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Interim CEO Derek Weir speaks to the fans


SteelmaninOZ
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22 minutes ago, Big Stall said:

Any bullet point summaries of the 40 minute video??

Thought good, honest, straight forward talking.   Here's some snippets/my interoperation of what was said. 

  • Worked hard to replace CEO initially - interviewed 4 but didn't work out. 
  • Looking for new CEO to be in place before end of March. 
  • Retaining players - we worked hard to keep likes of Max J, KVV, Sean Goss but couldn't match what they wanted/needed. 
  • Investments had on pitch and hard to solve the draining issue. It was right to do so but mistakes were made in that project that cost £££'s
  • How club is run is 50% getting team on park and 50% running the business. Our current spend currently matches that.  We live within our means.
  • Investment on players. Aim to sell on some players, some seasons it works, others it doesn't. Have someone who can bring investment into the club and can provide financial security for when we need it.  We're currently OK but would be great to have investors who are Well fans willing to sit along side society. 
  • Comms/Media. We used to spend more money on this but it cost us/impacted playing budget. We decided to scale back when people left to rebalance the on field/off field spending budget.  
  • Views of pyros - they are illegal and we'll follow the law on these issues. 
  • Governance.   Club is running well off the pitch.  4 exec directors running club, 2 are from society and included in all decisions that are made. 
  • On the pitch. When there's bad results on the pitch there's always the look for manager to go (not unique to us) 2 previous managers have left.  There's always a big impact/expense when managers leave. We've just had 3 poor months of results which he broke down game by game. He believes we have a superb management team here and players are behind. We can't just go churning through every bad run.  The management team need to be given time and when you look back over time we've done well with longer term mgt team.  
  • Budget. Having investment will help but will sit down and we're recruiting. We've had players move on and others injured, we're looking bring players in. He will continue to support. 
  • Number of directors/governance. We're looking to increase this to help club run. Jim and Derek will be standing down. 
  • Final thoughts. Recognise that results matter and appreciate frustrations but have confidence that we're running the club, doing our best and it's key that we get on the pitch performances back on track.  
     
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Thats really encouraging to read. I supppse the big elephant in the room is the quality of player we have goes down year by year. Whether that is down to budget, recruitment or managers is unknown.

Living within our means is the key thing though. Good that we are not gambling again.

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15 minutes ago, Big Stall said:

Any bullet point summaries of the 40 minute video??

  1. It's bloody hard running a professional football club with 5,000 supporters.
  2. Supporters don't take into consideration non football related expenses (50% of our total budget).
  3. The club isn't in financial difficulty but there are massive variables in income depending on unknowns. (league position/cup runs/transfers).  Club has to make difficult budget decisions and new investment would be helpful.
  4. Explained the difficulties of appointing a new CEO.  4 targets approached but none of them came to fruition.
  5. Explained reasons behind important players leaving the club.
  6. Club has decided to put less money into communications.
  7. Pyro issue is a potential problem for the club.
  8. The managerial team is here for the long term.  

I generally don't get involved with behind the scenes stuff, I'm a football guy, I buy a season ticket every season, put some more money in via merchandise etc leave it to the guys in charge.

I thought it was a good interview.  Derek Weir seemed honest and forthright and gave a decent insight into the finances of the club and the difficulties of allotting a budget in a period of increasing costs.

Think he also allayed fears that the club is in financial trouble while also explaining that it's no easy task for a club our size to invest in every area that we'd like and any additional investment would help a lot.

I think you could take issue with some of the things he said.  I am still to be convinced that our youth system is really linked up to our first team operation and seems rather ad hoc rather than there being a strategy in place.   He also said our player in/out count wasn't anything unusual in the league but that doesn't mean it's not dysfunctional. 

Overall though, decent listen.

 

 

 

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That is an excellent update by Derek Weir, and hats off to him for doing it. However, his high praise for the current management team suggests he could be chomping at the bit to extend their contracts beyond the end of this season, regardless of their poor performance (so far) this season. I get that we can't empty them now, as he explained why, but they're out of contract at the end of the season and should be on their way if the current trajectory continues, which is looking possible at the moment. To put it simply, given McMahon and Weir are stepping down and/or leaving to allow the Club the opportunities to move forward instead of standing still, awarding a poorly performing management team a new contract, in my opinion, would be the antithesis of what they're trying to achieve for the Club. Therefore, regardless of on-field performance, the timing of the appointment of a new CEO and Weir's departure could be pivotal in determining who the management team will be for next season. I understand that what I am concerned about here is hypothetical, but that's my gut reaction.

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11 minutes ago, wellfan said:

That is an excellent update by Derek Weir, and hats off to him for doing it. However, his high praise for the current management team suggests he could be chomping at the bit to extend their contracts beyond the end of this season, regardless of their poor performance (so far) this season. I get that we can't empty them now, as he explained why, but they're out of contract at the end of the season and should be on their way if the current trajectory continues, which is looking possible at the moment. To put it simply, given McMahon and Weir are stepping down and/or leaving to allow the Club the opportunities to move forward instead of standing still, awarding a poorly performing management team a new contract, in my opinion, would be the antithesis of what they're trying to achieve for the Club. Therefore, regardless of on-field performance, the timing of the appointment of a new CEO and Weir's departure could be pivotal in determining who the management team will be for next season. I understand that what I am concerned about here is hypothetical, but that's my gut reaction.

