Coventry Saint

If we 'salvage' the situation by virtue of Livi somehow being worse than us, we don't get to activate any possible relegation clause. It's a legit Catch 22.

Two of my top five Saints were heavy and ponderous looking, in fairness

I wasn't just being picky: I think it's fair to separate out the first two spells because he did play a big part in keeping us up under Rae. What the hell happened to him that summer - he was terrible for us and then for Morton - was anyone's guess. I'm pleased for the lad now though and can well imagine him being top scorer in the Championship this season. Maybe we should sign him for our 2019/20 promotion challenge

He was actually bloody good the first time, and shit the second time. It's the (not happening) third time we're discussing here.

We currently can't score against lower league opposition in the cup, so it would represent an improvement.

Right, f**k it, who's up for an 11-team Championship? We might as well fucking stay down and save everyone the hassle. This season is going to be really painful.

not overly concerned at all apart from at LB. hoping the lad ralph just had nerves making his home debut. how does paul mcginn look so far? i rated him at dens I'd file him under 'will do an ok job' at the moment. It's tough for him because Liam Smith was so good. The concern is that McGinn might be alright in a decent team, but will look poor/exposed at Alan Stubbs's St Mirren.

I actually didn't think you were that bad yesterday. Mendy missed a few chances but he looked lively and was getting into decent positions. The League Cup is ripe for 'shocks', I wouldn't be overly concerned if I was a Dundee fan after that, tbh.

Well, as long as he's learned not to leave it too late...

McGinn bollocking everyone after five minutes of that Dunfermline game at EEP will stay with me forever. What a guy

King looked decent on Friday, I thought. My suspicion is that you can get away with dropping any one of these guys into an established side and they'll be fine, but four or five at once is too much.

Didn't see the game, but doesn't sound good about Kellerman and Cooke, in particular. Then again, were they any worse than, say McShane, Flynn or Smith? Sometimes teams are just collectively rubbish and games at this time of year absolutely should be about figuring out what's needed, who fits and who doesn't. It is the flaw in the system that we've not been able to play any proper friendlies and get this shite out our system*. I saw enough promise on Friday to suggest it's not completely beyond hope. Plus, makes me wonder if we all underrate the work that Danny Mullen does. *Then again, you see what Motherwell did last night and realise that sometimes it really is straightforward to beat the smaller teams.

He'd do a job for us though, surely? We're trying to finish above Livingston and Hamilton, not Celtic and Aberdeen, after all...

Is he not rated? Not one for the future or anything?

I honestly wouldn't want it to be spent on the squad, certainly not in one go. We've been there before as a club and it was a fucking nightmare. We spent most of the 90s trying to recover, in fact.

Well, it's likely to be the difference between being one of three at the very bottom, or potentially finishing 7th-9th (with my realistic head on). It's a sum of money that outweighs anything we've received any time recently, yet it would be arriving at a time when we don't actually need it (ie for club survival). So it'd be the very definition of a windfall.

Give it a rest.

Ok, that explains it. He certainly has the physique and the speed for it - he was decent on the ball as well, all things considered. Struck me as being in the Kyle Walker mould of 'might make mistakes, but has the ability to recover'. I guess we probably need cover at FB, then - a Stelios-type who could play both sides - and at least one more CH.

I think we need two centre halves as well, if Gary Mack is away. Unless we think Kpekawa is going to play there all the time. I think he looked good at CH, but you could tell it wasn't totally natural to him. Here's the squad as it stands (players in italics are likely to be moving on, either transferred or on loan): GK: Samson, Rodgers Fullbacks: McGinn, Kpekawa (possibly also a CH), Coulson, Eckersley CH: Baird, Mackenzie, Heaton Central/holding midfielders: McGinn, Flynn, Magennis, McShane, MacPherson Attacking/wide midfielders-cum-forward players who aren't quite strikers: Smith, King, Kellerman, Kirkpatrick* Strikers: Mullen, Cooke, Stewart Have I missed anyone? That leaves us looking very thin at CH, possibly at FB, and definitely in players operating behind the striker. * I actually thought Kirkpatrick was ok on Friday night, though he did lack composure a couple of times. I am just assuming he'd be going back to Alloa, but if he's impressed, then great.

The most St Mirreny thing possible at this point would be sign him on a short deal, watch him bang them in for six months then f**k off to a rival in January Agreed, though, it'd be insanity to give him longer.

Eoin Jess is definitely one to watch, mind.

Possibly as a make weight for us getting bumped in the John McGinn deal? I think that's shaping up pretty well, tbh. Growing talk of interest from south of the border, which can only bump up the price. It may come down to Meatball's personal ambitions. Not sure if any of his family have Celtic links - surely it would have been mentioned by now if they had - but he's obviously keen on moving there. The biggest danger is him sitting tight and waiting for a big fat PCA.

Assuming we are going to line up in a 4-3-3 as we did on Friday, and we sign this 'exciting' striker, and we keep Mullen, you'd assume Doolan would be third choice for the central striker slot, and we've already got Cooke, too. I'm simply not sure we'd need him. (Then again, I wonder if we'll shift to more of a 4-2-3-1 just to get the best out the players we've got - I liked the look of King so him, Smith, plus A.N. Other in the three behind the striker would be promising.) McGinn and Flynn at the base of midfield.

31. Odd one that. That'd be two players from a relegated side last season (happy as I am with McGinn). As you say, hopefully a squad player.

I'd imagine it'd tend to be Aberdeen's form against 'the rest' that might scupper any realistic title challenge - ie dropped points here and there against the middle order. Therefore you could imagine Celtic not wanting to strengthen them against those teams. Then again, Cellic may see Sevco as their main challengers this season, in which case it'd make sense to help strengthen Aberdeen. The best solution, of course, is to loan some decent players to St Mirren and help us take points from both of the above