Meeting with Stuart Gilmour and Tom Hendrie, August 12th 1999.

It was a Thursday evening and we assembled in the Love St car park at 6.45pm. Our meeting with Stuart Gilmour and Tom Hendrie was scheduled for 7pm. Of course Griff, the man with the permanent tan, was stuck on the motorway, so we kept the St Mirren supremos waiting by 5 minutes.

We introduced ourselves and got ready to ask our opening questions. Before we could, SG and TH had something they wanted to say first. They were not happy with some of the criticism aimed at certain players, namely Tommy Turner and Mark Yardley. They found some of the criticism to be too personal which had nothing to do with their football abilities. They stressed that they players have families too, who sometimes read the fanzine and that it can be very upsetting for them.

Fair Point!!

The first question we asked, were the exact terms of the O'Brien/McNamee transfers. We were told that Blackburn has already paid £600k for the pair but that the majority of it had gone straight to the bank. To receive further payments, either player must START a game for Blackburn (£200k each), followed by £300k each after 10 appearances, a further £300k each after 20 appearances and finally another £300k each after 50 appearances. The club aren't expecting to receive any money from Blackburn this year.

We then went on to talk about how the team has improved since TH took over. TH said that the fitness of the team has now improved drastically, saying that his Alloa team were a fitter bunch than the Saints team when he first took over. TH then talked about certain players, namely;

Paul Rudden - not a centre back as he does not have the physique, more a sweeper, but that's Tam T's position, so he'll have to wait his turn.

Norrie - has to get himself fit, injured during part of pre-season so is a few weeks behind the rest of the squad.

Sergie Baltacha - at 6'5 he has a height advantage over most players. TH says that the club will work on him as they rate him highly. Has attracted interest from other clubs due to his height. More a defender than a striker even though he was up front for the opening game against Ayr, this was due to injuries to other forward players.

Colin Drew - has a niggling nerve injury. Not career threatening and he will be back sooner rather than later.

Junior Mendes - produces bursts of energy throughout the match, but has to rest in-between. Fans interpret this as being lazy as they feel he's not trying for the whole 90mins, but TH stressed than Junior can't run for the whole 90mins and that his rest periods are essential.

Mark Yardley - like Junior, some fans feel he doesn't work hard enough. But, TH instructs Yardley NOT to run about for the whole game and, like Junior, conserve his energy. He would rather play Yardley to his strengths rather than to his weaknesses.

Barry Lavety - 3-month loan is the maximum. If he does well they hope to sign him permanently. They hope he doesn't do too well incase some other club with more cash sign him. Although Lavety is on a better wage than other Saints players, while here, he falls in line with our wage structure, and Hibs make up the rest.

On the topic of younger players not being given a chance towards the end of last season, TH said that every player has to earn the right for a 1st team place, and the reason for the lack of youngsters was because they hadn't earned the right.

We asked both SG and TH how well they thought Saints would do this season, and they said that expectations were high - top 3 or 4 finish. They felt Dunfermline would probably win the League, but nothing like the way Hibs did last season. As for the other teams, SG felt that Falkirk/Morton have no chance of promotion due to their poor grounds. Falkirk have no chance either of grounsharing Broadwood with Clyde as the ground belongs to North Lanarkshire Council (NLC), and currently doesn't have 10000 seats. So NLC taxpayers money would have to be used to upgrade the ground for a team who aren't even from the area. There is no way the NLC councillors would do this as it isn't exactly a vote winning idea. SG felt the only reason Falkirk kept talking about this proposal is because they know they can't get promoted, but can't admit it publicly otherwise there would be no point in their supporters turning up for any of their games.

As for the SPL and the criteria, SG said that the Love St end of the ground would be redeveloped with 2200 seats covered by a canopy. Apparently, this is simplest as the ground will only ever be at capacity 4 times a season. As for the SPL, SG says that they cannot be trusted and that at meeting with SPL officials, they were told very little. Both SG and TH slammed the new proposals for a league of 12 saying that it pleased nobody and that the obvious solution is a league of 16. But then, when has common sense ever prevailed in Scottish Football?

SG was then asked about the club's relationship with Rangers. He said that the arrangement for them to play their reserve fixtures at Love St was for 1 year, but was very good for the club financially. When asked if Saints could become a feeder club for Rangers, both SG and TH refused to rule it out. Personally, I feel this is a very worrying development and should definitely be raised again at the next meeting. What happens if we draw Rangers in the cup, would we be expected to let them win? What if we get promoted, are we expected to let them take maximum points off us? If Rangers loan us a couple of promising players, will Dick Advocaat dictate to Saints how these players should play, hence dictating how Saints play overall? As said earlier, a very worrying development.

Still on the subject of Rangers, the possibility of Ian "The Urinator" Ferguson coming back to Love Street. If so, he would be the club's top earner although he would have to take a massive wage cut compared to his Ibrox wages. SG and TH think the present squad would have no problem with this and would accept it. Hmm...we'll see!!

The next question to be asked to SG was if he was happy with the way the club currently markets itself. SG admitted that it could do better.

We discussed the possibilities of the club setting up an official website - in order to sell club merchandise world-wide - but he didn't like the fact that it would have to be checked stringently in case the club got into trouble due to unsuitable material appearing on it. In order to do that, they would have to employ someone and they feel that at present, the money would be better spent strengthening the team. A pish response if you ask me, they could easily employ someone part time, after all, how many players can we buy for £4500. With many supporters having set up their own websites, it was suggested that maybe some of them would be only too happy to offer their services for free. SG said that fans had done this before, but after the initial couple of months, their enthusiasm had died off and they ended up neglecting their tasks.

Because of this, SG will not seek the help of volunteers for long term tasks.

We asked about our new sponsors, CetCo, and SG said that they were still waiting on more cash from them. Until then, their name/logo, will not go on the North Bank roof. This is actually a blessing in disguise due to Health & Safety considerations - asbestos in the roof, which at the moment is safe, until you start tampering with it. An example of this is down at Morton where they have been forced to close their cowshed. He went on to say that they club's hospitality, although one of the cheapest around, makes no money for the club, but that Campbell Kennedy, the commercial manager, had already sold around £35k worth of trackside advertising, which is more than we ever sold while in the Premier League.

SG went on to say that the club and Renfrewshire Council must start working closer together, for the benefit of both parties. SG & TH hope that the Council will provide decent training facilities for the club, and in return, the club will do more community work. SG talked about using Love St as a venue for concerts/fetes etc. i.e. the annual summer fete held at Barshaw Park could be held at Love St in future. Not only would the club benefit, but the police would be happier too as it is easier for them to steward it, than at Barshaw Park. So expect to see U2, The Rolling Stones and REM at Love St next summer.

This article was supplied courtesy of Saints Quarterly - who received no financial reward !

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