weeyin

I'm old enough to remember when posters were saying we were going to get relegated.

No

I can't find it now, but there was a quote on the BBC website about how the man who coached in the Bundesliga and top Austrian league had out-thought the man whose coaching experience is the Scottish 2nd Division. That pretty much sums it up.

While it hasn't been a revelation - because we know Miller, Slattery and Halliday can play football - it's been great to see them all getting a chance to remind us.

Correct. Just not in the way you thought.

You okay, hun? Take your pick...

Aye, Cerny has been consistently their most dangerous player all season.

You're not wrong, but I've seen so many ridiculous calls from VAR I would not have been surprised to see it chalked off.

Have I ever said how much I love VAR? I'm assuming it's Butland's dad running the line.

I'm voting for feeling sick.

From what I read (and it was an interpretation of the the rules, not the actual rule book), because he signed as a youngster with no fee. The Financial Fair Play is different from the UEFA development compensation, and for these transactions is focused mostly on transfer costs. So Mika was essentially bought for zero, sold for £4 million. And yes, apparently it's one of the unintended side effects of the rule and why EPL teams load up on youngsters that you never see near the first team before they are moved on for a fee. While not the only side that do it, I read an article a couple of years ago how Chelsea were taking significant advantage of the rules during their high spending Abramovich years. Signing youngsters, loaning them out, selling them on with no intention to ever play them in the first team.

He'll probably think "Why are they celebrating Armed Forces Day today when its official date is 28th June. Must be idiots running this club" (but in German).

I took a look at the rules, and it's a bit more complicated than that. Clubs are allowed to amortize an incoming transfer fee over 5 years. As youth players are considered to be "free" any profit from their sale is regarded as pure profit. That means Mika's £4 million fee can be offset against £20 million worth of incoming transfers - £4 million a year over five years. So it might not be a huge number, but still means those academy players are worth 5 times more than than their transfer fee to a club. Of course, from a footballing perspective, it looks like it was a terrible idea and Arsenal played themselves out of the title race by having no available strikers. A quick look at the Arsenal fans' opinions and they couldn't believe he was ever sold.

The way you beat it is with short passes out from the back to tightly marked players. That takes a lot of footballing skill that most Scottish teams don't possess.

I know he wasn't a full blown Arsenal youth player, but he was in their youth set up later on. There are all sorts of complicated rules surrounding Financial Fair Play where academy player income gives you some kind of credit I believe. Maybe that's why they sold him.

White? Champagne is it not? I've given up worrying about away kits, as that ship sailed some time ago (complete with Champagne, no doubt).

I'm struggling to remember what it's like to come out of a break with more fit players than you started with, but here's hoping.

That's just practice. You can't get everyone pressing at the right time and stepping back at the right time after a few days training. Wimmer will have to decide if he wants to implement his tactics as soon as possible, with the risk that entails, or compromise until he as a full summer break to bring in exactly what he wants.

I think the real reason we won last night is because the new gaffer calls us FC Motherwell. That makes us sound like a top European side.

Casey was in no-mans land, which isn't unusual. I can see why fans like him as he brings a great attitude and energy to the team and puts the fear into the opposition when he's in their box at corners and free kicks. That's all positive. As a defender, though, he is often out of position and not averse to passing straight to an opponent. That's the negative. I haven't seen anything in the past few seasons that suggest he's the solution to our huge defensive issues, but I'll be delighted if Wimmer finds a way to prove me wrong.

That was his 16th goal of the season last night; not too shabby.

Stretch Armstrong, stretch! (The weans can google that one)

Playing a high press high tempo game needs a level of fitness many teams and players take months to achieve. Completely different from, say, playing on the counter attack. McGhee used to like to play that too, and even with a full pre-season, his sides ran out of puff after an hour or so. Under SK, we scored plenty of goals very late in games and you can't be that unfit to still be competing at that stage.

I'm OK with managers sticking up for their team in press interviews. I agree, however, he was a mile out in his analysis.

Hopefully nobody will have had time to feed the "we need to be at our best and them to underperform" patter to Wimmer yet and he just sets out a team that will earn some points. Doubt we'll get any, but at the very least it will be more competitve game time to work on the new tactics.