weeyin

Light snow here today. 0 - 0 on Saturday.

And yet we've stayed in the league, and last year got to 2 Cup Finals and finished 7th. My thoughts on the brand of football are well documented on here, as well as my thoughts on the "need to earn the right to play" nonsense. And it would be churlish to not recognize that by playing guys like Bigi and Turnbull that situation has brought some improvement. There has, however, been huge changes off and on the field in the past 2 or 3 seasons to contend with. From JB selling, to the Well Society to the changes that Les implemented to the overhaul required to meet Project Brave criteria to ground improvements. The fact we have made it through that, stayed in the league and turned a profit is pretty impressive for any business. I think where we agree is that now we have been through that transition, we need to improve the product on the park. I don't have any expectation that it will lead to massive improvements in league position, but I'd rather we finished 6th or 7th playing more attractive football than 6th or 7th just "earning the right to play".

When you are a team of our size and finish second in the league, the only possible direction is downwards. We have been performing much closer to our mean (and median) in recent years. The only difference now is that we aren't losing money (as we did in our "sucessful" years). We are always going to have more of these kinds of seasons. That is why I said when we were qualifying for Europe, and being best of the rest, that everyone should enjoy it as much as they could because it would be back to the mid-bottom table fights soon enough.

US television channels are the best in the world at highlights packages as most of their sports consist of commercials interrupted by the odd burst of play.

If it's a one-way ticket, I'll chip in a tenner.

I think you're just cutting and pasting now. Can you not add a wee bit of effort to your weekly predictions of doom and gloom?

Do you think those cherry picked names moved there for the high quality of the league? Here's the roster for the team Rose is joining. It's a fairly typical list. 30-man Active Roster (Spots 1-30) Aja, Jose Bevan, Myer Blondell, Anthony Colyn, Simon Davies, Alphonso De Jong, Marcel Dominguez, Roberto Emnes, Marvin Franklin, Sean Ghazal, Aly Henry, Doneil Hurtado, Erik Juarez, Efrain Kamara, Kei Levis, Brett Marinovic, Stefan Martins, Felipe Maund, Aaron Melvin, Sean Mezquida, Nicolas Mutch, Jordon Nerwinski, Jake Norman Jr., David Reyna, Yordy Richey, Spencer Rowe, Brian Shea, Brek Techera, Cristian Teibert, Russell Waston, Kendall The New York Red Bulls are another typical example. A host of recent college age kids 18, 21, 22 years old etc. a few in their mid 20s and a 33 year old Bradley Wright-Phillips. Regardless of the make-up of the teams, however, the games just aren't that entertaining. I don't know what the root cause is, but there is something lacking that makes them mostly unwatchable to me. Zlatan scoring against Real Salt Lake just doesn't cut it.

You do have the excitement of the Memphis 901 FC expansion team making their debut in the USL Championship next season. (For readers not intimate with the whole US pyramid, The USL is the 2nd tier of US football).

I'd beg to differ. It's a strange mixture of young college kids (who aren't as good as our good U20s players) and old pros heading for retirement. I love watching football at all levels from non-league to Champions League and I still find MLS the most difficult to enjoy.

It's less physical and slower. But generally lower level.

Goodbye Andy Rose. It seems to me you lived your life Like a candle in the wind (or something)

I was at McDiarmid Park not long after it opened, and it was freezing. The 0 - 0 snooze fest on display did nothing to keep us warm, right enough. Baltic. I was warmer the day we played at Muirton and Shuggie Sproat found time during the match to have a snowball fight with some fans behind the goals.

It's also the coldest stand I've ever sat in (including places like Pittodrie).

I was at the Accies game last December. We played an injured Carson and an injured Hartley. Moult, Cadden and Frear were out injured and Campbell limped off early in the first half. We had no decent replacements for any of them. (Our keeper on the bench was Xenodochof - and we all remember how great he was). We are actually rotating the squad a bit this December, so it must be a bit better. (And Samson hasn't played for us for a while. Roaster).

Still not as bad as the East Stand though. Roaster Central.

Aye. Remember that long list of youngsters that have left us and proved how wrong we were by turning it great performance at a higher (or even similar) level?

Listening to the Sportscence pundits last night saying "if shirt pulling is a free kick there would be penalties at every corner" Yes! That's exactly what is says in the rules. Stamp out the pushes in the back and the shirt pulling in the box by applying the actual rules.

Never in doubt.

To be fair - we all thought the team that was fielded against Livi (and Rangers) was a decent lineup. How wrong we were.

Then don't do it. Just don't pretend that somehow that lending our club money at zero interest and only requiring a portion of it to be repaid is somehow "ripping us off". And be happy the effort has turned us into a member owned socialist nirvana, comrade. (But if you had a better idea on how we could have saved the club at its time of need, it would have been good if you had mentioned it at the time).

You are still confusing the sums of any money they invested versus the sums of money they loaned the club. Until you understand that basic concept, the rest of the deal will remain a mystery. The loans were very much contracted to be repaid, and the terms that were in the contract are incredibly favourable to us.

I think it was only audio that last time we played there.

Not sure how having a paper trail of tickets purchased (and compared to entries counted at the turnstiles) would assist in fiddling the VAT. You need a cash business with no receipts for that.

Most clubs operate that way. i.e. loans rather than investments. It's not every club that can rely on dodgy financing from Russia or the Middle East. If it wasn't for Les, there might not even be a club. He loaned us that money at zero interest and has continuously written off large chunks of it. Part of the deal was that he restructured the business operations of the club into a more professional and fiscally responsible outfit. Something that has reaped benefits in the short term and put us in good standing for the long term. He also added the incentive to boost the Well Society membership which, again, has made the club more sustainable. Many clubs operate on bank loans or loans from investors, and the investors are either paid back from income and transfer revenue at preferential rates (like Dundee Utd) or the the loan is converted into shares at some point (like Rangers). Banks wouldn't touch us after our administration, so loans were the only way we could survive. JB could have called in his entire loan and screwed us. Or worse, just sold Fir Park to Morrisons. The fact that he wrote off a huge chunk he was owed has also benefited the club. So feel free to the tell the society what you like, but it sounds like you misunderstand how JB and, in particular Les, kept the club afloat and helped put us in the position of relative strength we are now.

True - but it would be interesting to know exactly how they manage it.