more than Dessers.
Adam Idah will cost less than Sam Lammers and played a huge part in them winning the league.

The difference is they're getting more value for money than we are and have done since Postecoglou walked in the door three years ago.

 

[KensingtonBlue]

Gerrard made it clear he didn't want to sell any of those players though.

And after we won 55 , how many bids were received for the players you mention?

Leeds were definitely in for Kent (£10-15m?) and a French club bid for Morelos (£15m I think) and we turned them down. No doubt we could have attracted £10m or so for the others at their peaks

If Gerrard really didn't want to sell then he's also at fault - but at the end of the day a manager should not overrule the Club's long term trading strategy. Again this all goes back to terrible planning in general. No long term plan, no long term success

 

[The Goalie]

Leeds were definitely in for Kent (£10-15m?) and a French club bid for Morelos (£15m I think) and we turned them down. No doubt we could have attracted £10m or so for the others at their peaks

If Gerrard really didn't want to sell then he's also at fault - but at the end of the day a manager should not overrule the Club's long term trading strategy. Again this all goes back to terrible planning in general. No long term plan, no long term success

The french club in for Morelos was the summer before we won 55.

Leeds were always reported to be interested in Kent, not sure how serious that was.

And you really think a club was paying £10 million for Borna? If so, i have a bridge to sell you.

 

[daven37]

Once more, where was the cash coming from to do this? We were absolutely potless that summer due to a combination of over investment to give Gerrard the tools to stop 10IAR, which worked.

But then Covid came along and massively exacerbated our losses. Then Gerrard himself failed to get past 10 man Malmo in the CL qualifiers.

Even then, we weren’t burying them for a decade no matter what because they got lucky and appointed the right man in Fat Ange, then gave him £40mill to spend on players.

The benefits right there of having a free run at the league and European football at minimal cost while we were in the lower leagues.

 

[RabSpackman]

Bingo.

There's not a single Celtic player who would we couldn't have afforded.

Hatate and O'Riley were under £3m combined.
Maeda was £1.6m.
Furuhashi cost £100,000 more than Dessers.
Adam Idah will cost less than Sam Lammers and played a huge part in them winning the league.

The difference is they're getting more value for money than we are and have done since Postecoglou walked in the door three years ago.

Maeda for £1.6m is very frustrating.

He is the heartbeat for them against Rangers, he plays at a pace & intensity that our team just can not cope with… and a pace & intensity that our players in equivalent positions left & right, who we have spent fortunes on, can’t compete with.

 

[HarryBosch]

This is the sad reality, everything the scum do in the footballing department is the right way to do things.

A clear example of that is when we won the league. They ripped the entire thing up and reaped the rewards instantly

We've got the same players letting us down season after season. Those same players simply don't survive at the other mob.

Has to still be mentioned though, that they are still disgusting, child abusing, subhuman, inhumane filth that built a statue of a man that allowed a child predator to reap havoc on their club then set a tone to gaslight and abuse the victims, regardless of how they run the footballing department.

Yes they did, and the reason they could do that is because they have the financial power to do so. We do not. It is that simple, but people keep bleating on about it.

They get many things right on the football side, of that there is no doubt, but they also waste money on players that don't make it - James Mcarthy for example - the difference is, they can absorb poor recruitment, we cannot.

 

[MartinS93]

No you said..

This is the sad reality, EVERYTHING the scum do in the footballing department is the right way to do things.

I pointed out given their recent recruitment and the fact they have binned the head of recruitment , as well as their terrible record in Europe , i did not think that was an accurate statement.

And I still believe that to be the case. To be clear, you can still do things the right way and not get the results. Not everything will go your way.

So they binned the head of recruitment because he wasn't doing well enough? Right thing to do. If it doesn't work out, you're binned. Should be the way it is.

They've been getting pumped in the Champions League. I mean, so what? We got pumped in the Champions League as well. It's beyond the both of us.

Quite honestly, give me season after season of CL pumpings with the league at the end of it. Easy I'd take that.

 

[stillAlwaysblue]

Boards look after the financial side of our club. They do not sign players that is the Managers job with the board agreeing that there is cash available to sign those the manager wants.
Looking at the fair play rules we would need to sell players for millions before spending on what we might need.
Our hope is with PC who with his team can sign players costing very little and from there build a team when we can then sell on players for profit.
There are no investors coming to Rangers or new board members with cash where anyway fair play rules would be involved.
Some fans need to be careful what they wish for as there are always types like Green in the background.
What is important is what happens on the pitch with the players we will have next season and that is down to our manager who will get funds that are available.
I look forward to adding another cup this season when we beat the scum which is down to the manager and his players and our fans at the ground.

