David

Confirmed as Hammell's assistant.

Will be interesting to see if we do any better at retaining our young players if they see a clear pathway into the first team. Perhaps that disconnect when Alexander was in charge is what led some of them such as Bailey Rice to move elsewhere? Might as well make a decent wedge while not getting into the first team!

I understand the thinking behind this, but when a club appoints a manager they have to support him. Refusing his requests for players doesn't exactly scream "backing the manager," does it? Basically, the board appointed Alexander so they had to either back him, or move him out. If they started refusing his requests (if they were reasonable, of course) for new players and so on then the position becomes untenable. What's to say Hammell won't be a Howe or Neil type appointment? In fact, Howe's first two games as caretaker manager at Bournemouth were defeats before he got the job full-time, and Neil got the Accies job on an interim basis initially after managing the youth team. I'm not saying he'll be as successful as either of them, but there's shades of Hammell's situation in both.

Forgotten? No. But most people have moved past it. He apologised, promised to do better, and most people have taken those promises at face value. isn't that what we're supposed to do? Otherwise, what's the point in him apologising?

Apparently he believes that he has "never quite won the Linfield supporters over" and that online abuse is affecting his family. Let's hope if he is our number one target that he doesn't call Graham Alexander before making his choice!

You're on top form recently!

It's been a while since we gave someone a right good doing, so why not Aberdeen? 1-3 to the good guys.

I think so as well. It was always a dodgy situation allowing the manager to surround himself entirely with his own backroom team. While it may seem like a good thing at the time to back the manager, it also means if and when he goes they all follow. I'd like whoever comes in to have Hammell installed as the assistant, with Kerr moved up to take on the job Hammell had with the youths.

Because it is possible to not be good enough for a starting spot, but good enough for a place on the bench. It doesn't have to be a game of absolutes. But let's be honest, if he did have a huge falling out, O'Donnell wouldn't even be training with the first team, let alone sitting on the bench. What did Alexander do that wasn't professional? Drop a player from the starting eleven who he didn't deem good enough? A player who, by most fans accounts, simply wasn't performing well enough? A player who himself admitted that Alexander may have been correct? I could understand if Alexander took the same approach as Paul Lambert did with Kayden Jackson and Jon Nolan at Ipswich, banishing them to train with the kids and making vague accusations about the player, but he didn't, did he? Did he disrespect O'Donnell in the media? In press interviews? Did he question O'Donnell's professionalism? I honestly think he just didn't fancy him as a player. He didn't think he was good enough. Which is allowed, by the way. He's the manager, it's his job to make those calls. I don't personally think it was the right call, but that's on Alexander. It wasn't unprofessional though. Why would he? Do you think Alexander removed O'Donnell from the team because of what the fans thought? If he did, then he's got bigger problems than might first be apparent! He dropped O'Donnell because he didn't think he was good enough. That's a managers prerogative. Why was it vindictive? Was he banished from the first team? Made to train with the kids? Embarrassed and called out publicly? I don't think he was. He was, basically, seen as surplus to requirements. It happens. He just wasn't good enough, mate. There's no "patching up" to be done. It was on O'Donnell to up his game and prove to the manager that he was good enough to feature. Which he didn't do, and he knows it going by his admittance that Alexander may have been correct. Maybe he got dropped initially and the head went down? He didn't respond as he should have? Hopefully he learns from it. That squad isn't a shambles. We have some quality in there, it will just take a few key signings in certain areas to make the difference. The recruitment thing is a fine line really. It depends who's available at any given time. It's easy for fans to say "get a striker in" but what if there's no decent strikers available within our budget? What then? Just magic one up out of thin air? Or do what we've seen managers in the past do, and sign any old shite as long as it represents a body in the door? Often times clubs in our position have to play the waiting game and see who becomes available on a free or via loan once the bigger clubs have conducted their business and finalised their squads. That's why there's usually always a rush of signings in the last few weeks. I said before the summer window opened that I'd rather we wait and sign decent quality than waste money on players who aren't going to make the cut just to get bodies in the door and keep the fans happy. If that means we're a bit light and not looking great for the first two or three games in the season then so be it. However, we're now in a position where we still need those quality signings, but don't have a manager to rubber stamp them. So, whatever problems we had a few weeks ago are now exacerbated. Which is why I would have stuck with Alexander until around October or so to see how we got on. Or at least until we identified a decent replacement ahead of time. But the fans wanted him out as "it couldn't possibly be any worse." So, let's see if that's true. There's no real outstanding candidate for the job out there at this stage of the season. There never is. We've gone down the crazy road of parting ways with a manager literally days before the season starts, and we have no one who can rubber stamp signings before the window closes, unless we want to bring a manager in a few weeks from now and hand him a squad that may include brand new signings he doesn't like the look of. Truth is, the club should either have got rid of Alexander in the summer, or waited until October or November. It seemed quite simple really. But they haven't, they dithered about until he eventually came to them obviously looking for the club to either accept his resignation or signal their intent to back him for the next few months at least. Let's hope we don't pay the ultimate price for that.

Compared to clubs who can afford to pay higher wages? You mention Ross County and Livingston, but they're clubs who also offer ordinary wages for the most part I think. Ross County maybe offer a little more, actually. But yeah, the truth is that the majority of our squad are going to be ordinary players. That's our level. What can make a difference is a manager who can take a bunch of ordinary players and make them play well, and it also helps if we can get a youth player through now & then who is of higher quality, or can chance upon a good find in the lower reaches of the English game.

Nah, we do what we need to do to succeed. If we have a chance to take someone like Mackay or McInnes from a team around us, we do it. I'd rather we did that and succeeded, than lose our premiership status but retain our status as a club who don't do shitty things.

On the subject of the next manager, I think we're at a stage where we need to either really go for someone of quality, or look at someone like Hammell who can implement his experience of the youth setup and bring some of those lads through. I'd sound out McInnes and Malky Mackay. Hopefully the club have at least got some sort of read on them, to know if they'd be interested. I know both clubs are similar to ours in many ways, but the potential, recent results and how the club is run here may appeal to them? I'd certainly be making moves to see if they'd at least entertain the idea. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Aye, but surely if there was a system, scout, recruitment specialist or whatever that could sign a lot of players who are better than ordinary but available on our budget they'd be the most sought after individuals in football? We sign ordinary players for the most part, because we offer ordinary wages.

Do you know what the disagreement was about, like? I didn't see it mentioned? There's every chance the disagreement was about O'Donnell not being good enough? Which many of our fans were saying week in and week out on here, on social media, and in the stands. But hey, you can use it as another reason to bash a guy who's no longer even here.

I also watched them regularly, having lived there for a bit. Sure, the situation at Ipswich wasn't great, but his style of football was rank. As you'll no doubt know, the fanbase there is fairly passive, so to see them react to him in the manner they did was a bit of an eye-opener. Basically, Lambert was many of the things our support didn't like about Alexander. Which is why I think he'd be a terrible choice.