Piehutt

I wouldn't get too excited about this. Especially in terms of ground redevelopment. It would seem like a crazy business decision to simply purchase land worth over £3M and with a good rental yield in order to potentially have a bit more room for a football stadium - that is already big enough. Then you would have to turf out tenants in the future and forego rental income while doing what? Building a big stand to sit empty most weeks? A bigger or better stadium isn't going to see many more punters at Cappielow - even if we did ever get promoted. True there would potentially be scope to have a new stadium that could have conference and function facilities etc. to boost some cash flow - but I don't see someone putting that kind of cash into Morton particularly. And in reality the Arnold Clark site would be more important to possibly developing the ground - I don't imagine that site would cost anywhere near £3M and given the number of other sites about, I'm sure Arnold Clark would not need to think twice if any reasonable offer was made - especially if it involved renting back in the short term at least.

Any spares? Folks - I am meeting up with a few pals tomorrow before the game and they all have tickets into the Celtic end. I am now pretty keen to go to the game as well, but no chance of me sitting among that mob. So if you have any spares into the Well end for whatever reason, I am looking for one ticket to take off your hands at face value. Looking forward to watching the double treble being thwarted! Can possibly catch up with you this evening to collect or collect from you in and around the ground tomorrow. Please let me know.

Ray McKinnon wouldn't be a disaster, albeit Arabs I've spoken to certainly don't rate him as a manager. Dundee Utd haven't exactly blossomed since he left, so it may be this is simply their level at present. However, don't really see the point in punting Duffy to bring McKinnon in. Don't see much of an upgrade there.

I definitely think O’Ware could do a job in the bottom half of the SPL. And could still improve as a centre half, especially with better payers around him. I would assume that is his thinking on not hanging about for a deal and making it known that he was definitely leaving Morton, regardless of who the manager is going to be. obviously it’s a high risk strategy & clubs at that level maybe can’t take much of a risk on a guy who hasn’t played above the championship, but I’d hope to see him picking up a gig before pre season starts.

I agree about Jai & the club made this clear that he was delaying over a deal. Also that he would have left had he got an offer elsewhere. But it just seems to be a continued trend that it seems to be short term deals. appreciate its a risk to hand out a 3 or 4 year contracts to guys who might end up being completely unproductive and likewise some will not will not want to be tied down, but plenty of other clubs manage it (Hamilton being the obvious gold standard). But surely get creative with the deals in terms of incentives to play x no. of games and with buy out clauses if players do have the opportunity to get a move for reasonable money. we now have a pretty decent youth system and we will hopefully see some top players coming through this in the next few seasons, and so we have to do the final piece of the puzzle and make sure the club can benefit if we do finally produce a top pro that’s in demand. its been a very long time since a product from Morton went on to play international football.

I have a real problem with the Iredale announcement. Aside from the fact we don’t have a manager, why are we signing potentially good young players on short term deals? This is so half baked and players who may command a fee have such a short term deal, we are only ever going to get statutory compensation for them. Similar thing happened with Quitongo, albeit he has probably gone backwards this season.

Jackie MacNamara was asked at the PFA awards last night by Peter Martin if he was going to get back into coaching and he said ‘No’. so I think you can move that one into the extremely unlikely column. The thing that confuses me about the manager vacancy listing is putting a closing date on it by next Tuesday. Surely this will mean many coaches still involved in playoffs will not apply and will obviously not know their own fates with their clubs or what league they will be in. Also does this mean we are not going to approach people in current roles? Iain McColl & Stevie Aitken - both with links to the club who could expect to still be with their current clubs next season.

Jesus - horrendous to think what the spring in our step was like in the 1st quarter of the season. How easy it was to justify the cost of Dundee away and how you looked forward to a game during the week. Would be good to think we'd manage something this season - but assuming our budget will be cut and we'll have just as tight a squad it seems unlikely that anything will materialise. Still - you never know, perhaps we'll work some miracles or get a cup run going at the very least.

