Frank's cousin

Come on FF you are misinterpreting this.... YOU KNOW, I KNOW and CROUCH KNOWS that neither Wilde or Lowe had or have that kind of cash sitting around either when he first made the offer or now. That is pretty much a certainty.... so why did Crouch make this offer with conditions that are impossible to be met? please enlighten me as to how that can be considered such a generous offer? This argument goes all ways by the way, had it come from ANY of teh three amigos, my response WOULD have been the same. 'Myopic defence of Lowe' Jeez, I thought you were above that kinda of sh!t. If someone wants to make milage out of Crouch's 'generosity' , I dont see how putting this in context is anything to do with defending anyone else, surely its about balance.

The problem is that at the time our wage pot was something like 26 mil approx 55% of turnover that year. I agree that we could have done with leaner squad but Strachan himself was guilty of adding to it with average players, who we all wondered about at the time. I disagree about the wage cap - It think this was important and believ its something FIFA, UEFA, FA need to consider very soon - trouble is they just pander to the big clubs anyway.... Baring in mind that say having a 26 man squad on 20K a week each is 26 mil a year and you see how even our budget was would have been stretched to breaking point by abandioning the way sructure....

Yes but he must also know that both Wilde and Lowe DO NOT have that kind of cash available ... as such its really an empty promise i'm afraid.... or the cynical might suggest a way of scoring a few valuable fan friendly points without actually any risk of having to part with his cash....

Rob, please tell me who is going to finance a 28 mil loan at a 'reasonable' rate of interest in this current cliamte for a division 1 club with no guarranteed revenue stream and figures showing declining revenues as fans desert the sinking ship because we cant cope whn it gets tough? The current rate must be below 5% - sure you can get better deals if you have good equity, byut teh stadium is worth feck all on its own so is no collateral so any loans against are in the 'risky' part of the equation. Administration is likely to se ethis loan called in - everything and anything worth more than a penny would be sold to satify these creditors. There would be no ashes, from which to rise - think Oxford United. Administration woudl be a diaster and should be avoided at all cost

Sorry obvious to me Cowen was having a go at the shouting fans - believe its wishful thinking to think otherwise.

I dont think anyone would argue that had Strachan stayed and if he had been given 15 Mil + to spend (DONT FORGET WAGES) we might have been better quiped to avoid tye drop... BUT and I will say it for the 100th time, can someone please explain how this wouldhave been funded.. the accounts for that year show as small profit of about 1.7 mil after all the win and performances bonuses were paid out to players etc... the only way we could have funded this WITHOUT selling the likes of Bridge and Beattie, would have been borrowing.... some wilol no doubt feel it was worth the risk and blame LOwe for being crap because he did not risk this cash, others would have loved to see the squad develop with such additions but are pragmatic enough to recognise the pitfalls of such borrowing when we already had 25 mil of SMS debt.... funnily enough Strachan was one of them - no hard feelings, no rants, just realsim.

Lowe here or not, there is simply no excuse for it. Sad day when some believe that being crap at football and having numpties in the boardroom is some sort of justification for a fight - I thought we got rid of those moronic neanderthals ages ago, seems not....sad.

I think Ron's post is one that displays a great deal of common sense and its refreshing to see it ... aftearll there are plenty of time son here when all we see are the cries of LOwe out, without any suggestion of how togo about it. Sorry but protest will not work. I would however include Crouch in the list. Why? Because if we really want/need a new 'era' we need to make a brake from the past - its why I was never for LM or M Corbet etc being involved... In the stampead to appease fans and please us all with the rhetoric of past glories returning, as we saw with crouch last time, the eye was of the ball and we failed to do what was necessary at the time no matter how hard the decision. There is without doubt a need for a clean break. I dont like the idea that of various numpties who believe all the crap written in their ignorance enjoying the schardenfreude, but its clear that the only way out of the mess is change. How this is achieved REALISTICALLY, and without further damage, I really dont know. I cant see an answer that is viable as no one is likely to step forward during this financial climate.

Not sure Crouch would put in mil - he did not before when he was here. I do think the caveat that Wilde and Lowe do teh same is a bit of bull... he knows they dont have thay kind of money splashing about, so he knows his two mil is safe. Also with the current situation and the banks in effect controling things, inject 2 mil and it wll be swallowed up imediately by the overdraft and then Barclays would reduce the limit by that amount to... not the answer I'm afraid.

The only way reallly that that could be done is by taking the property angle first - the marina developmnet etc and and gtetting all the planning in principle stuff and options on teh land sorted AND THEN taking it to potential dvelopers/buyers of the club.... and in this climate?

Feck knows how you spell it Mirren?

Surely its not the size of the boat but the motion in the ocean?

Hes so rich he even has a crane on his yacht. Could start the marina development straight away!

Even harsher! Although he does not seem to know the difference between 'your' and 'you're' nor Cousens and cousin.... ;-)

Assuming an average of 10000 st holders + 20000 paying an average of £14 (if you factor in concessions, this yields about 10.5 mil gate receipts over the year IF we packed it out. 2007 match day revenue receipts - £10.5 but think this includes from match day catering? 2008 match day revenue receipts - £7.9 mil key is getting fans through the door....and as we know its not just about price.

Can see it now - Man City? Peasants.... ;-)

Another inovation might be say put up membership to £35 , but give a £1 reduction on every ticket a member buys to a max of £23?

Indeed... I believe he is alos a boat lover - having partaken in the America's Cup - so he will obviously be redeveloping the land around SMS into a super marina - must be true then....

Harsh....;-(

2009 Prices - If I was setting them> ST £350 (£15.10 a match) - Standard price but range between £320-£370 depending on which part of ground. ST Child U16 £185 ST Adult + child U16 £400 ST Family (two adult, two child U16 -Linked must be family members - ID required) £600 + add extra child for £69 Single adult £19 Adult + child under 16 £22 Two adult, two child U16 (Family) £35 (add extra U16 for £3) U16 Unaccompanied £12 OAPs/Concessions £12 et we would get 28000 average on that (provided we are CCC and playing OK that is...)

Darn right - get with the positive program or have your 'jewells' slowly shallow fried after being 'escalopped'.... ;-)

The wrong one....

Larry Ellison - that is funny - thats even better than Paul Allan....

St Mirran (also called the Saints) - Chis Brookmyre, my fave author is a fan and suffers accordingly....

JB I DO understyand where you are coming from, I do understand and respect your perspective and we are not that far apart really... ;-) I think your point about the 'most damming part' re Lowe never putting his hands up and admiting his failure is quite true... and I agree, but that was not what I was arguing against. I guess my frustration is twofold: 1. Because of my opinion on the game and the merits of a continental approach, to see it fail and be kicked out is bloodly annoying and sad - because I also believe these things do take time 2-3 seasons of continuity for it to be fully working - but sadly we dont have that luxury, because the balance is flawed as we have seen. I agree with that. I also believe Lowe could have managed this far better, and that is another thing because I feel let down. I have supported the ideals and yet Lowe makes it very difficult and in some cases impossible to defend.... certainly not without a good sound kicking on here anyway! ;-). In addition, rightly or wrongly fans in general dont have the patience for this and this means loss of interest, reduced gates and reduced revenue, and whether or not that is wrong, is kinda irrelevent as well as its teh way it is....but also contributes to my frustration. 2. I dont agree though that its as easy as simply getting shareholders and the board to simply help get rid. Thats exactly what happened when Wilde came along and all it did was push Lowe and his cronies to the fringes, create further divisive bitterness between the major sharholder groups and store this resentmnet uop for the future - because they ALL act like a bunch of kids.... and if this is done again now, then will not simply be repeating the same mistake?