dunning1874

The thing with giving Moffat a pass because everyone else is missing chances he creates and poor finishing from other players isn't his fault is that the same could be true in reverse. How many more assists might Garrity have had in the last two years if it wasn't for Moffat's own poor finishing? Ultimately none of them have done enough.

If it follows the usual format they've always had of home/away based on seeding, that's St Johnstone & East Fife away and Inverness & Linlithgow at home. Two boring away games that we've had recently and the worst possible pot 3 opponent for our chances of progression. Season ruined already, sack the board for not showing the ambition to get a better cup draw, sell to Angelo Massone.

Whether being spared the dilemma is a good thing entirely depends on who goes. If it's eg Comrie or Moffat making a sideways move then fine, shouldn't be starting games anyway and gives us room to recruit more players who can. If it's Wilson or Blues who we realistically aren't going to sign better than, it makes things even worse.

We have been in the top half and nearer to 4th than 9th on points before since MCT took over - even with how bad this year has been our average league position over those 5 seasons is actually an improvement on the years before it - so it clearly is possible. It would surprise me too as it stands, but that's more of a reflection on Murray's record with the players he's trying to keep rather than the budget making it impossible.

Livingston will be spending a fortune this season, they're now owned by Henry Ford's great-great grandson who has not been shy in talking about spending. Still need to appoint a manager of course so hopefully it could all implode like Ross County did, but on budget alone you'd put them among the early favourites. We know Dunfermline are also throwing stupid money around while it would be nice if Partick's bubble finally popped. I still think we really needed the latter to happen over the last season though, there's a reasonable chance they'll actually have made a profit for the first time since relegation this season, but they will have something of a minor rebuild required with Stanway, Chalmers and Fitzpatrick likely away. Dunfermline will likely need a rebuild too with a lot of players out of contract so hopefully there's room for a big spending implosion in there.

Gillespie started 14 of Murray's 16 games, only missing the two he was suspended for. Surely to god when he's turning 35 before the season starts he isn't actually planning to have him start every week? You cannot seriously expect him to start 30+ games a season at this point, and if we end up with a smaller squad having all of Gillespie, Wilson and MacPherson is a pretty injury prone midfield. If everyone offered does sign a new deal, and assuming Murray won't deviate from his beloved 4-2-3-1, an XI from the existing squad would look something like: GK Murdoch RB Ballantyne LB Delaney CB Moore CB Longridge CM Wilson CM Blues AM MacPherson RW Moffat LW Garrity ST Brophy Holding out hope that he at least pushes a central midfielder forward for the central attacking role rather than playing three wingers, and ends the colossal stupidity of Wilson at centre back. Cover from Comrie, Gillespie, Robertson & O'Halloran. If that's your strongest team as it stands, we'll definitely be signing a first choice goalkeeper (and maybe two with Murdoch being loaned out). You'll need someone to compete with Brophy who isn't a total punt as he'll inevitably miss a sizeable chunk of the season injured, maybe two centre forwards gives you to option to go two up front or play one behind Brophy. We need another centre back and that should be an upgrade on Longridge, while we should also be looking for better than Delaney. Neither Garrity or Moffat should be starting games. You're probably done in central midfield. So that's likely five starters needed if you want to be looking up the table, no chance that's happening and it's hard to see anything but a grim relegation battle. The thing is that we know a few of these players can be part of solid Championship side pushing into the top half, but all the evidence we have suggests they can't be under Murray. Either he needs to learn his lesson that 4-2-3-1 with these players doesn't work and change his system to something that does, or if he must be dogmatic about a style find players that actually suit it. Keeping so many and not changing anything tactically after how bad we've been for months would be mad.

We were the second worst team in the league from the point Murray took over with only Ayr worse. If everyone offered a contract accepts that'll be 15 signed up (I'm not including Murphy at the moment). Still a first choice goalkeeper to come too, so if we're making 4 to 6 outfield signings beyond that it's hard to see them all being starters. You'd expect some cheap young loanees to be padding the squad out to some extent if we're going to end up with 21 or 22 players, and we know they've been looking into coop agreements which would mean up to 3 players fitting that profile. We already know Murray is incapable of getting acceptable results with these players and when given the opportunity to have a clearout he's deciding to keep the vast majority, leaving very little room for upgrades to the starting XI. We're going to have mostly the same defence that's leaked goals like a sieve under him, probably with a poorer goalkeeper behind them, the same midfield that has been routinely overrun defensively (though that could easily be fixed by Murray not being so dogmatic) and mostly the same creative unit that has lacked an end product. It's clearly not out of the question that Murray can build a squad he can get good results with, he's done it before in this division, but it doesn't look like there's room for the rebuild needed to do it if all these players are retained.

Freed from the tyranny of Nathan Shaw at last. Disappointed to see Owens go but fitness is maybe a problem, I don't see much value in keeping Comrie when we've already got Ballantyne, we should be looking for an upgrade on Delaney and I fear it'll be a season too far for Gillespie. I'd have liked a clean slate with the wingers and released the lot, if everyone offered a deal accepts on top of O'Halloran already doing so that's a lot of ineffective attacking players being kept around with very little wiggle room for more signings.

Ah yes, the old "why can't Morton show this ambition" card. When asked to explain what ambition means beyond "throwing more money we can't afford at players with no plan for how to pay the debt", silence. Also seen on Facebook recently in response to Raith's initial season tickets sales being better than ours. All because they've shown ambition and if Morton would only show ambition we'd obviously double our crowds. Funnily enough, there was no follow up earlier this week when Raith's owner and interim chairman revealed their board had budgeted so badly that they struggled to pay the wages every month from February. This led to the bulk of their board resigning and the remaining members needing to dip into their own pockets to make payroll and avert administration, and so their budget will be reduced next season.

I'd be shocked if we were going upwards of the £20K that's reportedly been rejected here. We'll have had to pay a fee for Corr for example (money well spent) but if it was even more than half that I'd be surprised.

As per previous posts I'm absolutely fine with us taking a shot on players at that level and if we were looking at him in January as well he's obviously someone Murray really rates, but if he's not out of contract then it's not happening. We shouldn't be taking £400 a week out of the wage budget to throw transfer fees around.

I'd be far happier with a 20 year old with 8 goals in half a season in League One as competition for Brophy than Main. The majority of our signings are going to be gambles rather than proven Championship players, some of them are going to be taking shots on older players on the way down and that's good as maintaining a mix of experience is important, but when we've already got an injury prone 30 year old signed up adding a 34 year old who's already flopped at this level would be a bad idea. That's definitely a position where we're better looking for someone younger on their way up.

There's one returning ex-player rumour we can disregard.

It's obviously best for us to have St Mirren down, but Partick are also Satan incarnate who tried to murder the rest of Scottish football, faced no consequences then had the gall to play the victim card about it. They're a hateful club who deserve nothing but misery. While St Mirren being relegated would be extremely welcome, having the two of them in the final definitely does feel more like a lose/lose than a win/win scenario when you could have had St Mirren relegated without anything going well for Partick, and had the added bonus of fewer trips to Fife.

It's not evidence that he's good enough for the Championship. It clearly is evidence that he's improved as a player over the last 4 years, because he was better this season than in his previous three in League One.