weeyin

Making players (which we also do) isn't going to reduce our gate prices.

That's a good question. I have no idea how it works with the youngsters. With the senior players, these types of clauses generally never expire, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was different at that age.

That's excellent, but we still need to sort out the compensation payment to Celtic. I think that was the only reason he didn't get a shot in the first team last season.

Given the lengths we went to get the Anier deal financed and the length of his contract, you'd have to think the plan was to move him on for a fee like Henrik.

McCall: “We always had it in mind to bring him in and we are delighted he has chosen to sign for us. He’ll battle it out with the other goalkeepers at the club for that number one shirt.” But you'd expect him to say that.

That's the problem, but there are no easy answers. Most leagues in Europe get a lot more TV/Sponsorship money than we do. We rely on gate money for most of our income. If we drop the prices, then we drop the quality of players we attract. To watch the same players perform in England costs the same (or more). If there was an answer we'd probably have found it by now, but so far it's better financially for clubs to have 4,500 fans at 22 quid than 5,500 at 15 quid. A longer term solution would be for the SPFL and SFA to do something, so we can rule that out.

I don't even understand that sentence, never mind argue against it. If O'Brien was willing to take a wage cut due to relegation and McCourt was not, then you offer O'Brien a reduced wage contract and punt McCourt. Relative talent is irrelevant.

All that means is O'Brien was a cheaper option after Barnsley were relegated.

For those wanting O'Brien back, in the last interview of his I saw on telly he said that it was McCourt that was keeping him out of the team.

I don't think so - I think it's more about shaking fans out of their complacency. Not that it's anyone's fault, but the Board has done a great job off the park keeping things running close to budget and the team has performed relative miracles on the park under increasing financial constraints. As a result, it makes us all feel, to a greater or lesser extent, that everything is fine. In reality, we need to be continually looking at ways to boost finances. If nothing else, it might have given a kick up the arse to fans like me who intended to throw some more cash at the Well Society on an installment plan, but never quite got around to setting it up.

Unclear, but the gist of the Well Society email today seemed to be "no". Instead the Society would still be involved in the running of the club.

Total speculation and over-analysis of a throwaway phrase, but I took 'moderately' in excess of 5 figures to be between 100 - 150k.

And track back.

They have set up payment plans recently that mirror that idea. However, I believe at the time of launch the legal advice they were given was that, due to the financial regulations surrounding a Trust, payment plans were not allowed.

Count me in for 20 quid.

It's hardly doomed to failure given that it has already been a success, allowing the club to borrow funds from the pool when it was needed. Even if we don't raise another penny, having that line of credit available to club of our size is pretty important. It might not be as large a pool as we hoped, but that is mostly down to the lack of business investors rather than individuals. From what I understand, the Board and the Society are working on ways to address that include offering businesses alternatives to 'Well Society investment. I think we should have been pursing that approach anyway, in parallel to the Society. Derek Weir talked to this point at the last Society meeting.

Snatched from the Skrill Conference. That will please all those that didn't want to touch First Division players. He's got a much better haircut than his brother.

I thought McCall was joking when he said that, in response to the fact he had just found out it was Reid that scored the winner. I think the contract discussions take a wee bit longer.

I wonder if we'll use some of the freed up cash to play Dom Thomas. He seems to be the creative spark in the U20s, but the fee we owe Celtic might have prevented his appearance in the first team.

I don't think so. It was pre-split when McCall said in an interview that they would be taking the new approach so he had a firm idea of his squad as early as possible.

Probably end up somewhere in the sunshine to help the new turf on on his heid grow a bit quicker.

Seems like McCall's strategy of earlier contract offers (and terminations) and hard deadlines for responses this season is up and running.

Aye, given our financial constraints and small squad size, Faddy definitely falls under the "luxury" category.

Accies if they are promoted.

Aye, it's sad that the football on NBC often has better analysis than MotD. However, it still has a long way to go to match the 'home' sports where they spend hours breaking down everything to the smallest detail and generally treat their audiences as adults.