Forfinn

I'm going to stray in to book spoiler territory here, because apparently this hasn't been shown in the show, but is mentioned in the books. I'll spoiler tag the whole lot just in case.

I think you're right. The wildfire incident in season 6 was a deliberate attempt to clear the decks of unnecessary characters, setting up three main power blocs led by Cersei, Daenerys and Jon Snow. I reckon season 7 will end up with Cersei defeated by Dany, and her and Jon Snow about to face off before Dany is convinced they need to team up to face the White Walkers. Then season 8 will be Dany/Jon/dragons vs White Walkers. It'll be a lot of fun, but probably not have the same level of intrigue as earlier seasons.

This was my personal highlight. The podcast is worth a listen, even if it's just to laugh at the sheer nonsense Smith seems to have convinced himself of.

On the subject of Thomas Mikkelsen, I've turned my sleuthing skills to trying to work out what, if anything, we paid for him. Most Scottish media outlets have avoided the issue entirely, just using County's Spartan press release and adding in a bit about his spell at Dundee Utd. Notable exceptions are STV who said he "joins the Highlanders following his release from Danish side Odense at the end of last season" and The Courier who reported he was "released by Danish side Odense". So assuming that STV and the Courier aren't just making assumptions, that all points to him being a free agent. However, having run the article from the official Odense website through both Google and Microsoft translators to get something intelligible, it appears his contract has been terminated after discussions with Ross County. Given there's been direct contact between the two clubs, it's probably reasonable to assume there's some compensation involved, even though Odense don't mention it. The Twitter chatter from Odense fans suggests they don't expect it to have been much more than his remaining salary costs and speculate it was around 500k Danish Krone (£59k). So that's pretty much all we've got to go on. The question I have is, why am I having to do this digging? I think the club should have included something in their press release about whether he was a free agent, or if a fee was involved (even if it was just "undisclosed"), but that's their prerogative. Why, though, are journalists not following this up? It's an obvious question, but most outlets have left it out entirely, presumably because they don't care enough to go to the extra effort to ask. Either that or the club are refusing to answer. Unless STV and the Courier did ask and have been given half the story (as he has been released, but only after talks with County). So after all that, we're not really any further forward... but on balance I reckon we've probably paid a small fee to Odense.

I've given this more thought, and decided the fault more likely lies with the La Manga Club who I assume organised the opposition as part of the service. I'd be surprised if McIntyre and Dodds were expecting a team from one of Murcia's professional teams as neither are actually called "Murcia", but sounds as if the opposition wasn't of the level they were led to believe they were going to get. The English version of the earlier La Manga Club tweet I posted explicitly says "Murcia Invitational". Killie appear to have played a similar game while out at the same resort too. As a support, we blithely assumed Murcia meant we were playing Real Murcia (who used to be in La Liga but are now rubbish). Perhaps the club could have been clearer and said it was an invitational team, but probably not something to get too worked up over. Hopefully Valenciennes put out a decent team for the game tonight. It'll be an interesting test if they do.

Sounds like a bit of a breakdown in communication. A tweet from @LaMangaClub translates to: "Party-friendly first this summer season. @RCFCStaggies vs. a set of players on different teams of Murcia #LaMangaClub" I'm not entirely clear who the club thought they'd be playing though. It was advertised on the club website as "Ross County v Murcia", but whether that was supposed to be a regional select XI, a team from UCAM Murcia CF or the formerly quite good Real Murcia, I'm not sure. Looks like the next game is definitely against a real team though given they're charging actual money to get in. Also, *OLD BADGE KLAXON* but someone with the same shade of blue as the new badge. How does that hybrid even exist?!

Speaking of Graham, do we know how much of a payment Hibs getting promoted has resulted in?

I don't mind McEveley. I think he gets a bit of a bad rep, although it's questionable whether he justifies the salary he's on. I wouldn't be surprised if we were at least open to offers to take him off our hands. You could probably spend less money on the wages of an up and coming centre back instead who could do just as well but I don't think it would be worth paying him off though.

I think this. Davies and McEveley are both a bit injury-prone/old, so having Kenny in the mix along with Fraser and Naismith at centre-back is no bad thing. And if Kelly doesn't do as well as hoped at LB/LWB then we know Kenny can do a job there too. I reckon we've got quite a decent defence now.

That was my logic, yes. We've a number of players who can play in different positions, but with our current personnel we're well-served at wing-back but short up front. On that basis, I put him in as a striker. I'd rather see a new striker ahead of Dow in the pecking order and them utilise him on the wing/wing-back. ETA: I wonder how McIntyre envisages Keillor-Dunn fitting in? I've never seen him play, but have seen him described as a winger. Does he have the attributes to play wing-back as well?

