Ajja

Totally agree, I put it in quotation marks to demonstrate that it has been a view touted around, certainly not mine. Utterly fucking ridiculous.

UTD are really going to be struggling for a decent back line in his one. Kenneth is suspended for tonights game against Hibs and there is talk of them playing Daly at CB they are so light on options . Even if Kenneth comes back in against us he will be very rusty with no games since mid-November. He is piss poor at the best of times so if he is the best they have we should be getting Magennis on to ruffle them up a bit. I see victory.

What are you babbling about ? You posted an opinion that I disagree with so I posted a response, stating my own opinion. At no point have I claimed to have a monopoly on truth or fact. If you aren't happy with these fundamental principles of a message board and aren't capable of having someone disagree with you without breaking down into some sort of teenage fit then I suggest you go take up knitting or something.

LOL. Nothing liked a scraper against a terrible Hibs side to get the optimism flying back. I predict a nervy, hard fought 1-1 draw and then we will do UTD at Pittodrie on NYD.

I read the entire post yes. I responded to the part that might have a chance of coming to fruition. The rest I merely dismissed as the stuff of fairies and pixies.

Exactly. He made some poor decisions and managed the players badly but he is not an idiot. We agreed to that deal for genuine reasons and they were nothing to do with 'Foster being a hun' or Smith having some sort of magic power over our chairman.

I think that most teams fans in the SPL believe they are 'competing' with the OF as they are the marker for success. Regardless of how ridiculous this may seem, the OF are the team everyone wants to beat, thus meaning they are the competitive benchmark. The rest of your comments I fully agree with. I don't support a 10 team league as a long term solution but it is the only sensible commercial solution short term.

You would have to ask yourself where the logic would be in the move otherwise. McGhee was doing everything to reduce the current wage bill. This deal would be an opportunity to get a player in and reduce the bill by £1500-2000 a week. It's the only sensible explanation as to why McGhee agreed to it.

Just make sure you close it once you've gone through.

I don't think anyone (certainly not me) is suggesting that quality hasn't dropped and that it is affecting crowds all over. The OF are suffering the same thing that all clubs are, other than quality reductions, the economic environment is biting hard and people just don't have the money to attend every game. Ergo, they attend the one's most likely to be competitive.

Entirely possible. In the absence of fact, I'll just form my opinion on my belief.

Negative formations, tactics and playing guarded football is a global shift though. It's the modern game, very few clubs and even countries play genuine expansive football regardless of the stakes. Its competitiveness and relevance that brings excitement and crowds.

The very same.

I think it is though, unfortunately. Protecting income is the primary decision making criteria at present. Surely relegation battles bring larger crowds, not smaller ones. Its the dead rubbers, which increase in a 16 team league, that are the real crowd drainers.

Is everyone remembering that we are not paying either players wages ? I suspect that it is not a balanced deal under those terms and as is always the case with the OF, they are likely in control. Although we are not being able to benefit from Fosters apparent sudden brilliance on the park, we have his wage off the bill and Velicka is free.

Sigh.... Let's say for arguments sake that a normal home game represents £50K and an OF home game represents £75K for every club in the league (I know figures vary but in terms of a measurable benchmark or index). 10 teams = 18 home games inc 4 home games with OF (14x£50,000 = £700,000 + 4x£75,000 = £300,000 = £1.0m revenue) 16 teams = 15 home games inc 2 home games with OF (13x£50,000 = £650,000 + 2x£75,000 = £150,000 = £800K revenue) 20% reduction in revenue. Arguments about competition, boring football as a result of 4 games a season etc etc etc mean nothing when facing such a drop in revenue. Were you not a maths teacher once ?

The game will go ahead an udder day

Facebook is not for planning, it's for nonsense and attention seeking. It's the classic authority without responsibility horseshit that seems to plague British society these days.

The pitch must be in an offal state, I herd it's Friesian in Hamilton.

From the highlights and some of the live stream I watched (not much to form an opinion I know but I never let a lack of facts get in the way of my opinions!) we looked like we were more interested in the game which is a good starting point. I thought we looked pretty shaky at times and Hibs could have scored as often as us in terms of clear cut chances. It could easily have been 5-5. This team are not going to suddenly start playing great football and fundamental problems with the club aren't going be changed over night. The key thing for us just now is to build a little bit of confidence and get some points on the board. Nothing else should be thought about right now. We have the chance to reel in a few teams above us over the coming weeks and we have to take it. 7th is easily achievable.

If we could afford him in the team he might well provide a few opportunities for other strikers if he can unsettle defenders and win crucial balls. He looks like he has a lot of work to do on his finishing, those two chances were there for the taking and he made an absolute cunt of them both.

I cud see this being the cattle-yst for a run of victories.

Sounds like his approach to most penalty box opportunities so he might be closer to a return than you think.

My thoughts exactly. Maybe the club are rushing him back to make sure he is in the window in January.

Sorry, my thinking had moved on a notch during that post. I had meant Hartley taking on a role as an out and out CB in a back 5, not a sweeper....just to clarify.