Kmcalpin

He's not coming to us. On a separate note, I get the feeling that there's more to his departure from Celtic Park than meets the eye.

You're right Denny. The SFA is not an entity in itself. It is there to represent member clubs. He does indeed sound like a dictator.

Gavin Miller replaces John Park at St Mirren. Can Keith Lasley not think for himself?

Very interesting, well thought out process Purestate. Any indication though of how successful these 5 “candidates” have been?

That’s it for me. I’ve had the luxury of being able to watch the replays time and again and under no pressure and I can’t come to a definitive conclusion. I simply can’t understand how Andrew Dallas could do that in a few seconds under pressure. It’s neither clear nor obvious and for Willie Collum to say that it is brings the process into disrepute. The games a bogey.

Yes, it was down to Andrew Dallas. He was very assertive and definitive In his comments to John Beaton, despite the fact that the images he was looking at were far from conclusive. A classic case of rerefereeing. That said, John Beaton should not have caved in. t that

It’s smaller than the Motherwell area in terms of population, but thats academic.

Well, the directors can't be far away from making a decision. Recently, its taken us about 3 weeks to make an appointment. When JBA left last week, unlike last year when Michael Wimmer resigned suddenly, we were told that the recruitment process was well underway. Given that it seems the board knew about his likely departure some weeks previously, we surely can't be far off an announcement. These days, the Board is being far more professional about managerial appointments with no leaks, premature or otherwise. Evidence of that is the lack of even remotely credible media articles, if indeed they interested at all.

Yes, it'll be interesting. Whether or not it was an actual penalty is now largely irrelevant. What will be be fascinating is how he analyses the process. The referee makes a call, rightly or wrongly. That decision must stand unless there is compelling clear and obvious evidence that he got it wrong. No-one, except diehard Celtic fans and some Hibs fans have seen that.

Acording to Lanarkshire Live (the Rancid) his expected total payment is about £290K, of which we'd receive about £190K.

That ties up well with what Andy Halliday said, before the announcement was made. No smoke without fire?

Thats the one!

Its a bit of a double edged sword. Circling vultures will know full well that he has the ability and think they can bring out the best in him. However, when dealing with MFC they'll plead that he's overachieved and they're doing us a favour by taking him off our hands for a fee (a modest one of course)

We've been told that the hunt for our new manager (and players) will involve analytics. What exactly is this? Without wishing to know the fine details, presumably its a program/method that matches our requirements i.e open expansive football; run on a tight budget; squad size; level of ambition etc to the skillsets, personality and achievements of individuals. Does anyone know a wee bit more about this?

I was always impressed by him. Very knowledgeable, well spoken and polite. Avuncular in fact. However some years ago, he point blank refused to condemn sectarianism at Parkhead, when put on the spot. That did it for me and his latest comments just reinforce my opinion of him.

Me neither. Can't think of any Scots manager that would be available and would attract our interest. My money is on an unknown European candidate.

One member of the panel actually agreed with the penalty division. Who'd have thought it? Its just a talking shop anyway.

Will we be held responsible for Celtic fans invading the pitch? No doubt the media headline will all be about us being fined for Block E's pyros.

Vikings. I can thoroughly recommend the series. A bit of their adventurous spirit would do us just fine.

I'd happliy opt for a Ragnar, Bjorn or Haakon.

I seem to be a lot more relaxed about JBA's departure than almost everyone else. Last season was thoroughly enjoyable and all credit to him for transforming us on the field. However when I looked at his CV last year, I noticed he had had 7 coaching/managerial jobs in 8 years; the longest lasting about 2 years and 4 months. On that basis, I never expected him to stay very long, and I doubt he'll stay long at Toulouse either, for whatever reason. Our board now has a proven long term system in place and I have faith in that.

Agreed. I'm hoping that next season will be even better. Given our current progress, I'm optimistic we can attract a high calibre of candidate.

I think the recent promotion of Nick Daws will help continuity. In hindsight, maybe this was related to JBA's interest in the Toulouse job.

I wonder how much compensation we have received. From what I hear we didn't just roll over.

Its been a great season thanks to JBA. He's transformed us on the pitch and left us in a better condition than when he joined. Thats the bottom line. Given his record when joined, I and a few others never expected him to stay long and he hasn't. I don't expect him to, stay long at Toulouse either, which is a far bigger club. I just wish he hadn't made a few comments about his long term plans for our club. A red herring? Even though he's done a great job, I'm relaxed about him moving on. Managers come and managers go but the club moves on. To younger fans, he'll simply be a name. I'm very encouraged by Kyrk MacMillan's statement that the model continues and that the directors have been preparing for this day. Whats more, the recruitment process ins now well underway. Backroom staff remain in place. COYW!