David

I'm fairly certain that Hutchinson hinted that the club has a contingency plan in place in the event that we do drop down a division, although I wouldn't quote me on that. Fairly certain he mentioned something to that effect on the podcast. Maybe one of the lads involved can clarify.

I'm not entirely sure that we can compare our situation with that of Ross County. Sure, we may be in similar positions in the league, but the long-term restructuring at our club isn't happening in Dingwall, is it? Our club has been going through something of a seismic shift over the past six months or so, which has to be taken into account I think. Many a time have I seen complaints on this forum that our transfer policy is all wrong, how we don't rear enough young players of our own, and how we don't get higher transfer fees for them and suchlike. At the start of the season we were seeing people going on about the fitness levels of the team, and how McCall was basically a season to season kind of manager when it comes to signings. I know a lot of people don't really want to hear this, but sorting out the mess at our club is going to take time. I'll be the first to say (and did say before we appointed a new manager) that the best option would have been bringing in an "auld heid" to see us through the season until the summer where proper plans could be put into place under a manager who shared the long-term vision of the owner and board. For whatever reason that didn't happen, and we got that manager in the middle of our worst season since the Malpas era I believe. The truth is, the club could have went for a more "safe" choice as manager, maybe another McCall-type who would have come in, papered over the cracks and continued the status quo. The problem was that the status quo appeared to be causing more damage to the club than most of us knew. According to those in power now the finances were in a more fucked up way than most of us thought. We simply cannot go on with the current system, as it's not providing the stability the club needs. Regardless of our opinion of him over the short-term thus far, the owner and board seem to have a lot of faith in Baraclough. There are some fairly savvy heads running things, some of whom were there before, and some of whom have recently come on board. I'm guessing we simply have to put some faith into the people who are writing the long-term plan for the club, and that includes giving Baraclough time to sort out the poor, ageing squad that he's inherited. He was never going to do that in a January transfer window. He has to move a lot of players on, and bring in some fresh faces on permanent deals. He needs a proper summer to do just that.

What do you mean?

As you say, if some of the more seasoned pros aren't feeling what the manager is telling them to do, then they should be shipped out, which is what I think will happen in the summer. I get what you're saying about a Craig Brown type, but I honestly think that such an appointment flies in the face of the structure the club are looking to implement. We need a young manager with fresh ideas and who is on board with how the new owner wants things to progress.Hutchinson and the other staff have obvious liked what he's put forward and the ideas that he has, and to be fair, removing him from the job before he's had a chance to drop some dead wood and make some proper summer signings would be mental and a step backwards. As I said in the other thread, he needs time to bring his own men in properly, not just make a load of emergency style signings in January. I'll judge him three or four months into his first full season, when he's had a proper summer to make the changes he sees necessary.

Right, tin hat time! I'm probably the only person on this forum who still thinks he should be given the summer to actually put his stamp on the team. Aye, he brought in a load of players on loan during the winter window, but it's relatively well known that fuck all of real quality happens during the January window. His January signings for the most part were more a case of papering over the cracks than anything else. He took over a side that was on the slide, with players who simply aren't up to the job. In the summer a lot of those players will be gone, freeing up funds to sign actual proper players rather than January loan signings. As I said, I don't think we'll be seeing the back of him regardless of where we are next season. I get the distinct impression that Hutchinson is looking at next season as Baraclough's "proper" start, when he's had a full summer to sort the side out and make real changes (Busta mentioned that Hutchinson basically said as much in the podcast). Apart from that, if we are relegated, who the fuck would we want to replace him? Jim Jeffries? Jocky Scott? Jimmy Calderwood? I may be mental, but I don't really want anyone like that at the helm of the club. An appointment like that doesn't really seem like a good fit with the way the club is moving forwards in my opinion. Appointing a manager who's fucked about in the lower reaches of the SPFL/Championship would simply serve to suggest that this is the level we're settling for.

Truth is, we simply don't know how we'd fare against the current Rangers side. They've put together some results but I wouldn't describe them as team on the up. They're a club in disarray with a squad that is peculiar to say the least.

All we can do is take it one game at a time until it's mathematically impossible. Depending on the results tomorrow this game could be another cup final or a dead duck.

I guess we'll see how the fans react, but I still can't see him being punted. Everything i've heard from Hutchinson suggests that he's not a kneejerk kind of guy, and that he's looking at the Baraclough project as a long-term one. I could be wrong, of course.

