AndyDD

Good number of us would have been happy to keep him, he was solid enough last season. Ought to be a very reliable player in the bottom tier. Good luck to him.

Ooft. I get that subs are rarely a thing now, but at least proof-read your own stuff, y'know? Rank.

Disappointed first off for all of these guys entering into a period of real uncertainty and hope they get something sorted soon. Must be a really horrible blow, even if they expected it and i am fairly sure the club will have been as up front and honest with them as possible throughout. On the face of it, I'd have liked to have kept Millar, Wedderburn and Roberts, even if it was increasingly obvious that Roberts was seen as surplus. That being said, and as already mentioned, it's clear the midfield is the area of the park we will be seeing the most significant transformation from last season to the forthcoming (well, october is perhaps rather stretching the term 'forthcoming') campaign and I think that is pretty fair. It's the area that needed the most improvement. The big challenge will be putting a good midfield together and the worry, of course, is that you don't have time to bed them in, to gel, to overcome a slow start, in the way that you usually would. We likely won't be alone in this, but the longer it takes the team to get used to each other, the harder success will be to achieve.

Looks a cracker, albeit a shame it's not an actual top in the picture.

Some really good posts last night; who knew we were such a bunch of reasoned intellectuals? Enjoyed reading them and agree with pretty much all that was said, handing out greenies like smarties. This agreement stuff better no catch on though, it wouldn't seem right! Proof if ever that we really need the football back to give us reasons to disagree... Roll on this announcement at 9am. Kit, presumably?

Ha, no that was not my point at all, you've misunderstood. Or deliberately misconstrued, who can say. A quarter is 'enough' for me, but I think we should aspire for that to be more akin to the average, rather than being out in front. I don't think it's all that great when a quarter is where our clubs top out.

Ross county and Killie want to get their finger out anawl. St Johnstone lead the way, but that you can be leading the way with 23-24% is a problem all of it's own. Must do better right across the board.

I actually thought Nat came onto a game the last few games of the season. Added some real composure on the ball. Ally Roy; potentially going to get a lot more game time in place of Smith? Roy is pacey. Not Smith pacey, but still. Nice to see the club stepping up the squad building, regardless!

Aye, there will be exceptions of course but in a general sense there does appear to be (or at least was?) a lack of proper diligence from a lot of our players. That a manager wanting multiple training sessions, wanting to target peak athleticism and wanting to prevent the indulgence of players, was faced with any opposition to those ideas at all, never mind strong opposition, speaks for itself. I'm not sure that this is necessarily as bad now as it was then, but Mcginn and others are still speaking in interviews about how much more seriously that aspect of the game is taken in England than up here and I struggle to find any justification for it. Not even like every club is managed by veteran coaches and dinosaurs up here, either. A lot of young managers, many of whom have experience in other football environments as players and coaches.

McKay is one of those players that attracts a bit of ire from fans and can be frustrating to watch precisely because you can see there is potential there. Ultimately it's a good thing and the coaches, his teammates and the fans should press the players to do better, ti improve, to push themselves. From the stands though, it can sometimes turn into giving grief for the sake of it. I think the point made by @ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds, that he has been better when going forward in support of and even getting 'beyond the striker' (horrible phrase), is a good one. Hope that is how he is deployed in the season to come and that we see him improve further because, clearly, there is a decent player there.

Aye, Collins strikes me as a man with some ideas of merit but none of the character traits to take people with him. That being said, his personality and approach clearly worked with Van Dijk, who can't speak highly enough of him. It might well be the case that he was a showy arsehole at Hibs, but it's an undeniable indictment of our clubs, coaches and yes even our footballers, if they are truly so far behind in terms of training and attitude to it. If professional athletes really do baulk at the prospect of multiple training sessions a day and spit the dummy over being denied a bevvy session when at an overseas training camp, then that is appalling. Even if the manager trying to implement such measures is a bit of a dick.

Disappointing; one would assume we were keen on signing him up. Was starting to really come onto a game when things were called to a halt and is far too good for League 2. Either they have money behind them, or he's going to work it around a non-football fulltime job, I guess.

