daver

I thought that as well, the snippets I did see in between trying to fix the shower. You're obviously not getting caught up in the mass hysteria in Ireland Numpty. The Irish guy at my work didn't make it in this morning - boss is less than impressed!

I agree that not all reasons for being released are bad but there's a big difference between not making the grade at Rangers or Celtic, in the case of your examples, and being released by Shrewsbury. It appears he's been affected by injury and maybe we'll assess the risk and give him a chance but Shrewsbury don't seem to want to take that risk.

I know that English lower league is our level in the transfer market but normally it's paying a fee or getting someone at the end of their contract as a way of getting someone with a bit of promise. The thought of someone who has been released doesn't fill me with confidence.

As the SPFL are fond of saying, the SPFL is the clubs. It beggars belief then that they can issue fixtures which change an approach which dramatically affects clubs' budgets without consultation or even notification. Like it or not, Celtic and Rangers bring many more paying customers and I don't think the club can be blamed for assuming that a previous rule wouldn't still apply without being notified otherwise. Other than well publicised changes did the SPL rules transfer to the SPFL? Yes, the statement does play up our reliance on the money from the Old Firm but our limited budget has taken a serious knock before the season has even started. In recent seasons we knew we weren't getting any home games against Rangers and we budgeted accordingly. We don't need to rely on the 'blue pound' but we did expect a certain amount of them.

Thanks for explaining Lobey - I hadn't realised that but it makes perfect sense.

Quite right, they and every other club should be treated equally. I always thought that the champions had their first game at home but they have changed that as well.

You can't take the top six fixtures for granted either.

I thought when they announced the split set-up they said that all clubs would have equal amounts of home and away games against Celtic and Rangers. Huge financial pressure on us to finish top six with those fixtures (assuming Rangers are going to throw money at it to ensure they make top six).

Going by that, their fans really rate him but ATK are waiting on a new coach arriving - I would have expected him to have his own thoughts on who to sign.

Important player for us but we'd bite their hand off for that. He played there before so he would at least be known to clubs there. If all these rumoured transfers go through we could be bringing in a decent sum without anyone going near Moult or Johnson (but I don't see it).

They're also up to 44 participants - hopefully they can get a few more before kick off tomorrow.

I don't have an upgraded membership and, disappointing as the lack of communication may be, I don't want to dwell on it. I just wanted to try and help them avoid making a loss on a fund raising idea and hopefully ifa few more sign up they can make a small profit. I signed up for this and the podcast prediction league last night - I just have to work out how I'm going to keep involved while on holiday!

I received an email to tell me about the Well Society running a last man standing competition around the Euros to raise funds. It's £10 to enter and there's a prize of £250 for the winner. However, with a few days to go, there are only 24 participants so they don't look like making much money so hopefully they can get a few more participants. I'm slightly surprised they've not publicised it on here and that I've not received a follow up email but I'm on to raise awareness rather than stir up comments on communications - there's a whole other thread for that! Anyway for those that are interested: https://www.runlastman.com/competitions/2561-the-well-society-well-society-s-last-man-standing?mc_cid=032e439ee8&mc_eid=859faaccb9

According to that report, Rangers tried to buy Johnson last summer. Doesn't sound very likely to me.

At least Steve King was a one off mistake - spare a thought for poor John Sullivan.

The darkest I can remember was the Hummell top which was probably the closest we've had to the traditional traffic light version of amber but yes, we have had the other end of 'amber' with what was effectively a yellow Adidas T-shirt (still liked it though). I quite like the shade we have at the moment although would maybe prefer it slightly darker. I can't recall much variation on the claret although I am sure Hearts have had slight differences in their maroon.

I think there's an extra 0 made its way in as a typo.

Those 'amber' shorts look very yellow but I like the top.

I noticed that - I think we have a challenger for McGhee in the "You Know" stakes. Really good interview and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. One of the best podcasts so far.

They're all playing the same number of games so I assume points and then goal difference. The information may be out there but it seems a bit disorganised with mistakes on the website and not knowing home and away fixtures prior to the draw.

http://spfl.co.uk/news/article/betfred-cup-group-stage-draw/ SPFL website says top two from each group plus four best runners up go into last 16 with the teams in Europe. How can they manage to get it so wrong on their own website?

It does give the opportunity for some nice away trips in possibly decent weather - a wee taster of summer football. Or you could get drawn to visit some dump (I admit opposition fans may not think too highly of a trip to Motherwell).

It costs to get into friendlies as well. As for Dumbarton being shafted by being put in the north section, surely Stenhousemuir would have much less travelling than them?

That was a sore one - pretty much ended Greg Denham's chances with us.

I can see the advantages of teams in the central belt and further south not having long journeys up north and vice versa. Not so much for the bigger clubs but it could really affect the likes of Annan v Elgin.