Peter Lawwell

We never used to have trouble attracting quality to "Scotland" befoer PL arrived.. funny that.

 

The old classics are the best.

We play in front of 60,000 every second week, we play in some form of European competition every season, we have top class facilities, we challenge and win domestic honours every season, and we have a proven track record of getting our players good moves.

That’s before you talk about our history and standing in European football, if that’s deemed relevant anymore.

We also pay top wages, relative to the clubs we are aiming to buy from. Just because we border England, their league doesn’t always need to be the comparison.

There are a plethora of players that would instantly improve us that would give a right * to play for us.

If you haggle over a few grand here and there and don’t show enough proactivity in your approach, then aye, it’s difficult to attract any player to any club.

It’s nothing to do with the country we play in, and everything to do with the way we conduct our business.

 

We should print this out, and staple it to Dermot Desmond's big fat * head.

Comment of the window.

The internet is yours good sir.

 

It’s the truth.

Sorry pal, but you’re a million miles off here. It has a lot to do with the country and league we play in.

I’m aware of our good selling points but the inconvenient truth is that we play in a dogshit league full of jobbers. The * weather is another factor for a lot of people looking at a prospective move.

Players and staff will find aspects of us appealing but they will still largely go where the money is, and it’s not in Scotland. This higher level of player we crave will be able to go to another club and get a better salary and often that’ll win. It won when Ange wanted to leave, same with Giakoumakis, Juranovic, Jota, Tierney the boyhood fan.

Mulgrew said it in that Open Goal interview from a while ago. Even for the lads that grew up supporting us, playing St.Mirren 3/4 times a season gets boring. Armstrong or Christie, can’t remember which one, said similar. Strachan’s autobiography also mentions that it’s really difficult to attract players to Scotland unless you throw money at them.

This “plethora of players that would instantly improve us that would give a right * to play for us” only exists in your imagination.

To say it’s got nothing to do with the country we play in is misty eyed bollocks.

 

David Ginola decided against signing for us because we mostly play against *. So that’s that theory pumped.

 

No doubt that Lawwell is a good corporate man and has been successful for that side of the operation. You just need to compare our first team when he arrived to what it is now however to see that his ambition has always been to stay just ahead of the huns and no more.

 

There is also the not insignificant matter of the gap in finances/potential money on offer available simply wasn't as ridiculous as it has become over the past 20-odd years. Funny that.

 

Half of your arguments here are a complete irrelevance.

Talking about Jota, Giakoumakis, Tierney and Juranovic. All who found us enticing and attractive enough to join us and/or play for us in the first place by the way.

Those four players contributed hugely to our club and moved on to further their careers in different ways that they seen fit, making us £60million in the process. You’re making my argument stronger there if anything.

Players will go where the money is and that’s not in Scotland? We are cash rich and are guaranteed European income every season.

We can afford to pay up to 40k a week for a key players that will significantly improve us. We just choose not to. Clubs we should be targeting can only pay a fraction of what we can offer.

Mulgrew, Christie, Tierney and Armstrong played in Scotland for their entire careers. Charlie Mulgrew in particular played eight consecutive seasons in the SPL.

I can see why he would have that opinion about playing St Mirren being repetitive. I’m not asking anyone to play for us for eight seasons.

Talking about the weather is clutching at straws. No one is going to let a bit of wind and rain affect them if it’s going to further their professional career and improve their life.

We’ve recently signed players from Japan, Korea, Australia and Argentina. I’m not claiming to be Sean Batty by any stretch, but I’m going to hazard a guess and say they’ve got better weather than the West of Scotland.

You’re massively downplaying what we can offer players. You are making easy excuses for incompetence.

 

Reminds me of a story about the Millwall chairman Micky Purser, a local car dealer from years ago. The fans wanted him gone so they stoned his car dealerships and put the windows through.

 

I was at Mass yesterday. It was my parish, Sacred Heart in bridgeton, 150th anniversary mass. Lovely mass. Sitting two rows in front of me was that wee *, Willie Collum. I said to my wife when I go up for communion, I was going to punch him in the back of the head but she said it wasn't the time or place. Our parish priest then told the parishoners who was at the mass. Among the local MP'S and various V.I.P.'S form the church, Peter Lawwell and Michael Nicholson were there. But as I was reminded moments before, mass is not the place for violence.

 

You're a better Christian I could ever be, in that circumstance.

 

Bet the * was taking from the collection plate rather than adding to it.

 

*

 

I like to read a bit about zen, zen sometimes talks about reincarnation - I think I believe in it to be honest as I'm sensing G408 / Taylor have reincarnated into different TC account/s lol

 

And yet we have the most money in the bank ever and a * squad. funny that

 

One player 20 years ago.. yeah completely blown out of the water that theory..* *..

Henrik, Sutton, Hartson, Petrov, Lenny all from the same era.. they didn't seem to think we were too * to play for..

How's my theory now?

You're constant defending of the board an PL is nauseating

 

The point is even when good players do come, they don’t stay for long.

Not at all, I’m using examples that people largely follow where the money is.

And we play in a * unattractive league and plenty of other clubs can match or better our offers.

You’ve got full sight of our accounts then? How our wages are structured and why they’re like that?

They literally didn’t. They moved to England at some point for better money.

It’s not clutching at straws at all. Good weather is an important factor for a lot of people. Hatate has complained about the weather here. Larsson mentioned that his Feyenoord teammates slagged him off for moving to such a rainy country and when he left he stated he wanted a club in a warm climate. Ajer quipped about how the weather was supposed to be better down in London shortly after going to Brentford. It’s a factor whether you want to admit it to yourself or not. Not the main factor, but definitely one of them. Even outside of football I know plenty of people who have left Scotland with better weather elsewhere being one of their considerations.

I’ve no idea who Sean Batty is tbh. The salaries in those countries from what I can see still average under £5k per week, making what we can offer much more attractive to potential signings.

Pish. I’m aware of what we can offer but also aware we aren’t as attractive a destination as some like to think we are.

 

Your (not you’re) theory is still *.

Larsson was out of favour at Feyenoord and Jansen knew about his release clause. Sutton was out of favour at Chelsea. Petrov was a young player with potential from Bulgaria. Lennon had previously worked with O’Neill. Hartson was at Coventry before us.

Regardless of all of that, football is a different landscape now.

I couldn’t give any less of a * how nauseating you find my posts. It’s a more balanced look at reality rather than simply “defending the board”. If I were saying something akin to, I’m sure the club are doing their utmost to sign players, that would be defending the board. But what I’m doing is simply acknowledging that there are a lot of players who don’t find a move to our league attractive. We can definitely get good players, but when the players get to a certain level of quality, they can get better offers in better leagues. We may often find ourselves being a player’s 2nd or 3rd choice of club.

 

The transfer market has transformed but we havnt. This tired excuse again and again and again. We are still paying the same transfer fees we did 20 odd years ago.. stuck in a * time warp.