The Toun Clock

New strips and a signing or two would be nice. Such a sunny day in the City, be a shame not to see some scarf above heads in the East End sunshine.

Have to be honest, the output from the club has been much better the last few days. I've been very quick to criticise but hopefully with Cook in we'll start to get our sh*t together in that department. Saying that, the pre-season output is the bare minimum you should expect to get the juices flowing, keep the fans engaged etc.

I think he’s away although I’ve not seen any announcement. He was still listed as a player on the officials sites squad list until Monday but has been removed since the new youth players were added.

Is it the boy with the glasses that is Toddy's son? Certainly looks a bit lie him in the face minus the gigs.

In fairness, regarding squad numbers no one has changed that was here last year, just the new boys being given one of the empty jerseys. Clubs official site has Bene at 4, Hamilton at 5 and the new youngsters in the late 20's early 30's. Yes I'm a squad number geek. New training kit is really cool, available on the club shop already.

Agreed, his defensive side had improved although still not great. His movement in the box was pretty good, getting himself into shooting positions with cute one twos. It was the part outside the box that I thought lacked, final ball was largely guff. I'd be shocked if he went into either team's starting XI. He'll be reserves and bench at best but that's the thing about Championship English clubs, they can sign these guys for small fees, with significantly bigger wages but they might never make it. They can afford the gamble, and if it pays off and he goes onto bigger and better things then they make a handsome profit.

Would welcome it. What I found strange was a Stoke fan commenting on the page providing the news saying "this is more like it although he'd cost more than that" - WHIT Do they need a gid honest midfielder who only passes to his own team and has magnificent hair?

Difficult to be buzzing when managed by Peter Grant. I think if anyone can get CW firing it'll be a manager who knows him and has worked with him in the past. If he stays I'd imagine McPake will go with him as the number 9 (think that was his number anyway).

I'm in a weird feeling towards the strikers, I'd be happy for all 3/4 to leave yet at the same time I'd be happy for them all to stay as I think they could prove their worth in league 1. If I had to be honest I'd like to see a new striker come in which means one will have to go. McCann - Big season for him, Yogi put a lot of trust in him when he came in last season. Guys like O'Hara, Todorov couldn't get a sniff and Wighton ended up out on loan. He scored some goals but didn't do enough. If he wants to kick on then having a great season in league 1 will certainly help that. If he doesn't do much then his stock will fall and he'll end up a squad player until his contract runs out in a few years. I can't honestly think what manager is going to be eager to sign him but what do I know. O'Hara - Gone just take a shot mate. Good player, pain in the arse of defenders, but is so shot shy sometimes. Would like to see him having more of a go and also being a poacher. He scored so many goals for Alloa by just being in the right place in the 6 yard box. Looks like he lost confidence but his work rate is up there. Todorov - Harshly treated last season. Scored a few early goals then benched and was hardly seen again. He's got the physicality and I could absolutely see him being a guy who goes on to score 20 this coming season but who knows. If I was moving on 1 of the 4 it would be him. Wighton - Genuinely think he's one of the best footballers at the club. Couldn't believe it when Yogi let him go on loan. Didn't quite work out in his second stint at Arbroath but lets face it, he was brought in to a team high flying and probably fitting into their system as opposed to playing as the main striker. Due to McPake coming in there's a connection there so hopefully he stays around for us for the challenge next season.

I think he sits in front of the defence in the holding midfield role, can play right back as well I believe.

Chris Hamilton, middle of back row.

If it is Hamilton then we must have done it last week. Without looking creepy I searched his Instagram and noticed he's away on holiday.

We didn't see a lot of Breen. He joined late, had fitness issues and multiple covid issues. He was mostly an unused sub until nearer the end of the season where he came in for Donaldson whilst injured. He looks like he has the physicality needed at centre half but whether he has it or not I'm not sure. I think he'll cope better in league one with a competent defender like Benedictus who can talk him through the game. Ross Graham situation is utterly bizarre. I'm certain most Dunfermline fans would have him on a worst 11 if asked, yet he goes on to have a blinder second half of the season and is nominated for YPOTY and gets a Scotland 21's call up. Obviously he was playing alongside better players but also playing against tougher opposition.

There's a pen GIF!

Now that I've seen your vision it's all I want.

Exactly. No new shirts or season tickets available so what exactly will our support be heading in to purchase at this time of year. Well aware that the shirts aren't usually available until July but we've done a pre-order for the last few seasons. It's all first world problems but very frustrating. Even if we had the ST's on sale, our coaching staff in I'd still be a little concerned about the lack of signings, however now it all looks very strange. I'd guarantee Benedictus signed last week when it was announced by the papers but we've not announced it yet. What the club are waiting for I'm not so sure. If they go on to announce a couple of good players, whilst they themselves are promoting the new ST info then that will go down soundly, are they waiting for a "marquee" signing? Can't really wait much longer. If we're running to the same schedule as other clubs we'll be due back in later next week.

I've been away in Ireland for a week visiting family. Was fully expecting to find out about all our new signings and season ticket details in my week off but there's been absolutely nothing from the club apart from confirming their bast*rding jubilee opening hours. Ridiculous, one week into June and not even a sniff of our ST details.

JYM should never have been let go. Miss him, would header just granny.

Would take Foz purely for the chance to see Amy McD in a Pars shirt. Don’t necessarily want to see him in one.

Rumours circulating on dotnet and which ended up in various group chats is that Dan Pybus was told we’re not taking the option of another year via text. I’m sure we had that issue when we let 16 go once the pandemic began, we want to attract good players to the club but it sounds like we’re a bit of a shite bunch to deal with. Again, all just rumours at the moment but I wouldn’t be surprised. Could we not have been a bit more professional and spoke to these guys face to face or is a text message making you jobless okay because it’s football?

Good defender and probably better than league 1 level so will do well for Falkirk. He was part of the sunken ship, the fewer players from last season the better IMO, I'd be quite happy to never see any of the players from last season in a Pars shirt ever again apart from 2/3.

Echo all of these points. The commentary on the streams are poor. I know these guys are volunteers but they’re doing it because they want to, not because they have to. I had covid towards the end of the season so missed a couple of home games and watched the streams, the co-comms guy just spoke for the sake of it and 9/10 he was miles off it. If I do have to miss a game and watch on Pars TV I’d sooner have just crowd noise. I know it’s petty but things like the graphics for team announcements, goals on twitter etc, they’re all a bit dated. Social media is huge these days for our engagement with the fans, it’s been really poor ever since Mikey stepped down as general manager. I know that wasn’t his main responsibility but he works in marketing/design and everything used to look brilliant, almost ahead of others but we’ve been stuck for a while. I look at other clubs and they just do it better and not just Premiership and Championship, even Queens Park, Montrose, Kelty to name a few do it better.

Cheers mate, thanks for confirming my mix up.

Ludo, is Martin Harty the same guy who was Jimmy Nichols assistant when he managed teams? I was listening to the sacked in the morning podcast the other day and Jimmy Nic was the guest, he heat referring to a guy called Martin Harty. Just I thought the guy was older than Jimmy Nic by the sounds of the stories, so not young enough to be JMcP brother in law haha.

I hope Shields is pointed more towards the academy, similar to what he was doing in America. Let McPake bring in his own staff.