Kmcalpin

You have to ask what United directors think they're going to achieve by throwing bucketloads of cash into their playing budget.

Stevie's appointment has certainly split the support, if posts on these boards are anything to go by. I've no idea who applied for our vacancy or were approached by the Board but you have to call into question the overall quality of candidate. I'd be a bit brassed off I had been approached by the club to apply and then not be granted an interview or be given the job. Thats no reflection on Stevie Hammell by the way - its simply that he's totally untried as a manager, and as such represents a huge gamble. He's used to managing young lads - how will he get on managing petulant senior pros or Big Time Charlies? How will he compete tactically with other managers? Many cite his knowledge of the club as being an advantage and yes, it is in the short term. He says he wants to strengthen a couple of areas; hopefully he's being euphemistic when he says that. Many of us are hoping he starts a clear out - that would only be half the job. He then has to bring in better replacements. Remember Harri Kampmann? He certainly identified weak areas quickly and effciently and got shot of a good few. The problem was that he couldn't replace them with better quality. Anyway, good luck to Stevie and he gets my 100% backing. He does sound enthusiastic about the task ahead.

I will have the fear, but would not be disgusted, if Hammy is appointed. On the plus side, he would know the squad and our problems from day one. He also talks a good game. I'm not convinced though that he made much of a difference in our first 2 league games, but I don't hold that against him as he's only had a few days to work with the players. On the debit side he lacks managerial experience and I wonder how extensive his contacts in the game are. In terms of his role as Head of our Academy, I wonder how successful he has been been - is it too early to tell. I'd think it takes a few years to be able to form an informed opinion i.e. to see what young players come though to make the first team. He's not been in post that long. I'll qualify that by acknowldeging there are others on these boards who know a lot more about youth set up than I do. In our current situation we need an experienced head to prepare us for a few months of streetfighting with our rivals, as OTF rightly says.

1-1 draw.

Absolutely Allan. I don't want to go down the Graham Alexander route of inflexible, dull football, but by the same token I'm wary of taking huge risks. There has to be a degree of stability and solidity in the new man's background and approach. A knowledge of Scottish football either through the top man himself or his assistant(s) is absolutely essential. As you say, he has to hit the ground running. Now I'm not saying that David Healy is one of the last men standing but he has signed the likes of Jake Hastie, Ben Hall, Mich'el Parker, and Christy Manzinga for Linfield (source Capt Oats, Pie & Bovril)......... Mark Fotheringham seems to have had a chequered career as a coach but litle or no management experience. We might all be shocked of course if the 2 mystery candidates are personalities that haven't been discussed on here at all! We've all got our own opinions and the reality might be somewhat different.

I don't know if the club is trying to appease us, the fans, with a complete change of managerial direction after GA but I'm finding most of the names, who seem to be in the final frame, to be very risky. Any managerial appointment carries a degree of risk of course, but some of the names mentioned would really seem to be a bit much of a gamble. We don't know the names of the serious candidates amongst the 80 or so names who seemingly applied. For the first time in many years, I'm getting the fear about our new appointment. Maybe I'm just a risk averse kind of person. Perhaps the successful candidate will surprise us and allay our fears.

That would be one very left field and risky appointment.

Apparently, we've snubbed Rangers hero Kevin Thomson. https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-heros-premiership-return-ruled-24720570 No comment.

The new man will start with a pretty clean backroom staff slate then. Maybe not a bad thing. I know its early days, but is our new recruitment sytem working given the players who have been brought in? Will Daws indeed be the next to leave?

I very much doubt that Neil Lennon is anywhere near being a candidate but thats by the way. Another, more plausible, name I've seen mentioned is Malky Mackay. Any views?

No problem. Yes, maybe both parties were frustrated - they are human after all and if that was a factor then its quite understandable. Presumabaly a lot has been going on behind closed doors that we were not aware of.

Whats coming across to me loud and clear now is that Graham Alexander seems to have had an inflexible style of play and that players were instructed to adhere rigidly to it. Many fans like myself were criticising midfield players for example for not supporting the striker(s) or full/wing backs being poor. If I recall corrctly, Onthefringes has made this point several times in the past few months. Its clear now that it wasn't always the fault of the players, but rather the system or instructions they were given. I think Stevie Hammell made a similar point as well. Thats not to say that a manager shouldn't give his players instructions but they should be applicable to the talent he has available and not be overly rigid and inflexible. Maybe we, and I include myself here, have judged players unfairly?

In that case, Stevie's specific comment about that was also inadvisable. That might not have endeared him to certain players. Yes, there are indications that all might not have been well in the dressing room. We may be putting 2 and 2 together to make 5 though.

