£70.7m where has it gone ?

[TheTinMan99 0]

I never heard his interview in full, i was going with what the poster said on his post and assuming he was quoting Ally.

 

Not withstanding that though, Ally can have absolutely ZERO complaints about the support he has had from the Board both on staff and personal wages as well as player purchases. A top class manager would have ripped it up and started again with a increasing 4 year plan whereas Ally simply brought in player after player to keep him and his pals in a job as he has been quoted saying.

 

He has been reasonably well supported, but to a certain extent, he had use the "sledgehammer to crack a nut" approach. Failure to win any of these leagues would've been a total disaster. Taking the utopian view of building a team from scratch, with promising youths, etc, was never going to guarantee the promotions we needed. Ally has to work in reality, not with idealistic goals.

 

The fact is, we need an entire new team to compete with them on any serious level. This can only be achieved by spending on established players. It's been proven to be the way for generations. Building teams from scratch is for teams that have little income, which we are well on the way to becoming.

[simplythebest 0]

He has been reasonably well supported, but to a certain extent, he had use the "sledgehammer to crack a nut" approach. Failure to win any of these leagues would've been a total disaster. Taking the utopian view of building a team from scratch, with promising youths, etc, was never going to guarantee the promotions we needed. Ally has to work in reality, not with idealistic goals.

 

The fact is, we need an entire new team to compete with them on any serious level. This can only be achieved by spending on established players. It's been proven to be the way for generations. Building teams from scratch is for teams that have little income, which we are well on the way to becoming.

I think we could afford long term planning while still guaranteeing promotions, our opposition have been butchers and joiners after all.

[Frankie 8,148]

I think the original article is fair enough and thanks to TWM for coming on to defend it.

 

However, the simple fact is, we have spent over £70m to get to the Championship and it's fair to say the value for money - wherever we look at the club - has not been good. Right intentions or not, huge amounts of cash - from season ticket money to share purchases - has been wasted. Now, you can take your pick of the culprit for that - Green, Imran, Murray, Walter or Ally - but the same hedge-funds are in charge now as were then.

 

Are these faceless people learning from their mistakes? Are these people really demanding 'greater financial prudence from Wallace and Somers as well as good corporate governance'? Are fans genuinely being engaged in the club's future? Will our season ticket money be used well or wasted? How do expensive short-terms loans square with all the above?

 

The fact is the situation at the club is dire. You don't need to be Chris Graham's best friend or Dave King's caddy to know that. Meanwhile the 'new' board want to sue and question the loyalty of concerned fans, hide their bonus packages, play fast and loose with shareholder law and apparently are incapable of open honest debate with supporters or shareholders.

 

Anyone who finds that situation acceptable - in conjunction with TWM's original spending analysis - is clearly not thinking straight when we consider the Green and Whyte era. People we still don't know for sure do not hold claim to our club's well being.

[Darthter 542]

I think the breakdown of the spend shows that money hasn't just gone missing, however I think it is clear that it has been mis-spent in many areas.

 

I would be very interested to hear some of the major shareholders views on how the money has been spend & how positive (or otherwise) they are about their investment in the club. Ultimately, the Board are there to run the business on behalf of the shareholders - are they happy or content that the value of their investment has dropped so much in such a short time??? Are they happy that the current (and previous) board are spending funds wisely???

 

Laxey in particular appear to be acting out of character. From what I have read, they have a history of being rather "aggressive" with regards boardroom change in order to improve their investments. Since Laxey became involved, the club/business has ploughed through £70m, with not an awful lot to show for it. They have also seen the share price drop to less than half their initial investment.

[Frankie 8,148]

I think the breakdown of the spend shows that money hasn't just gone missing, however I think it is clear that it has been mis-spent in many areas.

 

I would be very interested to hear some of the major shareholders views on how the money has been spend & how positive (or otherwise) they are about their investment in the club. Ultimately, the Board are there to run the business on behalf of the shareholders - are they happy or content that the value of their investment has dropped so much in such a short time??? Are they happy that the current (and previous) board are spending funds wisely???

 

Laxey in particular appear to be acting out of character. From what I have read, they have a history of being rather "aggressive" with regards boardroom change in order to improve their investments. Since Laxey became involved, the club/business has ploughed through £70m, with not an awful lot to show for it. They have also seen the share price drop to less than half their initial investment.

 

Excellent question.

 

However, I can only assume the institutions were aware of this cash burn last December when they voted overwhelmingly for the status quo. Like you say it's a somewhat bizarre situation when we have people - fans included - desperate to tolerate and reward this under-performance.

[der Berliner 3,240]

Excellent question.

 

However, I can only assume the institutions were aware of this cash burn last December when they voted overwhelmingly for the status quo. Like you say it's a somewhat bizarre situation when we have people - fans included - desperate to tolerate and reward this under-performance.

 

Laxey et al were getting Wallace and Nash into the boardroom in December and with them they think things will change for the better, perhaps? Just as food for thought?

 

Interesting look at things from the OP. No surprise some harpies fell on it, but it is all about opinions.

 

NB: Frankie ... we did not "spent 70m to get into the Championship". The OP says were some of the money went, while McCoist assembled a squad that should - on paper - be good enough to carry us into the top tier without much change. (Yes, given some performances, people will disagree. But you never know what better opposition will bring out of all these SPL players we have.)

[simplythebest 0]

Excellent question.

 

However, I can only assume the institutions were aware of this cash burn last December when they voted overwhelmingly for the status quo. Like you say it's a somewhat bizarre situation when we have people - fans included - desperate to tolerate and reward this under-performance.

 

They didn't really vote for the status quo though they voted for a board that had largely been appointed a few weeks before, Stockbridge was always going to end up going without being voted out and the likes of Paul Murray did not offer up a good enough alternative.

[Frankie 8,148]

Laxey et al were getting Wallace and Nash into the boardroom in December and with them they think things will change for the better, perhaps? Just as food for thought?

 

Interesting look at things from the OP. No surprise some harpies fell on it, but it is all about opinions.

 

NB: Frankie ... we did not "spent 70m to get into the Championship". The OP says were some of the money went, while McCoist assembled a squad that should - on paper - be good enough to carry us into the top tier without much change. (Yes, given some performances, people will disagree. But you never know what better opposition will bring out of all these SPL players we have.)

 

We have spent £70m and there are no guarantees we will be promoted next season. That says it all.

[Frankie 8,148]

They didn't really vote for the status quo though they voted for a board that had largely been appointed a few weeks before, Stockbridge was always going to end up going without being voted out and the likes of Paul Murray did not offer up a good enough alternative.

 

They contributed and voted for the status quo whereby they controlled who was appointed to the board and did not wish any change to that via non-hedge fund aligned board members.

 

Stockbridge was defended time after time by these appointments and was only forced to resign due to the vigilance of his critics. However, even his critics will agree that he wasn't solely responsible for our dreadful performance.

 

Those responsible remain in charge and, as highlighted in an earlier post, seem reluctant to openly address the severe challenges the club faces.

[calscot 0]

With all the doom and gloom on our chances next season, is it not usual to think that a team that completely cake walks the league at one level with supernormal results, should perhaps have a good chance of competing in the level above?

 

Of course there is a difference between competing and guaranteeing promotion, but while it is difficult to quantify our level against those of the Championship with the likes of Hearts, there is little evidence to suggest we will struggle.

 

Hearts will not be in a better position than ourselves, squad and resources wise. I think it mostly depends on how the SPL level players we have and our manager perform at the level above.

 

I personally would prefer to strengthen the squad but can't see the cause for the extreme pessimism.