ArabFC

Butcher may be better, but he should still only be an emergency centre-half. We desperately need to sign someone there (preferably two), and if you think Butcher/Harkes is a winning Premiership midfield combo you've lost the plot - we need someone in there too. Obviously another wide man is needed as well, and preferably someone (Nisbit) to prepare for when Shankland inevitably departs. But it's not all doom and gloom - Cammy Smith is back

What particular skills does he possess that are we all not seeing? Would love to see the soft-as-shit midfielder who didn't stand out in the Championship boss it in the Premiership, but I doubt it somehow.

If memory serves me right, Hearts knew they were going down months in advance and so had the opportunity to blood a good crop of kids with no pressure, setting them up nicely for the Championship season. I wouldn’t expect it to be quite such smooth sailing this time.

Aye. But my point is there has to be some bounds to the powers of an SFA appointed arbitration panel. I'm wondering what they are, because reading through this thread, all I'm thinking is, this isn't what they'll be arbitrating, they won't have the authority to do that etc etc And maybe I'm wrong, but the whole basis of the cases seems to me to be the Dundee vote, and if it is, if a panel finds in Hearts favour, wouldn't it all just go back to another vote?

Aye, but you can't surely go to an arbiter with your own wishlist - there must be some basis to it - ie in this case the SPFL vote. Would an arbitration panel sit for instance, if Dundee decided they should be awarded £20m and the league title?

Back to basics. Most folk seem to be proceeding on the basis that arbitration will decide the future of the SPFL. Therefore, this is big. But my reading is that they'll only be deciding if the clubs were unfairly treated on a procedural basis, in which case it would go back to the SPFL clubs to vote on again. The ramifications are very different. Anyone else really know whats going on?

Nope

Getting ahead o yersel lad

I'm second choice? Oh no! You're still going to pay me, right?! How many folk have ever turned down a job because they weren't the first choice? In this case it would be like me turning down a job at McDonalds, because first choice, Gordon Ramsay, had turned them down.

We've been heading into administration for the last 20 years now.

Yup. Badger favourite now. Not that that means anything given Dutch Steve was at 1/10. I hope he gets it. If only because (bar Levein) that list is depressing. McKinlay has been coaching pretty regular at Premier League and top-end Championship clubs for a fair while now, so he must have something about him.

Dutch Steve hasn't accepted the job yet as he's doing his accent research on youtube...

I don't know what everyone else is listening to, but almost the entirety of the proceedings so far has been about how Hearts and Partick have to abide by SFA rules and use their arbitration procedure, therefore, the CoS should throw it out. Seems pretty open and shut to me.

So ‘by all accounts’ quickly becomes ‘a hunch’. Away and cry yersel to sleep in the knowledge you’ll still have McPake in yer dugout next year.

Well, we don't know that do we? Cos we're not the ones with the contacts. Pretty obvious really.

The win %s at Derby are not a great indicator - you should be getting at least that with that sort of team - a better indicator might be Newcastle where he was utterly clueless. I know it's what rival fans do, but still, having Dundee fans critiquing the record of Steve McClaren when they have James McPake in the dugout is a tad bizarre. There won't be a manager in the game who has managed more than a half-dozen clubs, that doesn't have blots on his copybook. Certainly none that we could possibly attract - indeed, it still seems a little bonkers that he might be considering it. You mention the Newcastle gig. Word is he was on 50k a week there, so, y'know! Simple fact is we'd be lucky to get him, and if it doesn't work out, well the vast majority of managerial appointments don't anyway.

Fitba fans are a fickle bunch, so, you know, probably. I know I wouldn't, but then as someone alluded to earlier I'm what many would prescribe a woke virtue-signalling bellend. Not really, but... The more pertinent and obvious point would be how much quicker the fans would be liable to turn on a manager with such a background should he not be successful. Near the bottom of the table and without a win in a half-dozen games and the fans would be screaming to get rid of the cretin.

So Granny was Malky Mackay all along? Makes sense.

It's a bit like a tree falling in a forest. A public figure can't show contrition through sources.

f**k off Malky!

Rankin is a decent shout actually. Kind of guy you want in the dressing room, so could work well as a No.2 Cathro. Aye, no chance. He's got a good thing going with Santo.

Nowt to worry about there.

They can't be that stupid, can they?

Trying to think of someone he might know with a connection. Only one I can think of is Johnny Russell, but he's too young to return to Tannadice as a coach.

Can't wait for Dutch Steve to get his notepad out when he sees Powers trying to turn in training.