steelboy

the guy is clearly a screwball and is never going to have any success as a manager unless he has some kind of lobotomy/shock treatment. the motherwell players had a party when he left, the port vale players who got micky adams a move to sheffield united are already complaining about him and the first thing he did a peterborough was send their best player out on loan. he clearly can't deal with anyone who has a bit of experience and might question his methods which is why he always wants to work with young players. look at the performances lasley and jenno put in on sunday, the two of them could barely get a sniff under gannon. his parting comment about being impossible to keep clean sheets was shown up to be nonsense as we kept 23 in 53 games since he left. i've yet to meet anyone or hear about anyone who worked with him at fir park having a good word to say about the guy. what are people who still support him basing it on? he talked a good game but the end product was completely different, the first half against st mirren away on the saturday was the worst i've ever seen us play.

they were doing the biz for micky adams.

players we've signed on deals longer than a year (or extended to longer) recently. summer 08 - o'brien jan 09 - naebody summer 09 - humphrey, jenno, hateley jan 09 - naebody summer 10 - randolph, hollis jan 11 - naebody it'll eventually catch up with us. players likely to be here in july. randolph, hollis, saunders, hutchinson, page, craigan, hammell, lasley, hateley, humphrey, pollock, murphy, mchugh. 13 players plus possibly halsman, meechan and quinn.

the squad is ridiculously thin. we've majorly rode our luck with injuries but we've got guys who clearly need a bit of a rest - humphrey, hateley and murphy in particular - but we need to play them every week and usually for the 90 minutes. jenno is a certainty to leave in the summer and sutton is likely to move as well and they are the only outfielders in our squad who could be described as mid twenties. casagolda and the cypriot will be shown the door and a couple of the younger ones probably as well. we'll be at least 10 outfield players down on what we had in the first half of this season and craigan and lasley will be a year older. succesive regimes have spunked all our money on short term deals and loans rather than trying to secure players who will make a commitment to the club.

i heard today that the club were in contact with one or two players who are free agents and can be signed outwith the window. i still think we'll get a striker in. it's mental to think that in the last five transfer windows we've lost 15 players who were on permament deals and only brought in six players (and two of them are casagolda and charlambous).

is this omar daley the guy who roasted the fat african in the friendly a few years ago?

i took off 20% for vat then 10% for costs and used an average ticket price of 13 quid. i think hampden will keep the catering and the sfl the programmes.

38,000 at hampden today. even if there is only 20,000 at our game tomorrow we'll still be looking at 130 grand from ticket revenue. let's get some of it invested in a striker.

quite correct sparra! i cannae wait for sunday. up early to watch bradley vs alexander on sky plus followed by andy murray winning the oz open hopefully he'll wrap it up sharpish so i can head over to the cloudy express meet up for a good scoop in plenty of time half one bus into hampden after three anything can happen but we party win or lose (even in the unlikely event of a draw)

depends on the budget. we'll look like fannies if we make a few signings then win the grella case but can't afford him.

if a cup semi final at hampden doesn't stir you a wee bit and tempt you dream you'd be as well chucking fitba all together and taking up trainspotting or stamp collecting.

this is a bit worrying. are we putting all our chips on grella or are we looking for someone else?

you forgot to mention that fir park could burn down after leeann forgot to post the insurance form.

the games changed a lot. if you go back and watch the 91 final now the general standard of play is absolutely gash, i'd say the same would probably apply to the 93/94 side. everyone creamed themselves over davies' goal against partick but we we regularly had moves of that standard in 07/08. there's also a lot more pace in the 07/08 team. modern players wouldn't get away with carrying the weight philliben, coyne, dolan and shannon did.

good idea until he scores and knocks a 4 foot deep hole in the pitch.

i didn't actually mean literally them. just someone who if you hit the ball long there's a good chance they'll be able to win the ball and work the defender.

we either need a couple of new bodies in midfield or a striker who can hold the ball up like mcdonald or jutkiewicz. if the midfield can't get a grip on the game we need a striker who can make something out of nothing balls and that's not sutton. hateley was anonymous last night. he barely kicked a ball first half, came into to it a wee bit at the start of the 2nd then played a few bad passes and disapeared again. jenno was good first half but miles off the pace in the 2nd, clearly far from 100% fit. humphrey created a couple of chances and jones looked dangerous in the final half hour but we can't afford to carry two guys who only contribute 2 or 3 times a half. humphrey definitely needs a rest but he also needs to add more to his game, when the ball wasn't out on his wing jones was coming inside and taking up decent positions while humphrey just stands out on the right touchline waiting for the game to come to him.

mccall's grown on me since he was appointed. everything coming out of the club suggests he is very positive and hands on which is what we need at the moment. i think he could do a butcher style job to see us through a difficult period when we don't really have the money to sign anyone.

in the past two games we've played 8 guys aged 21 and under, i think we're doing this already.

imo the best performances from any of the young defenders have been saunders centrehalf playing at tannadice, pittodrie, celtic park and at home to rangers under gannon. edit - wouldn't drop craigan though. in six games under mccall we've lost 3 goals. a travesty of a penalty, a corner where reynolds was beaten in the air by kenneth and a 89th min counter where we had everyone up the park. the defence is doing ok, midfield is the problem and certainly was last night.

i've heard that big sutty regularly scoops with lennon up the west end. nae idea if lennon would bring someone in because he's a mate.

there's a clear link between malcolm and stewart. guys that came through at big clubs, aren't as good as they think they are, are overpaid and are absolute nuggets. gow keeping sutton out the team pretty much summed up the change in our team between the start of october and the new year. the guy was a waster, never produced on the pitch yet was continually retained in the team, do you think that's unconnected to the turd performances we got against hearts, rangers and accies? the juke isn't a valid comparison. he clearly earned his stripes with goals and playing injured. remember this was a guy who got a puncture wound with stitched in his thigh on the saturday yet declared himself fit to play 30 mins as a sub on the wednesday.

malcolm - the guy was picking up 3 grand a week for doing hee haw. i dubt that he ruined spirit in the dressing room but we certainly have used the wage a lot better in 08/09. gow - i think it's clear that he had a bad effect on the squad. murphy was shunted out wide so gow could ponce about in a free role, by the time the accies game came round he looked completely scunnered. big sutty was treated like shite on someones shoe to fit gow in. dropped after a decent start to the season, he then comes back in and we win two games but gets dropped at easter road and slapped in the face by being a 92 min sub, a sub again at love st and we play better and score when he comes on but he still doesn't start the hearts game, he's still on the bench against rangers even though gow is dire and blackman asks not to play and even though he comes on and scores he's still on the bench at parkhead where gow disgraces himself further and the same again at accies. it was pretty clear by sutton's body language while warming up, his reaction to fans shouting for him and his reaction when he scored at dundee that it was bothering him.

agree 100%. surely we've learned our lesson after malcolm and gow. i wouldn't get too excited about senior players, it's more likely to be craggs or hammell adding another year than jenno or sutton agreeing new deals.