Yoss

Yeah, all of that.

Sorry to hear that, but best of luck to him. We'll be alright.

Roger and Lane mostly, I think. And probably Joan herself. (Pete I'd no problem with, he'd sell his soul. And Bert Cooper has no balls and probably sees the world of sex as a marketplace anyway - plus he's got the whole Ayn Rand thing going on where the end justifies the means for the right people.) Edited to add: as far as Lane goes, even the contrivance of his own difficulties didn't make any sense. Yes the partnership thing got him out of a whole, but taking that tack ran the risk that Joan would say no thanks, I'll take the cash - he could have avoided such a possibility altogether by vetoing it. (And I can't believe Roger would have still gone for it if left with the casting vote.)

And yes, Don is going to feel terrible about that - particularly after the story with his brother in the first series. Although he does seem to have a way of compartmentalising things and handling shit better than most. (And, unlike his brother, he actually has nothing to blame himself for here - or at least I wouldn't say so.) It'd be hard to imagine the programme without Peggy, next to Don she's been central to it. And I very much doubt Weiner would write her out. It's possible that Moss may have wanted to leave but I think (and hope) it's more likely that she'll be back next series by some ruse or other. (Remember the third series when it seemed for a few weeks that Joan had left.)

I'm going to disagree with the consensus here and say I thought episode 11 (the Joan episode) was a serious misstep, of the kind I can't think of the programme having made before. The plot seemed contrived to achieve an end and I struggle to believe that at least some of the characters involved would behave as they did. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have spoiled my enjoyment of the series as a whole, it's still the best thing on telly, and the Lane story in episode 12 was both believable and very well handled. And yes, I laughed out loud at the car gag, a great pay-off which was well set up over several weeks. One of those things that I didn't see coming and then realised I should have done as soon as it happened.

I'd missed Ellis's ten years, with it coming in disconnected spells, but he thoroughly deserves that, and I shall make sure I can get to it. Davo is only a couple of years away from one too, if he re-signs.

In practice most people paid somewhat less than the headline prices by getting in early, though. Well done the board, anyway. I hope the response justifies it - judging from what they said about the response to the inital offer last month they must be reasonably optimistic.

McGlynn always sets up 4-4-2, by choice. Sure, there've been times we've diverged from it, the 4-3-3 for a while mentioned above, and his first season when we had a good run with three centre-backs and Wilson and Pelosi at wing-back. But those were both fortuitous accidents, he's always planned for and started each season with 4-4-2 (as far as I can think, anyway).

Anyhow. Is it possible, in the absence of any other signings, that Donaldson will be given a chance somewhere across midfield? Hard to believe that, with such a small squad, we'd restrict two players to right-back only. And he's a promising player, for all that he went off the boil a bit during the season.

Reynolds, blimey, I'd forgotten about him already. Would it be unkind to fetch up the shit strikers thread?

I guess outsiders might be a bit bemused at us being so happy re-signing so many of the players after last season, but once again that's great news.

Is Thomson full- or part-time, anyone know?

Thanks to those players that have left - obviously sorry to see Baird go but understand why. Dyer did okay for us too, as did Williamson at times - though he always looked like he was capable of playing better than he ever actually did. Feel a bit sorry for McBride, I wasn't really inspired by the signing at the time but he's been very unlucky, hope he's able to resurrect his career somewhere. Casa leaves having given us at least one more great memory to add to that of his previous spell. Malone should be a decent replacement at left-back. Haven't seen so much of him at Ayr but always liked him at Dundee. (If memory serves, he was happy enough to drop down to part-time footie 'cause he works at the family butchers, or something like that.) Great news about Hill, Ellis, McGurn, they've shown us a loyalty beyond anything we had any right to expect (as Ellis especially has done for a long time now). I hope something can be sorted with at least one (and preferably both) of Walker and Davidson now, but as with Baird, I'd entirely understand if they choose to move on. We'll be alright, I reckon.

That's the spirit. If you can't find a bit of groundless optimism even in close season what's the point in even being alive?

It's not just the juniors, they'd run out of senior citizen books as well.

I'm mostly with Paco - despite the disappointing season I wouldn't be going for drastic changes and I'd keep the core of the squad: McGurn, Laidlaw, Thomson, Dyer, Ellis, Murray, Davidson, Walker, Casa. Then Graham, Hammill and Donaldson are already under contract. So we'd be ditching Williamson, McBride (for whom I feel a bit sorry, actually), and presumably Clarke - though I wouldn't be entirely opposed to giving him another chance. And assuming Baird is away and J Walker back to Hearts, that gives us maybe three to bring in to start the season with. If that included at least one good wide player then I'd be feeling okay about next season. But with budget cuts coming, it might all be a bit by-the-by for us to be discussing everything in football terms. Particularly if we have to go part-time again, which will obviously change things. Just have to wait and see.

And I thought Graham Weir swept the board the year before that, but I couldn't swear to it.

Nice to see a healthy queue for season tickets at lunchtime. And you'll be pleased to know that the effort to attract youngsters is working - my dad (aged 76) now has his first ever season ticket.

I hope at least there'll be resounding support for Drysdale.

I didn't know that.

Add me to the McGlynn Must Stay camp.

It's really hard to judge defenders, and I wouldn't be very confident in any of my assessments. Still not entirely convinced by Hill, though I agree he's mostly done pretty well by us during his time here. But I'd be keeping Ellis, at least. (These last few months, I'd say Davidson has been our best defender as well as our best midfielder.)

Some sources show him having scored for Stirling, there was a goal incorrectly credited to him by the Press Association on the day. (Aptly enough, the goal was actually scored by .... Mark Ferry.)

A striker hasn't scored for three years, and you're trying to claim mitigation for having had one wrongly disallowed two years ago? I think you'd agree that' a bit of a reach, even by p&b standards.

Wait, what? I had totally failed to realise that that was the same Ryan Wallace.