Big announcement from Pittodrie ?

[tom_widdows]

When was the last time we signed a player from Eastern Europe (Cerny disnae count)?

 

 

Lubomir Blaha?

[tlg1903]

Their season revenue last year was 78 mill according to wiki.  That's about celtics turnover.

[RicoS321]

Lubomir Blaha?

 

Good shout, think you could be right. Twardzik and Vujadinovic both came from Italian clubs. Don't remember any others. They clearly haven't done their research!

[Garlogie_Granite]

We know you're not the brightest - and some of us think you're a thick fucking horrible cunt of a human - but try LEARNING for a change. Like you, I make mistakes too but when someone points mine out to me, I'm grateful for the external advice and more often than not, they're bang on.

 

This continuing to pontificate and offer supposed "facts" without links nor references comes from a deep dark place. Your insecurity is obvious to anyone with half a brain. Just as my misanthrope is equally patent. But love is good and hate is bad. You hating on yourself is tragic to witness. So try learning yourself, how you think, how you operate, how you express yourself. Then you would become less vile as you are.

ye gormless cunt, this was on AFC official, announced just before 7pm. Two hours before you posted this sneering embarrassing bollocks.

 

 

As you say though, you make mistakes, this being one of your worst yet. An apology will be accepted 

 

 

[rocket_scientist]

ye gormless cunt, this was on AFC official, announced just before 7pm. Two hours before you posted this sneering embarrassing bollocks.

 

 

As you say though, you make mistakes, this being one of your worst yet. An apology will be accepted 

 

I gave you my time. I gave you my words. I gave you something to reflect on, something that would help you and you want an apology to go with it?

 

There's a disconnect here isn't there? Do I try to allay your confusion or do I walk away?

 

A wise man would walk away and leave it. He would know that when the other is incapable of introspection, of listening, of making evaluations and reflecting, there's no point. But I never said I was wise so here goes... yet again;

 

It was pointed out by another that you were in breach of "forum etiquette". This is something you do all the time. You even admitted it yourself by withholding the identity of an "artist", one who you "felt his anger". There is a very specific reason why you fail to offer links and references. It's related to your inability to give unto others but it's not the main driver. It's up to you whether you want to listen to what more than one of us are telling you. It's only through reflection and being honest with ourselves that we can grow and develop. Many stop learning in adulthood and some weren't capable of ever learning at all. Love and peace.

[Garlogie_Granite]

What a berk 

[rocket_scientist]

Any news on whether SMG are going bust yet?

[ayrshire_don74]

£1m operating loss ? dm bankrupting us

[RicoS321]

£1m operating loss ? dm bankrupting us

 

If a manager can bankrupt a club then we've got far bigger problems than just the manager.

[ayrshire_don74]

was a throwaway comment but his poor recruitment is really beginning to bite

[RicoS321]

was a throwaway comment but his poor recruitment is really beginning to bite

 

It is, but we need to be bigger than McInnes, and think beyond his tenure. We need a much better structure in place for scouting and recruitment so that everything doesn't fall on one man and his contacts. Obviously a new manager will have players that they know, but that list is usually limited to the first season or so as they lose track of players or simply get the level required wrong. We need folk at AFC who understand the SPL level and understand the type of players that fit in to the game up here. They should be presenting players to the manager based on criteria requested by him, nae the other way round.

[Elgindon]

Todays press conference.Milnes is an awkward listen

 

[Madbadteacher]

 

A wise man would walk away and leave it.

 

And yet, here you are.

[rocket_scientist]

And yet, here you are.

 

A wise man would walk away and leave it. He would know that when the other is incapable of introspection, of listening, of making evaluations and reflecting, there's no point. But I never said I was wise so here goes... yet again;

 

Did you miss this bit?

 

You're in a mood these days? Any particular reason?

