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dunning1874

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Everything posted by dunning1874

  1. They haven't had a 0-0 since September 2021, which is pretty remarkable. McGlynn's interview is as entertaining as the highlights.
  2. Under contract: Baird, O'Connor, Pignatiello, Gillespie, Blues, Robbie Crawford, King, McGrattan, Garrity, Muirhead, Oakley Out of contract: Green, Grimshaw, Ambrose, Quitongo, Miller Loans expiring: Schwake, Waters, Ali Crawford, Roy Confirmed departures: Strapp, Lyon We're certainly in a much stronger place than a year ago when the under contract players were Hynes, Jacobs, Lyon, King, McGrattan, McGregor and Easdale. We even have the core of a decent starting XI with under contract players as it stands: ? Pignatiello - Baird - O'Connor - ? Blues - Gillespie - Crawford Muirhead - Oakley - McGrattan A new contract for Grimshaw is an obvious decision, but he's surely going to have top flight interest; he's better than what Dundee have at both full back and central midfield for starters. Miller's performances in recent weeks have earned a deal and even if Quitongo isn't going to be fit all season he's still someone you'd be happy to have coming into the starting XI at any time. Miller, Quitongo and McGrattan is a perfectly good set of wide options, with the option to use others there if we need to. I'd let Ambrose go. You could argue a player of his experience willing to be cover is useful and it's great to have a centre back who can impact a game off the bench with his ability to carry the ball out of defence but we know how error prone he can be, we can get better and could do with someone with a bit of versatility back there. If we can hit the Ricki Lamie jackpot of an upgrade on what we've got at centre back who can also play full back that'd be brilliant. Not fussed either way on Green. We're always going to have a young goalkeeper sitting on the bench as cover rather than two competing for first choice and if the club can find a better youngster then fine. I wouldn't be surprised to see Garrity moved on despite having a year left. He did really well in League Two with Annan last season so maybe Dumbarton was just the wrong move/manager for him, but failing to get games ahead of Ross McLean and Kalvin Orsi doesn't suggest he's got much hope of breaking into the team ahead of McGrattan, Quitongo or Miller if he hangs around here. On loanees, I'd expect Livingston to loan Schwake out again and would be happy to have him back, but I'm not sure Imrie would. While there might be better out there we've had an extremely good run with goalkeepers post-Ramsbottom and at some point we'll end up with an actual dud as opposed to a generally good goalkeeper who drops an occasional clanger. The heavily rumoured Ryan Fulton would be a downgrade IMO, although still in that generally good category. Waters is out of contract at Killie. He's been the epitome of a dependable but unspectacular Championship full back giving a consistent 6 or 7/10 performance every week. On that basis I'd be fine though hardly excited with signing him; he's obviously a considerable downgrade on Strapp, but that's true of every realistic target and there are far worse full backs out there. Ali Crawford has another year at St Johnstone, but I wouldn't want him back anyway. He's a player with a great pedigree to the point that getting him was a bit of a coup on paper, but whether he's deteriorating at a younger age than most players do or just doesn't fit this team it hasn't worked at all. There's been nothing to justify making it permanent. No chance Ally Roy will be back. If we had Ambrose, A. Crawford, Roy and maybe Garrity joining Strapp & Lyon in departing with Waters signing, (obviously it'll be one first team and one young goalkeeper regardless of whether that's Schwake and Green) that would hopefully allow us the room for some real quality upgrades when we don't necessarily need to add as many as leave. Lamie has already been mentioned and a coup like that to make the defence even more solid would be great. Central midfield is the obvious area to upgrade the starting XI. Obviously we're not getting Jamie Lindsay but that style of player who can give more protection to the defence, make it harder for physical sides to bully us the way Ayr have and add even more energy. A starting midfield three of Robbie Crawford, a new signing then one of Gillespie/Blues/King rather than two of them is the sort of incremental upgrade which is realistic and would make this team an even more threatening proposition. Then you've got an alternative centre forward. This one is a hard sell as you're realistically bringing someone in to be third choice and therefore you might struggle to find clubs willing to send loanees here when they're not going to be guaranteed games, but we should be looking for a different type of player to Muirhead and Oakley to mix things up.
  3. Waters is obviously a significant downgrade on Strapp, but any realistic target is. Get playing St Mirren in friendlies/the Renfrwshire Cup in the bin. Playing them in meaningless fixtures only cheapens competitive games when they come round, we'd have had far bigger crowds when we shared a division if it hadn't been for that.
