dunning1874

Aye, here's the relevant section of the SPFL rules. I suppose it is rarer to see it now with them not being allowed in the League Cup, so clubs tend to have more players permanently signed up by the time the league gets underway than they did in the past.

Club have just replied to someone saying it's on the orders of the police. Ridiculous nonsense on their part, but hopefully means it's only an issue for Saturday and normal for the rest of the season.

I'm not going tomorrow and have the fanbase app anyway so no impact on me personally, but why would you close the ticket office at the ground at 2:30? If you have a ticket office to sell physical tickets on the day for people who for whatever reason don't have the app, between 2:30 and 3:10 is exactly the time it needs to be open. This is daft, it surely won't be the case every week?

We'll all have seen by now, they announced on Tuesday that their planned event for Friday night with Andy Ritchie and Chick Young to reminisce about past Renfrewshire derbies is cancelled. Commercial missteps have been rare lately - assuming a bit of an unprofessional tone in emails is something that is very easily fixed and doesn't become a recurring issue - but attempting a big preview event the night before a meaningless friendly definitely is one. I'm all for the club doing whatever they can to bring in money but even putting aside being utterly tinpot, a night in the supporter's club at £10 as a buildup to a kickabout with St Mirren was obviously never going to be viable. Even competitive league games would be a stretch for having enough interest, it would need to be some sort of massive occasion like meeting them in a playoff or Scottish Cup quarter final to make it worthwhile, unless you were having Imrie there.

Throwing the phrase "good will" in there was a very deliberate attempt to allude to Goodwillie, which the person who runs their social media basically admitted on his personal account, and they were at it again yesterday with another signing, making a big joke out of how everyone should "speculate responsibly". They're treating potentially signing a rapist and by extension the crime itself as a laughing matter.

If we're doing Broadfoot v Ambrose comparisons, we could look back just over a year ago to Ambrose being viewed as a laughing stock in a shambolic defence who got a daft red card in the playoff second leg on the way to being relegated to League One, while Broadfoot was a mainstay in the side which made it to the promotion playoff final.

Boyd is firmly in the category of a signing you'd be unimpressed with if we we were making it under any other manager, but the same was true of Jai Quitongo, Grant Gillespie and Jack Baird, while Blues and Muirhead are also in the transformed by Imrie category. He has a track record of turning players like this into competent or better Championship performers, and the few who haven't worked out are comfortably outnumbered by those who have. Boyd's background is also considerably better than Ally Roy, while Calvin Miller was (and arguably still is) unproven in the Championship too. He's clearly not much of a goalscorer looking at his track record but that's not all he's there to do, and while we don't want to go down the Hopkin route of stockpiling multiple anywhere across the front three James Wallace types, that versatility is still going to be useful. We were never likely to add both a third choice centre forward and another wide option, so having someone who can actually do both and maybe allow us to keep Muirhead central in the absence of Quitongo or McGrattan/give us an alternative through the middle to Oakley & Muirhead that isn't moving Quitongo inside is very welcome. He can genuinely compete for a place in both areas rather than being a body to fill out the squad like Roy was. I'd be surprised if that isn't us done for attacking players now.

They teased the signing the day before with a cryptic comment about a former top flight striker who has also played outside Scotland and said "good will come to those who wait" and "all will be revealed." Pretty transparently trying to get people speculating that it was Goodwillie for clicks, which is a reprehensible thing to do.

