parsforlife

24 minutes ago, SanguinePar said:

Yes they get a bit  but they still get much less than those at the top, so the gap grows ever larger. 

I'm not sure how true that is, yes the higher up the spfl you are the bigger proportion of prize money you get.  However it's also true that spfl prize money makes up a far smaller proportion of there income.

7 minutes ago, SanguinePar said:

And what good does attention get us? I'd rather we had fans in the door and money in the bank.

An introduction to potential fans, An introduction for new sponsors and More value for current sponsors.

Its slightly intangible but there certainly importance to be visible as a business, if people aren’t thinking of you they won’t give you their money.

I’m not disagreeing that there’s cost to this but it’s unfair to completely disregard the benefits of 100k people engaging with your product weekly

1 hour ago, SanguinePar said:

 a few hundred fans of neither team might happen to watch a match that they don't really have any interest in.

 

 

Closer to 100k watching each week, that’s a fair bit of attention our league wouldn’t get.

45 minutes ago, Grant said:

Is there dates out for the promotion and relegation playoffs? 

only for the premiership final

1st leg Thursday may 23rd 1st leg 2nd leg Sunday may 26th 

The rest will depend on TV which won't be decided until the teams involved are known.

Final matches all being friday night is because there will be a TV game and all matches need to start at the same time to try avoid a germany-austria scenario 

1 hour ago, SanguinePar said:

Maybe don't want fans showing up at primary schools. Also, possibly not wanting to spoil a surprise for the kids (or commit to coming, only to maybe have to pull out later).

Can be posted afterwards without any of those consequences.

can also do a few teasers that don’t involve direct commitment?

‘Watch out the pars are about!’

generic photo

#yourschool” “ourclub”

If were less concerned about a league rival gaining points than we are about a local side well out of reach our mindset is completely ****ed

That was excellent, it’s impossible to not give KRH man of the match but there’s plenty of others who played very well. Top team performance and 4 good goals 🤣

Ultimately his success will entirely depend on results, regardless of how good of bloke people think he is.

Not saying he a isn’t a good person btw

1 hour ago, Digs said:

DC said that he'd like to dispel the myth that we have gone from breaking even to losing money. Some of the reasons we did so for a long time were due to 'windfall events' as he referred to them. Things like selling Kevin Nisbet (first transfer fee) playing the OF in the cup. 

It was about £150-£200k swing from what was budgeted all tolled.

The truth about breaking even > losses is probably somewhere in the middle in terms of the truth and what people believe. He was in no way saying anything about the previous board or how it was run.

He covered Greg Shields and some of the rumours that DC was behind him leaving. He said absolutely not, and praised him for the job he did in developing a lot of our promising youngsters. He said Greg reached a point in his career where he had to decide if he wanted to continue to pursue a career in the game and decided to go down a different route. 

He did say they are talking to 6 or 7 really interesting people for his replacement and those discussions are ongoing.

He covered the assertion/accusations of how 'interested/invested' GMBH are saying there is at least one of them over once a month, with 5 of them having been over multiple times over the course of the season and Thomas Meggle coming across once a month on top of that. Nothing has changed in terms of their commitment.

Regarding paid staff, they are doing this to try and professionalise the club. Obviously that has also had an impact on finances too. Alister Burn has just passed his one year in the job and is doing well, they have also brought in a new Ticketing and Events manager. They previously had someone else that didn't work out but the new guy has settled in well, another Pars fan. 

He finished off by saying the supporters have been great, referencing the Airdrie 5k gate as an example of how the fans have continued to stick by the team.

A question was asked about the sustainability of losing money season on season and how is that sustainable. There was a question of when does that come to a point where they say 'enough is enough'. I reminded DC that even though it is 10 years ago, the wounds of admin are still fresh in some people's minds, and whilst no-one is really questioning the integrity or motives of GMBH, what reassurances do we have that they won't just walk away?

