Bainsfordbairn

I don't think Cal was ever rated as being good enough for a professional contract at Falkirk. He trained with us last season but I suspect that was just a favour to an ex-academy player. Albeit his presence would have helped the goalkeeper training. Some of the routines I've watched seem to involve two or three goalies hitting rapid-fire shots from different angles, so he would have been a cheap (or free?) participant to help the number one, while still getting a turn in goals. Which would have helped his own career if he hoped to get a gig elsewhere.

You know me too well. I did have a few beers last night, as you could probably guess by the time of the post. Normally I just shrug things off.

Well, I guess you have a choice then. You can visit the club, talk to the people who work there and ask what they know. Or you can make assumptions based on your personal opinions & some of those who comment on online forums. I’d rather talk to the staff. As long as you don’t put their names and personal thoughts online they tend to be pretty open. They’ll happily tell you what’s going on. Particularly if they know they can trust you not to say something that might drop them in the shit with their superiors. Someone once described me on here as a bootlicker. My posts have been called party political broadcasts, spin and a few other names by people who think I’m doing it to defend the BOD, MSG or the club. Their assumptions are complete and utter shite. It means nothing to me if the strip breaks sales records or bombs completely. Or whether the owners get punted tomorrow. I was pretty vociferous in my desire to see the fans bid succeed last summer. And I have some very strong opinions about a few high heidyins which I’ll never be able to post online as BPM chose to out me a few years back. Much of the insider stuff I put up reflects the knowledge of the people who work at the club and whom I consider to be friends. They know far more than any director does about what goes on. And have no reason to put a spin on something as mundane as replica strip sales. I trust them. If you believe otherwise that’s your opinion.

Pre-season friendly July 2006.

I've no idea what size a player will turn out to be until I meet them, so I grab one of each before they arrive. Though in this case it didn't matter because I discovered afterwards that our kitman was back off furlough and he has everything in stock, hence the shots with Blairs' name and number.

I believe a number of staff had an input into it. The top is a standard puma template with details that clubs can modify, presumably for a fee. Here's an example from Borussia Munchengladbach. If you do a quick online search it won't be hard to find others. I was talking to the guy who runs the club shop about it the other day. I normally go into the shop immediately before we do a signing to grab a few strips plus any props that can be used for a photocall. There were no large sizes available for the Calumn Morrison announcement and there were none yesterday either, despite the fact that more stock was ordered than last year. It appears the new tops are selling faster than expected with the home one being the more popular of the two.

Which brings us back to the "oversight" debate that Duncan Freemason and I disagreed on after it became obvious that Hartley's summer recruitment had failed. As a general rule outwith Hearts, managers at our level in Scotland have always had complete control over who they bring in. If you give the board a right to veto an incoming transfer on anything other than budgetary reasons than you open up a whole can of worms. If he the rumours are correct, would Alan Gow have enough football expertise to overrule the recruitment wishes of M&M? Or Lex Miller to overrule Paul Hartley because Lex played for Sauchie and has a few shares? I'm still of the opinion that BODs should recruit a manager, give him a budget and let him get on with it. And then fire him if he fails. The idea of someone like Doug Henderson deciding on recruitment fills me with horror.

In the case of Telfer, I can't us announcing a new contract for him on 20th July and then deciding to try and get rid of him less than a month later. He's clearly wanted by M&M. Sammon is in the second year of his previous deal so it's unknown whether he's rated or not. If not, then it would depend on what else was out there for him. I believe a large part of the reason he came to us was geographical, as he lives in Larbert. He may prefer to stay and fight for his place even he's no longer a first pick.

We're not. There was a small amount of players coming in for what believe was gymn work but I imagine that stopped with the government announcements last week. So he's not "on trial" at the moment. Having said that, there's usually one or two trialists involved when preseason begins so it could well happen on the 24th. Assuming the government let us come back then, of course. .

I can't recall us ever making a signing on a Sunday. Even Saturdays are rare, with Paul Paton being the only one I can think of (at least during the close season). It's probably a safe bet that today won't be any different.

From the figures given by Tynierose for testing that's probably not far off the mark. However, previously testing only had to be done once a week. Then the sheepies misbehaved and the govt doubled the frequency. If they're happy with the new processes it may drop back again. If that happens then the "benefactor windfall" would likely cover testing costs for all clubs until January. Apart from Hearts, who already spent it on lawyers, legal fees and fines.

It might be a case of there but for the grace of god... You'ld hope our players are smart enough to learn from the mistakes of others but there are a lot of stupid people in the world.