You are either vastly overstating the degree to which the rest of Scottish football takes notice of comments made to the Greenock Telegraph, or alternatively you're wanting to have your cake and eat it. If an unnamed member of the GMFC board making a (self-evidently true, though that's besides the point) comment on the board's behalf to the Tele about the fixture list clears your bar of an official club statement which regulates our relationship with governing bodies and other clubs, then previous owners, Chairmen and Chief Executives talking to the Tele about matters pertaining to governing bodies or other clubs must then also meet the criteria of official statements by the Morton Chair/CEO/Board Member which regulate those relationships as well. Why do these comments to the Greenock Telegraph qualify as an official club statement containing self-aggrandising bollocks while nothing in the previous 20 years of self-pity and contradictory nonsense does, other than the latter dismantling your argument that Morton were a model of professional conduct by comparison in that period? Douglas Rae complaining about the injustice of the introduction of the playoffs to the Tele and every other media outlet who'd listen, Douglas Rae seething in the Tele about the disrespect shown by St Johnstone in offering a contract to Chris Millar when he was free to talk to other clubs, Douglas Rae openly indulging in spats with other clubs in public such as Gretna around the time of Rowan Alexander commenting on Jason Walker, multiple public comments on the Craig Thomson/Ross Haswell incident, Douglas Rae blabbing a load of incoherent nonsense to the Tele around the time of Rangers' meltdown that led to everyone thinking he was in favour of them being resurrected straight into the First Division and needing to do a follow up to clarify that he was just havering, Warren Hawke making an arse of talking about the safety of Morton fans at Ibrox (when it was entirely correct for someone at Morton to talk about this) by running straight to the media as the first port of call rather than going through official channels to raise it first. That's just the ones that have come off the top of my head. I have little doubt there'll have been fixture complaints in there as well and considering you raised the O'Connor interview yourself as failing to meet the lofy standard of professionalism we were maintaining, we'd be here a very long time if we listed all the times dirty laundry with a player or manager was aired in public.

I obviously have no prior knowledge of this guy and how he actually played at that level, but if you're not good enough for the Welsh Premier then you're not good enough for Scotland's League Two.

Not only are you massively overreacting to what was just a throwaway comment to the Tele - that isn't the club going full Partick persecution complex with an army of lawyers, official statements and formal complaints to the SPFL - but this is quite an incredible take. Are you forgetting some of the ridiculous statements the club were firing out in Crawford's time with sagas playing out in public, before even getting into all the times Dougie publicly threatened to walk away or go part-time? We were widely seen in Scottish football as an unprofessional laughing stock run by clowns for the best part of 20 years, because we were. The suggestion that this is in any way comparable to some of the stuff the Raes came out with is risible.

While none of us can say for sure the exact size of budgets for clubs at this level, what is a readily verifiable fact through club accounts covering up to the end of the 21/22 season is that the only clubs living within their means in this division recently have been Morton and Arbroath. Everyone else has to a greater or lesser extent been dependent on external backing or piling debt onto the books. There'll be single season exceptions to that such as ICT presumably breaking even last season with Scottish Cup money, but they'll be right back to substantial six figure losses again. I'm not sure but I imagine Airdrie will also be living within their means. Other than that we've got 7 clubs not doing so, so even with the club being in a much better financial position than 12 months ago with a higher than budgeted league position and Dalrada's sponsorship secured from the start of the summer rather than after the start of the league season, we're still going to have one of the lowest budgets in the league.

There's not a club in the country who have nearly concluded their business by 22nd June, with the start of the League Cup over three weeks away and the first league game over six weeks away. We're in a very good position for this early stage of the summer.

We need both a first choice right back and someone who can cover full back on both sides. Ideally you want another midfielder who can compete with Gillespie and Blues as well, depending how much trust Imrie will have in King going into this season, rather than having to drop Crawford deeper whenever one of them are out or off form, but that maybe doubles up with the full back cover being an anywhere across the defensive positions type. In an ideal world where money didn't limit the squad size then in addition to getting the above three positions covered you could add an attacking midfield alternative to Crawford, another wide option, a third choice centre forward in case Muirhead is playing elsewhere and another first team goalkeeper to compete with Mullen, but that would take us to a first team squad well over 20. Something has to give there and that's why I reckon the other goalkeeper is going to be a similar signing to Green and we'll be making do with Muirhead and Oakley up front with Quitongo moving inside if both are out. With Miller departing another wide option would seem an obvious choice, but with Quitongo, McGrattan, Muirhead, Garrity (assuming he stays) and potentially King who can be used there is that as big a priority as other positions where we still have less cover?

