wellfan

Do you seriously think that all the people on here who wish to see Kettlewell replaced are trolls? If so, that is an entirely unreasonable statement. I want him replaced because his record is crap this season, which isn't an unreasonable assessment, nor is it troll behaviour to espouse that view. Furthermore, most of those critical of Kettlewell also comment on most other topics, whether we win, lose or draw. To be openly critical of something/someone is not always equivalent to being a troll. Your posts are generally well-measured and enjoyable to read, but if I've read correctly, this is a pile of dismissive nonsense. You can't blanket refer to all people of the anti-Kettlewell view as trolls with unserious views. That is such a cheap and simplistic assumption to make.

Loans You've missed Montgomery's loan expiring. On Montgomery, I think we may well get him back on loan next season unless we sign a permanent LB/LWB. What about Gent? I'd love to sign him, although that's a pipedream. If Vale does well, which I am hopeful of, he'll be loaned to another club for next season. OOC The only one on this list worth fighting for is Spittal. He's probably our most important player. Maybe also McGinn due to his versatility and consistency. Nicholson may be offered a deal as he's fresh blood and has looked promising. We may offer Slattery a short deal to see him through his recovery unless his agent gets him something better. The rest can go. Under Contract I'm reasonably content with that, although some players may look to engineer a move away if we go down. I've no idea what we'll do with Tierney, but that may change should we hopefully get a new manager with more than one formation and style up their sleeve. Daws Oh shit. No thanks.

Perhaps this is the type of challenge that drives people to such jobs. I'm not of that managerial/leader mindset, but many are. The vacancy doesn't have to be seen as a negative; it's also an exciting opportunity to help lead a Premiership club. The budget should also be better by summer, given we won't be funding a bloated squad or three management teams. At the end of the day, if we still can't attract and secure a suitable candidate by the end of the season, questions will have to be asked of who's making that judgement.

If you look at the run of games ahead of us and the results of most of those behind us, I don't see how we finish 8th. I think we'll be lucky to scrape 10th. Imagine we finished 11th and got Morton in the play-offs. Miller is the only positive thing this season; it's just a shame he got his injury when he did.

As I said above, we can all reassess come the summer and see if the leadership team's work and talk comes to anything other than more failure or sticking plasters.

That is correct, but he's a professional who was surely keeping himself fit over these past 7+ months. Match fitness, however? He may prove excellent, but it seems a bit daft to have signed someone who wasn't almost immediately ready to jump into the matchday squad to help a struggling team. Is he another project? Or are we his ticket back to Scotland?

What's the deal with Callan Elliot? He's not been marked as injured or doubtful for this game or others. Is he so far away from match fitness that there isn't a point in mentioning him? He's clearly behind SOD and Devine in the pecking order anyway, but I bet his contract will have expired before he's fully fit if that's the issue. Kettlewell was clear that he wasn't just signing bodies to make up numbers, but signing an unfit player and mysterious re-signing(?) of Shaw could well point to examples of what he said he wouldn't do.

It only doesn't apply because you've got a different opinion from me here. You don't know what's been happening behind closed doors, nor do I, hence the varied opinions bandied on here. You may be content with dropping to the Championship, but I am not. We've been a top-flight club since my birth year, and that's what I want to maintain. I don't have a problem finishing 7/8th in the Premiership, which should be achievable given our scale and without breaking the bank. And amongst that, we should hope to occasionally fight for the top six or scrap our way to 9th or 10th, but crucially with some fun cup runs and exciting youth development thrown into the mix. Top six and European football is now more or less unachievable because of the financial clout and success of others in the league. All of that is good enough for me. What isn't good enough for me is the complete shit show of the past few years which has led to a viewpoint developing in our fanbase that we aren't good enough for the Premiership. We are good enough; the past 38+ years highlight that, and we'll only have ourselves to blame if that ends this year.

Imrie got the better of Kettlewell the other night, but I don't think either is better. Both have pretty crap win percentages suggesting neither seems suited to the Premiership at this early stage of their respective careers.

It's merely a turn of phrase I use to sum up my assessment of recent years being that of decline, mistakes, and sticking plasters. I'm not alone in that assessment, although others do think differently, and that's fine. We can all reassess our position come summer, when we will hopefully and belatedly have a permanent CEO, a new Chair, and a new management and recruitment team. And all that should bring a strategic reset to alter the path described above. But, for now, it very much seems like a managed decay. I also don't think it's realistic for the Club to be touting for an investor(s) seeking a profit opportunity because I don't see us as a profitable entity at this stage. It could happen, though?! We're probably looking for a private benefactor(s) to come out of the woodwork, but I don't think that's realistic either, or it would've happened by now. Who knows what's been happening behind closed doors on that front in recent years; most of us on this forum certainly have our uneducated views.

What makes you think we’ll have a new CEO in place by the end of the season?

The problem is, I don't think a team limping over the line and failing at every significant hurdle is going to prove an attractive asset to invest in come the summer. That's what I mean about sleepwalking into a disaster. We’re witnessing a long slow decay via this holding pattern we seem to have been in for some time now. I don't think we can afford to use the ‘we can't afford to change things’ reasoning anymore. We needed an injection of impetus weeks/months ago, but it isn't happening because those running the club are focusing on their exits. I'd do the same if I were them to be fair, but it's a complete mess and we, the fans, will suffer the consequences of ongoing poor decision-making on and off the field. But, maybe I'm wrong.

This is exactly why we can’t finish in the playoff spot. This squad and manager are an entirely different (shittier?) beast to those in 2015.

Who would you suggest? Either now or looking ahead to the summer when more choice might be available.

He looked vastly out of his depth to me last night, but I did concede that he was dropped into a shit show. Perhaps a start and/or playing alongside Gent will see him step up.

Warnock isn’t daft. He’ll analyse last night, with the likely main outcome being the tactic of a barrage of balls into Kelly. A draw takes us back to where we were at before the County game, but I don't even see that happening. A doing is more likely, unfortunately.

To anyone blaming the pitch for last night's debacle instead of Kettlewell et al., away and fling a bucket of shite at yourselves. It might, at the very least, clear the current shite out of your eyes.

Yes, of course, we can blame a lot of the players for being shite and weak last night, but the manager had 90 whole minutes to affect change, yet he waited until we were 2-0 down in the second half before making any tactical changes or substitutions. He's the manager; he takes the lion's share of blame. And the less said about our recruitment, the better.

To be fair to most on here, we’re used to not winning games under Kettlewell, but some are more tolerant of that fact than others.

As I posted last night, Kettlewell was completely outfoxed by Imrie. Everyone but he could see it after 20 minutes. He's so one-dimensional he's as good as useless.

We do, but do you honestly see it happening? Last night could finally be the straw to break the camel's back.

Are you surprised? The 5-0 victory was a blip amongst an otherwise appalling 5 months.

Having no permanent CEO and a Chairman with one eye on the exit is no good. We’re sleepwalking to disaster and have been for some time now. I think this could be our year to go down and I've never thought that before.

Good point. We’ll need that cash to get us out of the Championship next season.

I thought Devine started slowly, being a bit too conservative and staying deep, but he did start to improve. I'd like to see what he can do in 90 minutes. Buyabu looked so far out of his depth when he came on, however. But he was thrown into a shitshow.