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I general, no. Likewise it won't bother me if we lose Just and TJ - we all know that they will move on. We've seen our best players move on for decades and we're still here. It does mean that our recruitment strategy is doing well. My concern is with the timing. A long and growing injury list and a Conference League tie coming up in a matter of days. Its not the time to be shipping players out and certainly not without oven ready replacements.

No Zander McAllister last night? Please don't tell me he's injured as well.

Agree to an extent. Intention yes but naivety in that if good bids and offers to players came in that we would be in a position (not just contractual) to resist. I think most of us are/were realistic about that prospect. Stating the obvious but hindsight is the real issue. Would any of us be worried about losing Watt for £1.5m when he came in from a recent relegation campaign? If we’re in the same place next season with Moorman then that will have meant he (and team hopefully) have had a great season.

Financially we are doing very well, no argument from me on that score. You can also add on a modest 5/6 figure fee for the Ox. We also have the relocation of the stadium / replacement of the POD stand to factor in. However, healthy balance sheets don't increase attendances. On the playing side, I was not surprised that JBA left at the end of the season. Despite his positive words I never thought he'd stay with us very long. I'm sure the directors would also have been well aware of his intention to move months ago. Kyrk Macmillan is doing a good job as far as I can tell, but it was a mistake to tell the fans that everything was ticking over nicely during the search for a new manager when it clearly wasn't. It was also naive of the directors to tell the fans that all our best assets wouldn't be sold at the same time. That raised unrealistic expectations.

We don't always though do we? Aside from Sligo last time and Stjarnan we pretty much always do as well as we should be expected and gone out against the much higher ranked seeded team. Other than those too instances you need to go all the way back to Mypa to fill your misery quota. It's frustrating we've not yet taken that extra step and gone beyond that extra step - Odense was the one that got away there and would have put us into the group phase. I'll have missed some but going out to Nancy, Panathinaikos, Levante, Steuea Bucharest, Odense, Krasnador or the Israeli mob isn't exactly a rid neck. There are some games in there we possibly could have done better in (namely Odense and possibly he Israelis if Gallagher hadn't made a cunt of himself) but it's not an embarrassment by a long stretch. All of these teams had much bigger budgets than us and/or are regulars in European competition.

Fucking hell man.

Agree Ngandu looked like a football player in terms of touch and composure but physique requires a bit of work. At 16 though he could just be in that classic growth phase. My 193cm 19yo went through a fair few tumphy phases. only signed in July - Him and Thompson defence of the future - while the manager still under 40 😆

Any idea of how we played v Ghent? Same as under JBA or any tactical change?

And last night confirmed it.

Has MJC swapped glasses with you? 🤣🤣. Lets give Vogt time and see how he is. Yup young Samuel that came on is a unit. Giving these young lads game time can only benefit them. Judging by injury list and probable sales we are going to need a few of them to be ready

I’ll not bring it up again as I’m not going to bully this guy but he’s not a football player. He had no idea what he was meant to do, his movement was awful and what tipped it for me was when Eli took his penalty, he stood 25yrds out looking at the east stand. He’s a striker supposedly, he should be on the edge of the box.I honestly thought we’d been duped by George Weah’s cousin. Anyway… on another minor point, the big lad who came on in the 2nd half? Nagunda? Or something? He’s 16yrs old!!!! 16!!!!!! I thought he was a coach when I saw him warm up at the start of the game. He actually looks like he can play but he desperately needs to shed some timber.

I prefer pragmatic honesty to pretending the sky is green. That said, it’s still far too early to tell with AJ.

I think it was pretty inevitable that team from last season was going to be ripped apart if we make the best part of £10M from it given where we were at the start of last season that sets the club up for years to come. We've allegedly made around £1.3M from JBA and Ward leaving and look to have accepted a bid around £1.75M for Watt so that's us made £3M from 3 guys we picked up for free last year. I think £7M in fees between Just and Maswanhise is very much achievable which would basically mean we're £10M better off and in the same place we're in most seasons needing to make 8-10 signings. Hopefully Just sticks around for the 2 Euro ties and we get through HB and have a bit more time to make additions to the squad before Hibs and the next round in Europe. By

Quite, although IIRC we didn't routinely change when playing Hearts in the past. There's plenty of old footage on YT to prove that. The problem in days of yore arose when we played the likes of Partick Thistle or East Fife, and Dundee United after they ditched their B&W for tangerine and black. Now Livingston are doon ablaw there isn't much need for a change strip other than to make money, really, especially since we already brought out our blue 1913 SE jersey at the end of last season.

I thought the same: the substitution was right on the 30 minutes mark so I presumed it was planned. What did surprise me was that Thor didn't get on.

Exactly. Optimism, positivity and championing progress will only work for a manager if it is actually backed up by what is happening on the park. Graham Alexander, albeit who was as dull as dishwater, made a habit of coming out after a loss and a dismal performance and trying to tell everyone that we played well and everything was fine, when everyone could see that it was anything but. That really didn’t help his standing with the support by trying to state that black was white.

Apologies, I wasn't commenting on Alfred Johansson just managers in general.

Worth mentioning going into the new season. Askou avoided going into the relegation zone in game 9 only when we scored an injury time goal against Livingston. The new manager will need time.

That might well be true, but given the current chaotic state of the squad with long/medium term injuries and new players, not unsurprisingly, being unfit/not ready we have to be realistic.

I get what you're saying there but he's still in 'winning over hearts and minds' phase. Obviously with the fans but possibly more importantly with the players. We all saw what happened with Russell Martin at Rangers when he had a go at the players before having them onside. I think for Johansson to be negative now (particularly given the injury/transfer issues affecting the squad) would be counterproductive...

We've won more matches at Easter Road this decade than any other current Premiership ground. The only places we have a better record is Livingston and Ross County.

I miss us being in the League Cup group stages. They’re the perfect preparation for the season whilst being serious games themselves in a competition that we actually have a chance of making a scratch in. Unlike this ‘European’ nonsense which is essentially a couple of glorified friendlies which we always make a complete arse of and get embarrassed in.

I have no opinion on him yet. Far too early to tell. Being optimistic and positive is a desirable quality in a manager but not if their interviews merely gloss over weaknesses and failures that are obvious to the fans. Managers also have to be realistic.

This time last year we had already drawn with Clyde and were just about to scrape by Stenhousemuir with a scuffed SODs effort from a corner. Had everyone collectively decided that the patience offered to JBA and the team last season was a one off? Rushing out to sign a player every time someone else picked up a knock is what led us to Kettlewell's disaster if a final January window and a squad of about 200. We'll be fine.