Choo talkin 'bout Willis?Originally Posted by BorneoRed
Since our last trophy win in 2013 (on the 30th anniversary of the Dons' victory in Gothenburg, if you please) the squad has been raided by sugar daddy-enriched clubs paying unsustainable signing-on fees and wages. Keith also lost its main sponsor last spring when Fithandel went under due to the oil and gas downturn, and I believe that meant the club didn't get its agreed end-of-season payment which had already been ear-marked to fund pre-contract signings (Pennet from Banff, a Locos defender, Leask from the Broch and more). The manager left and is now back at Maud. Because of the financial situation, experienced players were snapped up (eg Ewen to Huntly, Milne, Cormack and Baker to sugar daddy-bailed out Rothes, Barbour to Spain Park) and most pre-contracts remained with their current clubs.
With Stuart Duff and Deano turning down an offer made to them to take on the managerial/coaching roles, the club turned to its U-18 coach, Ewan Robb to take over, but this hasn't been a success, as he was left with around 4/5 experienced players in Cammy, Bruce Raffel (currently on the long-term injury list), Donnie Fraser, Hutchie and Ralton). The rest are kids, and it's been their inexperience, despite their enthusiasm, that has cost us dear, with regular errors leaving Keith with an uphill struggle from a couple of daft goals down.
The club is apparently skint, and there is no Gary Farquhar, Richard Forsyth, the Brora mannie, or Atholl Cadger on the horizon.
We will have to persevere with the loons, and get the best from them - some have great promise - and see what other revenue opportunities are accessible. However, with the Pittodrie experience, from the cost-cutting, achieving a workable wage to turnover ratio, to where we are now, with attempted big spenders like Dundee, Motherwell, Hearts and the blue ****s all having been in administration, and that beautiful day in June 2012 when the huns were liquidated, I'm certain that clubs being the plaything of local businessmen is extremely short sighted and limited. Clach went into administration, Nairn took a hefty hit in summer 2016 when Narden pulled the sponsorship plug on them, yet have survived and are playing good, honest, Proper Mannies' Fitba.
So, those days which you opine are long gone, may be on their way back, as the looming recession that leaving the EU will bring, and the oil price stays stubbornly under the profitable $70/barrel reduces input to the temporarily-moneyed clubs, and the playing field levels out (not Harmsworth Park, which is built on the scarp slope of a Caithness escarpment).
Believe it or not, in my 53 years as a Maroon, things have been worse, and although there are tough times ahead, I'm confident we'll come out the other side in good financial and playing shape.
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