Stu

Totally understandable if that's the problem, especially given the situation in his homeland. However, if that is the issue than it's a bit odd his club seem to be happy for him to go elsewhere in Scotland!

The Nahmani situation reminds me a bit of when we had Mooy. We went to a lot of effort to sign someone and then rarely used him, even though there's been indications there's a player in there. There could be a whole host of reasons why he isn't getting a game but, whatever is behind it, it's pretty clear he isn't going to get a shot. It's far easier getting him off the wage bill than ripping up someone's contract so we might as well cut our losses. Fully expect a repeat of this time last year when people went into meltdown because we punted Brophy out on loan, he looked amazing for a few games then did f**k all else.

Didn't write the article but I'm responsible for putting that online Should probably have put Palestinian in at the start, not that it makes much difference. I'd imagine not if you turned up at an SPFL game and claimed you were one, however I think it was a youth match and I'd imagine there's a child protection issue about a random guy turning up at a kids game and claiming he's a scout.

Assumed the cover/competition would be a youngster or someone out of contract we were bringing in on pennies. Given Tanser's form surprised it's someone in their mid 20s already at a club - although he hasn't been getting a game and doesn't appear to have played that many games for someone of that age. This is not me writing off someone I hadn't heard of until 10 minutes ago!

Is there really no equivalent of BACS with online banking apps in America? That's nuts.

We really struggle to break teams down that sit deep against us so being ultra defensive could work against us. 0-0 and penalties wouldn’t be a huge surprise.

And some cover at left wing back as well it seems.

Seemingly not:

As long as they don’t end up in Weegieland or they’ll miss the game.

Thanks to you and @mathematics for your incredibly generous donations- only injury will stop me, which given my track record isn’t a good omen

Hope the Queens support make it safely from the Borders to the game.

My sponsorship link if anyone has a few quid going spare... https://www.justgiving.com/page/stuartisturning40

Not really Saints related but it's the winter break and not much is going on. I'm running the Manchester Marathon in April, partly to raise money for Accord. If anyone wants to chuck me/them a few quid, I'd be grateful https://www.justgiving.com/page/stuartisturning40 If nothing else, you can have a laugh at a 30+ year old picture of me wearing a Saints tracksuit.

Aiden Gilmarton going on loan to Stranraer - thought he was already out on loan somewhere but maybe not. Either way can't see it making much difference to the budget.

My money would be on the club just down the coast from Morecambe where Burnley's former loans manager has just taken charge.

I know a few folk who had problems with Garmins switching off/losing charge rapidly during the really cold weather in December. Given it's really cold again, could that be the issue? I've a Forerunner 55 and had no issues (yet!), but it's only a year or so old.

Manchester Marathon in mid April will be my main focus, will probably do a few events on the club grand prix before then. I usually do three 13 mile runs a week and a longer one on a Friday so just a case of keeping that up and avoiding injury/illness - easier said than done! Have done a marathon before but will be doing this one for charity as well (not a charity place thankfully!). Bit awkward about getting sponsored when it's something I'd be doing anyway, but it's the first time I've done any sort of sponsorship thing so guessing plenty of folk owe me.

Offord recalled. Maybe he's going elsewhere but if he's staying, you'd imagine one of our other forwards is going because we were already well stocked in that area. Forgot it could also be because they're financially screwed and can't afford what they were paying of his wages.

Brilliant result, glad we’ve managed to get a win before the break. Anything from Tuesday is a bonus now.

A lovely way to end the year

That's the main problem for me at the moment. It's not just that we're not scoring, it's that in most games we're not even creating chances to miss. We had nothing really clear cut against Motherwell (aside from the penalty) and don't seem to have created anything until we were a couple of goals down yesterday. We seem to be starting a different striker alongside Ayunga every other week in the hope that something works (Stav presumably got a second shot because we actually scored with him in the team against County) when, for the most part, they're not the ones to blame because they've sod all to work with. Maybe it's because we have loads of forwards so it's the one area of the team where we can change things about, whereas we have hardly any options in midfield - surely the main reason O'Hara hasn't been dropped/rested/allowed to fully recover from whatever injury he had. As superb as he was last season, he has been really disappointing this year - the reverse of Main over the last few years! We weren't particularly prolific when we were going well earlier in the season but we were keeping it tight at the back. Now we don't seem to be doing that, and because the goals have dried up (three in eight games) we're struggling for form. The Strain injury is obviously a huge part of that - but I wonder if we've hit the stage where other folk have sussed Robinson's system, which the obsessed Motherwell fans told us would happen. The results and lack of goals suggest it is time to change things about with the system. The number of games in the next 10 days or so suggests it would be a sensible time to change around what few personnel we have to keep things fresh, and if a bigger change is coming it'll be after the break when we've had a chance to work on it in training.

Having Colin and Catch as neighbours strikes me as what it would be like living next door to the Mones.

The airport security woman I encountered in Nova Scotia was so full of stereotypical Canadian politeness it was bordering on offensive.

By coincidence, Roy Aitken was briefly mentioned on today's episode of Sacked in the Morning when Dean Windass was talking about getting three red cards in what turned out to be Aitken's last game in charge of Aberdeen. He also doesn't like Alex Miller: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gz41gr I think Aitken is the last player to be capped for Scotland while playing for Saints.

https://www.friendsoffootballnz.com/2023/12/05/takapuna-keeper-training-with-scottish-premiership-club-st-mirren/