I heard that big clubs like Glasgow City are being allowed to continue training while diddies like Hearts aren't. Any truth in that?

At the moment it doesn't affect us as the return date for our players was always the 24th. I'm guessing the only reason Hearts were mentioned was because they're already back, hence the "pause their current training programme until at least 24 August".

Yes, and I also said there were no signings imminent. I stand by that. Unless we're doing a remote announcement (such as Callum Ferrie being announced as he was en route from Dundee to the team hotel before a match at Peterhead) then there is nothing happening that would involve me. Am I really that wee?

Just for you Gaz, here's the goal and cele.

Local hero, 50/50 fanatikool winner and t-shirt winner. No signings imminent at the moment.

I wish. Still two months until the season kicks off. Players return for preseason in a week and a half though. I imagine there will be friendlies though I've no idea if FFCTV will be covering them. I'll try and remember to ask when I'm in tomorrow.

If your driver was insured and licensed you would not be prosecuted. UNLESS it could be proven that the driver had a history of speeding (say from tacho analysis) which you knew about and failed to correct. You could then face charges of "causing or permitting" an offence. In which case you'ld have to provide evidence to show that you did everything possible, but that ultimately you couldn't prevent an arsehole from being an arsehole. The human factor. Which is kinda my point re football. Closing it down because of idiocy from a tiny percentage of people involved should not happen. Punish them and let the rest of us get on with it.

The lassie in Tesco was an example. I disagree and as you’re a company owner I’m surprised at your viewpoint. Have you never had an employee who failed to do what he was told and in the end you had to sack him? I certainly have. And I was an ordinary manager rather than a director. You can take as many precautions as you like. Careful recruitment, information, instruction, training and supervision. Ongoing assessments. Audits to ensure your processes comply with industry standards and current legislation. You think you’re covered and then suddenly one of your guys goes out and does something which goes against all his training. Puts lives at risk and maybe even costs them. And you’re told your company will be heavily punished for it because he was your responsibility. He was – but only up to a point. If you can prove you did everything reasonably practicable to prevent his actions then he takes most of the fall. That’s generally how vicarious liability works. None of us know the ins and outs of what Aberdeen and Celtic did to train their staff. But those players went against government rules which aren’t exactly a secret. Which is why I think they’re the only ones who should be punished. The bottom line is that no matter how hard you try you cannot control an ordinary persons behaviour 24/7/365.

They're worth nothing while football is suspended. If Nicola Sturgeon says that football is banned along with all mass gatherings like concerts, sweaty nightclubs etc until a cure is found then Scottish footballers have no value to anyone. Other than a very select few whom English or Continental clubs might pay a knockdown transfer fee for.

The clubs will have to assure the government that any player committing a covid infringement will be sacked. Or be subjected to such severe sanctions that nobody else will dare step out of line. The football authorities appear to be doing all they can. If an employee breaks the then rules punish him and him only. Don't punish the thousands of others in his professional who're behaving. Or the thousands more who're linked to that profession. That's how it works in normal employment so why not football? You don't shut down Tescos because a girl on the checkout isn't wearing a mask. You just get rid of her. Football clubs have to prove they're willing to do the same. No more slaps on the wrists or mealy-mouthed "we didny ken" excuses. Just kick them out. And let the show go on.

I'm speculating here, but I'd have thought that all the SFA Covid rules applied only to what happens when the players are at their football club. When they're off duty they would be subject to the same government restrictions as the rest of us. Otherwise how can a player at say Brechin City live in a bio bubble when he has a fulltime job? Or are there separate protocols for fulltimers and partimers? It seems unlikely, particularly in our league where the clubs are a mix of both.

Yep, and the other person in the image is our Covid Officer. He's currently preparing a document for submission to the football authorities so that we can stage closed-door games. Everyone has to be segregated from everyone else. Different groups will have their own parking, entrances, routes to their positions and even toilets. You have no idea how complex the whole thing seems to be. Pictures were being taken of all the different areas for inclusion in the Covid Compliance Procedure. (not sure that's the right name but you get the general idea)

No doubt this post will get red-dotted by multiple people who think I stick up for the board on here, but my understanding is that the delay had nothing to do with them. Their only roles are to approve the financial expenditure, negotiate with the agent representing a player and then tell their mates as quickly as they possibly can afterwards. Which is why everything gets out. Albeit parts 2 and 3 aren't applicable to the whole board. I believe the delay was entirely down to his previous club. My sources for that are Aidan Keena himself and our football administrator, whose job it is to know the nuts and bolts of the transfer process. Sorry Bairnado, but it's not true.