steelboy

i think the point is not that you should wait til kids are 16 to sign them up and more that you should wait til they're a bit older before you put articles about them being wonderkids in the local paper. this boy might make it or he might not but this kind of article isn't going to help him.

i don't disagree, all i'm saying is that you won't see the same people who moan about the split moaning about the playoffs in england or in scotland. mainly because the the playoffs in england were promoted as a good thing by their positive media while up here the likes of traynor, waddell and leckie dominate too many forms of media and love using it to bash the spl, the sfa and anything new that is introduced.

your talking about losing eight league fixtures from the calendar and all the income they create. cut games by a fifth and season tickets and tv deals have to come down by a fifth. early league cup games now aren't as attractive as league games and when you consider that a fair few of them might be dead rubbers it's unlikely to make up the shortfall, or be as interesting for the fans. i also don't think it's a good idea to expand beyond 12 teams. it'd create too many meaningless games and i don't think there is enough strong teams, there might be 16 decent clubs but there definitely isn't 19 which is the least you'd need. if you look at the spl website there is big line through the middle of the table. anyway everybody knows the criteria it's just that some people are too pig headed to accept it.

aye but the reality is none of them are going to sign new deals with the club because other clubs will be offering them more. the fact is apart from jamie murphy we have done nothing to strengthen our squad through our youth system in the last two years and we might well end up paying the price for it.

it's that simple. i don't think your retarded so your clearly just being stubborn. imo having the correct amount of fixtures and teams for a competitive league is much more important a appeasing a few people who can't handle the fact that the 7th team will probably have more points than the 6th just because they see themself as some kind of traditionalists.

but then you'd either play 30 or 45 or 60 league games. so cross that one off.

i don't see the problem with this, it's not difficult to understand at all. nobody is going to moan if burnley get promoted even although sheffield united finished with more points. if people can accept the playoffs they should accpet the split. and it's no use saying have a regular season unless you can suggest a better system.

he was released by derby county cause he drove himself home pished from QPR. he might have been a free agent but i'd guess we've spunked about £200K on the fat bastard.

that doesn't bode well for us considering that the only young players mcghee seems willing to bring in are 17 and 18 - saunders, hutchison, mchugh and slane - and it's not going to be good for either us or them to rely on them too much. apart from jamie murphy we don't have any players in the first team squad aged 19, 20 or 21 which isn't good at all. if you assume that quinn, clarky and reynolds are on their last contracts at the club and that buzz, hughes, klimpl and mclean are leaving we could very well be up shit creek for the next few years.

Game of the season: the one nil win at hibs in september. just because i always like winning in edinburgh as it's always a good day out. Goal of the season: bob malcolm at ICT. great free kick and mental celebrations in the stand. Player of the season: clarky by a mile, his general play has been superb this season. special mention for buzz who has been excellent as well. Best moment: the penalty save in nancy Worst Moment: seeing the starting line up in nancy and knowing exactly what was coming (being unable to keep the ball or have any attacking play) Suprise of the year: how many times i've thought i can't believe fitzy isn't playing. Worst player of the year: not going to say bob malcolm because he has only lived down to expectations. so for me it's john sutton, a total milestone round the neck of the team when he's on the park and the benefits of not having him playing have been apparent in the last two away games. Young player of the year: no one. o'brien can't get it cause he was gash in 2008, jamie hasn't featured enough and reynolds has dropped off a bit. as i've said before there is a worryingly big gap in our production of young players from 22 year old reynolds to the 17/18 year olds we've seen over the last couple of weeks. jamie murphy is the only player to get any shot at the first team from all the players we've had born in '88, '89 and '90. Overall: it's been a strange season for me. i went away travelling the day after porter got his hat trick against ICT and when i came back the first game was the defeat against hearts which ended the unbeaten run. overall i think we've underachieved for a few reasons but also that we'll always have nancy!

i'd definitely keep him but i'm not sure he's as complete a player as some are making out. a lot of the time he looks completely comfortable and strolling it during games then is slack in his marking in the box and costs us. hearts' first goal in march and aberdeen's equaliser at fir park recently are examples of that. he also cost us a few goals through slack marking in the top six last season.

are those odds not to trick people into thinking "53 is a high number, those odds are too long i'll stick a few bob (probably a score) on it." it's really 2.65 to 1 which seems about right, they could have easily made it 5/2 or 11/4.

just as long as soley and mamman aren't mentioned. anyone know what happened to the two african world beaters?

i don't mean that they're great players i just mean that they'd have been better cover at right back and centrehalf than lasley and fat boab were for most of our shocking run from november til xmas.

