Slipmat

Old news now, but to bring the OP up to date on the present whereabouts of QOS departees, Rhys McCabe has signed for Airdrie and Stephen Dobbie has joined AFC Fylde.

Everyone in this division can breathe a sigh of relief. Gregor Buchanan has signed a 2 year deal with Dumbarton 🤣

Dumbarton have handed Buchanan a 2 year deal 🤣

Joe McKee back at Dumbarton after his release from QOS

If he's been signed as a starter rather than a benchwarmer that may mean AJ isn't planning on playing Todd on the left wing.

Joe McKee returns to Dumbarton.

To be fair, it turns out it was mainly Mr X putting that argument across.

That's strange. Some posters had previously suggested that players were going to be queuing up to sign or re-sign for the club on hearing the news that the master tactician and his glamorous assistant had signed new two year contracts. If anything, it appears to be the complete opposite!

I hope we sign a new pitch soon.

I'm not buying into this talk of the manager being such a disagreeable character that players would be queuing up to leave the club because of him, and I feel this is borne out by the number of players AJ has signed more than once during his managerial career - Kidd, Paton, Gibson, Holt etc. No doubt there are personality clashes, but if that was the be all and end all how many players would have turned down Man U in the Alex Ferguson years, or Souness's Rangers? A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Barney Davidson and had a long chat with him about his time at Queens, and he told me that of the 7 or 8 managers (if you include Willie Harkness) he played under only one was "a right b*****d" (his words!), and that was Billy McLaren who allegedly went out of his way to bully and humiliate players, especially youth/younger players, to such an extent that they were desperate to leave the club or even give up the game altogether. The rest (who I think off the top of my head would have been Nobby Clark, Drew Busby, Mike Jackson, Ally McLeod, Frank McGarvey, Davie Wilson, Derek Frye and the aforementioned Harkness) he believed were all decent man managers. Since then we've heard all about the well-documented issues that players had with Kenny Brannigan (prime example being David Weatherston), and I have heard from a couple of people connected to clubs other than Queens that Rowan Alexander could be a right c**t in his treatment of youth players, but from the outside looking in AJ doesn't strike me as being of the same type of character as either of those two or McLaren.

Resigned or re-signed?

Congrats to Shaun Rooney! Two cup final winning goals for the big fella in one season... who saw that coming?

So that leaves us awaiting news on 8 of last season's squad. I really hope we manage to keep Ferguson & Shields, although I fully expect the latter to be snapped up by someone else - hopefully not Killie if they come down. I'd be happy to see East, Joseph & McGrory back (in that order), but at the same time I won't be shedding any tears if any or all were to leave. Leighfield, McCabe and McKechnie all fall into the "surplus to requirements" category and I'd rather they moved on. He's in danger of becoming the new Jim Atkinson so it may be best for him to get gametime elsewhere. How are Annan sorted for keepers?

No change to the attendance figures at Alliance Park then.

His attitude left much to be desired, and for a supposed winger he seemed to completely lack the ability to gain or retain control of the ball. At first I thought our notorious plastic pitch wasn't doing him any favours but he didn't seem to be any better on grass. He reminded me of the old Ron Atkinson chestnut: "he can trap a ball further than most players can pass it"