DrewDon

Barney Walsh. I can just about stomach your average 'nepo baby' when they are actually good at what they do, but this guy permanently has the look of someone who is convinced that his card is about to get declined at the checkout. Sadly detracts from an otherwise excellent Gladiators reboot.

I am increasingly convinced that, despite the talk on Saturday about being 'far down the line' and all that, we didn't have a shortlist before this week.

Just thinking about how shambolic 2024 has been so far, both on and off the pitch. We waited until the very last day of January to sack Robson. We then appointed a caretaker, with every intention of keeping him until the end of the season, but he ended up walking out after 33 days. We are then caught on the hop and are currently in the process of rapidly speeding up the recruitment process for a new manager, who we will end up appointing before the arrival of a new technical director or director of football, which could well render a fair amount of the BPTC review null and void. How can you get so much wrong in such a short amount of time?

But seriously, the play-off will be on the season ticket, right?

You know things have gone wrong when it's the middle of March and you literally punch the air when you hear that Hibs have taken the lead away to Ross County.

The players just aren't playing for Leven. He's lost the dressing room.

I thought under Warnock there was at least some signs that we were beginning to put together some actual patterns of play and the structure of the team was gradually improving, even if we weren't always getting results, but this is a 'back to square one' performance if there ever was one.

Banter. No, it's not banter. It's not banter, not now.

Sorry, just realised I went full Ian Hislop there. A low point and I regret it.

What are they going to do - offer him a job?

I would probably go for the same if the game was tomorrow, but Polvara would have to be the most advanced of the three IMO.

It was naïve from Shinnie, as much as I love the guy. As has been said, we were in complete control, Kilmarnock had all but chucked it, and he should have just had a quick word with Beaton and then dropped it, especially knowing that a booking would rule him out of the semi-final. He is arguably our most important player when he plays like he did on Saturday. There are plenty of important games between now and Hampden, but difficult to know what to do without him as we don't have an obvious replacement. My instinct is that we would need to move Phillips beside Barron, as at least he does give us some physicality and bite and looks like he can press the opposition like Shinnie often does so effectively.

The Protestant end, baby. It's just better.

I would love to see a football game refereed by Michael Stewart. No cards, about three fouls in total, pure mayhem.

I don't think Cormack will have been 'interfering' at all during Warnock's time - and, frankly, as poor a job as he has done so far in his tenure regarding decisons, there hasn't been anything concrete from any managers who have worked under Cormack, including McInnes, to suggest that is a problem. I think it is much more likely, based on what we know, that Warnock had just decided at some point after St Mirren that he was going to quit. We have then been caught on the hop when he has informed us. We have tried to give ourselves and Warnock some cover by going for the line about closing in on a new manager, etc, but there is no doubt in my mind that the process is now being rapidly expedited and that both Cormack and Burrows were expecting and wanting Warnock to be here until May.

I am relatively encouraged by the statement, but also a bit sceptical of how much decision-making authority Cormack will actually be willing to concede in reality. It is a tentative step in the right direction, though, at least theoretically.

This guy could be a very useful gift from Warnock.

Clancy, Munro, Steven, Aitken and Irvine for me, Jeff. Any order. All absolute morons without exception and have had me, a usually placid man, on the verge of a heart attack at Pittodrie on multiple occasions.

For all the chat about VAR and how we use it, and I would rather we didn't have it, refereeing standards in Scotland are just abysmal. I have seen so many appalling performances from officials this season, including some of our supposedly better ones. If anything, standards seem to have got worse since the introduction of VAR.

They should still be doing better than they are on a couple of fronts, but what an appalling squad they have built at Celtic with their resources. I mean, the state of that back four, for starters.

I'm not au fait with the rules, but apparently so. It is still frustrating, although it is admittedly difficult to force the guy to sign a long-term contract and know exactly the right point to sell him to maximise value. It does feel like a failure in forward planning at some point, though.

Barron is a very reliable litmus test of football knowledge.

By all accounts, and probably unsurprisingly, it was not as 'mutual' as we are perhaps being led to believe (i.e. Warnock has told us he was going). That would also tie in with Scott Burns claiming that we are actually still speaking with more than one candidate.