weeyin

Listening to the Sportscence pundits last night saying "if shirt pulling is a free kick there would be penalties at every corner" Yes! That's exactly what is says in the rules. Stamp out the pushes in the back and the shirt pulling in the box by applying the actual rules.

Never in doubt.

To be fair - we all thought the team that was fielded against Livi (and Rangers) was a decent lineup. How wrong we were.

Then don't do it. Just don't pretend that somehow that lending our club money at zero interest and only requiring a portion of it to be repaid is somehow "ripping us off". And be happy the effort has turned us into a member owned socialist nirvana, comrade. (But if you had a better idea on how we could have saved the club at its time of need, it would have been good if you had mentioned it at the time).

You are still confusing the sums of any money they invested versus the sums of money they loaned the club. Until you understand that basic concept, the rest of the deal will remain a mystery. The loans were very much contracted to be repaid, and the terms that were in the contract are incredibly favourable to us.

I think it was only audio that last time we played there.

Not sure how having a paper trail of tickets purchased (and compared to entries counted at the turnstiles) would assist in fiddling the VAT. You need a cash business with no receipts for that.

Most clubs operate that way. i.e. loans rather than investments. It's not every club that can rely on dodgy financing from Russia or the Middle East. If it wasn't for Les, there might not even be a club. He loaned us that money at zero interest and has continuously written off large chunks of it. Part of the deal was that he restructured the business operations of the club into a more professional and fiscally responsible outfit. Something that has reaped benefits in the short term and put us in good standing for the long term. He also added the incentive to boost the Well Society membership which, again, has made the club more sustainable. Many clubs operate on bank loans or loans from investors, and the investors are either paid back from income and transfer revenue at preferential rates (like Dundee Utd) or the the loan is converted into shares at some point (like Rangers). Banks wouldn't touch us after our administration, so loans were the only way we could survive. JB could have called in his entire loan and screwed us. Or worse, just sold Fir Park to Morrisons. The fact that he wrote off a huge chunk he was owed has also benefited the club. So feel free to the tell the society what you like, but it sounds like you misunderstand how JB and, in particular Les, kept the club afloat and helped put us in the position of relative strength we are now.

True - but it would be interesting to know exactly how they manage it.

Players don't like playing on plastic. Fans don't like watching games played on plastic. But the SFA says it's fine, so that's OK - it's only they players and fans they answer to after all.

It happened to a much lesser extent in the 60s and 70s. And even in the 80s, Aberdeen and Dundee Utd were winning league titles with smaller budgets than the Old Firm and were amongst the best teams in Europe. That will never happen again - and that's the biggest downside of modern football.

Time to bring in the plastic specialists.

So if the club was telling us porkies about Moult's contract when he left, who was on the best deal at the time? (and did we get shot of him?)

I wouldn't have though the naming rights would have netted that much either, but here is one quote from 2016. Their new deal isn't quite as lucrative but according to the press release: Plus, of course, they have their Spice of Life named stand and the proceeds from the Sainsbury sale. The amount of inward investment at Accies has always struck me as odd, and the whole "missing" 800k just adds to the mystery of how much cash they seem to attract.

That's sadly true in the modern game. And the teams that tend to get into financial difficutly, are the ones that think spending half of the money the biggest teams spend will bring them 50% of their success.

Because there's so little oversight from the tax man - particularly on clubs that have been in administration?

I think Accies have been the beneficiaries of some excellent/clever/dodgy sponsorship deals. Weren't they getting something like 800k/year from the naming rights to their stand? They also have a steady income from the offices they rent to the council. Not to mention the cash they pocketed when they sold their old ground and the add-ons from McCarthy and McArthur transfers. And the relative wages will also be skewed by the fact that we ditched the big earning senior pros (Lasley, McManus, McDonald, Hammel, McFadden, Pearson, Ainsworth etc.) during the period in question - not to mention Moult, who was our highest earner.

True. But in general, if you spend the most money across the board, the odd duffer doesn't affect the fact you'll be winning titles and trophies. It's the teams that end up 3rd or 4th on those lists that probably have the worst business model, laying out all that cash for a comparatively modest return on honours. In the EPL it makes some sense, as the financial rewards from TV and European qualification can be significant, but not so much in other leagues.

I put it in the SPFL thread yesterday, but looks like it's just me an Underboyleheating that read that You have to a wee bit careful with this report as it uses averages which can be massively skewed by one or two outliers at the top or bottom, and the fact that a lot of the info being used isn't from the clubs themselves, but it still gives a great high-level overview of the massive disparity in budgets. And according to the other figures in that thread, the team we beat on Saturday pays out £7.8 million in wages.

Aye, I don't think Stewart has anything to do with the highlights package. Much more likely a producer gave him the clip and told him to talk about it for 2 minutes.

Although they are now in the big time in League 2, Forest Green Rovers were my non-league wee team when I lived in Stroud.

From what I've seen watching the BBC's (excellent) coverage of the preliminary FA Cup rounds, there seems to be a rapid reduction in quality between the teams and players at the top of the National League and those below them. Not surprising really given the makeup of some of those teams. I saw one that had about half a dozen loanees from the EFL Championship and there have been a couple in recent times with some serious bankroll behind them (like Salford) who are trying to buy their way into League 2 and beyond. I certainly enjoyed watching the FA Cup coverage where there were sometimes teams from the 9th tier matched up against the 5th and 6th tiers.

I think so. Johnson and Main did will to keep pressing the defence and when the ball broke to Turnbull he had found a good position and hit a good shot.

"“We looked for a response but the subs never offered much to change the game and the third goal came from a ricochet but it was no less than Motherwell deserved and we have a lot of work to do ahead of the cup final."

TBF, there are posters on here who don't think any current Motherwell players should be in our team.