the_bully_wee

I heard through a mutual friend that Adam Cummins' out-of-football work circumstances have changed, and Stranraer have agreed that they will terminate his new contract, on the condition that he signs for a lower-ranked club. As I understand it, Queen's are ahead of a couple of other League Two clubs in securing his signature. He'd make-up a tremendous back three alongside Scott Gibson and your new man from Largs.

I addressed that point in a previous post and, without knowing the figures involved, it's fair to say that this situation constitutes either extreme cheapness from Stenhousemuir (a few thousand equates to about £50/week out of your budget), or piss-taking out-pricing from Cowdenbeath. If it's the case that Stenhousemuir have been tight b*****ds then Cowdenbeath are, of course, entirely blameless here and well within their rights to act how they have. Hopefully Swann will either be allowed to move on for a sensible sum or be given the opportunity to establish himself as a starter at Cowdenbeath, because it would be a shame if his career was held back by this sorry episode. It's hard to imagine that Bollan will see him as his first choice, even if he does stay, whereas it looked for all the world as though he was McMenamin's main man for the left-back/left-wing-back slot at Stenny.

You'd be justified in asking for more money if he was demonstrably a first-choice player, rather than a second or third choice in his position within a poor side. I know he's popular among the support, but it's pretty obvious that Bollan doesn't rate him particularly highly, otherwise Blair Malcolm wouldn't be playing out of position to keep him on the bench. He wouldn't have played nearly as much this season if Talbot was fit, and as such any compensation should be minimal. It's a shame to see Cowdenbeath holding the player ransom given the contribution he's made to your club and the squad status he's had to endure.

Which rules have they breached, exactly? If anything, the PFA would come down on Cowdenbeath for trying to fence in a player who was his manager's third-choice in his preferred position at times this season. Swann clearly doesn't want to be with you any longer and is being priced out of moving by the club, despite not having agreed to a new contract. The common-sense outcome all-round would have been for Cowden to seek compensation to the tune of a few thousand pounds, not prohibitively high but also not a freebie either. It would be pretty cheap of Stenhousemuir not to pay a small four-figure sum for his services, which would amount to only a small proportion of their playing budget. Perhaps the clubs could even have come to a gentleman's agreement for Swann not to feature against Cowdenbeath next season, or some such. As it is, the boy's footballing career looks to be being held back by Cowdenbeath's excessive demands for an out-of-contract, bit-part player. Hopefully, for his sake, that won't be the case.

He started about half your league games, and it would have been even less than that if not for Talbot's injury troubles. He was, of course, useful, but the point I'm making is that his squad player status for a shite team should be reflected in relatively minor compensation being awarded/asked for. They could have taken it to a tribunal, but then they would have run the risk of the compensation being set at a ridiculous level close to what Cowdenbeath were asking for. Again, I'm not saying they aren't. My point is that a development fee for a 21-year-old squad player at a bottom-half League Two club should be a pittance. It's a tricky situation for all involved, and it's Cowdenbeath's prerogative to demand whatever they want, but the big loser in all this is the player and it's Cowden who are holding him back.

If he's been shafted by anyone then it's Cowdenbeath, who have ostensibly offered him another contract solely to ensure that they are entitled to compensation should he move elsewhere, and then demanded an amount of it which Stenny deemed excessive. It's not a particularly good look for the club, and is the sort of thing which might make young players think twice before signing for you. Of course, this all depends on just how much Cowden demanded, but I can't imagine Stenny will have jettisoned the whole deal for the sake of a few grand.

29 league starts in two full first-team seasons for a bottom-half side isn't a huge amount. In any case, it's not as if he was a key player for Cowdenbeath or even particularly highly thought of by the manager, so that should figure in limiting the amount of compensation due. It's a shite situation for Swann, who will either now have to remain a player underneath a dino who doesn't rate him or continue elsewhere as an unpaid amateur through no fault of his own. He'd no doubt have been Stenhousemuir's first-choice and utilised in a manner which suited his strengths.

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It's not very clear from the SFA's published Registration Procedures (or if it's provided for, I've missed it), but my understanding of it is that no compensation - or very little - would have been due if Swann rejected the contract Cowdenbeath had offered him and allowed his present deal to expire, and he would then have been free to sign for Stenhousemuir as a free agent without the need for compensation. It seems to me (though I could be wrong, and would be happily corrected) that it was the 'pre-contract' nature of the approach which means that compensation - either on terms agreed mutually by the clubs or, failing that, a tribunal - was due, as it is when a player under 24 is offered a new contract on the same (or better) terms by his parent club. ETA: it's a terrible oversight from Stenhousemuir, but given Swann's lack of appearances over the past two seasons it's hard to imagine that a tribunal would rule in favour of awarding Cowdenbeath a large fee for a player who isn't exactly a young pup. Perhaps Stenny just don't feel it's worth the risk.

fair enough. For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure he'll have you safe, but I think you'll end up closer to ninth than fourth given how other teams are shaping up and the fact he's already started with the budget chat. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, and a season of consolidation wouldn't be the worst thing given the ongoing issues RE: ownership and control. Stefan is a wee dick (taking a large signing-on fee at Peterhead, only to soon after "fall out of love with the game" and engineer a release and swift signing for Alloa) but like you say, he seems to be the Niko Kranjcar to Jim's Harry Redknapp.

Do all Dumbarton fans on P&B indulge in this Old Firm-esque level of whataboutery, or has 'The Moonster' just completely lost the plot for no reason here? It's been a long time since we've shared a division, so I would appreciate some views.

