dunning1874

I think I'm correct in this being the full list of players who played under Imrie, can argue the position for some but there are so many wingers/anywhere behind the striker types they're worth their own category rather than being listed together with the strikers. Goalkeepers: Jack Hamilton, Brian Schwake, Jamie MacDonald, Ryan Mullen, Lewis Budinauckas, Gary Woods, Sam Murdoch, Jimmy Storer Defenders: Jack Baird, Brian McLean, Lewis Strapp, Darren Hynes, Michael Ledger, Jamie Brandon, Alan Lithgow, Oisin McEntee, Mark Russell, Efe Ambrose, Liam Grimshaw, Darragh O'Connor, Carlo Pignatiello, Calum Waters, Kirk Broadfoot, Tyler French, Cammy Ballantyne, Morgan Boyes, Dylan Corr, Zak Delaney, Aaron Comrie, Sonny Hart, Jackson Longridge, Kris Moore Midfielders: Cammy Blues, Kyle Jacobs, Reece Lyon, Alex King, Iain Wilson, Grant Gillespie, Robbie Crawford, Ali Crawford, Matthew Davidson, Logan O'Boy, Alan Power, Arron Lyall, Cammy MacPherson, Kerr Robertson, Kian Taylor Wingers/forwards: Lewis McGrattan, Robbie Muirhead, Gary Oliver, Michael Garrity, Lewis McGregor, Jaze Kabia, Calvin Miller, Jai Quitongo, Ally Roy, Jack Bearne, Steven Boyd, Jordan Davies, Niall McGinn, Owen Moffat, Lamar Reynolds, Austin Samuels, Nathan Shaw, Zak McKay, Michael O'Halloran Strikers: Zander Easdale, Gavin Reilly, Gozie Ugwu, George Oakley, Cameron Keay, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Filip Stuparevic, Tomi Adeloye, Eamonn Brophy Best XI, 4-2-3-1: GK Mullen RB Brandon LB Strapp CB Baird CB McEntee CM Wilson CM Grimshaw AM R. Crawford LM Muirhead RM but tucking inside Blues ST Oakley Wanted to keep that mostly to Imrie's own signings, but Strapp is obviously levels above Waters & Delaney, Blues & Muirhead had to be there for how Imrie improved them and McEntee was just too good to leave out. Grimshaw obviously spent most of his time at right back but had to include both Grimshaw and Brandon. If I was dropping McEntee it'd probably be Moore replacing him. Worst XI, 4-1-3-2: GK Woods RB French CB Broadfoot CB Corr LB Waters DM Power LM Boyd AM McGinn RM Samuels ST Emmanuel-Thomas ST Roy There are a couple of worse players that he inherited in there, but keeping it to his own signings all of them deserve a place. Power did at least have a couple of months of decent form but was never even as good mediocre outwith that spell and was terrible more often than he was fine, while Waters is just the poorest of only three options. The rest were completely hopeless.

Some fans of any club aren't going to take kindly to the idea that a manager didn't really want the job, but it also doesn't mean he isn't going to give his full commitment to it now he's there. The voice note by itself isn't going to change anyone's view of him. Even if he does actually give an interview about what's happened - which we'd need to have any hope of forcing Laird or Robinson and by extension the club to acknowledge this rather than dismissing it as baseless rumours - provided he doesn't explicitly say the words "I didn't even want to go to Raith" then he can still paint a picture of how the board effectively forced him out without burning any bridges with the Raith board or fans, but it's equally understandable if he doesn't want to do that to avoid the risk.

Graham Barr is still the MCT representative on the board, but as we saw with the transfer embargo MCT reps being there didn't mean the boards actually communicated. I think it's just a throwaway courtesy line in a statement they've put out to acknowledge Imrie's departure, there's nothing negative to read into it. Of course the boards should be communicating with each other anyway, but that confirms that they still are.

Anyone actually wanting Imrie to leave or talking of sacking him is wild. You can spin various stats any way you like and argue managers who managed a top four finish for us were ultimately more successful because of managing one higher league placing, but for consistency of performance Imrie had a better points per game record at this level than any Morton manager since Tommy McLean. At any club at this level, but especially Morton with our past track record, it's an unavoidable reality of football that you'll have more bad managers than good ones and most will end up going due to being sacked or mutually consented for poor results. That being the case, when you actually get a good manager you should do everything you can to keep them, because it's extremely difficult to keep getting appointments right and especially so when you're operating with a lower budget than your competitors. Everyone agrees that 3 wins in 16 needed to improve but he should have been absolutely nowhere near the sack, the idea that we'd have been anywhere near paying him off is risible. If there'd been no interest from Raith and we'd sacked him on Monday for poor performance, the sack the board shouts in response would have been deafening.