It was against a team up at my gran's bit. You wouldn't know them.

Everything about the @rosscountylive account makes it look like a fake account, except for the fact it's got a blue tick. It's odd.

As a Hungary (x2) and Holland (x1) veteran, La Manga doesn't excite me at all. For the previous trips, the football was a good hook to get me to interesting cities I hadn't been to before. La Manga isn't anywhere near as interesting as Budapest or Amsterdam so I'm saving my holidays for other stuff. None of the Central Staggies are going, but I know two other County fans who are, so hopefully they get a couple of good games to report back on.

Pretty much this. There's a lot of folk bemoaning these release clauses and saying we shouldn't use them, but the fact is they're inserted in to contracts to persuade the player to sign on for longer. We'd have lost Irvine and Boyce sooner, and probably for even less money, without them.

I'm not sure we've actually had a General Manager (in terms of the actual job title) since Ranald left, have we?

I can't wait until @yoda hears about us signing Dougie Imrie...

The first version of the BBC article this morning quoted the St Duthus tweet, and finished with "Ross County has retweeted the tribute". Now, several hours later, Wigan have managed to give a quote - a club who he played one season for - but the club at which he got a world record still haven't said anything. Great.

I think that's a peculiarity of the minimum fee release clause. Didn't ICT have this occur with Tansey and Aberdeen a year or two ago? Aberdeen argued they'd met the release clause but ICT claimed they hadn't because they weren't offering it up front, I think. So that would be the upside of losing Boyce for £500k - we'd potentially have that in the bank straight away. Alternatively, negotiate a higher fee, but paid in instalments.

Regardless of the source, £500k is entirely believable. We lost Jackson for £300k. I would not be surprised at all to find a minimum fee release clause was inserted in Boyce's contract (at his request) when he renewed it last time.

Can't wait for Maiden at the Hydro tomorrow. Saw them for the Dance of Death tour in 2003 and they were excellent. Saw them again for A Matter of Life and Death in 2007(?) and was underwhelmed. I gave the Final Frontier tour a miss as a result. Sounds like they're on form now, so that's good.

I've barely listened to midweek Sportsound since discovering the Terrace podcast a few months ago. Thought I'd dip in to last night's podcast on my way to work this morning, and good lord, the in-depth discussion about Rangers really was tedious. Jim Spence's interjection was amusing, but most of the rest is surely of absolutely no interest to anyone who isn't obsessed with Rangers? I think I'll go back to just listening to the Terrace. It's refreshing listening to people who actually seem to give a damn about football that doesn't involve the Old Firm for a change.

Not to mention the fact Barry Wilson can never get it right on Sportsound, despite the fact he consistently hears Richard Gordon pronouncing it correctly.

That's virtually the same as me. Folk won't be able to tell us apart next time I see you I tend to go on the rowing machine as a bit of a warm down at the end of a cardio session, just for 1km though, in about 4:30/5mins. A good use of time while the heart rate slows down from running.

It's a strange alliance, right enough. Seems like classic "my enemy's enemy is my friend" territory. A predictable response from the SGA, but a surprising attitude from MS. But just to pick up on your timeline of deforestation, you can't really blame crofters. Crofting is form of land tenure born out of the decline of the clan system and the Highland Clearances in the 18th and 19th centuries. Deforestation has been happening in Scotland for much longer than that due to agriculture and need for timber. By the time the Romans arrived in the 1st century, it's estimated we had already lost half of our native forests. Estates evicting their tenants during the Clearances and replacing them with a huge influx of the "Great White Sheep", the rise of unregulated deer populations on sporting estates, cheap timber exports (meaning less need to protect our own woodland), and WWI all combined to bring our forestry levels to a nadir by the early 20th century. Reforestation, and rewilding more generally, seeks to repair the ecological damage we've done over millennia. Whilst there's beauty in Scotland's stark landscapes, a lot of them are only that way because we destroyed what was there before. I understand the reservations some groups have about reintroduction of species - it's a delicate process, but trees should be much less contentious. Both groups aren't positioning themselves against tree planting, but are emphasising that it needs to be managed properly, which is promising. I doubt anyone would disagree with that, but I struggle with the notion that all these desolate landscapes that we created need to be protected at all costs because somehow they epitomise Scotland and tourists won't come if we replace them with rich and varied woodland brimming with wildlife.

I saw that event at the Usher Hall advertised. Was very interested in going, but thought they were taking the piss charging over £30 a ticket. Was it worth the price?