 

[Garlogie_Granite]

And yet, here you are.

fair doos here, he does say he's nae wise, something I think we can all agree on

[rocket_scientist]

Todays press conference.Milnes is an awkward listen

 

 

Aye Milne is hard work but I take my hat off to Cormack. He's done a GREAT job and the boy Eales feels and tastes good too. Just got to get a winning mentality in the manager's position before we can play good fitba to get the missing thousands back. Fantastic work Dave Cormack 

[BigAl]

So just taken the time to listen to the press conference in full and reckon there is much to like about what was said.

 

Firstly, regardless of my personal feelings about Milne, go off and enjoy your retirement,

 

Cormack looks like a chairman and talks like a chairman, think he'll represent our club well and won't stand fools lightly. Now if only he'd been around when the vote was taken a few years ago.

 

Eales, again seems to have a pretty decent background. Very much liked the three principles he talked about.

 

So is this evolution or revolution ?

 

I'm going to reserve judgment on this and pleased to hear about the ninety day reflection and planning period meaning no knee jerk decisions should be made.

 

Ultimately the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, so here's to the future.

Exciting times being a Don and lots of other teams supporters are extremely cynical about it all, but can put that down to two factors, ignorance and dare I say it jealousy

 

 

[RicoS321]

Exciting times being a Don and lots of other teams supporters are extremely cynical about it all, but can put that down to two factors, ignorance and dare I say it jealousy

 

I'd say that it's "uncertain" times to be a Don rather than exciting (I quite like a bit of uncertainty however!). Let's be honest, we're all quite ignorant here. The sharing of business practices doesn't quite ring true to me - that didn't need investment, we're not direct competitors we could simply have set up a working partnership. I understand Cormack's involvement sort of - he's been here before. I don't understand Atlanta's involvement, nor do I understand what we gain from it. I don't understand if "investment" is new investment or just the purchase of some unwanted shares. I don't understand why a business man would think that moving to Westhill is a good business decision. I wasn't jealous when Romanov came into Hearts, nor Farmer to Hibs, so I'm not convinced many would be jealous of another rich business man buying up equity in a Scottish club.

 

Ultimately, I think that the several mentions of "top-100 European club" over the last year suggests that the aim is some sort of European league type thing. I'm guessing it'll be a matter of time before the big teams setup a european premier league and I suspect that the aim will be for the dons to be on the fringes of a second tier of that when it comes round. That seems, to me, to be the only avenue in which these rich business men will see a return on their dough. Not my cup of tea, but I could see it selling well in the North East.

 

But good luck to them, and I'm interested to see their plans, and I totally agree about the 90 day reflection. I would like to see Milne become uninvolved within that period so that the new board members are free to impart their own ideas without feeling that they're undermining him in any way.

[BigAl]

I'd say that it's "uncertain" times to be a Don rather than exciting (I quite like a bit of uncertainty however!). Let's be honest, we're all quite ignorant here. The sharing of business practices doesn't quite ring true to me - that didn't need investment, we're not direct competitors we could simply have set up a working partnership. I understand Cormack's involvement sort of - he's been here before. I don't understand Atlanta's involvement, nor do I understand what we gain from it. I don't understand if "investment" is new investment or just the purchase of some unwanted shares. I don't understand why a business man would think that moving to Westhill is a good business decision. I wasn't jealous when Romanov came into Hearts, nor Farmer to Hibs, so I'm not convinced many would be jealous of another rich business man buying up equity in a Scottish club.

 

Ultimately, I think that the several mentions of "top-100 European club" over the last year suggests that the aim is some sort of European league type thing. I'm guessing it'll be a matter of time before the big teams setup a european premier league and I suspect that the aim will be for the dons to be on the fringes of a second tier of that when it comes round. That seems, to me, to be the only avenue in which these rich business men will see a return on their dough. Not my cup of tea, but I could see it selling well in the North East.

 

But good luck to them, and I'm interested to see their plans, and I totally agree about the 90 day reflection. I would like to see Milne become uninvolved within that period so that the new board members are free to impart their own ideas without feeling that they're undermining him in any way.

 

I totally get your opening sentence Rico....uncertain times it certainly is, but the thing that gives me the hope is that this doesn't appear to be something brought about by necessity.

