PSJSaint

Looking forward the meltdown on the day we open a brand new stadium but opt to reuse the seats from McDiarmid.

Likewise, ive been a listener for years and have noticed the slow drift towards "professionalism". The days when Craig Fowler used to watch every game in full have long gone as they have got proper jobs etc. Sadly that means they seem to drift towards the same St Johnstone clichés that we have got used to from the traditional media. If a player has a bad game against Hearts/OF then thats whats shapes opinion for the next year or so.

Obviously it's taken a longer than ideal time for the squad to click but hopefully we can't start to throw off some of the lazy and fairly ignorant pundit/podcaster assessments that this Saints squad is devoid of quality. Starting 11 on Saturday had 56 international caps between them including guys like Matt Smith who was in a World Cup squad this time last year. compare that to 1 for Ross County (it's only one metric but has to be considered a useful gauge). We have been told our defence is terrible but now have the best goals conceded in the bottom 6 and the same as St Mirren who have been flying. Biggest issue all along has been our ability to make and convert chances and it is no surprise that once our 2 first choice striking options are available again that that problem starts to fade. There aren't many teams in this league who could lose their equivalent of Kane and Clark and still score the goals they need for results.

Wk 1 - Celtic Wk 2 - Rangers Wk 3 - Hamilton Wk 4 - Dumbarton Wk 5 - Dundee United

Week 4 - Dumbarton

Week 3 - Hamilton

Week 1 - Celtic Week 2 - Rangers

Week 1 - Celtic

Can't put too much stock in one performance but looks like he's got a bit about him based on this.

Not sure if there would be much interest but Danny Cowley would be an interesting shout. Was excellent at Lincoln before being binned at Portsmouth despite a reasonable record. Saints might be an attractive option to get him back on track.

We have signed 5 over 30s (Clark, Carey, Murphy, Considine, and McGowan) who have replaced 5 over 30s (Craig, Ambrose, Butterfield, Bryson and Cifci). The big debate is whether we have replaced Zander Clark, Hendry and Rooney and only time will tell. Rooney was signed with no fanfare and was a bit part candidate for loan out until McNamara's recall accidentally threw him in to the first team as a wing back. Hendry was a promising striker who hit his first purple patch when we needed him most (neither Aberdeen or Kilmarnock were desperate to take him back and you wouldn't be shocked to find him on loan at Partick in 18 months time). There is absolute no reason why Gallacher, Bair, Sandford, Mahon et al won't do the same when serendipity throws them into the spotlight. Who was the last player we signed with great fanfare and expectation who actually delivered? We don't sign heroes, fate makes them. Calm down, enjoy your football and hope that Callum gets brave enough to change system from time to time.

Still 36 days in the transfer window. Clearly there is induced pressure from the earlier start to our league but doesn't mean it applies to any other team we want to deal with.

You're not wrong. Perhaps I'm just an idiot optimist but I don't think you can go through life supporting the likes of Saints being any other way. The alternative seems to be making yourself either depressed or in the end completely disengaging. I'm looking forward to the new season and I'm reasonably optimistic for a number of reasons. Since January our form would've been top 6 and despite a grim end Sep-Dec our defence was nowhere near the worst in the league, we are likely to see a drop off from Clarke and Rooney but our best players have invariably left every single season for the last 10/12 and we always adapt and move on successfully. Admittedly our goalscoring and creativity was awful but now with Bair, Carey, May, Murphy as well as the return of Wotherspoon and Kane we have a variety of options. If you add Halberg to that list then we could potentially get by on set-pieces alone. Bair in particular seems like he'll be fun and will definitely not be here next season for either positive or negative reasons. Starting the season so far ahead of England will always be an issue as we have to wait until they've got their squads sorted before we know who is available (either out of contract and waiting on a better offer or surplus to requirements and available on loan) and i would fully anticipate 2/3 loan or free signings before the end of August. always hit and miss but chance of gem is still there. Finally, Motherwell, Ross County, St Mirren and to a less extent Livvy all look like they will struggle. Motherwell were garbage for huge swathes of last season and with Europe to deal with early could end up being in the situation we were last year. County were defensively dire and managed to ride the Charles-Cooke wave to safety and Top 6 - he's gone and extremely tough to replace. St Mirren may be okay but Robinson looked inept and they look like they will be starting the season without making significant improvements. It'll be okay. One season I'll be wrong but optimism has paid off for the last 13 years so I'm sticking with it.

Straight off the bus and on to the park won't help.

Agree we've done fairly well at balancing youth and experience recently and the 30 y/o+ signings are usually brought in to replace out going older players. If I was offered Conisdine, Murphy and Carey for Ambrose, Butterfield, and Cifti I would have to say that's moving in the right direction.