Duffy is very much a manager who performs "to budget" - and he lets everyone know about it. It happened at Clyde, where he started off with very little - letting us know at every opportunity - and failed to attract any players, bar a few short-term loanees, of real quality. As his budget grew, we became incrementally better, but still relied on Duffy being able to positively coach rejects from teams in and around us. He often spoke of the club taking baby steps in its recovery - it's League Two, ffs - before eventually leading us to fourth place in his final season in charge. During one previous season, we were not miles off promotion play-off contention and he said on Clyde 1 SSB in January that we had no chance of making them I do rate Duffy as a coach and manager, but he's pretty hopeless at attracting good players on a low-to-middling budget unless he lucks-out with loans or a stand-out young player (he brought in Declan Gallagher for a season at Clyde, who was a stand-out in a shite team). If he's bleating about resources already, then I can only imagine it'll be a season of looking down the way rather than upwards for Dumbarton. On Stefan McCluskey; despite his positive statistics, I've spoken to a couple of Pollok fans who are glad to see the back of him. His attitude has always been fairly questionable.

Trying to start this up and every single time it's EK who come up, which I've really not got any time for. The first time it was Gretna 2008, and I thought that was bad... on my tenth reboot from mid-March at present.

Pretty bizarre stuff, but the venues have all fallen pretty kindly. Will be nice to absolutely hammer QP to secure qualification to the knockouts.

At this point I'm unsure whether it's complete ignorance or you're just P&B's most underrated wind-up merchant, but I'll bite and kill this off anyway:

Which pieces of "slagging" do you disagree with, exactly? That we played better without him, that he's not mobile, that we generally picked up better results when he didn't start? Ultimately, the biggest "slagging" was done by Danny Lennon, who released him; probably for the reasons several Clyde fans have outlined. Should we be sacking him for showing such disrespect to a promotion-winning captain? Like I've stated, I hope he does exceedingly well at Stirling, but - as we like to hear about our new signings - I am here offering my opinion on their signing of him. He certainly did well for us late in the season when brought on to stifle games in the closing stages and I've no doubt he's a smashing guy, but if Stirling are looking to win promotion then they'll need to be signing better players for their starting XI than Nicoll.

Lang was demonstrably one of our three best players by the season's end, whereas Nicoll was rightly on the bench because we were a far better team without him. It's strange that Currie wasn't offered such protection and adoration by some when he, unlike Nicoll, started virtually every game of that promotion season. It would be a lie to come on here and tell Stirling fans that Nicoll will be a stand-out for them; I am merely calling it how I see it. That doesn't mean I don't wish for him to thrive there. As with every player his name will go down in history as a member of the squad which earned this promotion (as club captain, no less), and rightfully so. But it's more than a little wishful to suggest he's still a great force on the park.

Acknowledging the severe limitations of a player does not constitute "slagging him off". The simple fact is that a player needs to have more to his game than being able to win aerial duels and 50/50s in the middle of the park; before his stint in the juniors/return to senior football with us, he was a very good player because he combined those attributes with some mobility. He's lost a yard of pace, though, and his all-round game ultimately means he isn't particularly effective any more. Danny Lennon said himself multiple times that he wishes he had "Kevin Nicoll of five years ago". That's not to say he's not a good guy or that he's disliked in any way whatsoever - he was, in fact, very useful for us coming on to close out games when we were protecting leads or could give starters a rest. Of the seventeen games Kevin Nicoll started last season (in league/play-off competition), we had a win rate of 47% (W8 D3 L6) . In the twenty-three he didn't start, that increased to almost 83% (W19 D3 L1), remarkably with only one loss (up at Elgin after the points deduction) among that. I don't think even the most ardent fan of his could look at those statistics and say he was a key performer for us last season, regardless of his effort, commitment and leadership qualities. Anyway, this is a Stirling Albion thread. I'd say that their recruitment has been sound, but fairly unspectacular so far. Jordan Lowdon's bad knee injury has robbed him of the blistering pace which he formerly possessed and which made him such a potent attacking threat, and between him and Creaney I don't see that as any improvement on Jordan Allan. Wilson is a smart addition, but it's hard to pick a good blend in midfield out of he, Docherty, Jardine and Nicoll. Hawke and Peters aren't improvements on what Stirling already had either, IMO, in fact they're probably weaker up top now without Smith. They look a decent shout for the play-offs at present, but given their form in the second half of the season and a lack of genuine quality among the new recruits, it would be a stretch to imagine they'll be serious title contenders.

Best bit of Kristoffer's journey on Instagram sees him walking through what looks like the town centre with an extroverted, quintessentially Glaswegian female accomplice (someone from his church group, perhaps) who is loud-mouthedly bodying him for "giving up on his dream". His story serves as a heartening reminder to all footballers that if they stick in, work hard and battle through set-backs then one day, they just might get to play for Clyde FC.

I'm not sure what I've just read - or if I'm in fact dreaming - but I am living for this content and hope some more City players are released post-haste so I can consume more of it.

Have Stirling signed any more of our rejects?

https://www.fvn.no/lokalsporten/i/Wb8QGr/-Livet-er-mer-enn-fotball_-Kristoffer Just clocked this article Kristoffer Syvertsen's posted on Twitter. Having gone through and translated all his career blog-style Instagram posts just after he signed for us, and allied to his boyband-member good looks along with his fancy footwork and foreignness, I've always had a major soft spot for him. The article itself doesn't translate brilliantly well into English, but he tells the story of his journey in professional football in it. Nice wee read.

Happy enough with that, but if we've ambitions of making a serious splash in League One, we'll need better at centre- and left-back IMO.

Never been the same since his taps-aff ejection from Forthbank a few years ago.