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Stephen McGinn but not yet. But you'll have to find someone else in the meantime.

Maybe Cooke will work out however we cannot afford to wait a year to see if players we sign have the chance of making it. We need players that can provide competition from day one.

Not for Heaton. No chance. He has started a whole 5 games since January for the mighty mid table Kidderminster Harriers in the 6th level of English football. 5 games. Is he match fit - no? Is he interested - no? Should we hold off signing a real CB in the hope that Heaton suddenly turns into a Popescu? No. I would try and pay him off or failing that try and find another diddy club that may take him and pay part of his wages. But await and see if he has improved and pay for the privilege? No.

Stubbs and the slavering Chick Young went on about that but it was a bit of a fallacy. In the play off finals we had Paul McGinn, Baird, MacKenzie, Stephen McGinn, Mullen and Flynn all of whom Stubbs wanted to bin (idiot that he is). He only wanted to keep Magennis out of that final day squad. We had the foundations of a solid team from a squad that won the Championship when we were 14 points above Livi. All we had to do was bring in another 8 decent players to build on what we had and not dismantle the whole friggin lot. The guys that Stubbs did not want all proved him totally wrong.

No it wusny.

Allegedly Goody wanted control of team affairs and not just be a coach but be the manager. Dundee appear to want WGS to control the playing side and the 'manager' will effectively be a first team coach. Not a good setup as when things go tits up the manager is the one who is sacked.

No surprise there. I would have no fear giving Gary another contract but if we don't then he would be a fantastic acquisition for any Championship team. Far better than anything the DABS have.

Aye. He done in his Achilles at the start of the season and only returned during our recent unbeaten run. Considering we nearly got relegated I do not think we lost any games when Gary played. Solid as a rock and a threat at corners.

We would be winning the League, Scottish Cup and League Cup if there were no question marks over any of our players. We have only lost 1 of the last eight games and that was against Celtic. And while I do not think we are anywhere near great we have a decent nucleus to build on. The McGinns, Baird, Muzek, Magennis, Flynn and Mullen have all made a solid contribution this season as well as the 4 mentioned above. But that only gives us a squad of 11. We need 7 or 8 decent pros with 2 or 3 being above average. No way will we have a pool of 18/20 where there are no question marks over any of them.

There were a couple out injured. Only 2 that started were Stubbs' signing and none of the subs were signed by Stubbs, so only 2 out of 18 were signed by Stubbs. Of the outfield players starting yesterday Stubbs wanted rid of 5 and was replacing them with no-marks. Thankfully, unlike Stubbs, Kearney knew a half-decent player when he saw one and replaced some of Stubbs' rubbish with players already at the Club unwanted by Stubbs but it still meant we had the shittiest squad in the League. Kearney's hands were tied until January when he could augment those players with some decent signings. Not every signing at any Club is a success but Stubbs must have the lowest ratio of signing a good player as a St Mirren manager and that is some going. And we should not forget in particular Anton Ferdinand and Adam Hammill who were signed as free agents by Kearney who significantly helped keep us within touching distance while waiting for January.

We could have a whole thread on the ignorance of Packy Bonner. He may know all about Celtic but has no idea about other teams. I was listening before and after a game against St Mirren as Bonner was constantly being corrected and helped out by Richard Gordon. There are only 12 managers in the Premiership Packy so at least get to know their names if you are going to get paid to comment on them. He states the bleedin obvious, generally agrees with everyone else and never says anything even vaguely controversial (besides his lack of knowledge on opposition teams, form, history etc).

Chick also gave us an 'exclusive' that Josh Todd had signed a pre-contract with Dundee. The rest of us knew about it in February.

Listening to Off the Ball is part of my Saturday routine. I listen faithfully before leaving the house and whilst driving to games (including Home games in my case). Tam and Stuart have their faults (especially Tam constantly talking over everyone and living in the 1950's) but generally it is a good show. For the first time ever I had to switch it off on Saturday due the bumbling, boring, repetitive, inane laughing Chick Young. The guy cannot string one sentence together never mind a paragraph. He shoots off at more tangents than a mathematician and lives in the past. We have all heard the same stories every time he is on air. No intelligent insight and cheap innuendo that he was a player in his day. Get this guy out to pasture. Glad I do not pay a license fee to pay for his wages.

Yea, I am aware of that. I was referring to Stubbs not playing McShane (and precious few others) in preference to his own signings. Stubbs gave very few of the Championship team a chance. And as an aside in his recent interview on Radio Scotland he mentioned (again) that a journo had told him most of the Championship squad were not good enough for the Premiership. Since when did a manager take advice from a journalist? Especially one that never played at any professional level?

Stubbs pissed off the whole squad. Without even seeing them play he told 5 regulars that won the League handsomely to find new clubs. The existing squad were dumfounded that they were to be replaced with non-League part-timers and English U23s the majority of whom had never played a first team game professionally in their life. McShane wasn't asked to leave but then again Stubbs didn't play him. Disharmony ruled.

My two biggest issues are - failing to track runners - a basic requirement, why can our players not do that? - short free kicks. We struggle to get the ball in the box at the best of times. Most goals are scored in the box. But when we get a free kick in the opposition half we pass it to the nearest team-mate when the opposition have 11 men behind the ball. Fuckin launch it! At least that keeps most of their players back on the 18 yard line and we may get the second ball in a good position even when we don't win the first header. We have to stop pussyfooting and be more direct. And stop these short corners as well.

There are some decent players who are without a club that are free. Maybe our signings are not finished.

There was criticism of the old Board who appointed Tommy Craig et al however they were bought out 3 years ago. The new board got rid of Alex Rae immediately and brought in Jack Ross - great decision. They made a monumental mistake in Stubbs and his mental recruitment which Kearney now has to deal with. The new board have already stated that they will keep Kearney if we go down as we need stability and a proper signing policy (hence Gus MacPherson as Director of Football overseeing signings) so that folk like Stubbs don't get away with signing shite again. I cannot speak for all supporters but the 20 or so that I regularly hang out with all support the new Board and will give Kearney time. The current turnover is a necessity.

Extremely disappointing however the new signings so far look better than what we had. They need a few games to gel although time is limited. Keep in the pack until this hard run is over then watch us climb

At least the guys that are being signed have all played competitive league football which is a huge improvement over the part-timers and U23 players Stubbs signed.

Hope Hibs appoint Stubbs. He may then offer us £250k for Heaton

I won't argue too much on that however he created discontent in epic proportions. He told five regulars of the Championship winning team to find new clubs even though two of them had signed new contracts just weeks before he was appointed. When the existing squad saw the new Stubbs' signings they were shocked that these players were so bad and good pros were being shown the door. Discontent was rife.

He has looked decent. We are playing with a threadbare squad at the moment - 16 out and 6 in (Including 2 keepers). So against Celtic it was always going to be tough. But impressed with him so far.