We're surely not going to waste a wage on having two first team goalkeepers: even with the improved financial situation compared to last summer we'll probably still have a smaller budget than everyone other than Airdrie. I'd be very surprised if we're signing a 22 year old who ended last season as a first choice in League One as a backup goalkeeper, that'll likely be another teenager with Mullen as first choice. Grimshaw was never realistically staying, he was both the best full back and best midfielder in the division and if he's in this league rather than moving to England or the Premiership it'll be with a club flinging Premiership wages around.

Miller was very good in the run-in, and you could argue that was just him having needed time to settle and get a run of games, but we're still talking about a player who only managed 4 or 5 good performances in half a season. That could just as easily have been a purple patch, or more cynically a case of turning it on when he needed to earn a contract, with his earlier performances being the norm. Being able to play left back was very useful versatility but it was debatable if he was even part of our strongest XI, he's far from irreplaceable.

That's the home kit in Smiths now. It looks far better in person than it did in the photos, although the blue should be darker.

Let's focus on the common enemy here. Whatever became of all those Brechin fans mocking us?

Could have been both, although most of the Brechin mockery was focused on Orsi. Blues spent the first half of that season with Brechin, leaving when they were 9th in League One on the way to finishing bottom, then the second half with Berwick as they finished bottom of League Two. Turning him into a Championship player at all is the biggest testament to Imrie's management.

The manner of Dundee United's relegation surely means Goodwin will be away in the summer. When he got the job you could see a credible turn of events that would have him kept on despite going down, but that would be ridiculous now with the way they've capitulated. Let's hope they rush into the appointment of someone out of work like Calum Davidson or go chasing a big name, because managerless Championship Dundee United gives me the fear about Imrie.

I wouldn't have expected anything sooner, with the likelihood that some of our targets are under contract at Premiership clubs and maybe any of our own players keeping their options open wanting the season to end first.

Aye, there's a reasonable argument we shouldn’t with their defensive record, but if we're going to sign a released Queen's Park defender Davidson would make a lot more sense. A right back who's also played a lot at centre back and some games in holding midfield as well, he'd basically be covering all the same positions Pignatiello did while being an upgrade on him and is only 22 while Kilday is now 31. If we do end up running with a squad of around 18 that versatility in our cover options is going to be vital.

While Kabia just wasn't ready for this level of football and Crawford is either finished at 31 or doesn't fit the team at all, both signings made perfect sense on paper. Kabia had done very well in League One in the previous season so thinking he could make the step up made perfect sense, same as Pignatiello, and Crawford had the pedigree to be an excellent Championship player. The only signing he's made that really didn't make sense was Roy, but I,'m willing to accept that was just an attempt to find a body capable of running about if Muirhead and Quitongo were both incapacitated while not expecting Oakley to later become available.

When did this happen? Admittedly I couldn't see him for most of the Cove game so it wouldn't be fair to comment on his performance there, but I'm not seeing being fine in his sub appearances v Queen's Park and Raith as enough to cancel out the 7 shockers in 7 starts before that. If a player without Crawford's prior reputation had delivered those performances no one would be remotely entertaining signing him off the back of it. The only other player who's even in the conversation for our worst player of the season is Ally Roy, and he only played about 120 minutes altogether.

Surprised to see Pignatiello go which leaves us needing more defensive cover, but if he wants to go part-time and get a regular start elsewhere then fair enough. No other surprises, we already knew about Strapp and Lyon while Efe was always likely to go. Green and Gemmell were never going to become first team players here. It was obvious Waters would get an offer, although I hope we might end up with a better first choice. Hopefully Miller and Quitongo sign up then we're sorted for wide options but obviously either of them would be nearly as hard to replace as Grimshaw. If we can keep him that's massive.