Stevie Aitken's Love Child

Well we only handed him a 1 year deal. We save 2 year contracts for stars like Kabba-Modou Cham, Tony Wallace and Joe McKee.

Just posted over on the general transfer rumours thread, but thought I would stick it here also. You are apparently interested in signing Dougie Imrie.

Rumours in today's greenock telegraph that Kenny Shiels had made contract offers to practically the entire squad before he was bagged. Might not be the worst thing that he left, now that I've read that.

Must be those boyish good looks of yours Frank

It is not uncommon to be ID'd everywhere you go, I saw people who were obviously in their 30s at least being ID'd, and I was also asked on several ocassions when I was there last year. You might be lucky enough, but I believe that they are supposed to ID absolutely everybody, regardless of how they appear.

Greenock Telegraph ‏@greenocktele BREAKING: Morton manager Kenny Shiels has resigned, the Tele can exclusively reveal. More on this right now at http://greenocktelegraph.co.uk

Just hadn't seen the letter before, was wondering if it was real or not. No word on Shiels as yet, we were told that he was meeting with the board today.

Is that an actual fact or just opinion? Have you seen the terraces at Dortmund's stadium? They're mentally steep, never heard any issues about them. I suppose that there are regulations, does anyone know them?

The railway stand at Stark's Park would be ideal as a terrace I've always thought. It would only need about 3 rows of crush barriers installed, as it's only about 12-15 steps high from the pictures I've looked at, and you'd probably be able to set a capacity of about 2,000-ish in it. I've never seen the stand in use actually, when was the last time it was used?

Was this sent to you? What did you say in your email to merit this response? I'm surprised you got an answer at all, I've emailed the club several times through the years and either had to wait weeks for an answerm ro received no answer at all.

Was trying to imagine it in yellow, with blue shoulders. If we are still with puma, I would hope that our away top might be like that.

Liking the new Falkirk kits.

Douglas Rae has today confirmed that Kenny Shiels will stay on as manager for next season, and as above, that we will stay full-time for next season.

Saw a picture the other day, it looks great, although it does look bizarre having floodlight towers standing inside an enclosed stadium. They will of course be taken down soon enough, just look daft. Cant post the image for some reason - http://www.info-stades.fr/forum/ressources/image/thumb/53938

I had no idea that Bramall Lane used to look like that, very weird indeed. The outfield would be all lopsided surely in that set-up? Doesn't look right at all.

Outside view of the new main stand at Anfield. For anyone interested, I took this picture from http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=263, a cracking forum for keeping up to date with ground developments around the world.

He has a 'Young Gibby' tattoo? Really? As for the story, Hopkin was already at the club when Shiels arrived, coaching the club's Development squad and taking the reserves. He was then given the assistant's job alongside Shiels, probably as a way to save some money, and I don't think that kind of situation works very often. A manager should choose his own coaching staff, people he knows and trusts.

It would appear that David Hopkin has had a falling out with Kenny Shiels, and has subsequently left his position as assistant manager at the club. No official comment from the club as yet. but it's in today's Greenock Telegraph.

Dunning, that sums things up perfectly. Great post.

Garry O'Connor is getting more stick in today's paper. Oh, and his comments regarding the budget cuts this season http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/sport/morton/articles/2014/04/03/493834-morton-chairman-blasts-hopeless-oconnor/

I think in some cases, yes you would, especially if you could find another club to take on your contract until the end of the season, like in the case of Jonathan Page at Dunfermline. Vine signed on a permanent deal yes, until the summer. It was all but agreed that he would come in on loan, but that fell through for some reason, but he managed to agree to his release from Hibs so we were then able to sign him.

Shiels has stated on a few occasions that he did not recieve any additional budget when he came in as manager, and would have to work with what he had. He shifted out 4 players that were already out of contract in January (Nacho Novo, Craig Reid, Jake Nicholson and Stephen Stirling) together with Mark McLaughlin, Tomas Peciar, Michal Habai and Jonathan Page who had deals until the summer, and then Kabba-Modou Cham who would have been the most expensive I would have thought with him having 18 months to run. He stated in the press that the contracts of Habai and Peciar were cancelled at no cost to the club, so the combined contract payouts wouldn't have been quite as crippling as you would have thought. We have then brought in 8 players, of whom only David Robertson, Garry O'Connor and Rowan Vine were over the age of 22. The likes of Ben Sampayo, Jamie McCormack and Darren Cole hadn't played in a while, so would probably have been cheap enough wages-wise, while Findlay and McKay are both young guys in on loan. I actually wouldn't be surprised to hear that our wage bill is a little lower than it was prior to Shiels coming in.

Shiels seems pretty sure that he'll still be here next season, even going so far as laughing off Rae's comments in yesterday's paper. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/spfl/shiels-staying-at-ton-for-long-haul-158036n.23853402

Can't keep Dougie out of the papers today it seems. He's in today's Greenock Telegraph, which I will paraphrase as the Tele has a paywall so most won't be able to read the article: He would be willing to sell the club, but doesn't believe that anyone would want to buy them He has not made any decision about our FT status next season or if Shiels will be in charge. He'll decide when the season is over. Re-iterates his disappointment in how Shiels has done since he came in, but not in as candid a way as that Evening Times article http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/sport/morton/articles/2014/04/01/493527-exclusive--rae--id-be-prepared-to-sell--but-to-who/