weeyin

I think that's true regarding the SFA, but in theory at least, they are supposed to use the UEFA formula as their guide. It's at least better than the old system where you'd sell a player to the Old Firm who would immediately dispute the fee and the SFA would just divide the estimated value of a player by 10 and award that to the "wee" club.

These figures are from 2017, but I believe UEFA compensation works something like this. You receive a % for players' development between the ages of 12 and 21, depending on the category of club you are. Also, between the ages of 12 - 15 you only entitled to category 4 compensation regardless of what category of club you are. This is because the compensation is for development costs, and the 12 - 15 year olds are less expensive to train. The figures I see in the tables I linked are €10,000 for category 4 UEFA clubs, and €60,000 for category 2 UEFA clubs - which is the highest category in Scotland. So even if you use they older figures that works out at around €400,000 assuming we are are a category 2 club or about half that if were classified as a category 3. (I'm pretty sure we are Cat 2, but I can't find that list right now). The payments are only enforcable up to the player's 23rd birthday, but teams are free to make their own deals.

I used to enjoy trips to Killie, but since they went plastic I can't remember a single entertaining game there. So I'll settle for another hard fought, narrow win.

Would be nice to see two plastic pitches relegated and two grass ones promoted. No doubt, however, if a plastic pitch finishes in 11th they will win the play-off.

I think it's still the case that if the standard compensation rules are applied, it's still prohibitively expensive for us to sign young players developed in Scotland. Of course, clubs are are still free to make deals with different incentives like future transfer cuts and add-ons.

Maybe, maybe not. But then again, he didn't have many options as he joined us after the window opened and without a chance to fully assess what we had in the way of playing personnel. While some people like to think you just go out and find what you need in a weekend, as Robinson and others have pointed out - particularly in the January window - it can take months (or even years) to identify a target and work out an appropriate time to bring them in. To flip your scenario on its head, are we re we to believe that a manager who has turned down several positions because the circumstances weren't right for him is going to relocate his family to join a club a couple of miles up the road who struggling team in a relegation battle and for whom relegation is going to dent his reputation, would accept a role where he believes he can keep a team in the league with the already available players with the promise of full autonomy over the running of the team and with a promise of a budget and full control over signings in the summer would worry about a few loanees he can punt or ignore if he doesn't want them? Probably.

When you've seen this guy play in the sash, how can you not like it?

One of the reasons Craigan left is that he saw how the new Reserve structure was going to make it close to impossible to match the levels he had set. So no surprise that anybody who took over had a big challenge on their hands. With the lower leagues starting up again, no doubt we'll be trying to send out a few youngsters on loan again.

A few pics I've used as backgrounds in my video calls

I need to see that list of individual posters' comments on Covid related breaches over the past 12 months before I pass further judgement. A spreadsheet would be ideal, cheers.

I think you've answered your own question - it's so popular they had several re-ordering runs. So presumably, they are selling in sufficient numbers to make it profitable. I'm sure being one of the most famous tourist destinations with an iconic monster helps boost the sales around the globe.

I'm no expert on the specifics of clothing manufacture, but I have been involved with other products' manufacture and the challenge there is that there is a large up-front cost for design and tooling that needs to be clawed back. Once a production line is set up, the cost for each item made is (comparatively) minimal. If you are making 100,000 shirts you can divide that up-front investment 100,000 times and the economics are good. If you only shift 10,000 then splitting that cost results in much higher prices. And then there's the problem of switching the production line between variants. Every minute your production line is down costs you money. If you can run a product for a month with no changes, then that is much more profitable. If you are doing small runs and have to keep taking things offline to change the patterns and materials every few days, that is more downtime where you're not making any money. There will be other factors too, such as companies not wanting to tie up their best designers for low volume products, but I'd imagine the up-front sunk costs is the biggest barrier. I'm sure companies are less interested clubs our size too as they gain much less exposure to advertise their products.

I live in hope that as printing technology advances, which it's currently doing in leaps and bounds, that bespoke level designs might eventually become more realistic for small scale production runs.

I certainly have no complaints with Macron who have done some really nice kits for us. I live in hope, however, of seeing another Adidas one some day. They have made some iconic designs like that German shirt and another favourite of mine - the Stefan Edberg shirt from the 80s. I had the blue version Although it might be a case of "you had to be there"

I'd be surprised if Robinson is a serious candidate - although it would fit their pattern of hiring Motherwell managers, I suppose. Strachan might be a good shout.

Aye, it's the one they wore from 1988 - 1991, including that world cup.

You're much more confident in the Test and Trace shambles than I am.

Adidas retro along these lines would be nice.

You know it's been a good weekend on the pitch when the arguments are about which ex-players were the best English teachers.

So far so good in achieving his initial goal of improving performances and moving us towards safety. Challenge number two (as it is for all recent 'Well managers) will be rebuilding the team in the summer.

Aye. I didn't for one moment say Tommy Wright is a donkey. I didn't want him at Fir Park any time in the past few seasons he was mentioned because I don't want to watch his eye-bleeding style of football. When we were looking to replace Robinson, however, I thought we needed someone fresh to inject some enthusiasm and new ideas into our team. I didn't think Wright matched either of those requirements and so far, that has proved to be the case. Situations like ours, Killie's, Ross County's, Accies' etc, are all about having the right man at the right time. There is no doubt Wright had a lot of success in Perth - I just don't think he was close to what was needed at Fir Park when we were looking for a new gaffer.

Very true. I always enjoyed standing quite close to the pitch on the East terracing, but there's no doubt that sitting the Main Stand gives a much better view of the game as a whole.

Aye, just after I saw your post I came across this article about how he's adapted this initial approach. Definitely one for that stats and tactics nerds.

So far, so good.

One thing is that Alexander likes us to play out from the back with short passes. That helps keeps things connected much more than having the keeper launch it every time.