From the Office of the Chairman
On Friday evening, I accepted our chief executive Warren Hawke’s resignation from Greenock Morton Football Club.
Warren has been with the club for seven years, achieving a great deal in that time, and we are extremely grateful for the work he has done.
Warren put his heart and soul into the club. We part as friends and wish Warren all the very best in whatever career path he now chooses.
On Saturday, news also broke about the departure of our management team of Jonatan Johansson and Peter Houston prior to our fixture against Dundee United.
It is no secret that the club has had a difficult season, both on and off the pitch, which has contributed to a significant financial loss over the past year. Unfortunately, this position has resulted in the board having to take some hard decisions.
The situation with Charlie Telfer at the weekend was one such decision. As reported in the press, the board did make a request to the manager to play Charlie from the bench due to terms within the player’s contract.
However, when Jonatan expressed his concern, we agreed that he could play Charlie from the start. Unfortunately, Jonatan and Peter were unhappy with the situation and took the decision to leave the club with immediate effect.
We would like to thank Jim McAlister and Chris Millar for taking the reins at short notice in such challenging circumstances. They did a fantastic job and the team pulled out the stops to finish the season with a well-deserved win.
We cannot hide the fact that the club is losing money and we need to accept investment from other sources. With this and concerns raised by some of our performances over the season in mind, regrettably we did not feel we were in a position to be able to extend the contracts of Jonatan Johansson and Peter Houston into next season.
From a personal point of view, I have great respect and admiration for both men. I believe Jonatan will have a great future in football management and I thank them both for the work they have done for the club over a difficult season. I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together and I hope they both can get back into football very quickly.
I am pleased to say that our search for a new management team is continuing apace. In fact, by full-time on Saturday we had already received six applications.
We hope to be in a position to make an announcement about the appointment of a new management team in the coming weeks.
Similarly, the board is progressing discussions about the future financial stability of the club. We are exploring a number of investment options, including the recently reported fan ownership scheme Morton Club Together and plan to take these discussions forward over the summer.
Lastly, I would like to thank our fans for their continued support. Without this support, the club will not achieve anything. I fully understand that it has been a frustrating season in many respects. However, I am confident that if we all pull together we can turn the club around and achieve success again in the future.
Crawford Rae
Chairman
