an86

All three offer full-time professional football. A number of others offer semi-professional opportunities.

I’m asking why the club has two pathways that are absolutely miles apart and why real investment only seems to have made its way down one of them. It’s not an issue of taking money out of a men’s first team budget. We’ve employed an absolute tonne of backroom staff as well. “The project” has found the money to do that, while the pathway for girls remains enormously unequal. I’m not naive, we don’t yet have a full-time women’s league in Scotland and we’re light years away from having anything approaching equal pay. However, what we should be doing is striving to be at the forefront of evolution of the women’s game in Scotland. The only excuse would be that we don’t think that girls and women are worth proper investment. That’s literally the only excuse. We can’t pretend we don’t have access to resources.

It shouldn’t matter who is at the helm. A club basically reinventing itself in the 2020s should instinctively be treating women’s football with an awful lot more respect than it is. Sexism isn’t all 1970s jokes and wolf whistling. It’s institutional. We’re telling young boys in Glasgow that they have a ceiling at Queen’s Park to play professional football. We’re telling young girls that they have a ceiling to play for an amateur team that’s attached to our foundation. That’s a choice our club is making. What actions like that are really saying is that we can make more money out of the lads, so they’re more worthy of our investment. Whilst it’s true that there is more money swirling around in men’s football, we’re supposed to be about “community values” and equal pathways. It’s demonstrably not the case.

We’re probably still negotiating with Ajax tbf. Will be announced as soon as the shipment of magic beans are delivered to the JB McAlpine.

It’s nowhere near good enough. The players and coaching staff are doing a great job, but they’re an afterthought to the club. It’s shameful, really.

It’s one of the times that peaks my annoyance about us not building a proper stadium. Full house in a proportionate, compact stadium would have had a wee bit of a sense of occasion about it.

Would definitely be writing a friendly into the deal. It obviously wouldn’t be their first team, but Queen’s Park v Ajax would definitely catch some interest. Problem is we don’t know if we’d actually have anywhere suitable to play it. Might only feel like yesterday since this season started, but questions on next season are going to start to be asked soon. We need an actual plan for our long term future. Hampden deal is for this season and that atrocity next door is a West of Scotland League stadium with some fancy portakabins and a royal box to watch non-existent football matches from.

I’m thinking more on the park than off the park in terms of experienced heads. Manager wise, there will inevitably be questions around everything when Beuker goes. Veldman’s on a three year deal, so I suspect his best tactic is to hang tight and see what happens. Regardless, he badly needs some results and performances.

I’d look at it differently. Rather than bringing in guys who may or may not be good enough from other academies, have three or four experienced heads instead. They can then aid the development of the lads coming through our academy. I’m not even necessarily talking gnarled old veterans at the fag end of their career, but players with 100/200 games under their belt at a decent level. There’s an awful lot of burden on Longridge, Thomas and Robson, which I don’t necessarily think is helping their individual performances. Certainly the latter two anyway.

It’s not just the Ajax factor, which is big enough in itself. It’s the step beyond that. If he gets Ajax right, the next stop is the very, very top clubs. Nobody is going to turn that down. It’s unfortunate, but like any other profession, you go where the best professional opportunities are. Not to mention the probable life changing money and long term financial security for his family.

I wish Marijn Beuker well. Always came across well in his dealings with the supporters. Not a gig anyone could turn down. In terms of the youth setup, we won’t be able to judge the success of it for a few years and probably won’t be able to measure what impact he had. I do feel that it’s imperative that we have different people operating the first team level and youth levels, though. We look like a development team and need a couple of experienced heads in. You can still develop and promote young talent without it being so heavily weighted in that direction. The biggest mistake we could make is a quick appointment from within and go with “business as usual.” This is s perfect opportunity to pause and look at what is and isn’t working within the football structure. Indeed, it might be an ideal time for other big hitters within senior management at the club to seek new challenges as well. We desperately need a period of stability. We need to work out what we’re actually supposed to be as a football club, find some way of engaging positively and consistently with the people who care about the club, and also figure out what we’re doing long term. We don’t know where we’re going to be playing football in about nine months time. This needs a plan. We must stop throwing the road down in front of us while we’re trying to sprint down it. People are disillusioned and have been for some time and the club need to address why that is.

Think the most concerning part is that, Dundee United aside, the run of fixtures we’ve had is one where you’d have been looking to pick up points. Two recently promoted teams, two teams you’d expect in the bottom half, a team from the division below. In isolation, any of those results and performances can happen. It’s the fact that it’s looking like a pattern that is alarming.

Has the racist spider been quietly shelved btw? Could do with a ludicrous replacement.

Taking a temporary gig is a million miles from being a manager in your own right. I hope we go out and empty Thistle 8-3 or something, but there’s been no spark about us at all. If we weren’t picking up results, but were playing with some sort of purpose, I’d be more enthused. However, we’re what one of our fellow travellers described on another platform as “optical anthrax.”

Watch us pass the ball around in front of you, while you comfortably keep your shape, wait for us to give the ball away, clip it over the top, score. Repeat.

I saw two very average looking teams huffing and puffing. We need to raise our standards. We’re a professional team being well backed. As a bare minimum, we should be well organised. We are not well drilled and we don’t move the ball anywhere near quickly enough to cause real problems. Possession only matters if you do something with it. Last season, it was one touch and go. This season is three and four touches and move it sideways. Rather than moving opposition defenders around, we’re just passing it around in front of them and allowing them to keep their shape. We’re so easy to play against. Just watch us knock it around side ways, wait for a moment of slackness and clip it over the top. Goal. It’s the same every single week. The only reason Morton couldn’t do it was their lack of mobility in the final third.

100%. Nobody is claiming Tizzard wasn’t having a shocker. There are ways of dealing with situations and that wasn’t it. He’s asking players to play a mental high line, hanging them out to dry on a weekly basis, and hooks them when they make mistakes. What does that do to confidence? Guys like Thomas nowhere near the level we know they can be at. This is what happens when you play football by spreadsheet. The artistry and spontaneity is thrown away and players can’t express themselves. We are such a boring watch. If Beuker goes to Ajax, I’m hopeful that it’ll prompt a review of everything. Whatever this nonsense is will win us the odd game, in spite of the guy in the dugout, but we’re kidding ourselves if we think it’s going anywhere. One look at the body language of some of the players will tell you that there’s minimal buy in.

It’s not the taking off that’s the issue. Less than five minutes until half-time and absolutely no need to pour salt into the wound of the boy’s mistake by basically giving him a public vote of no confidence. He seems to have no hesitation in flinging players under a bus.

Positives: we got something on the board, McPherson had his best game, Ferrie’s attitude to being out of the team has been first class. Negatives: That absolutely mental high line again. Making an unnecessary example of a young player. Taking McPherson off. Being generally torture on the eye. This guy might very well be a coach, but he’s never in a million years a tactician or man manager.

We are so boring.

Lunatic has no idea what he’s doing. I stand by this if we somehow stage a comeback. Tactically inept, mental subs. Get him out, Sharon.

The claim is that there is a watertight agreement, but I’m not sure I actually believe that. I think one of the major issues is that the club has been to weak to say “no” to him at any point since he got on board. He was presented as a kindly benefactor, who simply wanted to put money into his local club, when his involvement is obviously significantly greater. I don’t necessarily have a problem with his involvement, as long as there’s accountability as well. There’s no transparency around who decides what.

Trust the process.

“Aye, but wit have they got tae complain about? Two promotions and forty-five minutes from the Premier League! Would they rather be in the Lowland League, where they were headed?” See to be honest, I’m not even sure I know the answer to that last question now. At least it’d have a level of authenticity to it.