Swello
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Posts posted by Swello
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17 minutes ago, Allroy for Prez said:
I was absolutely f**king RAGING when Watt left for Utd, but he was also excellent for us and we’re desperate so it’s a yes from me provided it’s only a 1 year deal.
(He also needs to crawl on his knees the length of the East Stand begging for forgiveness first game back, after that we’re square)
I was annoyed at Watt at the time as there had been some heavy duty badge kissing going on in the months prior (and despite being old and cynical, I had kind of bought into the whole "he's finally found somewhere to settle down a bit" patter - but I was probably equally/more frustrated that Utd (who we were competing with for top 6/europe) overspent to take our best forward at that point which hugely weakened us and didn't really do much for them.
Would have him back.
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Just now, Busta Nut said:
Exactly this. Complete madness.
I don't understand the other thought process that folk would have been upset had he not started.Even if folk had been upset - so what?
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Gambling to play a guy that's not match fit in a game like this was mental - especially given the mess were in. There is no bad luck story - just negligence.
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For tomorrow - the fact we've just got a bunch of defensive players to play in every position except centre forward is probably fine. If nothing else it could frustrate the "home" support and give us some months of greetin' about Parking the Bus when we scrape a 0-0.
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41 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:
I have seen us finish every position in the league from 2nd to 11th.
Surely you've seen us finish 12th (Falkirk boys look away now)
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1 hour ago, Handsome_Devil said:
I'd be curious to see how expectations or tolerance of poor seasons are spread across the age ranges of our support...is it irrelevant and it's a personality thing or is an expectation level buried in your subconscious during your formative years, as someone previously suggested?
There's certainly a logic to it...I have only vague memories of the 1980s BC (before Cooper) but I do remember laughter when I asked why we didn't play in Europe. If you think there's a gap to the Edinburgh clubs and Aberdeen now, the suggestion in say 1987, that we would do what we did in the next decade and beyond, regularly out performing Aberdeen (two years on from being champions and four from the CWC win over Real), Hearts (should have been champions a year earlier and should have knocked Bayern out of Europe) and Dundee United (fresh from the Uefa final, a few years on from being mugged of a EC final spot) would have had you sectioned.
Even allowing for the fact two of the above had enjoyed unique eras in their history and would naturally decline a bit, it's hard to explain to someone who started going in what, 2004 - now fully 20 years ago - that 20 years before that we were a yo-yo club emerging from financial crisis, and the prospect of doing anything other than kicking around before being relegated was nil.
My time going lines up in a weirdly precise way with @capt_oats - and I think what living through the 90's stuff would do (apart from giving you a lifelong hatred of Alex McLeish) is take the pressure off a bit. I hadn't been watching the club for 10 years and I'd seen us lift the cup in the best possible way, saw some of the best players ever to wear claret & amber and ended up watching us playing/competing with a world class Dortmund team in the Westfalon (courtesy of a £100 quid bus trip from Motherwell). That's not really what it's meant to be like for us.
The years I talked about are what a successful era for a town club actually looks like and maybe only a bit of distance that we now have makes that clearer. You could very reasonably say that with the talent we've had, we should have added at least another cup but that is the only frustration that remains.
For that reason, I'm totally relaxed as other clubs like Killie or St Mirren look to be on the up while we are flatlining a bit at the moment. If I was younger and had more limited good times in the bank, I might not feel that way
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8 hours ago, KirkySuperSub said:
I was born 1974, so that era you mention was basically my heyday watching us...best days tbh, 91, then the early to mid-90's...some team and some players...!
I've said on here a few times, but I've completely disappeared the last 10 years or so, only been to a handful of games in that time...
I never once saw us play IN Europe, albeit I've saw us play European games at Fir Park...
So who's had the best 'Well experience...?
It honestly doesn't matter...we've all got stories to tell...
I'm sitting here reading these stories thinking that I've missed out on so much by not experiencing these European trips...