 

[Arkanoid]

We can continue to be the beating heart for a continuously losing regime if you’d prefer?

So we don't buy ST or any kits, drive the regime out like we did the Spivs, the question remains, what next?

 

[RossS1872]

It's perhaps not the boards last chance, because some of the support seem to think it's okay for them to stumble from poor decision to poor decision whilst having to take none of the trouble, meanwhile the clubs reputation is going down the toilet, the support have to watch the drivel given to us and are treated like cash cows.
The support really needs to unite to try and do something but we're such a fractured group it's absurd. There's still people that think Murray was good for Rangers despite his decisions dragging us to the brink

 

[stillAlwaysblue]

Yes they did, and the reason they could do that is because they have the financial power to do so. We do not. It is that simple, but people keep bleating on about it.

They get many things right on the football side, of that there is no doubt, but they also waste money on players that don't make it - James Mcarthy for example - the difference is, they can absorb poor recruitment, we cannot.

Far too sensible a reply mate but dead right. They have the cash we do not. However we have some young players and hopefully will get more who in turn will make us cash.

 

[steven allen]

I said that Ross Wilson was a poor appointment,

Met him and right away I thought this guy talks a good game but ultimately won't produce results

Stop wasting our money for a start would be nice.

They have got every single appointment wrong after Gerrard.

They had a very weak CEO for years he was walked over by our counterparts.

I want them to run our club properly they stopped doing that while lapping up 55 and too busy with hubris and neglecting the club.

We pay the highest wages in the country look what we get for it.

The board must do better and hire folk that know what they are doing for a start.

Ross Wilson set us back years and they still didn’t sack him

 

[Arkanoid]

Gerrard got Bacuna and Beale got the keys to the candy store.

Hagi, Roofe, Itten one season
Kent, Helander one season
Guts of £20m isn't a bad candy store Gerrard got his hands on

 

[-Clifford W74-]

The financial gulf increasing does not necessarily filter on to the pitch.If it did then they would be the team doing the business on the coefficient front not us.We have a wage bill that should mean we are good enough to win every league game and our two home old firm.
Mentality,injuries and confidence is where the league will be won and lost.

 

[Barrymoped]

The french club in for Morelos was the summer before we won 55.

Leeds were always reported to be interested in Kent, not sure how serious that was.

And you really think a club was paying £10 million for Borna? If so, i have a bridge to sell you.

Absolutely, there’s a hell of a lot of revisionism and hindsight engineering going on regarding what we should have done after 55.

Quite clearly (with hindsight) we should have sold Morelos for £16million to Lille the season before, but we held firm for £20million and never got it, at the time the vast majority on here were supportive of that stance, “no more undervaluation of our players etc”

Kent was only rumoured to Leeds, but the fee rumoured at the time was around £10mill, which we instantly turned down, again at the time this was peak Kent who looked like he could develop into a world beater at that point and absolutely everyone was supporting knocking back “paltry” bids like that.

Plus Gerrard flat refused to give his blessing to any of our star players being sold after 55.

No matter how many times people keep repeating “we should have invested after 55, it’s on the board”, it doesn’t match the reality of what happened.

 

[spotlight]

Here we go again. Same nonsense posts get posted every now and again.

The boars who are currently in place running the whole club are voted into position by the shareholders at the yearly AGM. Every year shareholders get the chance to vote them out. Every year these mystery billionaire fans waiting in the wings have the opportunity to buy up enough shares to challenge the current board like King etc did. This isn't happening and there is zero talk of anyone even looking at doing this.

I will explain why and maybe people cam read and understand how current Football Finances and FFP works once and for all.

A person or persons wanting to own Rangers at this time would require to buy 51% of the club would have the control of decision. That would cost about £56m for that percentage. He would be required to offer same share price to everyone else. If its accepted his total outlay is £112m.

So that get him the stadium, training ground, players, and brand. Most importantly he gets access to our bank account. At start of season it has season ticket money and maybe Castore money. Not enough to pay our yearly costs.

It also gives him an overall funding bill of about £90m (roughly our outlay each year) We generally have an income about the same so zero profit and in the majority of recent years a loss. The new owner would need to cover this loss. This would generally mean issuing himself new shares and covering the losses. Like we done fro. When King etc came in all through the Gerrard rebuild.

Now this cannot continue to happen as FFP get involved as we cannot keep making losses and using the owners own personally money to just issue himself new shares to cover losses. We end up putting our European License at risk.

