Mr Heliums

Sweet wee find today. I

Enjoying the sweet irony of Sainthearted complaining about off-topic posts in a series of lengthy and contentless off-topic posts.

Is it telling that the outstanding January signing has turned out to be the player we've tried twice to chase out of the club because Davidson didn't think he was good enough?

I know. What's your point?

Callum Davidson arriving at training this morning:

Tories getting excited about people losing their jobs. What's new?

I know the players are ok, but we had a near full-strength side at the start of the season and we were awful then. I don't think we won a domestic game until McCann and Kerr had gone for example. The way we play has had a huge influence. It's so timid and so cautious that you could put any player in our starting eleven and we'd look poor. To me, we look like we haven't tactically changed anything as we've sunk down the league.

I really don't like this growing narrative, led by our manager, that we're unlucky. Yes, some decisions have gone against us, but take that away for the moment. Who can deny we're bottom of the league because we – alongside Dundee – are by some distance the worst teams in the league? We deserve to be We're in danger of sounding like Hearts fans in the spring of 2020.

People are criticising Davidson for not trying to win that game. It's become a cliche: we go ahead then sit back and increasingly nervously defend, allowing our opponents to build up a head of steam. We were desperately lucky to escape with a point there. Seen worse penalties given too, but I'm sure that will be Davidson's whiny narrative again.

Plus Callum's substitutions.

I don't think a new manager will make much of a difference at this stage; or at any rate we're not going to get 10th place no matter who we've got in charge. The advantage of NOT sacking anyone now might be seen a further down the line. Prospective managers will know they'll get time at St Johnstone. It's coming up to 17 years since we last sacked anyone and Davidson knows that at any other club he'd have been out by now. These things will get noticed.

Yeah, but they said the same about Neil Lennon. Have I just ruined my own argument?

Beat St Johnstone, I expect.

My guess is that he was bored with the grind of keeping Saints competitive and knew sooner or later it would go sour. And he probably thought he'd done enough to attract interest elsewhere, but he was overlooked for the N Ireland job that he wanted, and it just didn't click at Killie.

Going by early season performances and results when Rooney/Wotherspoon/McCann/Kerr were available, quite possibly. This is a coaching/club problem. Understandable hubris given that the press were lauding Davidson last summer for his system and for turning ordinary players into an effective team. Why would you tinker with that if you believe it's the system that's making the difference? A club problem in the sense that Saints have gone ten years benefitting from low turnover of players. It was another reason cited for our success; a tight-knit dressing room that was lauded everywhere. Why would you change it? Of course, these things unravel. When you've built the team on a system that no longer works, what happens? Davidson's answer has been to persevere with the system (after all that perseverance paid off last year), and try new players. Clearly not working, and sadly not likely to.

If Cifti is back next Wed a front pairing of him and Hendry feels like a glimmer of hope. I'd like to see May in Crawford's role - but have to accept that as long as someone as cautious as Davidson is in charge, that's not going to happen. But if that's too much to ask, I'd accept anyone – with the exception of Crawford – in Crawford's role. Struggling with a bit of cognitive dissonance: is Callum Davidson the best manager in our history and at the same time one of the worst?

Absolutely - and think of all that money we've just wasted this month, as if new players were ever going to be the answer.

It's kind of come to something when we're trying to mock other teams because they're not beating us by as much as they deserved to.

Praying Crawford has a relegation release clause in his contract.

I don't think it's quite nonsense. Our league position in early November was not representative of awful we were. We had more points than we deserved (eg nicked three off Aberdeen and robbed Dundee United away). Pre November, the only good domestic performance I can think of was the one that everyone expects - Dundee at home. Plus, maybe 20 minutes against Hearts. But it's thin pickings. We're certainly unlucky with injuries, but - like poor refereeing decisions - they shouldn't excuse how bad we have been, and I worry that will be the narrative when this is all over. If we're missing Rooney and Kane and O'Halloran, we're missing the Rooney and Kane of last season and the O'Halloran of late 2015. If we lack the creativity that someone like Wotherspoon can provide, we were lacking that before his injury too.

Have Arbroath ever been full-time in their history?

It's often forgotten the part luck has to play. What if we hadn't squeezed past Dunfermline on pens in the League Cup (or what if Hibs had taken one or two of their glaring chances in the first half of the semi?), or what if Zander had thought "I won't bother coming up for this corner" against Rangers in the Scottish Cup? Goes both ways, of course. Think we've been a bit unlucky at a few points this season.

Maybe the right choice - though as a sub at least he'd be something different from the May/Kane/Middleton swap.

This is how a lot of fans feel. I wanted him months ago to step back, admit things weren't working, that he'd made errors - and then try something different. But he's persisted with the same setup, brought in players who everybody can see aren't good enough, blamed individuals he clearly doesn't like, and only grudgingly accepted responsibility, while still saying players aren't doing what they're told. He's a poor communicator at the best of times, but we deserve some explanation. I think fans would be more understanding if he was honest, open and contrite. And our performances would benefit. But his stubbornness is building up resentment which is now boiling over into toxicity. Almost impossible to unite players and fans after that.

Geoff Brown is still the majority shareholder. And Steve Brown's role as chairman is unpaid.