houston_bud

You're right and I really hope he does develop into a player. £75k seems a lot of money for St. Mirren to pay for 'one for the future' though.

Fair point.

What makes him a c**t? I certainly don't know the story but if it's as simple as a club offering him more money then can you blame him? I imagine Falkirk is probably a better location for him as well. He knows as well as anyone how cut throat management can be. Earn a decent salary while you can I say.

Some of those names made me shudder. Although I thought Plummer actually looked ok in this handful of appearances. Issac Osbourne was actually a decent player just riddled with injuries.

Doesn't sound great in that case. I thought he looked ok the few times I've seen him over the last couple of years. I don't think the fact he hasn't played for Hearts so far this season is that relevant to us. Hearts have looked really good so far, he stepped up from Thistle to Hearts and just hasn't been good enough. Edwards has been a Premiership regular for the past two or three seasons.

Edwards would be a decent addition actually. Another central midfielder though.

Getting rid of him now wouldn't help much with bringing new players in. We'd have to rush an appointment and then rush in some last minute signings.

It's not been 'meh', it's been awful. Out of all his signings I don't think any would have got a game last season. Willock looks ok, rest of them look poor at best. I agree with your 4th point to an extent, but the players brought in aren't good enough to shitfest. The defence is so weak, compare it lo Livvy's who could very well shitfest their way to safety this year - although going on Saturday's they have some good players who can do more than that. As for withdrawing Reilly's contract and telling others they can leave, this can only be justified if the players coming in are better than those who have left/been told they can leave. I had a look at Stubbs' early record at Hibs and it actually wasn't great. Took them until about December before they really got up and running. They went on to finish second in the Championship with Hearts and Rangers in the division. Completely different circumstances here but maybe, just maybe all these new signings who haven't played a lot of games might get up to speed and I'll have to eat my words. Here's hoping.

Maybe says more about the quality of players on the bench.

Grim. Our defence is dreadful, bullied at every set piece. Every time a ball has come into our box it's been panic. When we've put a ball into Livingston's box they've dealt with it without any problem. That's the difference. They've got a young fairly inexperienced keeper in goals and we haven't even managed a shot. So, so poor.

We kept 14 clean sheets last year. Admittedly most of them came with Davis in the team, but the defence was strong. I agree that one addition could be all the difference, that's the point I was making. Hopefully the boy from Southampton can be that addition. I'm not totally convinced that MacKenzie is the answer to all our problems, I get the feeling he is becoming a better player in the eyes of some fans with every week he's been out the team.

I'm not saying he doesn't deserve criticism. He had a howler at the first goal at Ibrox and that certainly isn't an isolated error. I do feel that he often gets singled out though when other players have also been making similar mistakes.

Baird's played over 100 games, which is a decent amount for a player of his age. Kpekawa is the same age and played about a quarter of the amount of games Baird has and for about half a dozen clubs. It's an important position and Jack Baird is the more experienced player by quite a distance. He's had to go from the junior partner in a pairing to the leader in the space of a close season. I also think Baird is often made a scapegoat. He cost us the first goal against Rangers, later in the game McGinn made a worse mistake when he got caught in possession on the 18 yard line. Samson saved the resulting shot so it doesn't get mentioned. I think he's got the attributes to be a decent centre half, he's strong, pretty pacy, and good in the air (same with Kpekawa actually) but we need a leader and organiser in there and neither of them are that at the moment.

I also wonder what quality is still available at this stage. I'm expecting some more loan signings.

I must've have got that wrong, apologies. Someone clearly saw something in him. He was probably always a low risk signing that Jack Ross was willing to take a punt on. We've also seen that Ross and Stubbs have different opinions on what players we need.

I think people said that we'd need to see more of him before we could make a judgement, which was fair enough. Stubbs has obviously seen a lot more of him and decided he isn't good enough. I'd be surprised to see him back to be honest.

Kellerman away to AFC Fylde, in the National League, on loan for the season. That's the same division that he came from. Good luck to him.

I think that's a side issue though. Stubbs told our top scorer he wasn't wanted without a replacement lined up. I was trying to explain why I think there has been criticism of Stubbs, moving players on without having replacements for them is a reason why I think he has been criticised.

That's a fair post. I think people's issue with Stubbs comes from him moving on players like Reilly, and telling others they have no future, like Eckersley and MacKenzie, without bringing in better players. If the players he brings in do him a job and are indeed better than those he moved on then no one will question him. At the moment his signings don't look better. All that said, it's early doors and players will take time to adjust to different surroundings. My own feelings are that he has been a bit hasty in telling players they have no future.

That's a very good signing.

Exactly. How much of Liam Smith has Stubbs actually seen? As others have said I'm not sure it's a priority position but seems strange that Stubbs just doesn't rate him. Hopefully he finds a club soon as he's a good young player and needs to be playing.

Beltrame seems to be a strange player, been on the books at Juve for years but constantly loaned out to second (or even third/fourth) rate teams. He's 26 I think, clearly not one for the future. Makes you wonder why he's still, technically at least, a Juve player. None of this makes him any more or less likely to be coming to St. Mirren, just seems a bit odd.

Can't believe Eckersley is on his way out. He strolled through most games last season. It suggests that Stubbs has high standards, but I hope he's confident in the replacements he's got lined up. The Kpekawa is a left back but according to Wikipedia hasn't played many games in his career.

I'm not a fan of colt teams in the tournament, but if the offer is there for us we should take advantage of it. If we beat Kilmarnock's colt team and get a draw against someone decent then it will be a good experience for the younger players. I actually quite like the Irn Bru Cup, 2006 and 2017 finals were both great days out. I also think the addition of Welsh/NI teams has been alright.

Excellent news about Magennis. Really looking forward to seeing him in the Premiership, he's definitely ready to make a step up.