capt_oats

I have no strong opinion on Ricky Fister. Actually, scratch that, "he was outed by Seb Faure as a vocal Yes voter in a Rangers dressing room which largely toed the Unionist line"...absolutely fine. Welcome aboard Richard. So, from the sound of that article he's taking the vacancy that Clarkson left when he was promoted but is also filling in for Kettlewell in the interim? That still leaves us looking for Kettlewell's permanent replacement plus an assistant manager and a Lasley replacement if we want to go wild.

How did he set his County teams out to play?

Following on from the whole Connor Shields has 4 goals in 4 games for QP chat, I saw Thistle bodied Dundee last night with Barry Maguire starting in midfield. Since I'm absolutely the type of loser who lurks about on other teams forums I noticed this comment from @Ludo*1 over on TDBF.

He's also a CAA Base client, which happens to be the agency Pearson works with. I mean, the links with other clubs started appearing a year ago so it's not like this has happened all of a sudden when his contract is expiring in a couple of months. This one is from 9th March 2022: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/max-johnston-sheffield-united-luton-26424613

I forgot about Tom Leighton who's another one that has been mentioned on here now and again when the Academy/Development conversation circles round. Slightly different in that he was offered pro-terms with us AFAIK but instead went to Watford. https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/sport/14711158.tom-leighton-scottish-youngster-time-benfica-becoming-next-oliver-burke/

We did, aye.

Speaking of the POTM:

The flip of that post yesterday about which Academy players have moved for compensation is clearly which Academy players have moved while still under contract: Dom Thomas (to Kilmarnock) Jack McMillan (to Livingston) Ross MacLean (to Falkirk) Reece McAlear (to Norwich) James Scott (to Hull) Stuart McKinstry (to Leeds) David Turnbull (to Celtic) I suppose the eye opener is the number who have come through the Academy that have simply been released at varying stages of their career in the same period and this is really the point when folk are wondering why we're not tying players down to long contracts.: Stuart Carswell Josh Moore Jordan Pettigrew David Ferguson Craig Moore Dylan Mackin Luke Watt Jason Krones Jordan Armstrong Alfredo Agyeman Shaun Bowers Shea Gordon Liam Brown Kyle MacDonald Broque Watson Neil McLaughlin Jack Brown Adam Livingston Adam Kettings Cole Starrs Yusuf Hussain Matthew McDonald Sam Muir Cammy Williamson Paul Hale Lewis Robertson Jamie Semple Findlay Cook PJ Morrison Lawton Green Cody McLeod Some of those were players who came through the Academy from the start of their careers and some were signed specifically to play in the Development team eg: Shea Gordon, Liam Brown, Shaun Bowers, Neil McLaughlin. Either way, it highlights the fine balance when it comes to Academy development.

How far back do you want to go? Lee Erwin (to Leeds) Ben Hall (to Brighton) Robbie Leitch (to Burnley) Jake Hastie (to Rangers) Chris Cadden (to Columbus Crew) Robbie Hemfrey (to Stoke) Allan Campbell (to Luton) Bailey Rice (to Rangers - although that's cheating a bit because he hadn't actually signed pro-terms) The likes of McAlear and McKinstry were sold while the were under contract albeit McAlear had apparently said straight up he wouldn't be signing a new deal when his current one ended and had expressed his intention to sign for Norwich anyway. I mean, you only have to look at the number of our formerly "highly rated" youngsters now kicking a baw for the podcast team in the Lowland League to see that it's pretty fine margins when it comes to getting these decisions right. We chucked long term deals at DT23 and Luke Watt and it kind of feels like our strategy when it comes to Academy players has been informed by us having been burned with those. Still waiting to cash in on that Dom Thomas sell on. We tied Allan Campbell down to a 4 year deal when he was 19 (the same age as Johnston is now). Lennon Miller is on a 3 year deal. For me there are probably a number of factors at play with Johnston, some within our control and others not. He's 19 now and we know he signed his first pro deal in 2020 which was the Covid season so there was no Reserves football being played. We've loaned him out to help his development and as others have mentioned he did OK - much like Hastie before him. The fact that we ended up bouncing him out on loan again this season essentially because the manager fell out with SOD and signed his replacement, leaving us with 2 international full backs, is kind of where I have the problem. From the outside looking in Johnston's someone that we've never really seemed to have a plan for and for me @Casagolda's point about a lack of leadership rings true for me. I've no doubt that we've been discussing a new deal for a while. IIRC Hammell was saying at the AGM that he was "very confident" that it'd get done but given the way things have gone for him I don't blame him or his Mr 20% for choosing to keep their options open. Given the way Hickey and Ferguson's career developed over there there's not even the argument that he probably won't get a chance either. Honestly, if this deal comes off then absolutely fair fucks to him.