I've no wish to get involved in the convoluted rights ands wrongs of the O'Donnell/Alexander saga, but here's a slightly different take on the issue. SOD seems a decent and sensible sort of guy to me, although I've never met him. However I think some of comments were "inadvisable" shall we say. We all agree that we need to bring fresh faces in to strengthen the team. Very few will argue about that. However, he should not have said that publicly. That will do little for squad unity. Some of his playing colleagues might think "Is it the strikeforce/defence he's referring to. Is he having a dig at me in the press?" What will that do for their confidence? In his position as a senior player, he'd have been better to omit that particular comment.

Presumably you mean Sevco, Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs? Dundee United are a different case entirely.

A lot will depend on their contracts in terms of release clauses etc. If you mean by "poach" tapping up, I agree. However theres nought wrong with asking permisson of a club to speak to their manager. If they say no, not now not ever, then thats should be it.

Compared to who exactly? I would like to know however a little more about Ross County and Livingston's wage structures.

About your first point, I agree St Johnstone sitting back in the second half did make us look better than we actually were. Your second point - you don't need to watch Match of the Day to see that. St Johnstone did that to us yesterday. They closed us down at every opportunity and choked our game. Thats been a feature of their play for years now - we knew in advance they'd do that. Yesterday that could have been down to a variety of factors, beyond my knowledge: working harder, better attitude, being better organised, our off the ball movement being poor - others will know better than me why. It was also a weakness in Alexander's team. By contrast we gave Saints far too much room and space, or at least it seemed that way. Maybe poor organisation or players being undisciplined?

You're right about Spittal and possibly Shields but I was thinking more of Morris and Maguire. Early days, but Morris hasn't impressed me. His career to date suggests a left sided midfielder, but thats not where Alexander and Hammell have played him. In the first half, he looked unsure what he was meant to be doing - no idea what instructions he had been given beforehand. Barry Maguire, a Championship level player at best but never a defensive central midfielder. In short, the midfield was an absolute shambles until half time, and a bit better afterwards. If we play a 4-3-3 then our best midfield is undoubtedly Slattery, Goss and Cornelius. I appreciate that only 2 of them were available yesterday.

Thats true, but it doesn't help when players are played out of position. Several looked very unsure of themselves yesterday because they were asked to fill roles for which they aren't suited, and I'm not referring to O'Donnell.

I see Lee Johnson is complaining about St Johnstone's timewasting last week. Well, they took it to a new level yesterday. Officials really do need to clamp down on it.

This 100%. We don't know, of course who has approached the club offering their services or who the club may have approached but there does appear to be a dearth of available "suitable" managerial talent around just now.

He's a decent guy but Stevie Hammell would give me the fear, if appointed, not because we lost but given his mistakes today. Wrong team selection and players looking unsure of their roles. Valakari would be a huge risk and if Sportsound is correct that leaves just 2 other candidates - whoever they are. If anything, today proved that we need an experienced manager to haul us out of the mess. Either the manager or his assistant needs to have a knowledge of Scottish football. Despite public comments today, no more players should be signed until the new man is in place, providing that isn't weeks away.

The first half was woeful and I had to remind myself that GA had left. A few players, especially Morris, who is not a striker, did not seem to understand their role. If we play a 4-3-3 formation then we have to play Efford, Van Veen and Shields up front because they're the only 3 strikers we have. No point in shoehorning others in. A toothless attack and poor defence are not Hammell's fault. However, his starting midfield appeared to me beforehand to be too lightweight and unbalanced. No idea why he started with that line up. The midfield and defence looked totally disorganised and gave St Johnstone far too much room and space. No leadership, energy or fight at all in the first 45. Hammell realised his error and made changes at half time, but by that time we were 1-0 down with 45 minutes to go. The second half looked to be a bit better, although we were still fragile in defence and toothless up front, and I was pleased to see Cornelius come on. Tierney should have been brought on earlier. I thought the officials were shocking and failed to stamp out St Johnstone's playacting and timewasting. I expected at least 8 minutes , and possibly 10 added on but we only got 6. I doubt if that will be reported (at least the Well Bois highlighted it). I didn't expect Stevie Hammell to completely reorganise the team and transform it given the scale of the mess that GA left but he made several management errors that indicated to me he isn't the man for the job, for now anyway. He is better employed in his Academy role and thats no slight on him. The team needs several additions - a striker, winger, experienced midfielder, left back and 2 central defenders. Its hard to judge the players just now - we do have some decent ones but they're not punching their weight due to being not played to their strengths. That needs sorted and quickly.

Absolutely. If we've learnt a valuable lesson today its that he should stay put.