They've really got in line behind this rubbish, haven't they? Chick Young is the only voice of outright opposition I've heard them give any airtime to, off the top of my head. Their pundits are near unanimous in their praise, Willie Miller was at most sceptical but not outright opposed, that's the second article I recall being put on the website backing it. Despicable.

As already discussed, very real prospect of no fans, or very few fans, in Hampden for our home advantage semi, but a full house and 0 TA, or very very few TA, for our potential away final in Serbia or Norway. Terrific.

Haha, I think we can all agree wording does not appear to be a strong point for the Chairperson in question. Still, at best it is up in the air as to what Partick mean to say in this statement. They might well mean to say that they are challenging for compensation, but since that's an easy enough sentence on the face of it, one wonders how it could manage to accidentally fail to appear in place of what is actually there, 'challenging relegation'. Thistle fans will presumably hope that no such errors are made in their legal challenge proper. What is it that makes you know with certainty that they are challenging for compensation and not the relegation itself? Just because it would be doomed to fail doesn't mean they are incapable of trying, as the recent reconstruction attempts attest. All one can do, unless they are 'In The Know', is take their statement as read. Their statement says they will go down the legal route to challenge relegation. If they actually aren't going to do that, but will instead ask for extra compensation, then is it an error or a lie, in your opinion?

Aye? Excellent, if true. That being said, I can't deny part of me would prefer to wait until we can get any fan who wants to go in the doors. It feels wrong, this closed door pish. Restricted capacity will feel less wrong, but still wrong. Can't let the perfect be the enemy of the possible, I know.

No, but it does show that this is what Partick Thistle say is the reason they are going to court. 'Challenging our relegation to League One' is the stated aim of the board. I agree it is a stupid aim to have, or a stupid aim to pretend to have in your public statement when in reality you know it is going to do nothing of the sort. Yet, here we are.

Damn. Pleased for Smith, hes a hard working young player who has gotten one hell of a chance, top flight football after being released by Dunfermline. His end product wasn't always there, but his pace, directness and relentlessness caused a lot of problems, got us up the park and harried and hassled defences and midfields into a lot of mistakes. Good luck to him.

Good catch, a fair point.

Who knows. Clearly the SPFL are trying very hard to avoid a legal challenge at all, perhaps not because they think they would lose (but must consider it is always possible, even remotely) but because they want to avoid any damage at all, be it court costs, bad PR, a delay to the season or the spooking of potential sponsors. Otherwise, they'd not be taking the actions they are. Hearts et al presumably leaking this info to try and crank up the pressure and push the other clubs to vote it through. We shall but see. One could read this move as a sign that Budge knows the mood music is leaning towards a no, rather than a yes.

The biggest concern for me is the increasingly obvious motive behind the change; avoiding a legal challenge. I don't expect Hearts et al would win the legal challenge (admittedly based on absolutely zero legal knowledge) but there is always a chance that they could, even if it is a remote one. The immediate issue would be the costs of fighting the legal case, the damage this would do to the SPFL's attempt to secure sponsors and their attempt to start the season and get the top flight its Sky money. This appears to be the motivation that is driving the change, rather than any well thought through, long term consideration of what would be the best set up for the game in general, or even if it would be an improvement at all on what we have as things stand. I don't see much in the way of evidence that this is being driven by anything else other than an SPFL fearing the implications of a legal challenge being lodged, even if they feel likely to win it. The priority behind the move is to get the top flight playing in August. They feel a legal challenge poses a threat to that and, even if it is a small threat, it is one they'd rather avoid if they at all can. I don't think we should be making such a change purely to ensure that the SPFL avoids a court case, or even a payout to Hearts and co from the topflight clubs. If Hearts et al take that action and win, then tough.

That's a real show of confidence in the club's health overall, as well as being an encouraging signing on pure football basis.

The reality is they'd not be turning out to league 2 or league 1 grounds in their thousands, as they have proven in the challenge cup.

More than I got.

Awk well. Thommo insists the old firm fans would turn out in their 'thousands'. So that's the main thing. Best just leave them to it, professional as they are.