Meeting with Cormack, Fraser and Wickes

[Red Zone]

Modern footballers are a different breed I admit. A bit rain etc and a few certainly look disinterested. Surely as a club we want to be forward thinking and want our players being prepared properly.

I understand what you are saying and in an ideal world we should have an indoor training pitch to cover all eventualities. I am just questioning whether it's the best way to spend a million pounds or whatever it costs given I don't think it would be essential other than maybe two weeks a year when there is too much snow. We moan and bitch (quite rightly) about playing league games on 3G pitches so do we really want our players training on them more than is necessary?

[RED_JOHN]

I understand what you are saying and in an ideal world we should have an indoor training pitch to cover all eventualities. I am just questioning whether it's the best way to spend a million pounds or whatever it costs given I don't think it would be essential other than maybe two weeks a year when there is too much snow. We moan and bitch (quite rightly) about playing league games on 3G pitches so do we really want our players training on them more than is necessary?

Do they not do indoor grass pitches? A bit of careful thinking and fancy lighting etc could make this a possibility (not for us though as we don’t want an indoor pitch at Westhill due to our lack of vision).
My thinking about these training facilities are that we are only going to build them once so let’s make a proper job of it and have the best facilities in this country at least.

[afc1903mad]

A belated response to your query. No there was no discussion about Scott McKenna. It does raise an interesting question and no doubt much debate on here in the future as to what happens to our playing budget as and when we pocket many millions for McKenna. Clearly the majority of the fee will go towards either the training facilities or the new stadium. However the Board sanctioned a £750K increase in playing budget last year funded by the Hayes transfer. That has been largely replaced this year with the dna money. So what happens next season assuming Scott is sold in January or July? I would imagine there will be less than £680K of dna money raised given the mixed reaction this year to it but probably most people will renew so say £400K-£500K. As a minimum the McKenna money will maintain the budget I am sure but how much further might the Board push the boat out for wages? What about transfer fees given McInnes less than stellar performance with transfer fees? How much might this offset the inevitable squeeze on budget if the stadium goes ahead? Lots of questions with no answers at this time but interesting times and discussions ahead.

By the way I am looking forwards to all the copyright fees I must have earned from my original post being repeated so many times

I anticipate that a proportion of player sales goes towards replacements, but the rest to the stadium funds.
If we got say £7M for McKenna, I think it would be reasonable to allocate circa £500k on a replacement (Heneghan) with the remainder to the stadium / training grounds.
That will be the reality.

[afc1903mad]

You have got to wonder at why on earth the club wouldn’t want some sort of indoor pitch. I can’t say I am surprised as no one on our board has a real vision. Our esteemed manager surely must have said from the off that indoor training facilities would need to be a priority in Scotland.

Let’s consider this for a second.
How often do they need an indoor pitch?
I’ve played out a Garioch all weather pitches when the pitch was white with frost at 09:00 and perfect at 10:00
The only real thing stopping use of modern football “all-weather” pitches is if there was snow covering.
It may be considered that on those few periods, they can still use other methods.

[RED_JOHN]

Let’s consider this for a second.
How often do they need an indoor pitch?
I’ve played out a Garioch all weather pitches when the pitch was white with frost at 09:00 and perfect at 10:00
The only real thing stopping use of modern football “all-weather” pitches is if there was snow covering.
It may be considered that on those few periods, they can still use other methods.

Stop trolling. Go and read what I posted about an indoor grass pitch.

All weather pitches are pants...let’s have a proper pitch indoors.

[afc1903mad]

Okay so I am going to play devil's advocate here. I have no idea what an indoor training ground would cost but probably more than a million pounds? However do we really need one? Is that the best way for us to spend a million pounds? We will have a hybrid training pitch with undersoil heating so that deals with any days where we have frost or a small covering of snow. How many days each winter do we really have a lot of snow lying that couldn't be cleared from the training pitch? And as for a bit of bad weather - get the snowflakes outside training!!!

Indeed, beat me to it.
It also ensures players are practicing with weather impacts rather than in ideal conditions.
Who knows, maybe that was a small factor in yesterday’s result.

[afc1903mad]

Stop trolling. Go and read what I posted about an indoor grass pitch.

Go read up what trolling actually means

[redscot]

I anticipate that a proportion of player sales goes towards replacements, but the rest to the stadium funds.
If we got say £7M for McKenna, I think it would be reasonable to allocate circa £500k on a replacement (Heneghan) with the remainder to the stadium / training grounds.
That will be the reality.

You are an utter gift to that clunt Milne...

[RED_JOHN]

Go read up what trolling actually means

You will know the definition of a troll....have a look in the mirror (through the cracks)

[RED_JOHN]

You are an utter gift to that clunt Milne...

I think he is Milne’s old hairpiece....still trying to be useful when not needed.