Kmcalpin

Just watched the pre match media video with SOD. In a difficult session he came across very well and down to earth. Fieded some awkward questions well. A small positive this week.

I received a brief update on the recruitment process, by email this morning, from the Society. It doesn't say much but is welcome and attempts to bring the narrative back onto the stright and narrow. I would have thought however that it was more the responsibility of the CEO to have done that.

A very strange address and I just don't know what to make of it. I was expecting some clarification to emphasise that it's only a small number of fans involved and then to move onto progress in filling the vacancy. In other words an attempt to mend bridges, limit damage, and move forward. However that's not what we got. I now have more questions than answers. It's now seems that Stuart Kettlewell's issues may go back for some time and may be about more than just abuse from the stands. It seems odd therefore that Brian Caldwell didn't know about these issues until Monday. In short I don't know what took place but think he may have taken the right decision. I'm not sure either we should have been told some of the details about SK. Should they have remained confidential? In any event I wish him well. Football management is a high pressure occupation. I also found Brian Caldwell's morbid tone confusing. I get the upset this has caused the club and him personally, but thought his comment about agents and job applications a bit bizarre. Like it or not, as CEO, it's his responsibility to take forward the application and selection process. Its not nice, but a fact of life, that as soon as a manager leaves, irrespective of circumstances, there will be floods of applications.

That's my recollection too. I'm sure one of the flags was a league championship flag too. I don't recall which one it was.

I think that's a reasonable skill set on which to base our search. Certainly someone with a reputation for fielding attack minded sides would go a long way to rekindling the support's enthusiasm.

According to the BBC there had been over 100 applications as of an hour ago. No appointment before Sunday, which shouldn't shock anyone.

Its been unusually quiet on the vacancy front. No doubt our search for a new manager has been overshadowed by Stuart Kettlewell's departure story and I get that. However, everyone now needs to move on. I'm surprised however that the club hasn't released a short statement on the filling the vacancy. I know that we've been told that Stephen Frail will take over on a caretaker basis, but the club now needs to regain the narrative and be a bit more proactive.

Celtic's finest singing abusive chants about the Royal Family tonight (whether or not you support the Royal Family is irrelevant). Will that be reported by the Scottish media and several articles written about that?

He was suspended by Hibs in 2019 after an altercation with other employees.

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Yes, a decent shout. Raith tried to land him recently without success.

Just hope Celtic don't lay siege to Balcombe!

My last word on this topic before moving on. He certainly seems to have managed this episode poorly, although we don't know what took place behind closed doors. He's now made a few faux pas including approving the press statement and banning Under 14s from attending games alone. We'll cut him some slack though as he's reasonably new and still settling in.

Not strictly a former player, but Matty Connelly scored an OG tonight.

Whilst there's a lot of sense in what he says, I think it was inadvisable to say this just now. Maybe just adding fuel to the fire. We need to learn lessons and move on now. The club and Society have their work cut out to mend a few bridges. We need a united front.

No problem Gaz. I never thought about varying definitions of abuse but you're right.

A few folk have mentioned that to me.

Given Neil Lennon's time at Hibs, I doubt if he'll be considered, that's if he's even interested.

That may well be the case and I can't question you on that. Happy to accept your experience without quibble. A lot depends on where you were seated, if you we're distracted at the time, or were elsewhere ie toilets or food kiosk. However I can only repeat my experience. I saw and heard plenty of angry fans, but no abuse. All I'm asking you to do is to extend the same courtesy to me and accept my version of events as I experienced them.

Very much so. Its disappointing considering we're a fan owned club as well. A short statement condemning abuse from a small section of fans was all that was required, if absolutely neccessary. Who needs enemies when you have friends like this? Most clubs would have used an NDA in this situation.

Its very hard to say. We don't have a low down on out of work English managers or foreign possibilities. Also which Scottish managers with other clubs are not under contract or if they are would be "amenable to being approached"? John McGlynn has a patchy record in management and fans of Hearts, Livingston and certainly Raith Rovers might have something to say. Of the early names to be mentioned I'd say Scott Brown could be a possibility.

I can't say I was surprised to hear that SK has resigned. The signs have been there for some weeks now that he's been under pressure. He's been in trouble several times with officialdom. I don't know exactly what he said or how he said it but would be surprised if he merely said in a quiet voice "I think you've got it wrong ref". He criticised the fans in public and thats a definite no no - not much was made of that in the BBC or media. He then threw the players under a bus in public and thats never a good sign. Then we have rumours of a bust up in the dressing room and the players doing a passable impression of the walking dead in the Perth games. Now you can dismiss any one of these factors on their own as being something and nothing but not when taken together. Had he lost the fanbase? Not totally, but on the admittedly crude basis of an online survey I'd say somewhere between 70 and 80% of them. As said by a few others, I suspect there are other reasons for his departure and there's more than meets the eye to this. Thats not to dismiss the personal abuse issue though. I think the club could have handled it better as it seems to have to have allowed him free rein to say whatever he wanted in public. Very few other clubs would have allowed that degree of freedom. That said, perhaps there was more to the glowing reference that meets the eye. Anyway on a personal level, good luck to Stuart Kettlewell. A decent hard working pro.

100% on the nail. I'm not saying that the press statement put out by the club should have ignored the "abuse" issue but I think it was inadvisable to focus so heavily on it. Very few other clubs would have done so. the way in which it was writtten gives the impression that our fans are worse than those of other clubs. They're not. Yes, we have an undesirable element but which club doesn't?

Thats pretty much my view too. I was at both Perth games. I'm not saying that he wasn't abused but I never heard any of that. There was widescale booing at the culmination of both games and shouts of "resign" or similar but that was about it. I didn't hear any cursing, oathing or personal abuse. That would be out of order. I have to say our fans are no worse than those of any other club. I've not read or seen anything nasty on social media.

Yes changing managers can be costly but so can inaction. If we don't change and lose say 2/3 league places that will be costly. If we're caught up in a relegation dogfight that could be extremely costly. Relegation? If we wait until injuries clear up when will that be? McGinn out for the season; Robinson out until next season; Ox out for 2- 3 months, Seddon out for another 2 months. All that assumes we don't pick up any more injuries. We will not be able to field our strongest team this season.