He'll be here until the end of the season at the very least I think. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we retain him even if we are relegated.

Glad to see a return to the front two of McDonald and Erwin.

Sounds like a good name to me! I'll assume you're in then?

Funny you should mention that Busta, as I was talking to a few folk I used to work with who used to go, but simply stopped because their friends drifted away from football, and they didn't fancy going themselves. I invited one of them to come with me and my mate, but it led me to think about the people who don't go as much simply because they have no one to go with, for whatever reason. Maybe something worth looking at would be organising a loose, casual forum meet-up before games with an open invite for people to come along, maybe bring some of their mates? Nothing formal or major, but a time and a pub where folk can come along, get a bit of a chat and a pint and maybe reignite their interest in the game? Not sure if that would interest anyone?

Just something I was thinking about when I was reading the stuff about the Well Society and how they want us to encourage people along to the games. How many people are in your group usually when you attend games? And has that number dropped in recent years, grown or stayed roughly the same? Any idea the reasoning behind why some of your friends don't go anymore if that's the case?

Seriously, the whole thing seems to be a bit of a joke from what I've seen. They rarely respond to emails, and for them to be coming away with this "internet connection not being strong enough" stuff in 2015 is absolutely ridiculous. If the WIFI connection isn't up to scratch get on the horn to whichever company provides the club with broadband and get another connection installed! I have no idea what the admin guy has to "look into" when it comes to PayPal either. It's all pretty straight forward really, you just create an account and add a link to the site to your website page. It takes literally 15 minutes. Something like this would do the job - http://www.foundationofhearts.org/paypal-payment-option/ Honestly, all they have to do is check out the way Hearts are going about things and copy what they're doing - http://www.foundationofhearts.org/

You can't honestly predict that with any real sense of certainty though. We've been a top flight club for thirty years, so it's really not easy to predict how we'd do crowd-wise if we dropped down, is it? I mean, if we're up at the top of the table competing for the title you have to believe that we'd see some level of interest from our fans. Certainly as much interest as we have when we've found ourselves playing out the season in mid-table nothingness.

Of course no one is guaranteed, but I think he will score plenty at that level, given the chance. Don't get me wrong, if we sign someone in the summer who can replicate the kind of numbers Sutton has produced for less money or whatever then fair enough.

You're right enough, not sure why I added an extra season there. But yeah, anyone who wants rid of a striker like Sutton if we get relegated is mental. He'll score plenty of goals in the Championship.

If it were a choice between Hibs and Rangers I'd rather play Rangers.

He's scored 11 goals for us these past two seasons, is that right? A bit of a drop from the 20 odd he got the season before, but is he really someone we want to discard? Will we get those goals from elsewhere?

Having listened to the interview with Les Hutchinson on the podcast a few weeks back I'd say Baraclough will be going nowhere unless he walks. It sounded to me like the club have bought into his ideas for the long haul.

With the season drawing to a close shortly I figured a new thread discussing the comings & goings this summer would be worth starting. I'll shift the last few posts from the current thread over as they're relevant to next seasons discussions.

That's what I was thinking as well. It's amazing what a player returning from injury and a new signing can do for us. Hopefully we kick on and don't suffer any more injuries or suspensions to important players. When Pearson got carded relatively early on Saturday I was shitting myself that he'd get a red, especially with the way that referee was going about his business. We don't need to be losing players like him.

It doesn't really help make us look like an attractive proposition for any new managerial candidates either, does it?

He hasn't shown much, but if we're not going to give him a chance then what's the point? He was given the backing to bring in a fair number of players, wasn't he? Doing that to only get shot of him a game or two later would be fucking mental, which is why I think he really has to be given until the Kilmarnock game. If things aren't working at that point then the situation needs addressed. When McCall left I was of the opinion that we should bring in someone like Tommy McLean to see us to the end of the season then look to push on from there. A lot of the current squad are out of contract, so any new manager would have had as close to a clean slate to work with as possible. We didn't do that though, we appointed Baraclough, and sure, I would have rather we appointed Van Der Gaag as well, but the fact is Baraclough is here, and it's only right that he's given a chance. There are also other factors to consider as well, with the main one being who we could realistically replace him with in a hurry? Is there anyone available that would actually want the job? The situation isn't good, at all, but it requires more than just handing the manager his jotters and working it out from there.

So when would you have gotten rid then? Before the January window closed? Now?