Coventry Saint

I once heard a story on the radio about a guy who got a puppy. The first time he let it off the lead, the puppy tore off into some bushes where he found an whole rotisserie chicken that someone had left. That dog grew old and was walked past those bushes every day, and every time would insist on checking the bushes just in case there was a chicken there. Charles Dunne is that dog; the chicken is the long pass that found its target the first time he tried it.

Some absolutely mad characters on Twitter (yeah, I know...) Guys insisting we now have to replace McGrath as if they've been paying zero attention for the past six months.

We're doing great business here. Gogic is also a great signing.

Sorry, I didn't really mean fringe players, but realise that wasn't clear. More meant just making little tweaks to improve what we have, which we undoubtedly have done in this case. Obviously it makes the windows more boring but holy hell it's a nice position to be in.

I'm absolutely delighted with this signing. We weren't in a bad place, and it's great to be looking to make key improvements around the edges of the squad rather than having to rip up the whole thing.

Calm down, Fritzl.

He's certainly not that good. Your summary is decent. He's incredibly tidy on the ball, and outstanding at working in tight spaces. His work rate is outstanding. Of course, he will improve in a better team. Beyond that... Greg Kiltie is a better number 10, and I'm not just saying that. If we keep McGrath for the rest of the season, Kiltie will outscore and out-assist him.

It's utterly fucking ridiculous. Thank f**k it's nearly over. We hope.

People who can't see the value in Gogic play 2-3-5 on Football Manager; pass it on.

Hibs using Gogic as a makeweight after saying he can leave is the same energy as us recalling Cammy to get a fee from St Johnstone. They might as well leverage an asset where they can.

Yeah. 150k + Gogic will inevitably make a lot of people complain but I don't think it's terrible.

Championship forum for this shite.

On the latter point, I don't think we do. I think there's an argument for playing McGrath, Kiltie and Ronan behind Brophy, against the OF for example when we might benefit from a more compact midfield. (I'm not arguing for dropping Henderson; just saying it might work and be an option.)

If he's got his future sorted then he seems the type to knuckle down and perform. I hope.

They saying now or the summer?

I'm a lot further down the east coast and it's absolutely fucking mental here. No surprise this is off.

Mentioned freedom of Paisley before. I'm not sure what that really means, but symbolically it'd be a decent show of respect IMO. A young player award would also be fitting.

"Charlie, gies a lift, Charlie Charlie gies a lift..." As @Lex said, that defeat at SMP was a real low point this season. One of the more ineffectual performances I can remember from a Saints team over the past few years. Even thinking about it now is raising my blood pressure. Our players do seem to have clicked with the new system, albeit we still managed to invite a lot of pressure onto ourselves against both Aberdeen and Dundee United. Bookies have us as marginal favourites but it really could go either way, assuming we actually show up this time. However, the real value is in the 11/2 for Adam and Power to both get booked, so I've sunk a fiver into that.

That's a lovely read, thanks for reposting. It's true: you really only do read amazing stuff about him as a man. As much as I hate the royals/honours system, he'd be deserving of an honour of some sort. Perhaps there's something more appropriate that he could be given. Freedom of Paisley or something like that.

Two things: he's been getting trained by Jamie Langfield who is, by all accounts, a phenomenal goalkeeping coach. Secondly, he's behind a couple of genuinely brilliant keepers, so chances have naturally been very limited. I hope he gets some games for you; lack of reserve games means he deffo needs it.

Which, tbf, brings us back to your original point and yes, I wonder if there's a danger McGrath's agent has shot for the moon and fallen well short.

Safe to say Shaughnessy was playing the long game and it's worked out beautifully for him.

Yeah, I was a bit surprised to hear Jim drop that in. He usually chooses his words really carefully so to mention the dad in that way... must be pretty bad. I think it's really interesting insight; fair play to the interviewer for getting that out of him. To be fair, lots of folk's natural inclination is to blame the club when there's dicking about like this, but a) there's clearly no doubt where the fault lies here and I think we're being beyond reasonable with the player and b) it's actually nice to hear us defending our corner a little bit. After the way we acted with Cammy's move to the Fakes, I'm hoping this is a new not-to-be-messed-with St Mirren.

I'm going to sound like a broken record here about McGrath's agent being either shite at his job or completely at it, but it's nice to hear Jim confirm as much. He sounds pretty fucked with the situation as well.

Tony Fitzpatrick retiring at end of March. Will remain as club ambassador. Stone cold legend.