vikingTON

I appreciate the point preemptively raised in the interview about the need for better communication on the MCT-club dynamic. We're obviously all on the Imrie for World Club Championship glory in 2025 bandwagon right now, but it has been very quiet from an MCT point of view since August or something. If the directors are busy doing the work highlighted behind the scenes then great, but that lack of communication from GMFC down will prove an issue as soon as we end up with a much more difficult first team situation. That's going to happen in football - but we need to keep the fan ownership show on the road regardless of those downturns. Better to keep on top of that now when the going is good, rather than try to patch things over while another 'Gus' figure is stinking the place out.

When Martindale goes Livingston will sink to their natural level as a Championship/seaside league basketcase. Any manager would be foolish to try and stem that irresistible force of footballing gravity and Imrie knows the score more than most. There's absolutely no reason why - with form at the right time and decent fortune - Imrie can't replicate the same level of achievement with us.

Jim McInally has been installed as a 12/1 dark horse to return to the club where he bottled a Scottish Cup final to that rancid outfit up the road. This is not a drill people. Imrie not listed among the runners and riders so far, long may that continue.

Punished with failure like all who snub The Famous.

Raith fans seem to have confused Tumilty with the second coming of Cafu.

Trawling through some League of Ireland pub team's club forum, to check if the banjo-strumming fans were happy with their string of 'plucky' defeats.

Yes, we've noticed that as you've cherry-picked random results and harrumphed your way through the thread. Btw, the clincher is when you keep trying to exclude some Scottish teams' results to make your 'point' seem in any way credible. Why aren't we excluding Shamrock Rovers, who are the moneyed powerhouse of your farmer's league (with very close ties to Celtic)? You can't pick and choose which teams are representative of a league only when it suits your dung argument.

A shame for him personally as he was only ever the unwitting victim of slaphead Gus' esteemed 'eye for talent'. He always did his best but this was at least one level beyond his genuine ability - hopefully he can make a decent career for himself somewhere down the pyramid.

Stop taking the deluded nonsense of little Ayr fans seriously then.

If we have Miller training with us then I'm not convinced it's as black and white as people seem. Do we want to get a reputation as a club that stands in the way of a player's opportunity? If it was some nonsense outfit like Forest Green or Salford City then I'd be more willing to play hardball. But it seems to me that there's a deal to be done here and we wouldn't be derailing a Certain Title Challenge by doing so. If the current business model is to work, then we need start making us a place where players can reliably further their careers (with a fee for the club, naturally) rather than a stopping off point before the seaside leagues. The last player to be sold for any fee AFAIK was Tidser in 2013 - and in retrospect that 'small' fee at the time looks quite frankly generous. Start the myth of the conveyor belt and you can eventually flog total haddies to Liverpool for £700k.

Has Paul Hartley put down a pizza crunch supper long enough to demand a full investigation into that corrupt gang of a football club?

Not possible though because someone at the SPFL definitely told Iron Man that under no circumstances whatsoever would Morton ever be allowed to play in colours of our own choice.

Ryan 'clownshoes' Scilly has been signed by Hamilton to solve their lack of competent goalkeeping options. Which means that we can finally stick a fork in that stupid wee outfit now.

All managers sign duds. Ferguson signed the likes of Massimo Taibi, Kleberson and Eric Djemba-Djemba at the peak of his powers at Manchester United. The difference between a good manager and a dung manager in the transfer market is the overall hit rate. Which means we shouldn't abandon scrutiny at the door because there's always a significant risk to a signing. I'm not convinced by this move at all. Firstly, the ability of Ambrose to play at this level given his recent career trajectory is questionable. But more importantly, there's a huge opportunity cost to this. Funds that go to signing Ambrose cannot now go towards getting a no. 9. Despite our upturn in form, we still need to upgrade our first pick choice in that position as a matter of top priority and are unlikely to do so now. Rather than getting our top or even 3rd/4th choice target, we are going to be at the back of the queue. The second cost is that it leaves our squad unbalanced. There may be two injuries limiting our defensive options right now, but what will happen if two of our forwards are ever missing through injury or suspension? There is literally no cover for that at all in the current squad. Having just regained a balanced team that can effectively hound opponents, I do not want to see us having to change shape and tactics again for such a completely predictable and small-time 'crisis'.

If you think that's a 'promise' for you to throw your toys out of the pram over, then you must live a very sheltered existence.

Arbroath went into the summer with more money available to offer players than ever before in their club's history and a manager who is both highly experienced in the transfer window and has snaked hotshot forwards from Livingston on a regular basis in recent years. Go to their thread on P and B and check out their thoughts on not getting a striker this summer. Their tantrums could be copy and pasted with yours right now. If the same issue is affecting (at least) two totally different club/management structures at the same level, then the problem is with the market and not the individual.

We did bring in a player and the board do not (and should not) dictate specific signings for the manager. Take your latest tantrum elsewhere.

All the sentences are true: it's called fact-based analysis.

Pigniatello is a centre back. Strapp has also played centre back comfortably lots of times. That means we have five potential centre back options in our squad which is absolutely fine for any team at this level. Garrity had his chance and failed to take it in the cup. We have McGregor in that position anyway so I fail to see what we're missing while he's away. I'm not concerned by our options off the bench as much as our lack of quality at the top end of the park. But if there's not a viable option out there then we can't just pretend that club have dropped the ball.

The mistake that Imrie made was to tie up resources in re-signing Muirhead early doors, rather than focus on getting a replacement for Reilly/Ugwu. If he still wanted to retain Muirhead then he wasn't going anywhere that would do us harm - but we needed to get a number 9 first before indulging in such nonsense. That said, it is Imrie's first summer transfer window in management so I'm not going to hold it against him: young managers can only learn from experience. And the fact that the likes of Arbroath who have more resources than they've ever had before have failed to find a replacement for their number 9s over the summer - with a geriatric, bigoted fud of a manager - tells you that there's a genuine shortage in the market. I'd much rather the club not waste money on another Kaziah Sterling level haddy right now on the off-chance it'll work. Because if there's a Jamie Brandon-esque loan opportunity in January, that's money thrown away that could stop us from adding that player. It's by no means ideal but it's better than panic signing utter dogshite. That's simply not true.

Well he wasn't "recently released by Clyde" at all, which rather undermines 'GreenockPics' impressive ITK status within Scottish football.

We've made a cunt of it like that before with Tidser.

If there are no good strikers available right now then we shouldn't waste our money on a(nother) crap one.

Being ruthless would have involved pushing Low out the door in the summer, rather than letting the affair drag out and their performances tank in the meantime. Neither Low nor Arbroath come out of this looking professional at all.

Counterpoint: Dick 'dick' Campbell has just got yet another bee in his bunnet about The Famous and thinks that it's 2004 and we're signing Chris Templeman from his outfit. The last 48 hours couldn't have happened to a more deserving, Sash-singing fud of a 'character' in Scottish football.