capt_oats

It needed done and it's not Gerry Britton so that's a start... One of the first things returned on a Google search (after his LinkedIn) is: https://www.shropshirestar.com/sport/football/shrewsbury-town-fc/2023/05/03/shrewsbury-town-fans-pay-tribute-to-departing-chief-executive-brian-caldwell/ Which is generally pretty positive. As far as I can see no one's calling him a c**t and I think the statement from their fan group is interesting: There's also a thread on Shrewsbury's forum about him from around the time he left as well again interesting few mentions about his communication with fans etc on the first page. It's 10 pages: https://blueandamber.proboards.com/thread/105568/brian-caldwell Also, h/t to @djchapsticks and @Div

Appreciate there's an element of "didn't fancy her anyway" about this but while I'd absolutely have preferred Spittal to stay I kind of feel the same about him as I did Goss in so much as based on their careers to date we've probably got the absolute best version of them and I'd have been wary about chucking the sort of money that in Spittal's case his form has absolutely deserved. Making Spittal our second highest paid player or whatever would have felt a bit risky on the off chance he regressed to the mean. While his numbers and general contribution will obviously be difficult to replace it kind of feels like he's the type of player we've got a decent enough track record of being actually being able to recruit. Similar to our Murderers Row of #9s hitting double figures over the last 30 years I guess. As I said, assuming he has f**k all interest in trying his hand in England or abroad and he's looking for a club that's a commutable distance from his house then a sideways move to a club with a larger fanbase but we've fairly regularly finished above and long term deal with the sort of significant uplift to his wage Hearts could offer is his best case scenario here. We got a good two seasons out of someone that was viewed as entirely underwhelming by a large section of the support when he signed. Absolutely fair fucks to him and also to Kettlewell for getting the sort of turn out of him he has. Tbh, I'm just confused how this can happen when he's already signed a PCA with St Mirren. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Alexander was only at the club for 2 games after Spittal signed. I think you're confusing Alexander with Steven Hammell who absolutely did misuse Spittal on a regular basis.

Respectfully, f**k off.

Kettlewell signed and played him for Ross County.

Aye those two games he played for Alexander... https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/blair-spittal/leistungsdatentrainer/spieler/251587

On that point he has 17 goals and 16 assists in 78 games for us. 33 goal involvements in 78 games is some return for someone who had a entirely 'meh' reaction whenever Alexander signed him. Absolutely fair fucks to him like.

That's pretty much how I'm looking at it as well. Respectfully, Hearts is probably the ceiling for someone like Spittal. It's nominally a sideways move from us but the uplift in wages makes it a no-brainer from his POV. Assuming we stay up etc we've had a good two years out of him. Look forward to hearing Sked make out that he's always rated him now.

It was.

For avoidance of doubt I wasn't being entirely serious in asking if RG was behind it.

Well...I take it this is your doing @RandomGuy.

This is kind of it for me. It's very much a case of the genie being out of the bottle so it seems unlikely that it'll be binned however it's be a sensible step for there to be a genuine discussion about why VAR has been as much of a shitshow (even though anyone who had been paying attention could see it coming). That said, while I don't have much sympathy for the clubs - as I've said it's a Leopards Eating People's Faces Party situation where it seems actual adults seemed to think it wouldn't affect them and we'd just be levelling out the decisions that were going against them - but I think it's probably fair to say that what they're getting isn't what was pitched to them. Naive as the expectations of what they'd get might have been. For me, as @Busta Nut and others have said the one thing that VAR is actually good for is offside specifically because it's a binary choice. In which case narrowing the scope of VAR feels like a logical step. Leave it for these Yes/No decisions eg: is someone offside or not, is a ball in or out, was a foul inside/outside the area and leave the on field ref to officiate the game as they see fit without having someone in their ear second guessing decisions.

Bring him home. Also...if we're revisiting traditional international break topics this hits a bit different now that we've battered them in the league.

Oh, absolutely. I seem to remember Alexander being entirely in favour of it and for a lot of (naive) people there was an expectation that it would be a great leveller and in general it'd be a panacea for Scottish Football...despite all evidence to the contrary. Indeed some may say it was a case of...

You're sort of right. Society members received "consultation" (at very short notice) but the club just went ahead and waved it through regardless.

Absolutely. It has massive Leopards Eating People's Faces Party energy but as @Desp just said to Duncan on Twitter "Clubs realising they've made a c**t of it and now opening calling it how shite it is should be a good thing."

I suppose in a round about sort of way that's us made our position on VAR public.

I mean, absolutely +1 on this but I suppose it's testament to the effectiveness of Sportswashing from various States that it's not a stretch to suggest that there's probably a fairly sizeable section of our support who'd actually see that sort of alignment as something aspirational. Which is entirely depressing on multitudes of levels.

Done but also as @Desp says

Aye put some fucking respect on the name. BIG JOHN SUTTON INCOMEING.

Following on from @thisGRAEME's re-post from The WS re: updating contact details, this is an interesting questionnaire/survey from Sean if you want to fill it in.