Kmcalpin

Agree 100%. Football in Scotland is constantly changing and moving forward and not always for the best. Clubs at our mid table level like Killie, Dundee and St Mirren are "finding money" from somewhere, albeit that might not be from sustainable sources. Its becoming harder to compete with them. So, in order to stand still, we have to increase our income. Transfer income is not gauranteed and can be unpredictable. Young players are now moving on earlier for meagre compensation as the big boys of world football get greedier, and the authorities simply stand aside meekly. Fans too are changing and are becoming far harder to please and demanding. Many younger and middle aged spectators have been weaned on a diet of English Premier League football and that is now the standard, to which they are accustomed. As a club we have to update, modernise and increase our income streams sonehow as you rightly point out. Nothing is permanent but change.

Is Harry Paton back in training? Thought I saw him in a Fb post.

Good post. Irrespective of how its been achieved, ie through development of the Academy, we have always been a selling club. Whatever investment model we adopt in future, that will never change. Thats not to say, of course, that we shouldn't maximise other income streams. Of course we should.

We'll find out details in due course, so need to get our knickers in a twist just yet. With regard to your point, we should all remember that, as things stand, Society reps on the board outnumber other directors by 2:1. However thats a good question. The 2 Society members on the Board, Douglas Dickie and Tom Feely are effectively wearing 2 hats. By default, the Society wasn't cut out.

We're spoilt for choice. My top 3 would be Bair's solo dink against Livingston; Spittal's rocket against Ross County and his gaol against Celtic. I'll opt for the latter.

Vale beside Bair please, not behind him. Not confident about this one as Aberdeen seem to know how to beat us this term, with us holding on for a draw after being 3 up last time out at Pittodrie. They may also have a new manager bounce, if there is such a thing.

I agree with most of that. Not convinced by Davor though, but thats balanced by Paton, who has done a job. To be fair, he's brought in some decent loan signings: Vale, Gent, Spencer, and Biereth, although he got his fingers burnt with the latter two. Halliday? I just don't know,. I wasn't as concerned as many when he first signed but he hasn't really worked out. Now is that down to lack of fitness or his legs going? Maybe a bit of both. I just hope SK knows. Midfield is an area we definitely need to strengthen for next season.

For the year ended May 2022 our total staff costs were 5.2m. Now that includes all staff of course, although the playing side will account for the majority of that. I'm sure I read somewhere that Killie's budget was about the same, as was St Johnstones (their average player salary was below ours but they have traditionallly carried huge squads). Ross County's would likely be above ours as would both Dundee clubs. SK mentioned last year that Dundee "blew us out of the water" when offering a player terms. United would likely have had a player budget about 25-30% above ours. Educated guesswork on my part.

An intriguing set of fixtures. They could make for an interesting last day if St Johnstone need to win to stay up. I'd like to have them earlier. I had expected an A H A H A sequence.

I generally agree with some of what you say, but not over this. However, its wrong to solely blame the SPFL, although they do deserve some criticism. Police Scotland will already have made its feelings known and the Scottish Government (it doesn't matter who is in power) will also be monitoring the situation. Sadly sectarianism is deep rooted in our society to such an extent that it mustn't be discussed in public, let alone addressed. We're still in the dark ages over this. Sectarianism is at the root cause of this.

The team of the mid seventies was the best Well team that I've seen since I was taken to Fir Park as a toddler. It had everything, although it might be frowned upon by some of today's fans. Football was a lot simpler in those days. Limited TV coverage, less exposure of English football and more limited fan expectations.

As expected, Post split fixtures won't be released until after Wednesday as SPFL "want to confirm final pre split top 6 league placings". They think our heads button up the back.

I think we're almost safe but won't take it for granted until we're mathematically home and dry. If, as seems likely, we play Aberdeen, Hibs or Ross County away first, and suffer a loss, which isn't beyond the bounds of possibility, there will be a few squeaky bums on here and elsewhere amongst our support. The sequence of the fixtures will be crucial. We don't want Ross County away as the first fixture. To be fair, none of the other 4 teams will either. Our season isn't quite over yet.

His drop in form might be down, in part, to the formation SK is fielding. Move Vale up beside Bair and slip Spittal in behind them.

Yes, we'll finish above 11th place by a good 2 or 3 points. Pre split points tallies pretty much what I thought they would be. A win against Livingston and a draw against St Johnstone should be enough