The Chairman Speaks.....to Me

[BearsdenLoyal]

McKennan and Sandy Gall are right but only up to a point. I feel it's really a matter of how you value an e mail sent hours after a disaster of a game. Cowan gets off lightly at Firhill as the director's playpen is well away from the body of the kirk and thus he escapes a lot of verbal abuse. So next up is to vent your anger on a forum like here but again you've no idea if that gets thru to the chairman. So you let rip with an e mail, not unlike you'd shout at the director's box or rant on here.

Just as you'd expect no chairman to bawl back at you from his padded seat in the stand surely to goodness our chairman doesn't need to respond to a post match e mail in such a manner.

 

 

Turgid stuff

[McKennan]

McKennan and Sandy Gall are right but only up to a point. I feel it's really a matter of how you value an e mail sent hours after a disaster of a game. Cowan gets off lightly at Firhill as the director's playpen is well away from the body of the kirk and thus he escapes a lot of verbal abuse. So next up is to vent your anger on a forum like here but again you've no idea if that gets thru to the chairman. So you let rip with an e mail, not unlike you'd shout at the director's box or rant on here.

Just as you'd expect no chairman to bawl back at you from his padded seat in the stand surely to goodness our chairman doesn't need to respond to a post match e mail in such a manner.

 

 

It's not about emails, Izzy. It's about how we as fans behave under difficult circumstances and - dare I say it - provocation.

 

I don't have an issue with MWM venting his feelings but, in my view, he handed the chairman a get-out-of-jail-free card in this instance by what he wrote and by plastering it across the internet.

Edited September 12, 2010 by McKennan

[Trotter]

 

I don't have an issue with MWM venting his feelings but, in my view, he handed the chairman a get-out-of-jail-free card in this instance by what he wrote and by plastering it across the internet.

 

Disagree. Totally false comparison I know, but can you imagine the amount of emails/abusive letters etc the chairman of BP got after the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spillage? Did he respond to any of them or even let his guard drop in public?

 

What the email shows is a man with a total disregard to the people who pay good money to watch Partick Thistle home and away. A man, who remember had no interest in football before Save The Jags. Why is he still here? He's a custodian remember, and a man whose shares cost him nothing (other than his time) but over the years with hospitality and entertaining potential clients on the back of it has more than paid that back I have no doubt.

 

Why won't he answer emails on this question? Arrogance?

[Willjag]

To be honest McK, I get what you're saying up to a certain point. However, it's not as if this guy hasn't got previous for spouting off before engaging his brain.

[arnus68]

I wont get involved but if that was a genuine email reply, it beggars belief. On the other hand, there may be an underlying problem. Alzheimer's or Korsakoff Syndrome would explain. In which case, don't persecute the afflicted.

[McKennan]

Disagree. Totally false comparison I know, but can you imagine the amount of emails/abusive letters etc the chairman of BP got after the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spillage? Did he respond to any of them or even let his guard drop in public?

 

What the email shows is a man with a total disregard to the people who pay good money to watch Partick Thistle home and away. A man, who remember had no interest in football before Save The Jags. Why is he still here? He's a custodian remember, and a man whose shares cost him nothing (other than his time) but over the years with hospitality and entertaining potential clients on the back of it has more than paid that back I have no doubt.

 

Why won't he answer emails on this question? Arrogance?

 

I will not argue with you about the response to Michael's email because that is not the point I'm trying to get across - for the canteenth time.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

It's not about emails, Izzy. It's about how we as fans behave under difficult circumstances and - dare I say it - provocation.

 

I don't have an issue with MWM venting his feelings but, in my view, he handed the chairman a get-out-of-jail-free card in this instance by what he wrote and by plastering it across the internet.

Sorry, McK, but you've lost me a wee bit.

I was drawing a close parallel between fans letting off steam at the directors box and fans sending off irate e mails. Just as I wouldn't expect the chairman to trade insults with fans from the directors box I wouldn't expect him to reply in a similar fashion by e mail as appears the case.