But would I swap known fond memories for unknown new experiences, hard to tell...
I think if you were watching 'Well between 1989 AC (Anno Cooper) up until the end of McCall's time, then you've arguably seen 4 of our best ever teams, a cup win, 3 runners-up in the league (with some 3rd places added in) and multiple euro qualifications with us playing in the CWC, UC, EL and CL in Europe. And Dougie Arnott.
In short, you'd be a spoilt bastart.
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22 minutes ago, Dosser1886 said:
Didn't make that one but Nancy was a laugh. Lovely place always wanted to go back.
Stopped there for an hour on the drive across France for the Scotland-Hungary game - Place Stanislas still one of the nicer town squares you'll end up in (and seeing it sober was a new thing).
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8 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:
all I ate was a white magnum,
Just did an undignified snorty laugh at that
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That summer was f**king amazing - Athens and then Valencia
Took my credit card until the next summer to recover...
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Just now, boozyBJ said:
So far away from the pitch you could barely see the game. It hit about 40 degrees that day
42 in the shade - game kicked off at 10:30pm or something weird as a result.
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The hottest I've ever been in my life - but some trip and the one Champs League experience we'll ever have...
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I'm not sure what we're shopping for over the next couple of weeks but it feels to me that we've got the basis of a very solid team but we're lacking the sort of weirdo/maverick that makes things a bit more fun and drives everyone mad when they only do it every few weeks. Type that into Wyscout.
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2 hours ago, Busta Nut said:
I can't lie I usually would agree with these takes. I did think this one was closer to the bone though.
And the point @capt_oats makes about the distraction being a pile of shite was something I thought as well.I get why folk looking in from the outside get us wrong quite often. Last season for example, we had *Theo Bair*, a loan kid from Arsenal and Connor Wilkinson as our forwards. Turned out that was a £5m+ forward line (and Connor Wilkinson). Before that, we had a mad Dutch jobber that ended up a hero with 30 odd goals and in the POTY equation. Before that, we got a tune out Tony Watt when no-one expected us (or anyone else) to do that, etc, etc
We've got a long-standing, weird track record of doing that stuff and it can make experts look a bit stupid at times.
On this season - I'm not sure how anyone knows how we're going to do as we haven't played anything even resembling our first choice team at any point so far (and the window is still open) - but they could clearly end up being right this time.
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I can remember quite a few mid-season injury nightmares over the years - have literally never seen us come out of pre-season in this shape since I've been going.
It might not be the only thing going on here and I completely get the notion that picking up guys with some injury history might allow us make signings that wouldn't have been near us otherwise - but over a few years and multiple managers, the gamble inherent in that approach has objectively failed. We need to not do that any more.
The slight panic here is that getting off to a poor start is incredibly hard to overturn in this league and we (understandably) look likely to do just that.
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I quite fancied going to Hampden - but <30 quid is my absolute limit, so won't be doing that (same for Rugby Park if that is the same).
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15 minutes ago, Desp said:
I can't quite get my head around the meltdown some are having - f**king already - about where we are. "St.Mirren & Killie are better than us". Ah right, cool. These things happen. It always happens in cycles. We're pretty poor for a couple of years, then we're quite good for a year or two. Rinse. Repeat. St. Mirren are having their best seasons in 40 years, apparently, and the best they've done is finish 5th. We've seen Killie finish top 3/4 plenty of times. St. Johnstone likewise. Inverness, Livingston, Dundee Utd all have had goes at it too.
The only difference between us and the teams I've mentioned is that when they have really shite seasons, they get relegated. We tend not to.
Calm the f**k down. As @capt_oats has mentioned, we've still another four weeks of the window left. We've got a few quid to spend. I'm sure we'll get one or two more in and once the new guys are up to speed, we'll be absolutely fine. Will we be brilliant this season? Who knows, maybe we won't, but we'll still be in the same league next season to go again.