Basically, it was reasserted that they absolutely are fully committed and whilst we have made losses, they aren't phased by this. The emphasis is getting the club to where they want it to be infrastructure-wise, and on a day to day, looking at both costs and revenue and developing ways of improving both. DC said he has a guy coming from Germany to work with him on this who has worked with one of GMBH before on this very thing (can't remember who it was with, or if it was even said). The extra £300k didn't have to be requested by the board, they made that investment when it was required without question. 

DC was also keen to point out that the rumours around us missing players over the sake of £100 etc is not true. He said we can easily compete with anyone in this league on that point. Every player we have missed has been for footballing or professional reasons. ie going to Rovers over us to fight for a medal/title as opposed to a mid-table (or worse - my words - relegation battle). 

To illustrate this he said 3 of our summer targets signed for Premier teams. It was put to him that did we maybe shoot too high and this has cost us and he said he wasn't going to apologise for the club having ambition and ambitious targets. By the sounds of it, it's a tough market we're dealing in and small margins in regards to success or failure in getting deals done. 

Whilst they thought Ashcroft was a done deal, it fell through, on the choice of the player for football reasons late in the day. On the flip side, Kane signing for us was the same things as he had another deal agreed for him elsewhere but decided to come to us. 

ON deadline day, we had a deal agreed for an international player who was coming up from England, he was coming. Then we got a call to say he had had a late offer to go to Australia, which he couldn't turn down. The board gave him the option to bring in someone else so they moved for Malakai. None of the deals were 'panic signings' they were all players we had been watching. DC then stressed, in summary we would never lose out on a player for the sake of £100pw.

Lastly, he confirmed there had been considerable damage to seats, toilets, and graffiti at Starks on Saturday. It's not acceptable and this is going to cost the club. 

The Manager then gave an update. He is happy with the squad and where we are. He feels that the squad as a whole in regards to the ability in it is better than last year. He's delighted with the development of the likes of Otoo and Tod, who is now on his way back. 

As an aside, DC said that this group is better than the group we had when he came in, paraphrasing, better team spirit, better attitude as a hole and more together.

Incidentally on Otoo, the manager said he turned down an extension at Celtic on more money to come here, because he wanted to develop his football. Which I think everyone would agree is working out well for him.

In regards to injuries, he feels there are definitely some, in hindsight, that they could have prevented. Bene being one, JM holds his hands up to that. Bene felt himself he was fine and broke down again, but we have changed how we approach this with individuals now to avoid this scenario again. Taking into account how the player feels with the data on the rehab. How they approach the rehab and how they manage them back. Bene wasn't rushed back per se, he'd done the rehab, but it was maybe still a week or so too soon. 

I asked the manager what has changed form last year in regards to injuries. Yes, it's horrendously unlucky, and I agreed I'd never seen anything like it, but it can't all be bad luck. What's changed and what is the data telling us if anything?

He gave a really good explanation saying that they had looked at absolutely everything. All of the traditional markers in the data you look for were showing really high numbers for us, as we press high, and we run a lot. We have actually run more this year on average than last year, and more at top speeds. He took the problem to someone he knows outside of the club for advice, a really good sports scientist who looked at things and made some suggestions. (he was keen to point out this isn't a reflection on current or previous staff - just a fresh pair of eyes from someone he trusts)

Now we are starting to be a lot more personal in terms of load, baseline load rest etc than we were before. We were working with a too generic approach previously, so we are taking it a lot more individually then we were before in terms of what we're asking them to do in training, comparing that to what they've done in games, when, for how long, at what speed. We are now asking the sports science team to come to him with more info on this to advise on what they should all be doing as individuals. There's loads more but in short, I was happy with the explanation as he put it down to himself saying maybe it's a learning curve for him as a young manager, and so we have now implemented changes which we are starting to see the benefit of now with players coming back and staying fit. 

As an aside, Chris Kane's injury is an older recurring one, so the good thing is he knows how to manage his own recovery for it.