If that interview is to be believed, there is no desire at board level to bin Kettlewell. McMahon's here till the end of the season, and even if a new CEO was appointed next week, surely they couldn't be told to sit on their hands and do absolutely nothing about his contract? That means the obvious move, which some folk won't like one little bit, is to extend it. 

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25 minutes ago, Toxteth O'Grady said:

Just to add, he also confirmed what I think most of us already assumed, in that at one point last season we had three managers and three assistant managers on the payroll. 

bet there gardens were immaculate ;)

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24 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

HOE!!...ah'll dae the jokes 😜😜

Nae need to dig the boy up..............

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48 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

HOE!!...ah'll dae the jokes 😜😜

sorry grizzly but it was far to straight forward      hammil &partners landscape gardeners Ltd

                                                                                     GA grass cutting services

    and nearly                                                            u want the - KETTLE - on, for all your eye bleeding  on the grass jobs

                                                                                  3 of   scotlands premier league  gardening experts

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I am just glad that we got an update there has been far too much silence from the club and that just lets the rumours grow and certain suspects of our support sprout more crap about a subject we all don’t know what’s happening. They would be better off at Area 51.

More updates would be good.

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9 hours ago, SteelmaninOZ said:

I am just glad that we got an update there has been far too much silence from the club and that just lets the rumours grow and certain suspects of our support sprout more crap about a subject we all don’t know what’s happening. They would be better off at Area 51.

More updates would be good.

Yep more updates would be great, maybe been otherwise occupied tho 

The sections of the support you mention probably won't listen to it...easier just to fire off a one liner criticising something or other

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14 hours ago, wellfan said:

That is an excellent update by Derek Weir, and hats off to him for doing it. However, his high praise for the current management team suggests he could be chomping at the bit to extend their contracts beyond the end of this season, regardless of their poor performance (so far) this season. I get that we can't empty them now, as he explained why, but they're out of contract at the end of the season and should be on their way if the current trajectory continues, which is looking possible at the moment. To put it simply, given McMahon and Weir are stepping down and/or leaving to allow the Club the opportunities to move forward instead of standing still, awarding a poorly performing management team a new contract, in my opinion, would be the antithesis of what they're trying to achieve for the Club. Therefore, regardless of on-field performance, the timing of the appointment of a new CEO and Weir's departure could be pivotal in determining who the management team will be for next season. I understand that what I am concerned about here is hypothetical, but that's my gut reaction.

Another dig at Kettlewell you really need to move on

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Some little snippets that explain a few things that led to lots of speculation online and in some cases unfair criticism.

eg Mark McGhee who turned down the CEO job was rumoured to have not liked the set up at the club when in fact it seems it was because his partner ultimately didn't want to relocate to Scotland.

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I listened to this last night and thought about it and was a rather honest and transparent view of the situation and as someone who pays into the well society I’d love more of this even just once a year as long as it’s honest. At times I’ve felt over the past year or year and a half like somethings not been right but this goes a good way to reassuring us. It’s a here’s what we’ve got right and the why while putting their hands up and saying what could have been better which is all I really wanted was some transparency and open dialogue about the club.

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16 hours ago, wellfan said:

That is an excellent update by Derek Weir, and hats off to him for doing it. However, his high praise for the current management team suggests he could be chomping at the bit to extend their contracts beyond the end of this season, regardless of their poor performance (so far) this season. I get that we can't empty them now, as he explained why, but they're out of contract at the end of the season and should be on their way if the current trajectory continues, which is looking possible at the moment. To put it simply, given McMahon and Weir are stepping down and/or leaving to allow the Club the opportunities to move forward instead of standing still, awarding a poorly performing management team a new contract, in my opinion, would be the antithesis of what they're trying to achieve for the Club. Therefore, regardless of on-field performance, the timing of the appointment of a new CEO and Weir's departure could be pivotal in determining who the management team will be for next season. I understand that what I am concerned about here is hypothetical, but that's my gut reaction.

If the " current trajectory" continues, we will be in Europe, 4 points from last 6, we can't afford to have another ex manager on the payroll, if you've heard DW interview , he makes that clear.... paying off managers is x number of players we can't afford 

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52 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

If the " current trajectory" continues, we will be in Europe, 4 points from last 6, we can't afford to have another ex manager on the payroll, if you've heard DW interview , he makes that clear.... paying off managers is x number of players we can't afford 

Two points:

The current trajectory of 1 win in 16 games does not suggest to me that we will finish in a Euro qualification spot. That's my opinion but it's based on the evidence before me. 

If you actually read and understood what I wrote in my post you would see that I acknowledged (based on what Weir said) that we cannot afford to empty another management team mid-contract. This means they'll be here until the end of the season regardless of performance. However, if we remain crap, the Club doesn't have to, nor should it renew their contracts when they expire at the end of the season. 

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