Personally I don't believe sending e mails to the chairman in the tone of MWM's and then publishing the reply should be a template for a concerted fan action for change but that's not the point I was trying to make.

[McKennan]

I'm saying there are ways of venting frustration at the chairman - or anyone else - that give him no option but to properly answer the points put. You read MWM's OP - would you really expect a straight answer to that?

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I'm saying there are ways of venting frustration at the chairman - or anyone else - that give him no option but to properly answer the points put. You read MWM's OP - would you really expect a straight answer to that?

Totally agree with your first sentence but regardless of the tone of MWM's e mail I would expect a more diplomatic and less aggressive reply from a chairman of PTFC.

[McKennan]

Expect diplomacy from someone who has been getting it in the wazoo from fans for the past five or six years? Maybe Michael's email was the straw that broke the camel's back.

[Vom Itorium]

I once heard a story about an arrogant football club Chairman at some footballing dinner somewhere. He realised it was a journalist sitting next to him and spent the night blowing his own trumpet to the point that the hack was verging on nodding off into his dinner. The night ended with said chairman saying 'Call me some time, I'll give you a quote'

 

That sums up the type of people who want into these positions to me. It's all about hearing/seeing their own name in lights. They have no regard for the little people, the paying fans, and probably even have just as little regard for the actual clubs they represent.

 

People wonder why the Scottish game is in such a mess, it's because of blowhards who live for the blazer, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Of course I'm not suggesting in any way that our Chairman is like this, he's a Thistle-minded custodian of our club and for this we should all be ever-so grateful.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Maybe Michael's email was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Ah, so that's why he took the hump.

[Hot Shot]

I'm saying there are ways of venting frustration at the chairman - or anyone else - that give him no option but to properly answer the points put. You read MWM's OP - would you really expect a straight answer to that?

 

 

No, what i'd expect is a bog standard official, professional reply , I totally get what you are saying and with the tone and content of the initial e.mail then of course i'd expect Cowan to react as he did, to himself, then take a breath and issue the bog standard reply, probably along the lines of...........

 

Dear sir/madam ,

due to the large number of correspondence going through the e.mail system at the club we are not always able to communicate directly on all matters ,however we assure you your points have been read, thank you for your concerns, PTFC.

 

Not a childish unprofessional response making him out to be a bigger w**k*r than we already thought

[Blackpool Jags]

Clearly, a lot of points above being missed, misunderstood etc. Fair enough, but as I see it:

 

Cowan is the chairman of a well-known football club;

 

Michael is a diehard fan of that club;

 

the club are having a disastrous run of results and are in dire financial difficulties;

 

the current chairman, who is also a lawyer, has presided over countless debacles at the club, the current mess being potentially terminal;

 

Michael exercises his absolute right as a deeply concerned fan to raise his issues - which are shared by the majority of Thistle fans - with the chairman by email;

 

the chairman, normally prone to ignoring just about every element of criticism, justified and otherwise, responds to the concerned fan in an infantile manner which debases himself and the good name of the club.

 

Does the concerned fan have justification for sharing this piss-poor response with his fellow concerned fans?

 

Damn right he does.

[milhouse]

Clearly, a lot of points above being missed, misunderstood etc. Fair enough, but as I see it:

 

Cowan is the chairman of a well-known football club;

 

Michael is a diehard fan of that club;

 

the club are having a disastrous run of results and are in dire financial difficulties;

 

the current chairman, who is also a lawyer, has presided over countless debacles at the club, the current mess being potentially terminal;

 

Michael exercises his absolute right as a deeply concerned fan to raise his issues - which are shared by the majority of Thistle fans - with the chairman by email;

 

the chairman, normally prone to ignoring just about every element of criticism, justified and otherwise, responds to the concerned fan in an infantile manner which debases himself and the good name of the club.

 

Does the concerned fan have justification for sharing this piss-poor response with his fellow concerned fans?

 

Damn right he does.