He said that if someone had said at this point we'd be 5 points of the playoffs he'd probably have taken it, but has also been in the league long enough to realise we are not that far above relegation either. We have a squad of 22 tomorrow, so it's getting fitter all the time. We always wanted to consolidate this year at the very least, but the main overall aim is still to get this team to the Prem (I took this to mean not necessarily this year, but not in a negative way)

He said he made a statement after 5/6 games that this team will not be relegated and he stands by it. 

They never budgeted for the severity of the injuries, and the cost for surgeries has been astronomical. That has obviously come at a cost but it absolutely did NOT affect playing budget. 

I also asked are we having to manage the players differently to make sure they don't make the Bene mistake, and he basically said yes, and they do now. However he pointed out that we have had players putting themselves through it when we were at rock bottom injury wise. Wighton played with an injection against QP. Summers played with an injury that game too. Hammy has a sunken bone in his cheek and was warned it needed surgery or may not be able to be fixed. He was given the choice, and said he wanted the surgery. Next day, he came in and said he'd leave it and play. They told him he didn't need to do that, but he wanted to put it off so he could help the team.

(My words) I think they are trying to stress that the group has a brilliant attitude, and will run through brick walls four each other, and us. and they just wanted to acknowledge it. 

We discussed goals, and lack thereof, and the reasons behind it. When we were 3rd bottom, we had the second best defensive record in terms of goals conceded, and second only to Utd for expected goals, ie chances that should have been converted. It was margins that small that we are working under, which I agree with. 

He says that we absolutely have to be scoring goals and we need to get that in the team and they are working on this. They even considered are they working too much on it on training, were they putting them under too much pressure with it? (They weren't - they changed it up and it made no difference  but I think this dispels the part about them not being coached).

On the striker front, they said that Taylor Sutherland is knocking on the door and that they absolutely see him starting soon, and that as a finisher, he's got it, and scores barrowloads in training. He said he is a great kid with a brilliant attitude, always wants to learn and is always asking questions, wants to learn the game. So, don't be surprised to see him start a game soon...

I think this is about it, I don't think I've missed anything important. There were a couple of bits and bobs that were conversational etc, but this is the pertinent parts.

If anything isn't clear, ask below and I'll try and answer as best I can.

First of all, I'd like to thank all for their efforts and don't want my questions to sound like criticism . 

1. All these one off events as far as I'm aware occurred early season, I'm curious about how the covered losses as It was assumed the money raised was put towards further investment rather than covering planed losses.

I feel quite uncomfortable to be so far away from budget,  more than I was about the initial loss.  Planned investment is one thing, getting things wrong and having to plug gaps is another and that's too much money to misjudge.

On the point that fans would moan if we didn't invest in youth, maybe some but not me, I really don't care where our players come from,  If we can have an academy and have it run at a profit directly via player sales or indirectly by providing first team players at lower then market rate then great,  if not its pointless and probably harmful.

It's mentioned small margins in recruitment, I agree with that, but when the coin falls so often against you then you've really got to question why we can't make those small margins work for us, it wasn't like suddenly in January or February players chose to sign for other clubs, the best players in our division have since last April/may have been choosing that we are not a good fit for them.  The package we are offering simply must improve.

1 hour ago, Piracy said:

David Cook replied that they have a strategy and they're confident in the strategy.  

You've mentioned a few references to strategy in your post, was there any pushback on cook for more detail on this?  For me its a really unsatisfactory answer 'trust me there's a plan'  You're going to really struggle to get buy in with that, you need to provide some detail, a general outline on how it will work,  a timeline and intermediary targets you're going to judge its success by and if it will need readjustment.   

KRH has been doing passing drills for weeks in training, he maybe had 2 training sessions going into the rovers game where he could take someone on one on one. It’s only natural he preferred one over the other, I’m sure with a few weeks in full contact training he’ll get his swagger back

If Sutherland was 25 and had shown the same level of performances as he has this season so far nobody would be clamoring for him to get a start. 

Put the best players you can on the pitch always, regardless of their age.

One thing fisher brings which no one else does is accurate long distance passing,  that's bound to help us in attack.

21 minutes ago, Grant said:

Lord knows what was going through the respective parties heads during it. 