So this new owner needs to find new ways of bringing money in. The commercial and sponsorship situation is at an all time high. We are doing great making what we do playing in Scotland. The new owner cannot do a Man City and just create false companies with false sponsorship deals at stupid valuations so he can keep pumping his own money in to fund buying players etc. So that won't happen. He cannot name Ibrox the Mystery Billionaire.com stadium for £200m because again the price of that deal doesn't justify the actual valuation to his company. Wouldn't be allowed.

So see what you have would be a bottomless pit where the owner would need to keep losing his own money repeatedly somehow to just try and compete with Celtic. There isn't a single person or company that would or could run the club this way. Money needs to come in from genuine legal firms. Like prizemoney, sponsorship, commercial, season ticket, ticket sales, European money, transfers. That's it. Not from an owners own pocket.

Tavernieeeerr above is correct 100% the Footballing board is the issue. That needs to be changes completely to actual people who have experience running just the football department.

The manager will get funded with what the club can afford from the clubs income stream. Not outside income or the boards own income.

As ever. It comes down to the football side. Winning trophies creates more income. We need leaders on and off the park, fit hungry winners. The cash income will flow from that.

 

[spotlight]

And 62% of the shares are currently held by 8 non-selling owners (inc Club 1872).

And that is a good thing. But those owners now need to get the footballing side right. Hopefully the new manager can make a difference. Clear out the squad.

 

[TheDerryend]

Some are saying the board need to spend tens of millions, while others are sarcastically questioning where the tens of millions will come from. I don't think either of those matter.

It's the scouting and player recruitment we need to sort out, once and for all. That mob got Hatate and O'Riley for about 1.5mil each. Despite the media gushing over their £70m~ bank balance, they're not buying players for 8, 9 or 10 million a pop.

Get the scouting sorted. Recruit young players who have shown promise and the rest will fix itself. THAT is what I want to see the board do.

I agree with what you say, with this way forward, I think it's essential for our future, but as we've seen for many a year, our fans have no tolerance with younger players unless their giving a at least an 8/10 performance every game they play. Mcausland is just one example of this.

We seem to have the idea that they should be able to perform like seasoned pros as soon as they get in the team. That's just not going to happen and even the experienced pros in football can't and don't give these performances every game.

 

[MartinS93]

Yes they did, and the reason they could do that is because they have the financial power to do so. We do not. It is that simple, but people keep bleating on about it.

They get many things right on the football side, of that there is no doubt, but they also waste money on players that don't make it - James Mcarthy for example - the difference is, they can absorb poor recruitment, we cannot.

The generated 30+ million in players and spent 23 million. They made their own money.

Of course they have wasted wages on players, every club has and we probably will with new signings as well in the summer.

 

[MosesMcNeil99]

At what point are we allowed to stop saying thank you and demand better? They’re not the right guys in perpetuity because they helped nearly 10 years ago. The club is stale - we badly need new ownership and a new CEO. Other positions are TBC.

 

[brain]

We pay the highest wages in the country look what we get for it.

What we get for our wages is scandalous. Some of the clubs we play in the Europa League have half our budget.

 

[Eighteen Seventy Two]

So we don't buy ST or any kits, drive the regime out like we did the Spivs, the question remains, what next?

I hope it wouldn’t come to that, as I hope we get the big decisions right ahead of next season.

What would be the alternative to that and subsequent regime change, if we failed year on year?

Have we just to sit back and render ourselves futile if we wail to win the league 90% of the time?

I don’t fancy the idea of being second best perpetually and not being able to do a thing about it, personally.

 

[juan guy]

With respect its your reply that's nonsense.

" If he won’t extend you move him on. Simple as that."

If player makes it clear he will see out his contract no matter what then what do we do?

And please don't come back with the above statement which as Ive said is nonsense.

We make sure he doesn't see the light of day until his deal expires. But that's an extreme scenario that rarely happens.

In reality, when players know their time is up they instruct their agent to find them a new club. You'll always get the odd prick like Bob O'Balde who is quite happy to put their feet up, but the vast majority are unwilling to sacrifice 12-18 months of their career.

We may need to lower the asking price to find a buyer the player will accept, but that's still preferable to half a squad of deadwood marking time on the calendar.

It's the policy everywhere else, including across the city, so I don't see how it's unrealistic to expect the same from us.

Step 1 would be to stop handing out such charitable contracts.

 

[staunchy]

The cash could have come from a proper sustainable business model which involved selling assets at their peak e.g Kent, Morelos, Kamara, Borna, Goldson etc. We had no plan and now this is where we are.

That’s what I was going to post, we need a board and management team that are financially astute and know when to sell an asset, their performance over the last 2 years has been well below par and they can’t be exempt from criticism.

