Handsome_Devil

Not for me. If Alexander hadn't been given the extension (our fault, not his) I'd have been very content with him all in. The days of a long-serving manager at a club our size are long gone and ultimately you're eventually going to fail having to rebuild constantly. So if the balance from a two-year contract is saved us from relegation, gets us Europe, sacked/resigned and we salvage the situation, he's no worse than 'fine', even if the style and early 2022 means he's not hugely better either.

Also an excellent point. You would also expect the club to play down the fee in the media (rightly or wrongly) in this one.

It's this in a nutshell...past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. KVV is 32, has had one career season, already a history of some niggling injuries he's played through and achieved his best playing in a 3-5-2 which Groningen probably (who knows, I'm guessing from the Dutch love of 4-3-3) don't. He is far from a nailed on success for them. So 500k isn't amazing but not terrible either. If the add ons are them winning the champions league it's obviously not great, if there's another 500k for him scoring 10 and they get promoted, everyone is a winner.

Carroll was largely rotten with the odd false dawn thrown in. Decent delivery though. I do wonder in general if modern tactics hurt full-backs at our level...they're expected to be good on the ball and attack while some managers expect them to defend the flanks almost alone at times due to the obsession with crowding the centre. And as promising as Furlong and obviously MJ looked in a 3-5-2 with the support they got from actual defenders behind them, it may have been different had a Hammell/Alexander hung them out to dry in a 4-3-3.

Mibbes aye, mibbes naw but the question - given the seeding arrangement in the last 16 - is could Danzaki/Shields make us one of the best three group winners... I appreciate we can't screw a full season just to play these games but there's only two trophies we can even theoretically win. Blowing one of them because we need to take our time is highly annoying unless there's a payout in May, a la Alexander.

Watching that utterly plastic pish of a celebration at the CL is a nice reminder of what football should be about. Enjoy supporting a proper club everybody!

There are only two ways the WS will get significantly better. The first is that we pay more/better people to run it - that will meet obvious resistance. The second is that better people get more involved voluntarily. So if you know anyone in our modest fan base who has the skills needed, capacity and willingness to give up their time, the personality to step into the semi-public eye and a skin thick enough to tolerate people being snarky about them, push them towards it. Eventually someone - or some people - will emerge and take us by the scruff of the neck but much like shaking up the club board, I've no idea how we can expedite matters.

Chiba - like Sasa Curcic - was a massive disappointment because of the assumption his technical ability would make him look great...and then due to injury/fitness/attitude it just didn't happen. Okoli did indeed have the long throw - notable for not being the traditional arc but travelling like a bullet a foot above head height. Looked amazing until it was promptly cleared by the first defender!

I thought as they're second seeds we definitely had QP at home then two of the other three away? A traaaaaaaiiiiiin day to Elgin would be an epic.

Touch wood etc but that really should be fine. Now for some luck with the fixtures!

I loved it as well. I find it great that a guy signed basically so we can play 11 v 11 at training was so mentally on it that when he got the chance of 'achieving' something he was ready and went through that last 50-50 like his life depended on it. VN maybe a shite professional but hat-tip to his professionalism!

Of all the minor insignificant things that annoy me, Petravicius being on the bench for that Scottish Cup final rather than Ross McLean is right up there.

Aye but a youth tournament isn't the same really...it would just seem a slightly more attractive level of kickabout in pre-season given these things have to be done.

In the days of artificial pitches I've always thought there was a chance to bring back the Lanarkshire Cup as a pre-season tournament every so often - sell day tickets to all four sets of fans and play six 30 minutes round robin or four knock-out games in Airdrie or Hamilton.

I'm back in Scotland for the first three rounds but have committed to being away for the first one...so safe to say there will be a belter of an away day MD1, Morton at home MD2 and our free round MD3... It normally takes a few days after the draw to sort the fixtures?

I think Kettlewell's 'diplomatic' response to the speculation suggests we'll not be pursuing that one this time.

Indeed. And on the rare occasions we sign a headline (relatively speaking) player, when was the last time it worked out really well? Arguably Spittal in fact, perhaps Gallagher/Polworth for five months. But it's rare. Essentially any time a known quantity signs for us, it's because everyone with £500 a week more to spend - who we actually want to compete with - has turned them down. So while the jobbing pros will job for a year, the success on and off the pitch basically comes down to the hits and misses of the English lower leagues and foreign backwaters.

A quick Google suggested Groningen - despite seemingly having similar status to us in their league - are on a different level financially, a fee will not be a problem.

Groningen would seem an excellent move all-round for KVV, would be happy with that.

I assume we'll give him a proper holiday afterwards and he'll skip the Dutch trip.

Aye and as harsh as it is, that's football...Spittal, Butcher, Casey etc just got on with it.

I'm often amazed by what fees end up being paid but a million for Nouble seems mental. I reckon we'll get 500k-ish up front for KVV plus whatever in add-ons.

We shouldn't be touching him with the proverbial. It's a shame for the away day crowd County look doomed but delighted Thistle up really.

Aye, the ST thing passed me by as it's not really very relevant personally but 30 seconds thought says asking for an X quid increase while not offering the potential saving to game-by-game is a shocker. I do have sympathy for the club, it's always a fine line - every extra office job or promotion is money not available for the first team and good luck countering a relegation squad with "but we reply superbly to emails..."! However, it really feels like we're wobbling too much to the neglect side of the non-playing things ATM (and have been for some time) and a kick in the arse/budget increase is needed.

I'm certain it's not dark arts at work, it's more that given our recent efforts I don't like anything that projects the image of FP being a chaotic bin fire. I'm not really into management BS but it seems obvious that if you want to be well-run and engaging on big things, being well-run and engaging on small things is a good place to start.