forkboy

Honestly, I don't even see the point of the academy if we're just spunking cash on some reject from the English 7th tier or spending 6 figures on competent journeymen. (Not saying we should get it binned, but at the the same time, why is any youngster from the area going to sign with County when they have a far bigger chance of getting into the first team at Caley?) There's a lot at County that is questionable, and it's become an awful lot easier to actually question the decision making of the guy in charge post-Malky hiring & reaction. He normally seems to think he can get away with whatever pish he wants with some line about being a community club & other empty nonsense. A community club would actually use the youth team players. A community club would listen to the reaction of the community at the hiring of a guy with Malky's problematic past. But Roy doesn't need to because he's the money man & it's his toy at the end of the day. Someone on the previous page said fans should do something but what? If MacGregor doesn't want to sell, & if he did sell he wouldn't get on the radio to have his ego stroked by barely sentient fuckwits on Radio Scotland, then to quote Chernyevsky, "what is to be done?" It's certainly going to be interesting when MacGregor kicks the bucket. And if you're a County fan then not the good kind of interesting.

Well, all the Samuel speculation was well timed, I've seen on Facebook he's signed a 2 year extension.

How good is he at watching the ball being hoofed over his head though? That's what I want to know Thank you for the clarification. That makes it much easier to wrap my head around.

Aye, this advanced stats malarkey makes me turn all boomer "xG? What a load of nonsense, when I was a lad..." But what's the difference between progressive passing & creative passing?

Aye, the first thing that came to mind when I read about this was County's handling of Michael Gardyne leaving. When someone has been at the club a long time, even in 2 separate spells, they deserve better than an email or text. Talk to them face-to-face, it's the least you can do. "Thanks for what you've done but we're going to go in another direction next season." Reading his Twitter thread, Sutherland doesn't seem that shocked or cut-up about being let go, that's the business. No need to be quite so half-arsed in letting players go though.

Oooft. That's shite luck.

Did I make this up, or did The Jailender once fly down to Belfast & then get the ferry across to Stranraer because that was the quickest way to get there & back? It's something I apparently have stored in a dusty recess of my memory but I'm really good at just making up memories that sound plausible. Maybe it wasn't TJE but I swear I remember reading of some County fan(s) who did that whenever County were last in the same division as Stranraer.

Hope Kelty and Edinburgh are away ties, nice to see some new grounds. But yeah, fun draw

Morton aside that's a fun group of teams County have not played before or haven't played in years

The guy who owned the LA Clippers, a basketball team with an overwhelmingly black group of players, was caught saying some properly racist shit. Having minority employees is entirely coherent with a racist, and neither proves nor disproves that.

No, it's not all about optics. It is partially I guess, because of the nature of football fans relationship with the manager of their club is generally not very personal, I do not know Malky Mackay the person, I know Malky Mackay the football manager & can only judge him on that. Bringing up Martindale as a point of comparison just doesn't work. David Martindale admitted guilt, literally paid for his crimes, having had 6 figures of assets seized, as well as spending years in prison. Now, if you don't believe that rehabilitation should be a key component of the justice system, fine I guess (well, no, it's not, it's insane, but that's a topic for another day & place), but for now it is, & it's impossible to stay rehabilitated if you are deprived of employment when you get out of prison. Way I look at it, Martindale admitted his crimes, did his time, started doing part-time work for his local club. Would I call him a great guy? I don't know him so I wouldn't. But his story is at least on the outside a pretty optimistic tale of fucking up & then bettering yourself. Malky Mackay's tale is a guy who played football at a high level, went into management at a high level, sent his text messages, apologised for 2 of them in the usual mealy-mouthed "sorry if you were offended but it was just some bantz" way. He was out of the game for 3 months after the text messages went public before being appointed manager by Wigan (to general uproar from fans), he got sacked 5 months after that for an abysmal record of 19 points from 24 league games as Wigan got relegated. He then had 18 months between that gig & the Performance Director role at the SFA. Other than missing the Crystal Palace job & some griping from fans, what repercussions has Malky faced? Maybe Malky genuinely regrets what he did, I dunno. But he's done very little to show it publicly and that's all we can judge him on. Not asking for him to wear a cilice and doing penance that way, but certainly asking for more than we've got. Is it fair? The text messages only became public knowledge because of a fallout with the Cardiff board, but they did. What can I say? I don't like racists. And I don't think I'm being fickle, I feel like I'm being internally consistent within my own world view.

Do you think so? The football is brutal to watch, the signings have been of questionable quality outside of a small number of exceptions, the complete failure to have a Plan B or just have a Plan A that actually works to bring our best player into the game rather than pumping the ball over his head, and obviously the result this season have stunk. I'm not saying you're wrong because I'm honestly not sure if I agree or not that most folk would be behind Mackay without his text messaging bigotry. But doesn't it seem like the worm really turned this season because of the results? A lot more people seemed reluctant to speak on that past last year when things were going well, or at least that's how it feels like to me. His first season was obviously very good (on the field) but then last summer we lost our top 3 scorers and what exactly did Malky do to replace them? The scattershot approach to loan signings is just kind of hard to defend.

He really has gotten unpleasant to read.

I've never understood how an 18 year old playing against Brora and Pollock is meant to improve the national team. Is that really what separates Scotland from regular World Cup qualification?

The odds of Yan Dhanda still being at Victoria Park come September seem pretty long. There's English Championship sides sniffing around after all. I'm sure we'll take a scattergun approach & bring in lots of loanees from down south & one of them might end up being useful. But as it is, recruitment is a concern because it's not like we adequately replaced the guys who left last summer.

Time for Malky Mackay to return to Parkhead

Posting a Ewan Murray article is cruel and unusual punishment. Man needs to stick to golf

Are you new to Scottish football?

Strangest fetish I've ever heard of.

Gutted for Partick Thistle fans, there's no way that should have happened. Fair play to the County players for that effort, everyone had written them off, me included. Still, Malky must go

Fair enough for a match between arch rivals but this isn't that by a long way

Why the hell would the police have any say in where the penalties happen? That's absolutely daft

I've stopped not caring about the result, which is rotten

This is exhausting

His dad trying to start a rumour that St Johnstone were going to spend £100,000 on him in January was one of the few highlights of the Ross County season.