Nelson

No, I’m suggesting that there has been a fall out between Berra and Murray which has resulted in Berra walking out on the club 3 days before the season starts, with “retirement” just being a convenient excuse for all concerned.

It means that I don’t believe Berra has abruptly retired because his legs have suddenly gone when they were fine 4 weeks ago. A fall out with Murray is much more likely, which would explain why they were happy to release a 24 year old centre back in favour of Berra.

4 weeks is a long time in football.

Pretty bizarre that Raith let Musonda go only for Berra to retire on the eve of the new season.

Was thinking of going to the Hub on Saturday - anyone know what time you need to be there to get in?

I’m not really interested in comparing managers, since they are inevitably at different stages of their careers and working with different budgets. The real yardstick for Bullen is results on the park. By that measure, the jury is absolutely out on Bullen. In his near 8 months in charge, there has been no visible improvement that I can see. To put it in context, Mark Kerr effectively only got 10 or so months in charge if you recognise that the 6 months of lockdown through 2020 were basically a write off. Personally I think we pulled the trigger on Kerr too quick, but I think a lot of people (including the chairman perhaps) didn’t think he should have got the job in the first place and couldn’t really get past that when he hit a rough patch of results. Hopkin and Duffy got even less time, correctly I’d suggest. That being said, I just don’t think anyone at Somerset can contemplate having to confront another failed managerial appointment, so we really need to try and make this work. To that end, we clearly need 2 or 3 additional attacking options. If that doesn’t materialise, I can only foresee one outcome for Bullen.

Have Kennedy or McPake ever really done much to justify the hype around them?

The fact that Bryden is the best striker on our books is both encouraging and terrifying,

I see the bookies have us 2nd favourites to get relegated. Can’t really argue. Morton are favourites which is probably harsh given the way they improved under Imrie last season, though they have signed dross like Gillespie and Quitongo. Partick look good value at 5/1 to win the league. Would be a sore one for Ayr fans seeing them win the league with Muirhead and Docherty - still makes me laugh that some Ayr fans reckoned we wouldn’t miss Docherty…

Couldn’t care less about Griffiths’ baggage. If I thought for a minute he would score goals, I’d be happy to have him. The problem is I don’t believe that. He just looks done, even at League 1 level with Falkirk.

Listened to the commentary on Radio Scotland - they seemed to think we played fairly well, particularly in the 2nd half, and were worth a draw. Doesn’t seem like the fans who were at the game saw it that way. Pretty clear that we need another striker

2 wins at home.

Bullen has been in charge for 7 months and there has been zero improvement. The only result he has conjured is that wildly improbable win at Rugby Park. He is arguably yet to win a truly competitive game at Somerset. On the contrary, we bottled every game against the teams around us after he took over. And that’s before we consider the Killie game which is easily the worst derby display I’ve ever seen from an Ayr team. In his 2 wins, he didn’t prepare or pick the team against Arbroath and Partick weren’t bothering their shirt on the last day of the season. Bullen doesn’t get a free pass just because of what came before him.

We probably need to make an effort to make Bullen work. To that end, Mathie needs to put his foot down and order Bullen to get a back room staff in place. Or else. This idea that he can do everything himself with some input from Tommy Tait, Dave White and Michael Moffat is verging on unprofessional.

Would be interested to know if Peter Murphy was actively considered or approached about the Ayr job. Seems to have done a good job for Annan, presumably on a tiny budget.

The last thing you’d want to do is ask too much of Bryden, but he really is a rare bright spot at the moment. Not impossible that someone could test us with a cheeky transfer bid.

I’m starting to get a bit scared here. 240 minutes against lower league opposition and zero goals.

Don’t get it. JML was signed to play along the front 3 but is playing wide of a 4 man midfield where he’s been pretty anonymous. Hewitt is never a wide midfielder either.

Aye, but Tomi could be at Swindon for the rest of his career. 16 clubs…

Annan 3 up against Elgin at half time…. I presume they haven’t set up with 3 centre backs, 3 holding midfielders and no width.

I think the best we can say about our recruitment at this stage is that it is (hopefully) 2 or 3 players away from being complete!

Bullen’s comments at the vision night about Adeloye were a bit coy, but he certainly left the impression that Adeloye does have an attitude problem of some kind. Maybe it was just a half baked attempt to scare off potential suitors.

I have a horrible feeling that we’re about to find out how big a loss Adeloye really is.

Bit bored with the Somerset road end so thought I’d try P & B for the new season. I’m pretty shocked at how bad we’ve been in our first 2 games, but I’m wondering if I should be. For all the ups and downs, Muirhead, Maxwell, McInroy and Adeloye were 4 of our best players last season and the jury is out on whether we’ve really replaced any of them.. Dipo will hopefully find his feet soon, but we really haven’t replaced Maxwell or McInroy at all. Don’t know much about Musonda but I’ll admit to being a bit worried that he struggled to get a game for Raith. Muirhead was a big lump, but he was a decent championship level centre back and it wasn’t his fault that he got stuck playing midfield for half a season. Beyond that, McAdams, McKenzie, Houston and McGinty have pretty much picked up where they left off. Robbie Crawford was mentioned as being available - I didn’t think we needed him, but given how poor the midfield has been, he might be worth looking at again.