dunning1874

Clubs outside the Premiership have now been told they won't be allowed to start training until at least 24th August, to be confirmed on the 20th: https://spfl.co.uk/news/joint-response-group-update-130820 Us, Ayr and Raith at least were all planned to be back on the 17th.

Obviously we don't know what monthly sum from MCT the board were already factoring into the first team budget for this season, but regardless that is a massive sum of money. Say we're paying players £400 a week (just guessing), that's six players being covered. Imagine the shape we'd be in without that?

Pretty much the hardest draw possible and doesn't even come with the consolation of getting to hound Raymond in person. Bollocks to that.

Oh aye, course it would be Stenny going South rather than Cowdenbeath!

It's unclear whether they'll put Kelty into the South pot because Lowland League team so automatically in the South, or whether they'll put them in the North and Cowdenbeath in the South. Bearing in mind that possible switch and also assuming they persist with the absolute fucking nonsense of seeding the team who finished the previous season 12th in the Premiership in Pot 1 with the 1st in the Championship in Pot 2, these are the likely pots: North Pot 1: St Johnstone, Hibs, Ross County, Hearts Pot 2: Dundee United, ICT, Dundee, Arbroath Unseeded: Raith, Montrose, East Fife, Peterhead, Forfar, Cove, Elgin, Cowdenbeath, Stirling Albion, Stenhousemuir, Brechin, Brora South Pot 1: Livingston, Kilmarnock, St Mirren, Hamilton Pot 2: Ayr, Dunfermline, Greenock Morton, Alloa Unseeded: Queen of the South, Partick, Falkirk, Airdrie, Dumbarton, Clyde, Stranraer, Edinburgh City, Queen's Park, Annan, Albion Rovers, Kelty Normally I'd be looking at that sadly due to the very few good away games available - Stranraer, Annan & Kelty are the only good days out there - but with the small likelihood of attending games anyway just give us Falkirk, Queen's Park and Kelty for maximum snake bashing. In the unlikely event away fans can attend and we get Kelty away all the better. I'd expect every Pot 1 team to steamroller the others due to actually having match fitness built up so could do without a pumping from St Mirren tbh.

Were Morton or any other club ever officially partnered with Nostalgia cases? Good as they are, I was never under the impression revenue from them went to the clubs, other than perhaps a token sum for use of their badges.

The sponsor and badge blending into the top is much nicer than the home kit we got. That other hooped effort though, hideous.

If we were to assume the same system we're now looking at a line up like this: New New - McGinty - New - Strapp Jacobs - Colville - McAlister McGuffie - Orsi - Nesbitt Cover from: GK - Wylie DF - McLean, Hynes MF - Lyon, Blues, Millar, Omar, McGrattan FW - Oliver, Salkeld, Muirhead, Rodgers, Easdale I would love two centre backs in so we could drop McGinty but I doubt it. Unsure whether Omar will primarily be played deeper or on the wing. It's essential that the remaining signings are successes. With the weaknesses and deadwood already present in the squad along with the reduced number of games, we can't afford to be starting the season the same way as the last one with a Ramsbottom figure in goal haemorrhaging points and rotation between a centre back and central midfielder at right back which weakens us in those areas as well.

So we now have: Goalkeepers Wylie Defenders Strapp McLean McGinty Hynes Midfielders Jacobs McAlister Lyon Colville Millar Blues McGuffie Nesbitt Omar McGrattan Forwards Orsi Oliver Salkeld Muirhead Rodgers Easdale Obviously you can speculate about where the likes of Muirhead or Salkeld will primarily be used and how frequently they intend to use the youngsters, but that must be us done in midfield. With that many options at centre forward I wouldn't be surprised if we're done there as well, even though there's not a real out and out striker in that list. I think we're looking at a first choice goalkeeper ahead of Wylie, a first choice right back ahead of Hynes, and hopefully for the love of Wake another two centre backs. We need a better centre forward for first choice but I doubt we'll get one.

I get there's an argument to be made that the circumstances mean we don't want to be forced into a huge overhaul in any one position, ie we don't want to be trying to sign a whole new defence, but if anything the restricted budget makes it all the more imperative that we don't carry any deadwood. With that in mind, giving contracts to McGinty, Millar and Muirhead is insane. We cannot afford to be carrying a finished 37 year old and two complete duds. In normal circumstances I'd definitely have been releasing McLean as well, but I could at least see the argument for keeping him as cover this summer if you want to keep one of him and McGinty to avoid needing to recruit three or four centre backs. He's not good enough but is passable in scenarios where we're camped 18 yards out and he just has to head it clear; being competent at that one aspect of the game makes him the superior option to McGinty. Keeping them both though means we're going to have at least one of them starting regularly, which is just crazy. On the bright side, McAlister and Nesbitt staying is very good news. Nesbitt going really didn't bear thinking about and hopefully he can step up to the expectation of being the main creative force with Cadden away. Oliver, meh. I know nothing about Omar. As the youth teams are being mothballed for at least a season, I assume Hynes, McGrattan and Rodgers are all intended to be a genuine part of the first team as cover. If that's the case we're probably only a goalkeeper and a couple of defenders away from a finalised squad, but hopefully loan deals will remain an option to add some quality within the budget.

The length of time they've had since their last competitive action makes a longer pre-season than usual sensible. It's going to take longer to build back up.

Yeah, having no new signings yet isn't an issue. The Betfred Cup doesn't start until 6 October so we're currently at the equivalent of the middle of May in a normal summer. We have a massive amount of time to build a squad, and anyone condemning us to relegation already is massively over-reacting. That's a separate issue from the complete failure to communicate with fans, and the apparent failure to communicate with out of contract players as well which is a gross abdication of responsibility. Coming to the conclusion they've made that grievious fuck up isn't just from reading between the lines on Tumilty, but McAlister was in the Tele last week with a comment along the lines of "if I'm offered something". It beggars belief that less than a week before contracts expired, the club didn't already have Hopkin off furlough, the decisions made on who would be offered a deal and had those conversations with the players. Having no new signings in isn't an issue at this stage, but that handling of out of contract players is an absolute shitshow.

Ex-manager rather than player, but podcast with Kenny Shiels here: https://fromthedugout.podbean.com/e/from-the-dugout-episode-six-kenny-shiels/ About 45 minutes in is the first mention of Morton and focuses entirely on the 10-2 game. His first comment is "I don't think I should be blamed for that" before alluding to match fixing. Classy stuff, and he clearly doesn't recall the season very well with factual inaccuracies all over the place in the brief time he's talking about it.

At the start of this interview he mentions it being 'nice to get a call' from Raith while still being on furlough from us. I don't think it's remotely a big leap to interpret that as a dig at Morton for failing to keep in contact with him. The club have absolutely fucked up not having Hopkin off furlough sooner to prevent losing players like this. I said recently that I wasn't at all concerned about new signings not being in yet as we're still at least a fortnight from being back in training, but renewing contracts is a different matter and their gross negligence has bitten them on their arse.

He's under contract at Clyde until 2022 and there's got to be no chance at all of us paying even a nominal transfer fee.