 

I would just like to say; do you think perhaps that Allan Cowan's reply shows that he does actually care about PTFC as much as anyone, and on Saturday night was as angry, frustrated and in despair as the rest of us? I can assure you he would have been.

[Blackpool Jags]

I would just like to say; do you think perhaps that Allan Cowan's reply shows that he does actually care about PTFC as much as anyone, and on Saturday night was as angry, frustrated and in despair as the rest of us? I can assure you he would have been.

 

I don't doubt that he would've been hacked off with yet another dreadful result. That said, I can't see any merit at all in the quality of his response to young Michael. It doesn't show one redeeming feature to me, especially from somebody of AC's professional status.

[nickywalkerfanclub]

I would just like to say; do you think perhaps that Allan Cowan's reply shows that he does actually care about PTFC as much as anyone, and on Saturday night was as angry, frustrated and in despair as the rest of us? I can assure you he would have been.

 

Bullshit.

Hes no more a Thistle fan than I am a flemenco dancer.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Bullshit.

Hes no more a Thistle fan than I am a flemenco dancer.

A timely reminder. nwfc, I'll return your castanets and Segovia CD next home match. OK?

[Third Lanark]

I wont get involved but if that was a genuine email reply, it beggars belief. On the other hand, there may be an underlying problem. Alzheimer's or Korsakoff Syndrome would explain. In which case, don't persecute the afflicted.

That was a genuine email. I dont always agree with everything Michael says but know he´s one of the most passionate and honest guys about. No way would he make something like that up.

[GrantB]

I would just like to say; do you think perhaps that Allan Cowan's reply shows that he does actually care about PTFC as much as anyone, and on Saturday night was as angry, frustrated and in despair as the rest of us? I can assure you he would have been.

 

The thing that would have been of primary concern to him is that poor results mean more flack will be coming his way. A winning team deflects attention from the calamatous way the club is being run.

[Chris near Oxford]

I congratulate Mr Cowan on his restraint. If someone had sent me an email like that I'd struggle to reply in a more civil way.

[1 John Lambie]

I congratulate Mr Cowan on his restraint. If someone had sent me an email like that I'd struggle to reply in a more civil way.

 

II honestly don't see anything wrong with the wording of the e-mail that the fan sent, it wasn't abusive, it was an e-mail saying what he thought. Cowan doesn't have a boss to challenge him, so it's down to the fans to challenge the work he has done/is doing.

[Chris near Oxford]

II honestly don't see anything wrong with the wording of the e-mail that the fan sent, it wasn't abusive, it was an e-mail saying what he thought. Cowan doesn't have a boss to challenge him, so it's down to the fans to challenge the work he has done/is doing.

I think 'abusive' gets overused but it was certainly unconstructive and made personal attacks.

 

If you can't take it, don't dish it.

[Woodstock Jag]

I think 'abusive' gets overused but it was certainly unconstructive and made personal attacks.

 

If you can't take it, don't dish it.

 

Did he really?

[Robert Dunn's Potential]

I think 'abusive' gets overused but it was certainly unconstructive and made personal attacks.

 

If you can't take it, don't dish it.

If you think that is an acceptable reply from the Chairman of Partick Thistle to a fan when we're bottom of the league, when we've used the phrase "financial armageddon" so many times that we've lost touch with what the words mean and when the fans have been disenfranchised and driven away like never before then you've already got the club you deserve.

 

If Allan Cowan is looking for someone who can do a better job as Chairman then I can ask around my nephew's primary 2 class to see if any of them want to earn some extra pocket money. If we were flying high it would be unacceptable to respond to a fan like that but at the moment it simply beggars belief that this man with his miniscule shareholding in the club thinks that he is so important to PTFC that he has the right to insult and denigrate supporters. If he thinks that an email is abusive then ignore it or reply with the class and dignity that is absent in the original communication. We did not choose to be broke and bottom of the league. He did choose to be Chairman. Wear that responsibility with more class until the second you walk away.