 

I also beleive that unlike Romanov at Hearts that their will sensible heads on here that ensure we live within our means.

 

A lot of water to flow under the bridge before we see exactly what the real benefits will be here.

[Guest kiriakovisthenewstrachan]

Would be interested to know the actual share being acquired by Atlanta.  Their press release says less than 10% so would assume it is pretty close to that figure.  If that is the case then £2M for a 10% share makes our club worth £20M when we have just build a training ground for £12M  ???

[rocket_scientist]

How is it even possible for Cormack Park to have cost £12m and to cost £750,000 p.a. to run and maintain?

 

They know already that it's costing £62,500 a month = £14,423 a week?

 

How the fuck did that happen? Is there consultancy fees or introductory commissions included in this? Does this represent part of the capital outlay and perhaps interest on top? Is there any fucker making money out of it? Other than the ground staff, there should be NOBODY making money out of a training ground.

[Ten Caat]

I suspect the completed training centre isn't actually worth anywhere near £12 million though. Not even that sure on the open market it would even be valued at half that figure.

 

The running costs do seem absurdly high though. Even when we do start renting out the portion for public usage I can't imagine we would recoup much more than a quarter of that outlay. Maybe to make the numbers stack up we really do need the stadium with its restaurant, bars and whatever else they throw in to maximise income.

 

[RicoS321]

Well when I drove past on Monday, it was after 18:30 and nae cunt was there but some fucker had left the lights on, on all the pitches. Nae wonder it's so expensive.

 

Where does the £750K per year come fae like? How does that compare with the previous cost of various pitch rentals and so on? Does that figure include a loan repayment of sorts? Will we ever find out now that we're nae listed?

[BigAl]

I also agree that o'er £14k a week sounds high.

Not sure how many staff will be employed but staffing costs (wages, N.I, pension) will be the major cost.

Will they be allocating some of the existing coaching staff costs directly against the Training Centre ?

 

Then you'll have all your rates cost, water rates, utilities, security costs, insurances etc etc.

 

Guess it would mount up. Would love to know the ins and outs of it, but as others have said we're not going to be privvy to it.

[tom_widdows]

Not an expert but 12million

 

- Land purchase

- Land preparation which included removal of toxic materials buried under the so called green-belt. Good chance these contained asbestos which is not cheap to get rid of in small amounts let alone several tonnes of the stuff. Specialist subcontractors will have thought it was Christmas 2 days into the dig

- Additional CAT scanning to confirm exact position of every single service running through the land (is there not an oil pipeline in there somewhere?)

- Alterations to and formation of new road junctions which will have required permits, traffic control,specialist sub-contractors.

- Installation large scale drainage system both surface and foul which will be larger than necesary for the training ground as it will eventually also have to cope with a 17k-20k stadium.

- New Utility supplies which as with the drainage will be larger in perparation for the new stadium. Electricity supplies will have required at least one new substation maybe more.

Water supply will have to sustain water tanks for watering grass pitches and potentially a future supply for fire fighting & sprinkler systems

- New internal road network designed to take multiple large vehicles (trucks, supporters buses etc). As it will be open to the public and future escape route for the stadium it will require extensive external lighting (or at least provision for it when the stadium comes).

- Then you have the cost of the pitches, buildings, floodlights, perimeter fencing, CCTV, Renewables(?),

- Architect, Engineer, Planning Consultant and Contractor fees

 

As for annual costs off the top of my head:

- Insurances (Buildings, public liability etc)

- Monitoring for CCTV and Fire Alarm

- Business rates, Council tax

- Salaries for on-site staff (Catering, medical, ground staff, security, admin)

- If sewage system is a private then fees to service that

- Utility costs

- On-site catering, cleaning, maintenance,

- Misc other costs

 

As for judging use levels it only opened 4 weeks ago and at a time when Schools, sports clubs etc will already be established in their current facilities or in some cases may be taking a break because the weather is shit.

If it is still deserted 6months for now then we start asking questions

 

Floodlights being on could have been in preparation of a team or teams arriving to use the facilities or had perhaps just left?