See, I don't disagree with that. In fact, I fully agree that we shouldn't be rushing the appointment. The problem, for me, is the fact that we now seem to have zero comms strategy and haven't since Grant Russell left last summer. Say what you like about the house style when Grant was here (with Burrows above him) but as a fanbase we had a clear idea of what was going on. Btw, this isn't a criticism of the media team at the minute, it's more about it appearing that there's very little direction and it's something that's amplified by us having been very good at that sort of stuff in the past. The fact that it took us 24 hours to draft a statement and address the fact that Aberdeen had announced Burrows was taking the job doesn't really do anything to help. Aye. For avoidance of doubt I have absolutely zero issue with Flow here. The whole thing with the usual no' righters in the comments getting bent out of shape about him taking the Aberdeen job is a mile out. I don't subscribe to the idea that because he said he'd be in position until the replacement was in place that it's some sort of mark against him that he hasn't. As I say, situations change. Where I need convincing is with the communication of this stuff - as you say, there's a statement released that says we had contracted an agency to headhunt for us then a couple of days later the job advert appears and the Agency head confirms it. Given we're able to work out a rough timeframe of events then regardless of whether we had sounded folk out via backchannels, in terms of optics it doesn't really instil confidence. As @Swello says in the post above that's the sort of stuff that raises questions mid-long term.

I'm definitely not counting chickens. I still have doubts and questions but the fact that an average of 1 pt per game through to the end of the season should probably see us alright is definitely a better position than we were in a fortnight ago. Assuming that the main problem was indeed Hammell and Kerr and the players don't take the huff from here on in then there's a fairly achievable pathway for us to just trundle our way to the end of the season. The quicker we actually win the necessary games the better, mind. Without getting ahead of myself a win against County and St Johnstone losing to Hearts at Tynecastle would put us only a point behind them. Which is frankly hilarious. I mean, we still have senior staff positions vacant and given Burrows is now standing free I wonder who's dealing with that day to day stuff...like are we having contract conversations etc. Is McMahon taking that stuff on? I get that circumstances change and all that but it's kind of hard not to at least partly agree with the gist of this Tweet from Nick McPheat yesterday. Given the turnaround in the past fortnight it'd be nice to be able to have a bit of confidence that the club have given themselves a shake too.

Cheers. So the mandatory 10 game ban wasn't in place when the incident took place (November 7th 2021)? I take it that's Rule 81?

Also, was the rule that Lafferty was given his 10 game ban for not only introduced this season? As @Busta Nut says the actual incident where Slattery was charged with being an arsehole was in 2021. Albeit he was up in court and pled guilty in October 2022. Are the SPFL going to take action about an incident that predated the punishment being introduced and had also been dealt with by an actual court? Also, as Busta points out just because the club didn't publicly confirm they'd taken any action doesn't mean they didn't deal with it internally.

Furious middle aged Killie fans gesticulating wildly after Slatts' equaliser is it?

Fucksake Graeme.

We paid training compensation for Tierney. Ojala was under contract when we signed him as well.

There's a bit of analysis of our accounts from Kieran Maguire in his Twitter feed.

If you want the pretty dry answer then it's more than likely the case that Brexit has put a premium on the players who were in the market we were shopping so the wages have inflated accordingly. It means your Ainsworth, Johnston, Moult etc that we were able to pick up for a nominal fee on the promise of giving them a platform 7 or 8 years ago are getting paid multiples of our wage structure in League 1, League 2 and the Conference in England. Which is probably why we've started looking at recruiting from other markets. I mean, that squad included Samson in goals, Zak Jules, Lee Lucas, Craig Clay, Jacob Blyth amongst others so I'd maybe hold off on romanticising our "quality" too much. As it stands we've a centre forward who's on course to score more goals in a season for us than Moult ever did. Also, none of that argues against @thisGRAEME's point on the Patreon pod asking why Livi are able to sign folk like Omeonga (Bartley probably had a word with him but still...).

To pick up on SK's chat about appointing an assistant yesterday: Genuinely interested to see who ends up getting the gig.

I know we all dissected the press conferences post-Grezza and ultimately it doesn't really mean that much what they say in public but nevertheless it's interesting to hear what the general line is. This is what McGinn has had to say about SK: I mean, no fucking shit Paul. The fact he's talking about Kettlewell speaking clearly and getting to the point kind of reinforces SK's pitch and how he said he was going to approach the job. Also from Kettlewell himself: Yes please.

Beloved but barely watched. Starz have brought back Party Down for a 3rd season and I for one could not be happier. From what I can see it's airing on the Lionsgate channel via Amazon Prime over here. Most of the original cast are back: Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, Megan Mullany, Ryan Hansen and Martin Star. No Lizzy Caplan though (booo).

This aired in the US a while ago so I was aware of it through various US based TV pods I listen to but just landed on Disney+ earlier this week over here. For fans of: Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig, Woody Allen. It's an 8 part limited series based on Taffy Brodesser-Akner's novel. I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it. I've always found Jesse Eisenberg stuff quite marmite depending on his role but he's ideal for this and it's is a great cast - Claire Danes, Lizzy Caplan, Adam Brody and Josh Radnor.