Pull My Strings

Tbf, Wato was a player. Big, strong, good technique. You could see why he'd been at a top academy. Shame he was an absolute bell-end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wato_Kuaté Seems to be a recurring theme: goes on trial and shows up well. Gets a contract, immediately falls out with the club and gets released early. Rinse and repeat. United did well to only give him a couple of months. Still just 28 and at a club which doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.

Yeah, that suggestion always seemed a bit odd to me. Luton paid a fee for him only 18 months ago and then sent him out on loan last summer. Obviously the English leagues are awash with cash but that seem feckless even by their standards.

Not for me. He's clearly still a good player but not good enough to justify keeping a guy who is constantly injured.

Not sure that makes you a particular authority on the topic, we also finished fourth two years ago.

I don’t think we need to reference that man anymore. Please.

I'd say taking two Academy players from nothing to first team regulars over the course of one season, whilst having to keep a championship winning team going is pretty impressive. Add to that Graham's re-emergence and Mochrie's match winning contributions from the bench and there's four guys who have played a significant role. Then there's Cudjoe and Glass who both made an impact, albeit for a shorter period and who now seemed to have slipped out of the picture. Meekison would surely have got more games but for injury. Seems rather churlish to look at all that and say the young guys haven't made an impression.

Jesus wept.

Most adults would be happy to call that 100%.

I think we've covered this, wee man.

For everyone other than the most pedantic 12 year old child, it is.

Ffs. It's 100% guaranteed.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu.

Jesus Christ, no. And I agree entirely, just an observation that tactical brutality is less of an issue when there's some dweeb watching on the telly and looking to pick fault with every second challenge. If folk are getting sent off for relatively innocuous mistimed tackles, there's less scope to deliberately elbow a guy in the head or stamp on someone on the ground.

Yeah, the standard of refereeing in the Premiership is also gash, no argument there, but I think you're less likely to get away with all the fly, dirty stuff that goes on in the lower divisions because it'll be caught by VAR.

Just watched them back. First is a good jump and header from Oakley, second Holt gets in front of Oakley but then misses his header. Nothing to do with Holt losing a physical battle in either of those. United certainly struggled to cope with Oakley that day, partly because Oakley is just a big strong laddie and partly because the referee was being a bit lax in pulling him up on the dirty side of the game, but I don't think Holt stood out as struggling any more than anyone else.

Nah, it was Graham who was battered by Oakley that day and, tbf, you wouldn't get away with half that shit in the premiership.

He's been excellent this season and very reliable. It's a step up but I think he'd do okay for another year. I'd have Holt and Graham as the two competing for the left sided centre half slot and would expect Graham to cement that position eventually. He's a calm, solid presence.

Let's say you need a squad of 20 plus scope for Academy guys to fill up the bench, if you keep the following: Thomson, Gallagher, Holt, Graham, McMann, Fotheringham, Docherty, Sibbald, Mochrie, Meekison, Watt, Moult, that gives you 12. You'd need to add two keepers, at least one right, centre half, another solid midfielder, and another three forwards/wingers. That's already a big job and a hefty turnover. If you don't keep a fair proportion of the guys I'd mentioned then you're quickly looking at 10, 12, 15 (whatever) new guys who have never played together before and hoping that they all work. That's a big ask and you're just giving away some decent partnerships which have worked well this season. For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, this is a good championship team. It won't be a good premiership team but it might be the basis of a half decent premiership team which can be built on by bringing in better individuals and continuing to develop. I've left out Middleton and Grimshaw from that squad. I wouldn't necessarily be chasing them away but I can't see Grimshaw ever being more than a stopgap now and Middleton, for all his obvious positive attributes, just doesn't seem to have the dig necessary to be relied upon.

I'd expect both Mochrie and Meekison to be offered contracts along with McMann, Holt, Graham, and Moult. If we could convince Walton to stay too, then that would be great. I appreciate the desire from some guys to want to make wholesale changes but I'm not convinced. Constantly replacing decent, known quantities, with lots of new players rarely works and more often than not leads to a team which is less than the sum of its parts. This team has got a bit of spirit and is solid enough to make a decent fist of the Premiership. It needs more quality but that should be building on top of what's there already and improving it rather than starting from scratch. Teams benefit from stability and that's what we should be looking to build on. Imo. Witness Livingston under Martingale, St Johnstone under Wright and Kilmarnock under McInnes for examples of what can be achieved by building incrementally, versus what United, Hibs and Aberdeen have done by constantly chopping and changing after every setback.

Ca aquaplane pour moi?

Aye, it's tempting but on balance I think I'd prefer we just win it on Saturday. Feeling quite sanguine right now but I'll be less so if it goes to the last game. Thanks but no thanks.

Looking forward to this. Ideally the pressure will be off after Friday night and we can enjoy the party without worrying about the result too much. I've never actually seen UNITED win the league. I was only 10 when we won the top flight and wasn't yet that into football. The 1996 the play off win was great but still, second placed. Technically we won the league during the covid season but I wasn't copied into those emails when the league was won.

Presumably there will be tickets already sold for the Shed to Ayr fans. More likely to release tickets to United fans in the Jerry Kerr, I would have thought.

Rovers' twitter nonce now celebrating giving up on the title with three games left. Apparently they never fancied winning the league anyway.