GraniteGype

Agree with this. I thought the first half was very mediocre and low quality fodder. We were dominant in the second half and ruthless with some moments of real quality in the final third. The squad still needs some surgery but we are at least looking like the sum of our parts unlike a lot of our domestic performances last season.

That first half was a fairly dreadful and dull spectacle. Summed up perfectly by Soklers ridiculous dive and the standard of defending for both goals.

“When we talk about finances we are an asset based company, we have very confident assets in the UK, London, internationally” Assets, aye. Are they so phygital that they are trapped in some inter dimensional world of finance that doesn’t reach a balance sheet? Other than Hayes and Yeading and Southend United, has anyone tracked down the other (4?)clubs this fantasist roaster tried to buy?

‘Sakes. What’s the prognosis?

Hmm. That would be a blow for an already very thin squad. Clarkson has started the season well and I don't think we have an obvious replacement. He did take a knock on Saturday now I think about it - looked like his shoulder he was nursing at the time. Hopefully its just a precaution if he is still feeling some discomfort.

Aye, it was only Dumbarton and they had already folded when Guèye come on. But he unqeuestionably looked very sharp. I would speculate that the difference between his feelting and sometimes laughable contributions last September, and the Guèye we saw on Saturday, is that he is fresh from playing regularly for 4 months in Norway - last year he came in after 4 months of nothing. Will be interesting to see if he can build on that against tougher opposition. He might revert to being a big galoot. Hopefully he can kick on and justify some of that transfer fee.

Here's the references for the failed Southend attempt too: https://www.shrimperzone.com/forums/threads/carl-reader-seventy7-ventures-want-to-acquire-the-club.111822/ The local lad who seemed to be fronting that deal for Seventy7 Ventures, Carl Reader, had an online Q&A here: https://www.shrimperzone.com/forums/threads/q-a-with-carl-reader.111823/ Some Linkedin waffle tagging Ketan and co: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/carlreader_at-the-age-of-14-i-wrote-to-the-then-southend-activity-6959904727530676224-3l9U/

Guessing this is the same mob that tried and failed to buy Southend a few years ago? From what I see, Seventy7 Ventures were basically brokering that deal for anonymous foreign investors.... which suggests they have hee-ho capital of their own. They also pretty much admitted their primary interest was in the property development associated with Southend at the time. So, which assets do ICT have left to strip?

I see all the away tickets for the St Johnstone game have sold out really quickly. Can anyone recall if we ever get allocated more blocks? I see block A in the main/west stand is next to block B, which is allocated to away fans. Block A is currently unsold and not available to home fans. I am wondering if that will be released or used as segregation buffer?

I hate to be a bit of a doomer, but I am starting the season with similar anxieties. Albeit against lower league oposition, the central midfield has looked like it could be more effective than a lot of last season (although Barron and Polvara are obviously unfortunate depth deficits in that area). The new central defence and keeper combo is untested. Question marks remain over all our full backs. We have zero wingers/width that we can rely on. Sokler is alright, but nowhere near Miovski's levels - more concerning is the current alternatives to Sokler. So, aye. Lots of holes to fill in this squad and we probably have to endure the irritating annual test of our patience through to late August to see any meaningful transfer business progressing.

Aye, he had some really slack passes last night and I agree with the points about his mobility and tendancy to red-line his tackles. That aside, he has been OK. Early days and he may need a few more games to adjust to the tempo and style. Lets see how he has settled in come September and we can decide if we want to hiss about not signing Baccus fae the Buddies for that role. Agree on Molloy too. I have been pleasantly surprised by him so far. Tougher tests ahead of course.

Aye. Broadfoot and Deas were always going to be hard to replace. Sutherland, Allardice, and Henderson too. Add in the hellish injuries over those seasons and there's a lot of big holes to fill. Squad attrition is always a challenge when you have some relative success, especially for a provincial club. My point was that I am surprised, even with hindsight, folk still think Ferguson was "slightly better" than Dodd's. I would describe Ferguson as a bit of a disaster in comparison.

Amongst all the ICT shenanigans this week, I listened to the ICT fans podcast that interviewed, Dodd's assistant, Barry Wilson. I thought he was quite honest and made some fair points about how/why they started last season so poorly. No counterfactuals to put any weight on his comments about the potential for this season. But they tallied 55 and 59 points in their 2 full seasons both of which included some terrible runs of results. Given their track record of putting good runs together, it doesn't seem unreasonable to think Dodds/Wilson would have managed to pull it together had they stayed (even if the product wasn't to everyones liking). Dodds 1.49 points per game over 77 league games. Ferguson 1.37 points per game over 30 games. Surprised anyone is looking at the style under Ferguson, the limp relegation, and those data points and thinking he was an improvement over Dodds.

Indeed. They were spinning tall tales to try and strengthen their case and justify converting the protected green space to look like the bottom of the Carse. The councillors saw through it.

This is the problem Morrison and Gardiner now have, which is made worse by how opaque the financial situation is. Nobody believes a word they say or trusts the financial picture anyone from the club paints. It is likely that Morrison, Munro and Cameron bought the battery company shares from the club to inject some capital. At what cut price value? How do fans know that the £3M that was on the line for the planning permission is even fair value? I saw some rumours that suggested Morrison and Gardiner and others were allegedly part of some consortium planning to buy the project. If there is any substance to that rumours, it's a murky conflict of interest.