the_bully_wee

Clown car stuff. You could forgive this sort of shambles if everything was being poured into the Crownpoint proposal but that's been done and dusted for some time now. At least they've not tried to spin it as a decision to return to old colours!

In fairness, I would expect the progression to be that McLean will be blooded into having more influence as far as recruitment goes and that Duffy is just lightening the initial load so that he can focus exclusively on the coaching side of things. Nothing would surprise me though.

I do think we've been massively hamstrung by our fate being unknown for weeks more than our peers; it was always going to be a really tough recruitment job this summer, but even so, some of those retained are quite sobering and none of the new boys inspire much excitement. It's hard to have much faith in this happening, but the hope is that we can start from a base of being rather naff and over the coming transfer windows, build a familiar squad around a strong core of players while recruiting better quality in place of whatever shows itself to be the chaff. We need to stop having such a drastic churn of players every year. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about the disparity between the physical excellence McLean is striving for and the boys we've actually ended up going for.

Isaac Layne, aka Carlos Lyon as he now calls himself. Jobber.

The squad is screaming "mid-table" at the moment, which isn't ideal given we've now signed over two thirds of what we'll run with. Desperately need a few additions of quality in the forward areas but I really can't foresee them coming.

Stunning.

A list of every player Lennon signed and/or played as a full back would be quite something.

Can't believe Eddie Ferns hasn't been named yet. To this day, his cameo at Stirling away is the only time I've seen a player laughed at en masse for their ineptitude.

Shartans

That's unfortunate.

I'd be happier seeing the back of Rennie than Doherty, to be honest. If McLean is being serious about a high-energy team built around conditioning then he is completely incompatible with that, based on his performances from February onwards. It obviously leaves us with even more recruitment to do, but any honest grafter with some physicality about them will be of more use to us than a guy who jogs around and occasionally gets himself on the end of things between the sticks.

Shame we couldn't chuck in Martin Rennie too for a BOGOF deal, but such is life. There's a player in there with Doherty, and the combination of his age and full-time training might help to coax that out, but his decision making is really poor in terms of what he will do in and out of possession, even if there's a good work-rate and decent physical make-up there to start with. From Queens' perspective it is a bizarre signing, though. The fee will likely be a pittance but even so you'd like to imagine sights would be set far higher than a guy who was underwhelming for one of the jobbiest sides League 1 has seen. Good luck to both parties!

I'd be pleased with that if I had an iota of faith that we will now sign someone better. I do not.

Good god this is going to be a summer of pain

Grant staying on is fine and he should be alright in L2 but flinging a two-year deal his way is concerning given his past injury record and the fact he's only going to regress from here. I #BelieveInBrian though

Pretty sure McLean either explicitly or implicitly came here in the first place to take steps into coaching so it's not a surprise by any means. Realistically it was going to be a) risking it all on someone from down the pyramid with no real knowledge of football at this level and who has likely been at a club with more resources than most of their peers, b) someone completely beige like Duffy or c) a player at the end of his career. How he did as a player last season is a total irrelevance and there shouldn't be a predisposition against him on that basis from those who didn't rate him. I'm not exactly going cock-a-hoop over the hire but a rookie manager with an experienced head in-house to help out and advise where needed is definitely the best solution given all of our circumstances at the moment. McLean will have learned plenty in his coaching apprenticeship last season, too; from Lennon, how not to build a squad; from Duffy, how not to play football. Let's see if he has any aces up his sleeve over the summer!

I'm pretty sure the discussions with Mullen, Salkeld and Roberts would've gone something like "I'm off, don't waste your time offering me anything", to be fair.

If the terms offered are in line with both being cheap bench players then fine, otherwise oh dear. Hopefully Cameron spends the entire summer on the bench press. Sad to see Mullen's away and very much unmoved by the rest of the news.

Complaints over Duffy's management are very valid, but how would his job since coming in have been perceived if he had kept us up? I think it would be regarded very differently by most folk. While that is natural, we competed pretty well with Annan in the main with a spate of key players out injured and, though you can point to the mad decision to start Doherty against Montrose as potentially having a bit of a domino effect, he took us from thinking we were completely and utterly stuffed to giving us all some justifiable hope about our prospects going into and then during the play-offs. That's not to say I am some great Jim Duffy fan or think that he did a tremendous - or even good - job, but it's not like he was some rip-roaring failure either given the mess he inherited. A good few players came on under his charge, he brought in a couple who made a difference (and some jobbers, of course) and we weren't quite as bad. The football was, of course, largely awful and I would not have necessarily wanted him in the hot seat going into next season, but I think having him there as DoF is a fairly smart move if we end up going down the road of someone less experienced. Given his laid-back demeanour he really doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who will be overly hands-on, and will be a decent sounding board for whoever it is we appoint. If it all does go completely to pot under "new man" then we've got someone there who will likely steady the ship (albeit in incredibly dour fashion) and who already has a working knowledge of the squad. He'll have a big old book of contacts as well which could come in handy in terms of assembling a cheap and cheerful squad, and it is a football man on a board which is often pilloried by its detractors for a lack of footballing nous. Let the fun and games begin! #DoFfyball

True. He's going to clone himself 10 times and that'll be our team for the season as well - couldn't be any worse than last year I suppose

He's probably too busy trying to use his pay-off money to build castaway youth coaching island to take notice, unfortunately. ETA: as always for me, in terms of who we retain and let go it should all come down to what kind of money each individual is on and whether they would accept money commensurate with their role in the squad next season, whether that be a similar one to now or reduced. For instance, I would happily see McDonald and Cameron retained if they were on amateur contracts and deployed as cones in training.

I'd have to concur. I can't blame the players who vanished off down the tunnel for doing so in the context of the pitch invasion or whatever, disappointing as it is, but particularly with those who faced up the fans being two of our biggest triers this season, it's a bit disappointing to hear they took some stick. Two boys we could be doing with next year for sure.

I see yer da has discovered "jifs"

The Clyde way, really. Finish the season in a manner which gives you some hope, string you along and then dash it in tinpot fashion when it comes to the crunch. Swift action is needed now (and no, that is hopefully not a prescient pun), so hopefully something has been lined up ready for announcement before the weekend is out. We are already weeks behind on recruitment and, with the smaller budget, it's important that we recruit well in the summer. The three we've got under contract already don't fill me with much confidence.

What a way to go!