  4. I think it's easy to forget how well Lyon played when Imrie first arrived. In that 6 game run with 4 wins and 2 draws at the start of his time in charge he was comfortably among our best performers, and it wouldn't be wild to guess there was an off the park reason for him falling out of the team at that point: Lyon alluded to this himself in the Tele in the summer when he admitted he could have worked harder in training, so he had his own part to play in losing his place in the team after earning that contract at the start of Imrie's tenure. He then got starts again early this season, and while there were bigger weaknesses in the team he was frankly terrible. That's what led to him being bombed out on loan and ultimately led to this. I still think he's capable of being a good Championship player, had more good games than bad under Imrie and I'd have kept him. I also reckon it would be better for King's development to be starting 30+ games for a League One side next season than making a dozen appearances in the Championship and having Lyon back in the squad as cover could have given us the depth to allow that, although that might still be possible anyway. All that said though, it's hardly a difficult decision to understand and the fact the run of good performances in the last four seasons you can point to as an argument in his favour was a mere six games tells its own story.
  5. This is good to see. A couple of negative points are the background on the board update making it difficult to read and the league table being a game out of date, but overall this is a positive development. Having an MCT update in there is a good touch and hopefully is a way for them to keep up regular contact with fans who aren't members and could be convinced to join.
  6. Callum Davidson was sacked because St Johnstone have been utterly dire for two seasons and he's shown no indication of being able to fix it. The incredible achievement of winning a cup double doesn't give a manager a free pass to be terrible forever and he was lucky to make it to this season at all. It could be a concern that so many top flight clubs have interim managers when Imrie is the obvious candidate for any Premiership club looking at the Championship, but he isn't going to be on the radar of Aberdeen or Hearts anyway. We just have to hope Dundee United keep Goodwin on and St Johnstone look elsewhere.
  7. For all Fulton has a tendency to pull off wonder saves as we saw on Tuesday, he's also got howlers in him and is more error prone than Schwake. If we had conceded either of the goals we scored Schwake would be getting pelters. While the first is a great delivery, it's a corner being tapped in at the back post from 4 yards out which he gets nowhere near having been stuck to his line. The second is a good hit from King at a tight angle, but it goes right under him. He's badly at fault for both of those goals.
  8. It's not been hard to figure out from some public comments that Imrie and Strapp don't get on well off the pitch, and he was always near certain to have better offers this summer anyway so I didn't expect him to stay. Regardless of having no confidence of keeping him though, not even making him an offer is a baffling decision. There is almost no chance of us getting a replacement of the same calibre, and in the unlikely event he doesn't have top flight or English offers then we'll look extremely daft if he ends up at Ayr or something while we have an inferior player at left back. Get an offer on the table and if he doesn't take it then so be it.
  9. An unfortunate phrase to use, considering the reason he's reviled. McGinty is my most hated Morton player ever by a considerable distance. He knows exactly what he did and he should legitimately have spent time in prison for it along with a lifelong ban from working in football in any capacity.
  10. That conduct last night should surely be the final straw for the steward in question. It can be a genuine mistake to not realise there's a minute silence in the first place, but to bellow "don't tell me to shut up!" after having it pointed out is completely unacceptable.
  11. I'm sure no Morton board would ever be daft enough to budget for crowds of 4000 when we were newly promoted to the second tier.
  12. Dundee United are the one Premiership club I've looked at as a concern for Imrie going. Motherwell were never likely to appoint him due to Hamilton connections, Aberdeen are never going to appoint a manager based on performance in the Championship, Hibs are also unlikely to if they sacked Johnson. No one else is facing even a remote threat of the sack, McInnes and Mackkkay included even if they get relegated. It's the same reason I don't really want Dundee United relegated, because if they're down here and so are we it's the obvious appointment. The timing of this probably works in our favour though. Imrie's an ambitious manager who'd back himself to succeed but this would be a particularly shite time to take over Dundee United, where a manager could end up with a relegation on their CV through little fault of their own. For someone like Imrie who'd be on his first top flight job and isn't considered as fashionable off the back of his playing career as some others that could set him back several years. Dundee United are also showing signs of significantly reigning in their spending, having barely done anything in January while the owner's comments at the AGM last week basically amounted to saying he doesn't have a bottomless pit of money and can't keep subsidising losses the way he has been for the last five years. Not only does that raise question marks over quite how appealing a job it is (though obviously a step up from us) it also makes me doubt they'll be going out and paying compensation to get a manager in another job when they're already going onto their third of the season, with the first having been on an expensive and lengthy contract. They also have an incompetent Sporting Director who seems to be both a total arsehole and as big a problem in their recent failings as the managers, who doesn't look like going anywhere. Imrie is inevitably going to get a move to a bigger club eventually, but if the daft media narrative around big bad streetwise Morton keeps us unfashionable and leads to the likes of Bullen, Coyle and Murray being looked at instead for the time being then brilliant. It's maybe better having the Dundee United job come up now and seeing them appoint someone to the end of next season, rather than only coming up in the summer after relegation when a good manager could look at it as a great opportunity for a title.