If it's true then it's absolutely a resigning matter for both Laird and Robinson and a support hounding them out the club matter if they don't go, but while it's a rumour doing the rounds on WhatsApp referred to in vague tones on here and social media the club are going to ignore it and dismiss any questions about it with not lowering themselves to responding to unsubstantiated gossip etc. I think you'll find it hard to find anyone in the support who trusts either of them after the summer and that's going to make everyone more inclined to believe this, but as it stands they'll be able to bat this away. If Imrie goes on record with a journalist and says even half of it publicly then the club can't ignore that, but that's a difficult thing for Imrie to do both for his own reputation in the game generally as clubs might view him as a loose cannon if he goes nuclear on a previous club, and more significantly in the short-term his standing with the Raith board and fans. He can't say "I didn't want to leave Morton and was forced to go to Raith" then expect anyone at Raith to be happy about it. This is also a wider difficulty with Laird and Robinson, because if it was up to the support/MCT membership alone they'd both have been gone in the summer, but Brian Bonar wanted them both there for whatever reason. My own view was that Bonar genuinely means well but had the wool pulled over his eyes a bit about by some on the board about where the problems at the club lie and that's why he supports Laird and Robinson. Robinson now being a Dalrada rep on the board rather than MCT means it's really in Bonar's power whether to remove him or not, and I think most of the support had grudgingly accepted that while some board members now aren't trusted after the summer it was time to move on, accepting the relationship both between the two boards and between the GMFC board & support needed to be reset and see how that went. This being true would smash that patience to bits. Who knows if Imrie going on record would change Bonar's mind about the two of them, but once again having the support up in arms about people on the board at Dalrada's behest when the deadline for the sponsorship deal to be committed to is approaching would be a whole new shambles.

He can't sign elsewhere professionally without that club paying us compensation, and the club are right not to back down and write off money we're owed just to be nice. He's been terribly advised by his agent in thinking he was good enough to turn down a deal from Morton and have a queue of clubs willing to pay what we're owed and now he's in limbo. You'd think Scott McLaughlin might have learned something about players mistakenly thinking they were too good for Morton, but evidently not.

Tangential issue to others raised here, but I don't think wanting to leave Morton for Inverness in 2023 was remotely understandable at all. It was blatantly obvious to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention that a financial implosion for them was inevitable, whether they were relegated or not.

Even without the points deduction we'd have been 12 points ahead of Hamilton last season. No doubt Rankin has been working with off-field circumstances that make some of what Imrie was dealing with look easy, but he also got them relegated the first time before any off-field problems hit and was underachieving relative to the quality of their squad last season regardless. You'll not find anyone in Scottish football who doesn't have sympathy for him getting his head down and trying to work through that mess, but he has not done a good job.

He should obviously be nowhere near the job, but the worry is that the Chairman used to be his agent. Are we going to get a total jobs for the boys scenario?

Yeah, his start to this season is impressive but doing well over 14 games of this season so far doesn't outweigh his failure to make the playoffs last season, which saw some Alloa fans calling for him to be sacked. Naysmith has done the most impressive job of any League One manager, but that's set against his previous failure at Queen of the South: has he learned from that and became a better manager who now deserves another shot at full-time, or is he just better suited to part-time football? Either way, I don't think we're the club who should be taking that gamble. The only manager in the leagues below who has done an Imrie style job in consistently outperforming his budget and improving unfancied players is Michael McIndoe. Maybe he wouldn't want it, maybe he's also better suited to part-time football, but he's the gamble that actually has some evidence of having the skills needed to be Morton manager.

The timing is a massive blow as well, we've got a potentially season defining three weeks coming up between the Scottish Cup then two of the relegation contenders at home (the Challenge Cup is less important but also a competition we should be having a run in mixed in there). Win both those league games and we should be looking forward feeling a lot safer, take less than four and we're in bother.

The incident was reportedly with Andy Barrowman, who Raith have since sacked themselves, so maybe they're not arsed.

Where has anyone said the budget was top four?

It he goes, the shortlist to replace him should begin and end with Michael McIndoe. It will likely just be Davies for his first managerial job in almost 12 years though.

Permission to speak when they're the ones who've approached us rather than Imrie applying and him actually wanting to go are different things, as we saw with Partick in the summer, but still concerning.