Fans Forum

[OnlyHamilton]

Just a reminder that there is a fans forum Thursday 2nd May 6pm.

Good opportunity for those to share their views and ask any questions to our Owner and Chairman.

[AccieDownUnder]

I don’t come back until the week of the playoff finals which coincides nicely with my son finishing Uni in Glasgow so won’t make this. Can someone please provide a few updates?

[Red and white hoops]

I see they have only said that Serif and John Brown will be there. It would be good to ask some first team football questions to our manager or our director of football.

[porcupine]

For those of us who want to, but can't make this meeting, it'll be appreciated if we can have a summary of the salient points.

[Beckford]

Much needed and appreciated but again can the club not do more to promote these events? They are a a big plus since the change of ownership so feel we should do more to encourage those that can attend. (I recognise there are still issues with the "official" website)

Not surprised if Rankinn and Strain are not prepared to attend, they know what kind of night they would have!

[AccieDownUnder]

I can almost understand Rankin not going as he has a big couple of weeks on the horizon and a negative meeting probably won’t help his or our short term goal. Strain not attending shows the make up of our club supremo. Very telling he isn’t taking accountability and facing the fans.

[OnlyHamilton]

I have noticed that the OnlyAccies guys have posted that if anyone has any questions that they want asked then they will relay.

If anyone wants anything asked and cant attend please pass on anything and i will send across.

Can then provide a summary of the forum again for those not in attendance.

[accie]

Acquisition of stadium will hopefully be done before the new season.
Serif admitted he should have brought in experience to help Rankin and Daz.
Rankin will be here next season whether we go up or not.
Wants everyone together as one team for the play offs. Need to change the culture and fix the divide between club/players and fans.
Next years home strip will be green and blue. Red and.white away and a third strip for the 150th anniversary in Dec.

[Bertiejoejoe]

The new owner must be very naive in the industry of football. They won’t go up under the leadership of Rankin, more money flung down the drain with rankin and strains poor acquisitions and mostly dwindling crowds .Seref must have a bottomless pit of money to fund this!! Seref must be the only one that sees Rankin as a manager which he clearly isn’t, not even a good coach. Hearts 18s was his level

[AccieDownUnder]

Seref showing truly worrying signs if he is backing Rankin regardless of performance. Any word on Strain? Did anyone question his shambolic recruitment? Onto recruitment is there anything on next season. It’s frightening how bloated our team is of awful players. Cut it by 20% and increase the quality.

Will budgets be the same next season? We are bound to take a hit with less ST sales, smaller crowds and I can’t see anyone bringing the 3500 that Falkirk brought which is worth a players wage.

[Beckford]

Unfortunately it was stated last night that the board feel Rankin has performed well this season. This is questionable given that they admitted they should have / still intend to recruit a more experienced member of the management team.
To me this contradicts the boards view and confirms my own view that Rankin is a decent coach but never a manager.

The size of the squad and the application and commitment from certain players was questiond and they did conceed that the squad was too large. I liked the admission that they failed to bleed academy players and accept their explanation (to a degree) that they went all in with experienced players to get us promoted.

Strains role was again defended and the view that he is an asset to the club was reiterated. There was an admission that his conduct on social media needs to improve

The main thing I took from the forum is how difficult it is to remove McGowan and his "legacy issues" To the surprise of no one !

Last night's forum felt different to others. The bar was closed, no merchandise being promoted (other than free copies of a book!) and it felt like the negative forums we previously had with Les Grey. Although I agree to a point, that there is a need for a culture change at the club and understand why Serif feels the players can be subject to abuse, fans are understandably frustrated. I still don't think the club recognises how vital it is to make a real effort to build the support and freebie tickets to schools has never worked and is not enough.

[Stevie Clarke]

Will budgets be the same next season? We are bound to take a hit with less ST sales, smaller crowds and I can’t see anyone bringing the 3500 that Falkirk brought which is worth a players wage.

That stand only holds 2200 unless you're adding up both visits. 1,408 was their last one.

Not the most pressing issue but I'm pleased our first choice strip will be blue and green, hopefully hoops. A nod to our founding fathers at the Academy. I believe Serif is trying to establish some sort of link with the Grammar, something I've been banging on about for years. There should be a permanent, prominent display behind glass of the history of Hamilton Academical at that school. Might encourage more youngsters to get behind their local team.

I know some fans will be against new first team colours but if it's good enough for Arsenal, who wore a plum kit for their final season at Highbury, it's good enough for us. At least it will be something a bit different unlike poor Killie fans who had to suffer their team looking like Dundee for their 150th in 19/20! It will also cause much scratching of heads locally - blue and green together, minds blown!

[accie]

A couple of additional items to note
The tie in with Thorniewood and the possibility of upgrading their stadium or building a new one which would be used for Accies to train on once we go to a grass pitch. 1.8M was the figured quoted for a new ,presumably to quality, grass pitch.
Also a possible tie in with a larger club, Hull?

[Beckford]

I am also delighted the much promised blue and green hoop top will be used next season, with a caveat of reverting to red and white (or Cerise and French grey!!!) Next season.

As a tradionalist, would love to see our home top always being a red and white hoop withe the academy colours for the away. Totally agree the history of the club should be celebrated. We need to connect with the town again and build on our tradition. The club curently has no soul due to crooked owners and being taken out of the town for far too long. Let's get our identity back!! We are one of the oldest clubs in the country and should be proud that we still exist, despite the best effort of some!

[smc4761]

Surely Seref cannot be that naive and have a huge bottomless pit of money, if he thinks Rankin is the man for next season, no matter what.

I can only hope that he was saying that in a bid not to dishearten Rankin before the play offs

If as I expect we do get to game against Queens Park / Inverness and lose we aregoing to be stuck in this division for a while.

With Arbroath coming down there will be no big team with decent crowds to boost our own crowds.

I fully expect our "crowds" next season to be no more than 750 tops.