if league two can be judged by what we saw of bradford last summer then it's pish and this guy will find it a big step up. mcghee seems to have lowered his expectations about who is good enough to play under him, going for guys from this level and the likes of dave mackay. it's just a shame his standards didn't drop quickly enough to keep either corrigan or kinniburgh and we might have been spared some of the defensive chaos of nov/dec. does anyone else think this signing means someone is leaving? we seemed well covered at the back with mclean, quinn and reynolds all capable of playing multiple posistions plus hammell and craigan. saunders and hutchison have also looked promising.

he's a good ref and if our guys play as smartly as they have recently then we won't have any worries anyway. i'm also sure the guy won't be wanting any accusations of bias in his first spl match so he'll be very fair. im just waiting for a st mirren fan to use this thread for another cheats thread on P&B.

quit complaining it's not like you have to live there, you only need to be there for two hours every fortnight or so. if it ever becomes possible to build a new ground without any great net cost then we should probably go for it but that clearly isn't the case the now. anyway going to the fitba is going to the fitba whether it's in fir park or the emirates. you turn up and watch the game from a plastic seat then leave. people talk about fit for purpose, the purpose of the stands are to watch the games from and that's something i've never had any problem doing. the emirates, ibrox, old trafford and the likes might look great but when you consider that you're stuck in the same seat every week without the option of changing or sitting with different folks from time to time i think i prefer the options i have at fir park.

so you'll be boycotting any and all european games next season?

i thought ict had a respectable away support tonight, probably double what i expected. sheridan deserved his start tonight for his performance on saturday but he was nowhere near that level tonight. he wasn't the only one though, jamie murphy was very poor and the whole team looked far less interested than on saturday. kilmpl came on and should have got booked straight away for a daft push on foran. if we can't trust the guy to screw the nut then why sign him. i don't know what the situation with the out of contract guys are but i'd rather keep hughes, buzz and mclean than splash out funds on maros. anyway zero bookings - kazakstan here we come!

that's fair enough but from my point of view he was a good player for us. i'll be happy to give him a cheer when he comes out as i remember a lot of good performances. you're indifferent and that's fair enough, i can't see any reason for anyone to boo him though, when he left he was on a good run of form, he scored the winner against airdrie in the cup and we got some cash for him. why boo? also the description "mediocre footballer who did a half decent job" could be applied to a lot of popular players at fir park down the years.

i don't think anyone's planning to cheer him when he's playing, just give him a warm welcome back. 35 goals in 105 appearances mainly from midfield is good going and a dozen of them were probably penalties (although we've missed enough since he left that it seems more impressive now) and eleven were in the league cup. on the otherhand a fair few of the penalties were late winners and two of the league cup goals were in semifinals. he might have tired late in games because he had a questionable lifestyle but is that any worse than jim paterson and mcgarry who were visibly unfit for long spells of their period at the club (maurice malpas once admitted to me that mcgarry and paterson were overweight but claimed he couldn't do anyhting about it)? foran was a very good player for us on the park and most of the reasons he was disliked were (i) because he was a bevvy merchant and there were a lot of rumours about him taking drugs (ii) he frequented a lot of celtic pubs (iii) some fans who viewed themself as being more intelligent than some others felt aggrieved that foran was well liked by sections of the support they resented for booing other players, can anyone who ever said "thumbs up for shaun fagan" really claim to have been judging players soley by what they produce on the park.

after the effort he put in on saturday i think sheridan deserves another game again tonight. he was very good on saturday winning a lot of ball in the air and running the channels well and he deservedly got a standing ovation when he went off. he might have no long term benefit to the club but if we can win the last few games it'll leave us on a high and looking forward to next season. another four performances like falkirk and there would have been a lot of questions bbeing asked. i agree about seeing the young players but i think half hour sub appearances will do them as all the guys that we have that might break through are 17 and 18 and even if they do make it to the first team squad they're not going to be regulars for a while. the youth production has been a bit disapointing recently - reynolds, 22 and jamie murphy, 19 is all we've really brought through. apart from them darren smith is 21 but it seems unlikely he's in mcghee's plans and the other young guys we have who weren't eligible for the u19s - murray, forbes, wilson and archdeacon - haven't had a sniff of the first team and will likely be punted. prediction 3 - 1 (clarky 2, murphy)

naebody dae this!

i don't agree. i'll be pissed off if we get anyone booked for dissent, time wasting, dangerous challenges or shirt pulling but i still expect the players to be giving 100%. clarky got booked on saturday because he was putting in 100% tracking all the way back and attempting to win the ball. as long we keep the heid we won't lose the euro place but the number one focus for the players has to be winning the match.

it was the result of trying to write a post while talking on the phone. at least i was right about the ref. should have said they'll get pelters. i'm even tempted to pay into the main so i can get within earshot of malpas. if the baby crew want respect get some anti malpas banners made up for wednesday. disapointing about reynolds being missing for the bigger game on saturday. i definitely wouldn't play maros then, mensing and mccarthy will be going all out to wind up any motherwell player they can to try and get them sent off.