I am @granthutton I mostly tweet about football, golf, rugby and whatever is on the tele. If you follow me, I will more than likely follow you back. But only if you have good tweets. I currently have 99 followers so there is an opportunity for glory to be my 100th follower. My 100th follower last week was Los Serranos Country Club - a golf resort in California. They unfollowed me when I said I lived in Scotland which had better golf courses.

Nah - it will take a few seasons. Celtic fans do seem to be more loyal than those of other big clubs - in terms of turning up to meaningless games, friendlies, televised fixtures etc. Ok, accept that Celtic may feel more obliged to respond to Salmond than the hacks, but they knew it would be a story when they made the statement. Likewise, Lawwell knew it would be a story when he said it on Monday. Obviously they stopped short of saying 'we hope Rangers go bust' but why not issue support? 'We hope our biggest rivals can survive this difficult period and we can compete against them for another 140 years.' etc etc. Paranoia mixed with hatred? I think they are pandering to their own fans, who seem to think it will be good if Rangers go bust, or at the very least 'a bit of a laugh'. Privately I think the directors would be very anxious if Rangers teetered further over the abyss. Surely their ideal scenario is that they just survive, new owners come in and have to take on a lot of the debt and the club is crippled for the next 5 or 6 seasons (possibly with no European competition for a while).

Why didn't Celtic make a statement about almost every journalist who has said the same thing as Salmond. Seems that Celtic are a bit paranoid and are falling over themselves to say 'we don't need Rangers, let them die for all we care'. In fact most journalists have simply said 'Celtic would be worse off without Rangers' - many in direct response to Lawwell's comments on Monday. Do Celtic really believe that? Do they hate the idea of Rangers winning the title ever again, that they would rather they ceased to exist rather than have a credible opponent to drive competition in the league? If Rangers did die, Celtic would get bored sh1tless winning the league every February. Interest in their club would drop and they would end up staying just a bit better than Hearts, Motherwell, Dunde Utd etc. Assuming they couldn't get a move to England (which would be much more likely without Rangers, than it would with them) they'd end up playing in front of 20,000 or 30,000 fans, or less, within a decade. Celtic have far more to lose than any other club if Rangers went tits up. In fact, it would actully be funny to watch.

This is silly. No one could deny we've made a good start. Also, I would say it is well above expectation. I was not all that hopeful, especially as the only pre-season game I saw was a bit of a drubbing at St Mirren. But to get results in our 1st four games (3 aways) was excellent. As well as a great showing in the St Mirren cup tie, which was a bit of a turning point for me. Also, if we aren't favourites for the league then fair enough, but I certainly wouldn't swap places with anyone. We do have a tight squad which could cause us problems, but I guess most folk do. No doubt the likes of Tidser, MacDonald, McCaffrey will miss a few games over the season and it will be key to grind out a win or a draw on those occassions.

well after a long winter, now done 3 over the past couple of weeks. Having done Meall nan Tarmachan (by Ben Lawers) a few Sundays ago, we got up by Crainlarich to do Beinn Tulaichean and Cruach Ardrain on Good Friday. Now at 16 and feeling great.

I am out. Sorry, hope you get the bodies.

Got a couple of mates who I've been out with. And my Girlfriend, who I did most of my walking with last year. But she has kinda lost the bug a bit. Thinking of going out Saturday, unless the weather is attrocious.

I'm in.

Really need to get back into this. Started last year and did 13 Munros in not too many months... but not been out since about October last year. Hopefully weekend after next is decent weather.

Good. I have the required coinage.

How much is it again?

yes

Folks, I really canny be fecked with playing at 9.30. Sorry to be a pain, but I have said this before. If you get another player, I will play to make up 10. If you don't, you can play with 8.

Not text him since he was a no show a few weeks ago. Is this booked, for 9pm?

I'm back in. sorry, been out for a few weeks due to a combination of having other plans, being skint and lazy.

Glad you got another player and had a good game. Felt really bad when I had to post that. Almost got changed and was going to play, until I was reminded I was on my 3rd drink. Think I'll sit out next week also, totally skint so might need my last fiver to buy food etc next week.

Folks, Jamie has just text to say he's stuck at work and can't make it. Total shite I know. Sorry to be the bearer of such shite news. Grant