Proudtobeabairn

Naturally I'd be delighted if he signs but I don't get how this benefits Kingsley. Sure he might get fit but he also 'outs' himself as someone who couldn't find a team at a decent level. he could play like Roberto Carlos all season in Scottish league 1 and won't be enough to get him back to the championship down south level. Surely a half decent agent would be finding him an SPL or English League One club at worst. Also all this talk of a 6 month deal also doesn't make sense. Why sign until the end of March? Surely it'll be January or the end of the season?

If Stephen Kingsley is even half fit, he must have a pretty shitty agent to go from Championship down south to Scottish L1..

Also remember "Oh when the Shire, go up, to lift the Scottish Cup.... we'll be dead. We'll be dead"

Could be argued the committee did a good job. A camel is more robust, doesn't need fed as often, better for deserts, can carry more load etc - in many ways better than a horse.

If nothing had been announced before the ink had dried last time, we'd have MC in charge now... All for public announcements as early as possible where our board are concerned.

Housty was an excellent coach but his signings were quite often abysmal. Had we had an Alan Gow type role then managing the recruitment process and scouting networks he could have done even better. Sadly I think had we gone up we'de have quickly been back down with mundane signings from the likes of Hearts, Hibs and Dundee Utd. Housty had a shelf life and he probably stayed 6 months beyond it in the end. Ironically Yogi had the opposite problem - plenty of exciting signings (Wallner, Theobald, Uras etc) but couldn't work out what to do with some of them. No denying Yogi's sides had some brilliant moments though and was great to see us play football rather than the sort of turgid mince McKinnon was serving up.

Where is the chat about Gow buying out Lex Miller coming from? I see mention that LM is on his way out but a bit of a leap to say its Gow buying him out is it not (unless I've missed something?). Is this an assumption based on the fact Gow was heading up a bid last year? If so its tenuous at best. I'm more positive about Gow having this role than JJ. I think its more likely someone young and hungry to succeed will make more of the role than a last job before retirement type. Ross Wilson being the perfect example of how a career can be carved out with hard work and the right attitude/contacts. We're in a much better place going into this season off the pitch than the last few years - on the pitch the jury is out till we've played some games

Sometimes I think I'm fairly knowledgeable about Scottish football and then I'm reminded there are people out there who can recognise Sam Ramsbottom from distance in training gear

I agree with this, a 2nd wave on the same scale as before is unlikely. We have better access to testing and ability to isolate positive cases quicker than before. As lockdown measures are loosened its inevitable that cases will rise slightly, but keeping these under control is key. I expect lower leagues will go ahead and testing will only be in place where there are symptoms or there has been a recent case identified at a club. No way every club will be testing twice a week and bubbles are impossible due to 2nd jobs.

This seasons strip would have been nice had the front been plain navy blue instead of the dogs dinner they went with. In the last 30 years our most exciting teams have played in strips with red shoulders - the Jeffries era and the Latapy/Gow/Stokes season. We should be revisiting that look to recreate the feel good factor in fans memories of those teams.

Telfer, Todd and Connolly will be our wide options this year which is disappointing but if Mercer can get forward and cross a bit better than Doyle, that'll lead to a few goals i'm sure. Amazing how many crosses we wasted per game last year. If we do bring in any more players I'd expect them to be a back up keeper and defensive cover.

I think it's unfair Dan Turner, Froxylias and Dylan Mackin aren't being mentioned here...

Forgot about Mercer and wasn't counting Sneddon as a proper signing - wrongly I guess but I just don't expect him to feature much (if at all).

Who were our 2nd and 3rd?

Not too concerned by the lack of signings yet as I think some of the better options will only become available later in the window when they realise they're not getting picked up by teams in the championship or getting a game in the SPL. I am concerned however that we might only be looking at 2-3 new players. Its beyond daft to waste money on Leitch, Laverty, Gomis, Telfer if they aren't going to play so really can't see us buying any new midfielders. A striker a centre back and a couple of loans at most I reckon.

Managers must have a nightmare this time of year trying to cut through the sh*te that agents put up in front of them. Even The TOE has a highlights reel that makes him look capable.

Why is everyone wetting their pants over Aidan Keena? A semi decent 14 games in League 1 two years ago with QP and that seems to be it. According to Wiki he also had unsuccessful trials with Darlington and Berwick Rangers before Hartlepool took a chance on him. Even then he only managed 8 games? What am I missing?

Serious questions over whether he should be banned from the ground given his views.

On the subject of OF loans, the Celtic colts could have easily hammered us last time we played so if we took a few decent youngsters from them for 1 year and it got us out the league then all for it. re Deans doubt what he's been saying would have any impact on clubs sending us players on loan. Much more comes into the decision than that e.g likely game time, quality of coaching, level of facilities etc. If sending a player to league 1 I doubt any club would send to the likes of Montrose instead of us just because Deans bumped his gums a bit in the summer. They'll do what's best for their player.

It's the time of year for ITK nods and winks.

Sounds like Nelson has gone down the Tommy Robson route of how to look after yourself off the pitch. Both would be wasting wage money if true. Priority has to be a couple of creative attacking midfielders (e.g Alston/Swanson) and a couple of decent strikers. (maybe loan deals from the SPL). When we played Celtics colt team they played us off the pitch for large chunks of that game, must be one or two there that we could maybe tempt with first team football. Majority of funds should be spent on attacking options. Get that right and we're good as defensively we'll be fine (if not amazing).

Some of the chat on the last few pages is woeful. Pointless predicting where we'll finish given we've so far signed one 18 year old left back. At least 5-6 to be added and then we'll have a much better idea. Also - don't get why some people think we'll be play offs at best. By and large the teams in this division are appalling. If you go with what's been said over the last 24 hrs, Partick have a 'powerhouse midfield' and have about 4 strikers who will score bundles of goals. When was the last time Brian Graham had a prolific season? 7 years ago (and he turns 33 in November). The bulk of their squad couldn't finish above Alloa and Arbroath last season and I don't remember being impressed by the silky Arbroath team when we played them in the cup.. One thing I do agree with is getting rid of Sammon and Telfer. You can't play to someones strengths when they blatantly don't have any.

Controversial perhaps but I think we (myself included) are getting to relaxed about guys like Durnan, Hall, Dixon, Miller, Sammon & Connolly being in the starting XI. Let's face it none of them are actually very good. Durnan and Dixon are both error prone, Sammon is utter sh*te , Connolly had a couple of ok games last year in the 2nd half of the season but was hardly mesmerising, Miller moved to midfield and shocked us by occasionally putting a tackle in but offered nothing in a creative sense and Hall/Todd stood out mostly for not doing too much wrong (rather than anything they did especially well). Mutch is basically our only decent player. (and maybe Dowds, Laverty or Leitch but as yet unknown). Wish I'd typed this before I bought my season ticket

It's indicative of how far we've fallen when our new signings don't even have a wiki page. Can't say I've even noticed Dowds but from what's been said he seems a decent signing.

Nobody has all the answers on what might or might not happen at the moment. All the club can do is plan based on what they know which is a 27 game season and not much else. I like the fact there are options on ST's and many will go for the full price option. if anything, would like to have seen more options including things like a seasons access to FTV, X number of 50/50 tickets each week, include a home shirt, sponsorship etc.