weeyin

I hate friendlies. There, I said it. I appreciate they are a very necessary component of our pre-season, but forking out cash to watch a half-fit team go through some training moves is rarely entertaining. Especially these days when the entire group stage of the League Cup is also our pre-season.

He'll really be hoping we sign Joe Lewis.

It's only taken 2 days from season end to start slagging of players we haven't signed. Sounds like a good time to stop reading this thread and just wait for the formal announcements from the club.

If you want to see what multi-millionaires can do to a club, look at Man Utd. They bought everything without investing a penny of their own money, award themselves huge wads of cash every year while leaving the club servicing huge debts at high interest rates - debts that are secured by the clubs assets; not by the owners' assets. I'm not saying that is what will happen here, but there are ways to invest in a club and there are "ways" to invest in a club. As I've said before, the most important thing for me is the exit plan. What is going to happen when the investor leaves, runs out of money or gets bored? Are they going to take their money and run, will they sell to a property developer or will they leave a self-sustaining (or at least healthy) infrastructure behind.

Presumably because SK thinks he'll get a good season out of him after putting the work in over the summer.

Apart from throwing Louis Moult's shot into the back of the net in the Cup Quarter Final, and not covering himself in glory on our second, my recollections of Joe Lewis consist primarily of commentators saying "He's not usually this prone to handling errors" on an almost weekly basis.

Casey has been a bombscare this season. He seems to get a pass because he runs about a lot, but his basic defending skills like marking his man were sorely lacking. I'd be fine with building the defence from scratch next season. Not including the wingbacks in that although I suspect we'll need new faces there too.

I researched our league positions back in 2016, when I was bored. This breakdown is from that post. TL;DR is that 8th is the position we finish most often, so this season was just slightly worse than that. The stats are obviously a little out of date, but I don't think they would change much based on recent league finishes. Some of the the positives for me this season were Theo's breakthrough, Miller establishing himself, Biereth shaking things up, Spittal's performances, 3rd highest goal scorers in the league, and of course the win at Ibrox. When our football was coming off some of the team goals were scored were excellent. The biggest negatives by far were our defensive performances and our feeble cup exit in Greenock. So there were some aspects that I was satisfied with and some that frustrated all season. Then next season, when we are all on zero points, we can enjoy a week or two of hoping for a good cup run and a top 6 finish again; at least until October.

Must be the worst I've seen since our relegation in the 1979/79 season. I didn't know this off the top of my head (although I remember it being woeful), but a quick google shows we shipped 86 goals in 36 games.

I'm glad the team felt "they owed us a performance" or they might not have been very good today. Take your pick...

Fullbacks that are wingbacks and can't stop crosses. Central defenders that don't mark their man. The defensive personnel needs a complete overhaul, and proably the defensive tactics too.

Does SK even know that's a thing? 3-1-1-2-2-1 maybe.

I understand Casey as he has been a key part in our shipping goals issue. Maybe going with a back 3 today, but we'll see soon enough.

Diving wee cheat today too!

Andy Ritchie probably had the most pure footballing talent I have seen. Which just goes to show that you need more than that to be the greatest.

Also guys like Ian St John are in the mix.

One of my favourites, and a bona fide legend, but probably not the GOAT.

Nicholson, Slattery, SOD and McGinn. And Kelly if he wants to stay. Butcher has been an integral part of our horrific defensive record this season and needs to move on.

I'll never forgive him for missing the sitter against Brazil! (Although, the first Scotland strip I got as a kid had his number on it, because he was my favourite player). Even the greatest teams need balance in the midfield. Probably the best I have seen was in the French squad of Tigana, Giresse, Fernandez and (the disgraced) Platini - nicknamed The Magic Square. Fernandez was the defensive ball winner. Tigana was the box-to-box. Giresse was a ball player and Platini was as good at scoring goals as he was at taking backhanders.

That's why you need Slattery beside him. It's all about the balance.

The biggest problem about being a ref is that the people smart enough to be good ones are smart enough to never to be one in the current environment.

Glad I had to work, but sounds like we Hibs'd it. Take your pick...

I'm not surprised Wolves want it scrapped - they have been on the wrong end of multiple VAR mistakes this season. Can only hope we scrap it too, but not holding my breath on that one.

White shorts have certainly been by far the most common colour from the 1890's until the 1960's with the only other colour occasionally used being black. Amber shorts didn't make an appearance until 1968 and claret 1973, so very much the newcomer.

Apologies in advance that you're never going to unsee it.