weeyin

He's been getting first team football (and an international debut) that he might not have got sitting on the bench at a league 1 team or whatever. So while I agree he needs to kick on, he's done not bad for a 22 year old.

That's what I was wondering. Not that I ever sit in that stand, but never been a fan of fences, nets etc. to peer through.

We can't make players sign contracts. If Turnbull has someone whispering in his ear with promises about bigger and better things, there's not much we can do about it apart from point to all the others who moved on too soon. Kipré is about the only youngster in recent times that has been able to secure a first team spot at a higher level. The rest tend to sit in the reserves (or end up in Iran). As always, there's a balance to be found on length of contracts for the youngsters. There's also lot to be said for first team football at this point in a player's career.

Agreed. Priority this week is first choice players being fit and ready for the St Mirren game.

I have no doubt if we sign a wide player it will be a wing back. I just wish we had the option of a wide player whose main job was to take on defenders and hit the bye-line.

Which is why I worry he wants to try and find another winger to convert to a wing back. I'd much rather we had an option that was an out and out winger.

Aye, they turned over Killie after we took a point off them. Think they'll be firing on all cylinders against us. Time to play our fringe players and just park the bus?

I just hope he isn't looking to try and convert a good winger into an average wing-back.

Good to see Dunne back in the team, although his concession of the penalty was the act of a guy that hasn't played first team football for a while. Along with Mbulu, he brings the added pace we have been lacking in recent weeks.

Wille Miller said we deserved the win, so I'll assume we did.

You can see why Robinson says he brought in him as a Number One (in anticipation of Carson leaving). Thought we'd do well to get a point today, so delighted to pick up all 3 in a place we have struggled to find any recent form.

Just call me Nostradamus. (Still not convinced with the new tactic of giving away pens to motivate the team with a Gillespie save).

Actual salaries were £3,557,247 compared to £2,849,993 the previous year. With social security and pensions costs included, £3,931,798 compared to £3,137,508 the prior year. The most interesting part of the accounts are the gate receipts which more than doubled compared to the prior year. Just shows how important a good cup run or two means to the bottom line.

The Well Society should consider providing oxycodone before every match.

The accounts state that costs increased by £1.35 million, the "majority" of which were Staff costs, (but that includes the extra staff needed to meet Project Brave criteria), and increased costs for staff, stewards, power light and heating from the extra games played at Fir Park. If you look at the reported figures, the actual staff costs in 2018 were about £794k more than 2017. Which still means the "majority" of the cost increase went to staff. It doesn't mean we spaffed a million-plus on players, though.

It's difficult to be 100% sure as I don't have access to those accounts. But given JB and a couple of ex-directors admissions about how they lost money by overpaying players (especially when it came to bonuses), I think it's a fair bet our salary budget is less now. At least in real terms.

Light snow here today. 0 - 0 on Saturday.

And yet we've stayed in the league, and last year got to 2 Cup Finals and finished 7th. My thoughts on the brand of football are well documented on here, as well as my thoughts on the "need to earn the right to play" nonsense. And it would be churlish to not recognize that by playing guys like Bigi and Turnbull that situation has brought some improvement. There has, however, been huge changes off and on the field in the past 2 or 3 seasons to contend with. From JB selling, to the Well Society to the changes that Les implemented to the overhaul required to meet Project Brave criteria to ground improvements. The fact we have made it through that, stayed in the league and turned a profit is pretty impressive for any business. I think where we agree is that now we have been through that transition, we need to improve the product on the park. I don't have any expectation that it will lead to massive improvements in league position, but I'd rather we finished 6th or 7th playing more attractive football than 6th or 7th just "earning the right to play".

When you are a team of our size and finish second in the league, the only possible direction is downwards. We have been performing much closer to our mean (and median) in recent years. The only difference now is that we aren't losing money (as we did in our "sucessful" years). We are always going to have more of these kinds of seasons. That is why I said when we were qualifying for Europe, and being best of the rest, that everyone should enjoy it as much as they could because it would be back to the mid-bottom table fights soon enough.

US television channels are the best in the world at highlights packages as most of their sports consist of commercials interrupted by the odd burst of play.

If it's a one-way ticket, I'll chip in a tenner.

I think you're just cutting and pasting now. Can you not add a wee bit of effort to your weekly predictions of doom and gloom?

Do you think those cherry picked names moved there for the high quality of the league? Here's the roster for the team Rose is joining. It's a fairly typical list. 30-man Active Roster (Spots 1-30) Aja, Jose Bevan, Myer Blondell, Anthony Colyn, Simon Davies, Alphonso De Jong, Marcel Dominguez, Roberto Emnes, Marvin Franklin, Sean Ghazal, Aly Henry, Doneil Hurtado, Erik Juarez, Efrain Kamara, Kei Levis, Brett Marinovic, Stefan Martins, Felipe Maund, Aaron Melvin, Sean Mezquida, Nicolas Mutch, Jordon Nerwinski, Jake Norman Jr., David Reyna, Yordy Richey, Spencer Rowe, Brian Shea, Brek Techera, Cristian Teibert, Russell Waston, Kendall The New York Red Bulls are another typical example. A host of recent college age kids 18, 21, 22 years old etc. a few in their mid 20s and a 33 year old Bradley Wright-Phillips. Regardless of the make-up of the teams, however, the games just aren't that entertaining. I don't know what the root cause is, but there is something lacking that makes them mostly unwatchable to me. Zlatan scoring against Real Salt Lake just doesn't cut it.

You do have the excitement of the Memphis 901 FC expansion team making their debut in the USL Championship next season. (For readers not intimate with the whole US pyramid, The USL is the 2nd tier of US football).

I'd beg to differ. It's a strange mixture of young college kids (who aren't as good as our good U20s players) and old pros heading for retirement. I love watching football at all levels from non-league to Champions League and I still find MLS the most difficult to enjoy.