 

[Bri RTID]

We heard this last summer. And the summer before that.

As common as us singing the sash so it is

 

[True Blue]

Investing properly in the squad need not mean necessarily throwing in huge amounts of money.
As last summer’s experience shows, it’s how the money is spent that matters.
The fact remains that we are where we are now to a significant extent due to recruitment shortcomings over the past three close seasons.
The investor board correctly delegate these decisions to the football board and so must ultimately take responsibility for these failures.

 

[GBY74]

Absolutely, there’s a hell of a lot of revisionism and hindsight engineering going on regarding what we should have done after 55.

Quite clearly (with hindsight) we should have sold Morelos for £16million to Lille the season before, but we held firm for £20million and never got it, at the time the vast majority on here were supportive of that stance, “no more undervaluation of our players etc”

Kent was only rumoured to Leeds, but the fee rumoured at the time was around £10mill, which we instantly turned down, again at the time this was peak Kent who looked like he could develop into a world beater at that point and absolutely everyone was supporting knocking back “paltry” bids like that.

Plus Gerrard flat refused to give his blessing to any of our star players being sold after 55.

No matter how many times people keep repeating “we should have invested after 55, it’s on the board”, it doesn’t match the reality of what happened.

I know Gerrard praised the board for not selling Kent before we won and pretty much all of us wanted the club to keep Morelos when going for 55. Out of interest what bids did Gerrard refuse for star players after winning the title?

 

[Robert Marshall]

And therein lies the flaw in these posts. It’s like we’re the local bowling club and we’re not happy with how it’s run. It’s fine to be emotional on the subject, but %^*& me, be real at the same time.

You be real, tell me your answer, who would be willing to take over?
Be very careful about what you wish for, I doubt anyone on FF has any idea how difficult it must have been to get us to this stage.
Yes, the Board has made mistakes but IMO they have brought in good Professional people to steady the operation.
The Board has come up with the money but has been badly let down by how the funds have been spent, that is down to the football people who signed players that have let us all down.

 

[Robert Marshall]

We would have had plenty money to spend if we have a proper player trading model and long term plan. At that point we had significantly valuable and sellable assets e.g Kent, Morelos, Kamara, Borna, Goldson etc. We could have raised significant cash for those, instead we let them all run down their contracts (and deterioriate on the park too). It was like we were a deer in headlights, we had no idea what we had - and before we knew it the opportunity was gone.

Is that the same Goldson no one would sign on a free transfer?

 

[Kinghornloyal]

I know Gerrard praised the board for not selling Kent before we won and pretty much all of us wanted the club to keep Morelos when going for 55. Out of interest what bids did Gerrard refuse for star players after winning the title?

None. That's the issue. Nobody came in for Morelos Kent or Kamara at that time..if they had been sold earlier and we didn't win 55 their would have been mass riots blaming the board for stealing the money.

 

[Sm-1872-]

I got absolute pelters on here when Beale got the job as I said at the time “most underwhelming appointment ever”. A man who’d been a manager a few months and was on a 5 or 6 game losing streak at QPR ffs. The board then give Beale the snake full reign on all transfers in the summer. (We saw how that went). Unbelievable how badly we are run but in fairness to the board they sacked the snake Beale and appointed Clement

 

[Der_Metzgermeister]

I agree with what you say, with this way forward, I think it's essential for our future, but as we've seen for many a year, our fans have no tolerance with younger players unless their giving a at least an 8/10 performance every game they play. Mcausland is just one example of this.

We seem to have the idea that they should be able to perform like seasoned pros as soon as they get in the team. That's just not going to happen and even the experienced pros in football can't and don't give these performances every game.

Agreed. There are a lot of fans that think this is Fifa or Football Manager, and you should be getting 8/10 every game. And that's never going to happen.

What I'm looking for is a scouting team that can identify key attributes in certain positions. E.g get a CM that is big, athletic and can win the ball back. He doesn't need to be Pirlo. Then have a CM that is maybe lighter, but can ping passes. Get a right back with pace who puts in a solid tackle on the wing. Most of our successful defenses over the years had a CB who was a brick s**t house i.e. Kygriakos(sic) or Andrews.

The other thing I want to see is a hint of arrogance. Someone who comes to the SPL and goes "I'm going to own you." Someone who is so confident in their own ability they don't shrink in big games.

Assemble a team that is greater than the sum of it's parts. One players weakness will be covered by another's strengths.

Easier said than done, I know. But I refuse to believe that if they can do it, why can't we. The scouting/recruitment team needs to finally step up. I'm praying Nils Koppen has something up his sleeve.