Kris-A-Goalda

Having watched Hale tear it up in the NIFL for a few years before going to County last year, I can honestly say he's one of the most exciting players I've seen in the flesh when he's on his game. Loves a long ranger, can bend a free-kick like the best of them and has great spatial awareness to boot. If anyone else in Scotland gets him, I'll be surprised, but would love to see him in claret and amber. Cliftonville looked so far off it without him in their side last season and by the look of it, it'll be a while before there's another talent like him over here ready to jump the water.

The wellest wishes in the world to Lennon as he moves on - not just following in the footsteps of McTominay et al, but showing that Motherwell can be a key brick on the path for youngsters with ambition beyond the Old Firm. Just a shame both Udinese tops for this season are absolute humpty.

In my tenure watching the club, the players who've brought me most joy watching would be: Randolph Corrigan Craigan Martin Hammell Lambert McFadden Ojamaa Turnbull Moult Arnott Subs: Ruddy, Hateley, Hutchinson, Law, Pearson, McDonald, Higdon

Theo Bair apparently getting loaned out by Auxerre with Dundee sniffing about - one-season wonder or did he do enough to be welcomed back to Fir Park in the new JBA-era?

Balmer back in his first club's colours:

Scored against us in the 3-2 game in April.

Here’s last seasons XL away on top of the Pony XL. More a comment on athletic physiques than anything, but I got the 2 retro shirts last month as birthday gifts, Pony XLs, which are very oversized on me. For the current Macron shirts though, the XL is a decent fit. Have the game’s “big men” really shrunk so much in 30 years?

If this chat keeps up...never going back again.

The Puma home shirt from 2010/11 was available to buy sponsorless at release - but can't remember if that was due to the Commsworld deal not being in place at the time it came out or not.

Oran Kearney is director of football at Coleraine now, with Dean Shiels as their main manager. Just had a huge cash injection from an investor and are snapping up some of the top players in NIFL like Joel Cooper and Levi Ives. If he wasn't on track to win the league at a canter with Linfield, I'd have said David Healy would likely have been on the radar. Tiernan Lynch who turned down St Johnstone has moved to Derry City , with Dom Thomas as one of his first signings for the LOI getting back up and running. Damien Duff has been doing good things at Shelbourne too but wouldn't imagine he's have been in contention. Outside of those names, there's not a great amount of good/great managers over here, or certainly none you'd expect to be on for a job in Scotland.

Jair Tavares on loan from Hibs looking likely, for extra width.

Rohan Ferguson saved two pens in the shootout as Larne went through to Conference League playoff, seeing off Balkani. Earned Larne just under 1 million Euro doing so.

Having watched Hale for Larne and Cliftonville over the past few seasons, I'd much rather have taken him than Murray. Forward thinking, pacy and never scores a bad goal. Can also be a bit of a shit-stirrer too.

It's got 1.5million views across X - maybe not SEO-savvy enough for YouTube but it's doing the numbers.

Good investment and decent marketing can do wonders for a club and i't s fanbase if done correctly. I moved to Larne 9 and a bit years ago and would go and see the town's football team regularly, who at the time were playing in the lower half of the NI second tier to around 100-150 fans every game, in a stadium that would be condemned by today's standard. Kenny Bruce of Purple Bricks came in and invested a substantial amount in 2017, and last season they won the NIFL Premiership. The investment has upgraded their ground to one of the best in the league in terms of pitch, facilities and social club, they've introduced an academy that's producing a great calibre of young player, have sold players to English Championship and Premiership teams and have become an attractive proposition for players from over the water. The biggest difference though is that the fan base, particularly the younger fans and families going along has increased massively and that's in huge part due to the focus that Bruce's investment has had on creating a community club. Their match the other week against Linfield was a sell out and their average home attendance for the season so far is 2100. The Belfast teams hate them. So whether it's the Wrexham model of high profile investor off the back of a viral video or someone with pockets deep enough to get the club out of a perceived mire and allow the club to bring the good times back like Larne have, money invested properly in the club will never do any harm.