That's something I really wish I knew.  We can condemn it as much as we want, but when we don't understand it then how on earth are we meant to convince these guys to stop their behaviour?  

When there's two sides thinking like the opponent is a very vital skill and I just can't do it in this case.

4 minutes ago, Grant said:

 

 

That Otoo for McCann sub though, **** me. The crowd reaction said it all, I just don't get what he was trying to achieve, what he was hoping to do, and the effect was almost immediate where we lost a grip on the game. McPake was quick to blame Mehmet for his mistake yesterday, maybe he should have a look in the mirror? 

Well you do what McPake had done for months now and give up, .

I think, and I’m not trying to justify the decision here cos we clearly got worse that the logic behind the sub was,  it’s getting later in the game, I’m going to go 2 up top, we will try to skip the midfield and have Todd, summers and KRH playing off the front 2, with emptying the midfield like that I want Hamilton back as the best sitting midfielder we have to protect against the counter.

But we still spent time passing the ball around the back so we ended up in a weird situation where we looked to play through the phases whilst losing the progressive runner.

The later part is so frustrating, our heads go down once we lose one and we completely give up if a second goes in. Honestly with our reaction to conceding we may as well walk off the pitch. Zero fight about us

22 minutes ago, Piracy said:

I do not disagree. 

I think the intention is to run some things (new ideas) past a few supporters to groups to improve things.  

Am I right that the last idea proposed at a meeting like this was the living true sportsmanship one and that was pushed through regardless despite being a load of bollocks

11 minutes ago, kelty_par said:

Mcpake isn’t happy with mehmet for the first goal, wonder if he’ll finally get dropped?

He won't be, little is worse.

The 2nd goal really annoyed me,  there's plenty of goals this season we need to do better on, but mistakes happen,  not doing the ****ing basics of switching on immediately after a free kick is given is really disappointing completely unprofessional and there's no excuses for it.

1 hour ago, Grant said:

Going to be a hard sale for season tickets to watch a team managed by McPake, overseen by this board and played by these players. 

Yes but at least we have a the positives for people to get behind

Ok I can’t think of anything right now 

Mehmet could have done better but he did well enough to give a defender plenty chance to be first too the ball, instead they stood around like statues 

I see this line is once again being used is a club statement.

The sentiment behind the pre-derby statement is quite good(basically don’t be dicks)

I do take exception to this line tho living “true sportsmanship, championing fairness, respect and community in all that we do”

Give me every single unfair advantage we can get.  do whatever the **** you need to do to win including if that means folk moan at you, don’t care if that makes you unsportsmanlike, as long as the win is on your side.  Respect is good for most of the week, but between the whistles it goes out the window, we’re here to do everything we can to destroy the opponent, their trying to do the same thing, go to war and find out who gets the better, don’t concede anything.

Community is also good, but Raith aren’t anything to do with our community it’s our job to try to crush them, as it is every single opponent we face. Send their community home angry and disappointed, it’s what we’re here to do

His positioning is absolutely fine for a knock back. What you are right in saying, and he’s not the only one to blame for it is nobody has given miles a shout and that results in the almost panicked clearance. He’s probably in the best position to make that shout tho.

Wonder what goal keepers people rate at this level?  Walton does ok from everything I’ve seen of him but that’s not a lot cos he’s very well protected. Everyone else is more than capable of a few clangers.

2 minutes ago, MarkPar said:

Chasing it ???. It’s a ball into the 6 yard box. Get your nut down ffs!!

He’s not capable of covering the entire 6 yard box without chasing after some balls, nobody is

14 minutes ago, MarkPar said:

That’s his domain, the 6 yard box, he should be going for that, no excuses. Indecisive as usual. 

Every time a ball comes into the 6 yard box keepers should go relentlessly chasing it regardless of how likely they are to get there? 

I know there can be frustration by some over mehmet not taking enough crosses but If you think the first is an easy ball for a goalkeeper to claim then I don’t know what to say, it’s an utter nightmare ball.