capt_oats

I don't think we necessarily need to re-litigate the whole Kelly thing. It was just interesting to me that Kettlewell seemed keen to put a new contract for him on the agenda - whether or not he actually agrees to sign that contract is a different story. He's not a peak Gillespie/Carson/Randolph/Ruddy tier goalkeeper and he's not (and never was) Scotland's next #1 although I get that us platforming him was part of the deal. What he is is a good goalkeeper for this level. He's been good (at times excellent) under both Alexander and Kettlewell. His dip in form coincided with the Hammell era which, in hindsight, maybe had more to do with us having appointed a manager who was massively out of his depth contributing to a defence that couldn't keep weans out a close. Much like others above I'm of the view that if we're overpaying for anyone then there's value in it being a good goalkeeper. No one ever had a good season with a bad goalkeeper and the common thread in our worst seasons recently has been the likes of Twardzik and Samson actively trying to relegate us. Also, he's been consistently healthy and available so if nothing else we've got our moneys worth in that respect. IIRC United were also in for him when we signed Kelly permanently so in I'm happy enough we got him rather than them - assuming the plan was simply to have a solid goalkeeper on the books for the next 3 seasons rather than to try and flip him.

On a vaguely related point, I noticed this yesterday before everyone got caught up in the excitement of Thelonius Day.

The gist, as far as I can tell, is that Carson invited his family over for their post-split game against the **** only for Robinson to drop him for the game. Carson kicked off about it which Robinson didn't take well. Having a quick look at Transfermarkt it was the only league game he didn't start last season. There seems to have been a suggestion that one of Carson's family (brother?) had a go at Robinson during their end of season POTY anaw. I mean, Robinson's famously laid back so I can't imagine how this became an issue tbh.

Sure, it includes friendlies/bounce games and the LC groups are obviously against lower leage opposition but that's not really the point to be made eh? By my count the distribution of goals/player across Kettlewell's games is: Kevin Van Veen: 15 Blair Spittal: 8 Callum Slattery: 5 Max Johnston 3 Jon Obika: 3 Conor Wilkinson: 2 Lennon Miller: 2 Mark Ferrie: 2 Ross Tierney: 1 Mikael Mandron: 1 Bevis Mugabi: 1 Sean Goss: 1 Own Goal: 1

Richard Foster gets the Lead Development Coach gig. Announcing it in a post-match Tweet at 11:03pm feels a bit weird but…fair enough I guess.

Fun fact that in no way tempts fate for Saturday; we've scored in every game we've played under Kettlewell.

Yes Chef.

Highlights via East Fife.

I mean, having a look at the word count of many of my posts I think I'll just keep quiet about Kettlewell's verbiage.

I noticed that mentioned on SO but was curious about the context. Interesting (sort of) that he spoke about both by name. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect a manager to just deflect.

Your boy we had in on trial has ended up in Dubai.

McGinn at RWB and Spittal off Wilkinson then.

Speaking of our Hylton/Seedorf Era I see Christian Ilić is still kicking a baw.

It depends I guess. Both Blaney and Tierney moved at the end of the LOI season and signed with us in January so it could be a case of having a deal agreed in principal rather than something imminent. I mean, as it stands, it's a complete random on Twitter saying it's a rumour going about. It's not like it's one of the Irish journos saying it's a thing.

Having done a bit of Saturday morning Veronica Mars-ing it seems Keeley recently (March) signed with an Edinburgh based agency (InMotion) who for the most part seem to operate in the Scottish lower leagues. Recent deals include Niang signing for Cove, Aaron Muirhead contract extension at Thistle, Tom Lang signing with Falkirk plus a bunch of academy at Celtic, Hearts, St Mirren etc. With that in mind a move to Scotland doesn't seem that wild a shout for him. Whether or not it's us is a different story but we've seen that the Irish league tends to be pretty leaky with this stuff. We're clearly pretty well stocked for defenders but listening to Kettlewell talking about there being players he's spoken to who may not be in line to play as much as they'd like/expect then it's not a massive leap to identify a couple of centre backs in our group who might fit that profile.

Hmmm… This would be *checks notes* Conor Keeley. A 25 year old, 6ft 5” centre back.. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/conor-keeley/profil/spieler/377180

Aye. I'm all in on him. Granted all of this stuff is at u23s level but he's doing a lot of the same sort of things as Kev but in a less beardy way. He looks fucking magic.

Entirely unbothered by the Bair thing. I mean clearly I’d rather we didn’t based on his entirely shite time in Perth but equally if we do and with the caveat that we are looking at bringing the Danish sensation in from Arsenal- the big lad will be our 4th/5th choice striker. It’s not like we’ll have chucked 6 figures or whatever it was Saints paid for him. He’ll be Mandron v2.0. Tbh, much like @Swello I’m more interested in the other guy.

The Danish Jamie Vardy is it?

It's over 200 employees (some will clearly be P/T etc). That's not included in this year's accounts.