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Season 23/24 nearly over and it has been a bit of a meh season. Nothing to get excited about, out of the cups early, never looking like getting top six and safe from relegation with three games to go.. The usual suspects on here decrying the manager and their favoured fall guys. Kettlewell is stuck on 5-3-2 and only changes this when we are chasing the game and he puts on a load of forwards. The lack of wide players in the squad means we are relying on wing backs to get forward. This puts a lot on them and often they get subbed off and replaced like for like. He has had to deal with an excessive amount of injuries to important players. McGinn 6 games, Casey 9 games, Slattery missed last five months of the season, Miller 12 games, Obika all season, Paton 8 games Blaney 5 games, Butcher 14 games. Bieruth 6 games. Add to that the recall of Bieruth and Spencer. Recruitment has on the whole been good. Negatives Wilkinson, Obika, Shaw, and Halliday. Positives Bieruth, Bair, Spencer, Paton, Gent, Vale. Ok Nicholson and Devine. Kettlewell has improved players. Bair, Spittal, Miller and Gent especially with loanees being recalled after their clubs recognised their improvement after successful spells. He appears to be a good motivator as despite the long run without a win the players stuck with him. How many times did we score late goals to get a draw or a win? God knows how he keeps them interested as his team talks must last ages if his interviews are anything to go by. Despite losing Van Veen we are the third top scorers in the league. Problems are clearly in defence and he hasn't managed to sort that out. Big summer ahead. Recruitment needs to be good again and he needs to find a couple of diamonds to improve us. I saw my first game over sixty years ago and I will be back next year to support the team and the manager.

But who got through more bandages?

Out of those ten appearances the only one anyone knew he was playing was the goal against Celtic, he's right up there with Peter Brady.

I'm not one to buy into requiring a good pre-season argument unless a player missed it, but Halliday had a pre-season with Hearts last year. His stats from the first half of this season show that he was mainly either 'on the bench' or 'not in squad', which begs the question of why did SK think he was worth bringing in on loan then, and his performances since joining on loan haven't been great. It's clear to me that he's finished at this level and his signing for next season raises more questions than it does inspire hope. Maybe he'll step back or focus on coaching or become Obika 2.0. Who knows.

That kind of positivity has no place on this forum.....you should be ashamed 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I should've caveated my point to acknowledge that the new WS board are trying to affect positive change, which represents a significant improvement on the visionless status quo before them. However, even as a long-term WS member, I think these new efforts, whatever they may be, could be in vain given the number of paying members and the associated monthly income generated for the WS. An ideal scenario would be a deal between an external investor and a revamped WS, with the latter retaining majority ownership and presenting a sustainable vision. That's perhaps wishful thinking, however. We've all been discussing this for weeks, so let's hope we get some clarity or an update following the season's conclusion.

I'll never forgive him for missing the sitter against Brazil! (Although, the first Scotland strip I got as a kid had his number on it, because he was my favourite player). Even the greatest teams need balance in the midfield. Probably the best I have seen was in the French squad of Tigana, Giresse, Fernandez and (the disgraced) Platini - nicknamed The Magic Square. Fernandez was the defensive ball winner. Tigana was the box-to-box. Giresse was a ball player and Platini was as good at scoring goals as he was at taking backhanders.

I seen it mentioned somewhere that Jon Obika was helping with the warm up versus Hibs. He is 34 in September and his injury record the last two or three years hasn't been great, I wonder if he is looking to transition into a coaching role. Hopefully that optional year on his contract was in our favour rather than his. I was pleased when Halliday signed as it gave us some league experience in the middle, he seemed to start brightly enough but he is so slow and ponderous on the ball and will never last a full 90. From the list of players posted above there isn't many I would be too sad to see go. If Kettlewell has made contract offers to any I hope he has put a deadline on them before we move on to other targets.

From out of contract. I would keep mcgin. Butcher and Nicholson. Rest can go

Offer a contract to mcginn for another year, the rest out of contract can go. Try and get gent back next season and if rumours are true about Halliday signed for next year find a way to find him another club. the rebuild needs to be better than last years.

Slattery. Nicolson. McGinn. O'Donnell. Possibly Ferrie.

To be fair I've never denied this fact 🤣. Absolutely.

That's why you need Slattery beside him. It's all about the balance.