StAndrew7

I joined last week (Tuesday I think), other than a confirmation of my DD, nothing. I emailed them my details too.

The Society needed to get in front of this and I think there's been a real missed opportunity this week, being honest. Now that this "revised offer" (read: the plan all along) has been provided in (unsurprisingly) a lot less detail than the lengthy statements issued previously, people will think it's a far better deal than the original and vote for it because "why the fuck not, this lad seems alright". It's pretty standard business practice; go in with shite, tweak it a bit, then convince the turkeys you won't do anything to them at Thanksgiving but never mention Christmas being round the corner.

If he's publicly admitting that he has no fucking plan (as we all know from how shite this all is), then this has to be killed right now. He's already said to @David on P&B he only has 10% of the information he needs to formulate one. The Exec Board's integrity is totally gone here if they're willing to give control of the club to a randomer who admits he's got absolutely no idea about what he's going to be doing. If this were a takeover/investment proposal for a "proper" company this would have fallen the minute he said "Let's see what happens, lol." I've written to the club today to ask what independent financial due diligence has been carried out on the proposal, as McMahon said he would (highly) recommend doing that at the AGM... although that was when he was planning to step down and have nothing to do with the negotiations, so maybe his opinion of his own calculations mean we don't need an independent auditor involved... Once I've got a reply to that, I'll be asking for more details of Mr Barmack's business plan, investment strategy, ROI calculations and what KPIs will be used to measure the "success" over the first two seasons prior to the WS deciding if he and and his wife are adding any value.

Which is totally fine? Making some changes to a really shite deal doesn't mean it suddenly becomes a great one. It still values the club poorly and the WS as majority shareholder hasn't been engaged in the revision at all; the statement quite clearly says it's been the Board of Directors and the Barmacks doing this. Whilst it leaves the WS as majority shareholder, Barmack will still have Chairmanship and the casting vote on the Exec Board if this goes through. As much as the WS will be the majority shareholder it doesn't mean that they have the full control to which they are entitled.

Given the statement doesn't mention a change to him/Wild Sheep Sports receiving the Chairmanship and casting vote of the board, I assume that's going to remain...

Just to be pedantic, technically that's not true; it's being converted into shares, which is a different thing. Writing it off would be a total loss of (our) money, getting it as shares is an investment into the club. I just said on P&B that I think this might sway a few undecideds/those closer to a yes vote.

Hmmm. Still smelling shite, although it is slightly more palatable; no WS matching investment, buyback is (a bit) cheaper. I assume he'll still get Chairmanship of the EB with the casting vote, as that's not mentioned.

Played for County though eh, so he's infected.

Handsome/Ginger/Teuchter/Staunch as fuck, though.

My biggest concern right now is that we have no left-sided wing/full backs in the squad, other than Wilson. I know Blaney is in the "could do a job" group there but I think he's firmly a centre back; doesn't have the pace or athleticism to play as a modern WB/FB that Ketts wants. I'd love us to get someone akin to Furlong back in.

If there even IS one... If the WS are being requested to develop one/demonstrate how they can better support the club along those lines, he should be too, rather than just posting on a forum and letting McMahon lecture people on why it's a good deal without providing anything of substance.

I think he could pick a pass, too. He was decent as a high-10/shadow striker for KVV at points but like you say, never quite consistent enough for premiership standard. Also too small, really.

tl;dr: "We know what's best, you're too stupid to understand it all and that's it." Read it in Jim McMahon's voice. Then it makes perfect sense.

Investment update #2 This might take a while to digest...

I only skimmed the rules so if that's the case fair play. I wasn't sure how governing laws on cooperatives and societys which is mentioned came into things, in terms of rights of its members.

I think the Executive Board have the influence here as the overall controller of the club (we can debate that later), in as much as they have recommended a vote of all shareholders which has to include the WS, which in turn means the WS Board has to poll its members as everyone has a share in the Society, which is in turn a shareholder in the Club.

I would need to confirm if that's the case or not (working currently) but there should be something on the club accounts on Companies House if anyone wants to do a quick check!

I think the loan was included as a profit in the year in which it was accounted, so therefore any spending as a result has to be recorded as a loss? I'm sure I read on one set of accounts that the record profits we reported in 21/22 were partly because of that income.

Thanks Dee, appreciate the update. On this last point; I know the statement mentioned the WS would be sharing these plans soon - do you have a timescale? It feels like there's a window of opportunity to sell it as an alternative to the next proposal Barmack submits/is announced by the Club; I know you guys are only volunteers and you've already done a phenomenal amount of work on your plans - I wouldn't want that to go to waste if it's overshadowed by anything the Club announce in the next few days, with an attached narrative that could potentially extinguish your own.

They do if they sell their shareholding to Mr Barmack in a few years...

You heard anything on this, @steelboy? I fear (and I'm sure others do, too) the Society might miss their opportunity to have their say properly if they wait on a statement from the Club being issued, or a renewed offer comes from Barmack...

Aye, that's fair. I would slightly counter that given he's not played for 2 years, we might be able to offer him what Kelly was on and guarantee him first team football.

Casagolda on P&B mentioned we're looking at bringing in a keeper with previous experience in Scotland. There's also chat of Siegrist mutualling his contract at Celtic, might be worth an offer.

Was the brave Bob not only a B Cap? If we're including that Corrigan should be in there!

Hammell got at least one cap, I think? McGhee got a couple, too. Brian Kerr as well.