  13. Aye the party accepting that share transfer were the PTFC Trust who were, in simplistic terms, the patsies or fake fan organisation. The Jags Foundation, who are the MCT equivalent in this scenario, were opposed to that share transfer but after it was done have since entered into an agreement with the PFTC Trust to work together, accepting it couldn't be undone and coming on board after all the previous directors walked. Whether they were wise to get themselves inside the tent and tainted by association with the current interim board remains to be seen.
  14. The cretin that is Alan Rough revealed on PLZ Soccer that the supposed break even budget of their previous board was based on budgeting for a second place finish, so there's a substantial six figure shortfall there if they end up outside the top four.
  15. A considerable chunk of the Ibrox money will disappear on paying off three of the first team coaching staff. It's probably the only reason they could afford to sack them. A further statement by The Jags Foundation here: https://thejagsfoundation.co.uk/statement-concerning-the-clubs-finances/ Tl;dr - their previous board of charlatans absolutely fucked it and their current one have a fight on their hands to get spending under control
  16. It's pure luck of the draw, but you'd think that luck will have to turn for us at some point. Over the last eight seasons in the Scottish Cup we've had Celtic away three times, Motherwell away twice, Rangers away once and St Johnstone away once, with four of those seven eliminations coming in the first round that Premiership clubs entered. Our other cup exit in that time was that tit Johansson losing at East Fife. We've had six all Championship ties over those eight years and won all of them. Bollocks to the financial argument of Celtic away. Give me a run to a semi-final without once facing a Premiership side, which gives a real chance of going all the way to a final. Ayr's run to a quarter final with Falkirk has been Pollok, Cove and Elgin, Falkirk's has been Wick, Alloa and Darvel. They could then potentially have the winner of Inverness v Kilmarnock in the semi. For those weirdly more interested in the financial side of things than seeing a lengthy cup run this would also make us far more money than a fourth round elimination at Parkhead, with the prize money of a semi-final on top of the split of the Hampden gate.
  17. On what planet do we have the money to afford James McCarthy? Stop it.
  18. End of February for domestic loans, so we could still see players in if it doesn't happen today.
  19. Hopefully the fact we were already looking to bring someone in before he was away means we've room in the budget for two additions rather than one now, with a left back as well as the obviously needed midfielder.
  20. Aberdeen and Hibs are exactly the kind of clubs who'll view themselves as being above appointing a manager from the Championship, while simultaneously thinking someone with no managerial experience is a great idea. If they're appointing someone from another Scottish club it's from a smaller Premiership side, and they're more likely to make desperate attempts at a wacky 'project' appointment hoping to unearth a hidden genius. See Glass and Maloney, which worked out so well for them both.
  21. Not too hard to spot the subtext of "Billy Dodds is a bellend" there.
  22. Happy enough with that. Someone you'd be comfortable having start games and can compete for a place with Muirhead, rather than Roy's more likely role of being a body to throw on for the last 10 minutes because the starting centre forward is done in and can't run. Though he's not much of a goalscorer on his recent track record, Imrie's got a good record of turning players round while his first spell in Inverness and time at Hamilton suggest there's something to recapture.
  23. If we're going to a back five, putting Pignatiello and King out wide and putting McGrattan in central midfield then we are playing a 5-5-0, unless you're dropping Gillespie or Crawford.
  24. Ciftci would certainly have had question marks having not had a successful spell anywhere since signing for Celtic, but it would be more of a Grant Gillespie on paper signing where the question is whether he's just past it than a Leigh Griffiths level of alarm bells, or a player who appears to never have had any ability to lose like other signings we could mention. Regardless of whether you view this as a bullet dodged, it is utterly bizarre that he can't get a work permit for a Championship club after playing in the Premiership last season, especially considering some of the absolute dross who have received permits.
  25. This is a rare thing under Imrie in being a signing that gives us very few straws to clutch at on paper - if MacPherson or Hopkin had made it I'd have been fearing another Orsi - but Imrie's hit rate with signings and track record with turning players around has been that good I'm happy to see if he can get an improvement out of him. A striker was always going to be a difficult one to attract when we were obviously bringing someone in to be second choice. You aren't getting one of the more promising youngsters from the Premiership or a more established name who's surplus to requirements such as Oli Shaw to sit on the bench. It gives us an option to replace Muirhead in the last 20 minutes of games now rather than switching him with Quitongo being our only option to change things up front.
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