I was being semi-serious when I said that we'll be good by October - because there is a huge feeling of work in progress to the team. As above - we aren't even getting the guys that were signed this summer onto the park yet. It's worth remembering what we were left with when most of last seasons team left - this was a huge rebuild. I get that Kettlewell dug very deeply into the patience reserve last season and that he's not going to get much leeway from the folk that boo when it's 0-0 at half time - but if folk are expecting us to be firing on all cylinders by Sept 1st, I think they might be disappointed.
As for other teams having good seasons - fair f**ks to them quite honestly.
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We'll be good by October.
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I'm normally of the opinion that the LC Group stage isn't real life - it's a weird twilight zone where (Premiership) teams deliberately put out odd line-ups to get everyone match fit or are playing with huge holes in their squads ahead of the transfer window - but I do have mild fear about how August is going to go.
We've got a genuinely ridiculous injury list for this stage of the season - and I can't see how we fill the Blair Spittal sized hole in the team with what we have available.
Expecting a big improvement from the Thistle game but would be surprised if the apple is getting it's first outing of the season later today...
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Also - *great* to see that Dickie is hanging in there, probably eyeing the chairman's seat at this very moment.
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The whole investment thing was an unmitigated fiasco and I was highly critical of almost every aspect of Jim's handling of it - but I'm not going to vilify the guy as he steps down. He's put in a long shift and there is lots of good stuff in there too - he (IMO) doesn't need to seen as some kind of hate figure.
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10 minutes ago, well fan for life said:
Nepalese food is dynamite. Momos washed down with a cool, refreshing Gurkha lager.
I went to Nepal a couple of times (fucking great place) and my abiding memory of the food was eating Dal Bhat multiple times every day. I like curried lentils as much as the next man - but I was going out my nut by about the 2 week mark. I almost offered to marry the cook in a place when he served up a plate of Pakuada/Pakora alongside the Dal Bhat.
They also had a brilliant line in knock-off versions of European beers - "San Miguel" was very drinkable, "Tuborg" was genuinely horrible and "Guinness" was just lager with black food colouring.
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1 hour ago, Ceiling Granny said:
In an election though if there are 7 candidates, one “runs” on a “would have accepted” basis, they could get 20% of the vote and each of the other 6 candidates share 80% between them. I’m not trying to be contrary - I just think you don’t always get what you want even if people openly declare what they would/wouldn’t have voted.
Also, if enough people elect someone who wholeheartedly supported the deal - that would be perfectly democratic and fine.
In the same way we worried about this place being an echo chamber (turns out it wasn't though) - having different views on the WS board would be a pretty healthy thing. The main problem with the handling of the Wild Sheep deal was that there was no-one on the Exec Board putting the contrary point of view - it was a failure of groupthink and it wouldn't be wise to replicate that on the WS board IMO.
Lastly - whoever proposes that The Thread© finally gets to nominate a rep to the Exec Board will be getting my vote. Would also consider a single-issue Pakora Hut candidate.
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37 minutes ago, MP_MFC said:
Just saw Killie are charging away fans £30 this year for an adult.
That's mental. I believe we've frozen our prices but curious to see the rest of the league's pricing. £30 for any league game is scandalous.
Since I started going, I've always loved going to away games - probably more than home games actually - but at £30, I'm out.
I think for Central Belt clubs especially, away supporters are one of the best ways to increase your matchday revenues when your home support stubbornly stays quite static. Away supports tend to get treated like shite and no-one ever does *anything* to encourage them - it's just seems mental that it's never mentioned.
500 hundred extra home supporters per week is better than 500 away supporters but those away supporters could be a nice bonus while you are trying to convert the locals...
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Hillwalking Thread
in The General Nonsense Forum
Posted
It's one of the most bikey of all the Munros
I walked it once as I was heading over it to the Tarf Hotel Bothy - and it really feels more remote when you don't have the bike..