Slim

The thing with statistics…

Idealist? Probably you’re right, I still daydream about knocking in the winner for us in the Champions League final. That’s probably what I was doing when I didn’t see these hundreds of goal attempts you saw us have in the last 12 months.

It’s only one criterion on the list of things we should be looking for in a manager, the ability to build and lead a team that is stronger than its individual components. Playing style is another. If Tommy Wright hadn’t made an arse of the Killie job and wasn’t a renowned hoofball merchant then his name would probably be on the shortlist. But he did and he is so he isn’t. If Ross had a track record of playing attractive progressive football then he’d be a good option despite his track record. But he doesn’t. He’s a dour, overly conservative coward. He has lost just about every big game he has ever managed and makes zero sense as an option considering the reasons we sacked Derek McInnes. Jack Ross is basically Derek McInnes with the positive attributes removed and the negative attributes turned up to 11.

Ross did cock-all with Sunderland despite having more resources than any other team in the league. They spent £4m on a striker and lost at Wembley twice in a season. At Hibs he managed a third place finish with arguably the third highest budget and only real challenger was an Aberdeen team in decline. Again, he choked in multiple finals. I’m not sure if he was responsible for recruitment at Hibs but the amount of absolute dross they acquired during his tenure was staggering. At least Goodwin has shown he is able of punching above his weight, something Ross has arguably never achieved.

Jack Ross seems to have built his entire reputation on what he achieved with St Mirren in the Championship. He’s done absolutely nothing with Sunderland and Hibs to suggest he can be a successful manager. Goodwin has already done more with St Mirren than Ross did.

Ryan Duncan looking good for Peterhead against Dundee. Throwing his weight about quite a bit for an attacking player.

Slavisa Jokanovic another potentially worth kicking the tyres on to see if he’d fit into our budget.

Jon Dahl Tomasson is available, could be worth a shout?

Would have said Alex Neil but we’ve missed the boat on that. No obvious candidate I can think of, Steve Clarke if we lose to Ukraine?

I take it you’re one of those low energy consumption variety?

Looks like a back 3 tonight

Any business whether a football team or a garage is entitled to hire a rapist to represent them. Just as the customers, sponsors, suppliers and employees of any business are entitled to revoke their association with any business that has a rapist representing them. He should be allowed to play for Raith Rovers in the same way everyone should be allowed to boycott the fuck out of Raith Rovers if he does. He may have settled the debt he was ordered to pay by the court but he hasn’t settled his debt with society. Fuck him.

Is it Glass’ fault? We have a Director of Football and a Head of Recruitment on the payroll. Glass is as much at fault for failure to sign any of our targets as our Assistant Manager is for not being able to turn Connor McLennan into Harry Kane.

If it doesn’t hit his hand, it’s a shot on target. It’s a penalty all day long. Kent’s first yellow is not up for debate. It was a yellow-ish challenge in the first place then he pushes Hayes right in front of the ref. The 2nd yellow, probably not so much, the reaction from Brown made it look worse than it was. But that was after McCrorie got booked for a challenge on Morelos where if Morelos had rolled any further they’d be calling out the RNLI to pull him out of the North Sea. So fuck him/them.

Just needed a bit of composure. The opposite of McLennan basically. If JET and McGinn can’t be trusted we may as well just replace them both in January. That free kick late on was criminal. Kent had been sent off and Barisic was off cleaning up his bloody nose and we still conspired to send the ball right into the middle of a cluster of 3 Hun defenders with no red shirt anywhere near. Still, to be so solid at the back with Hayes at right back and Campbell at left back was pleasing. Doesn’t bode well for Gallagher’s future either but correct decision not to disrupt McCrorie and Bates’ partnership.

Dundee United have just signed a Finnish (he’s only 27) international keeper, I would imagine they wouldn’t be signing Clark also.

First Hogmanay in Scotland for about 12 years. Flicked it over to STV at 11.59pm to see if their show was any better than BBC 1 and my eyes are met by what appeared to be Ricky Foster sitting on a sofa. So the last word out of my mouth in 2021 was “cunt” and 2022 began trying to explain to a bewildered wife why the effeminate man on the TV was indeed a cunt while trying to understand how some TV executives must have discussed at great length who should front their Hogmanay show at a time when the whole country would be at home watching and come to fucking Ricky Foster as the answer.

Who were the others?

Nae sure “give the ball to De Bruyne” can be easily replicated at Easter Road.

Fuck the money, let’s hope he’s our right back for the next 15 years. Let Cormack worry about the accounts.

I would be cautious about reducing the capacity. If the club’s business plan/ambition is to become one of the top 100 UEFA clubs and be playing attractive football with a team consisting of home grown players and exciting flair players using Atlanta’s connections, this alone should see an increase in attendances. If we want to revolutionise the match day experience so people are bringing their families to hang out around the stadium for hours because there’s so much atmosphere and entertainment, this should be hand in hand with an increase in attendances. Voluntarily reducing the capacity contradicts the rest of their business plan. Of course the business plan is full of holes, but if it was achieved, a 17,000 seater stadium would be at capacity several times a season. Also need to consider the impact of any future developments like a switch to summer football or admission to a European “Super League”, bars being allowed to open, etc. Perhaps someone clever can design a stadium that has smaller upper tiers in the 4 stands that can easily be “hidden” when not in use.

Meh, bang average striker going through a bit of a purple patch.

Would we not be better keeping these guys in our reserve team rather than have them sit on the bench every week in League 2/Highland League? Instead loan out the players we actually see a future for to a Championship level team. We’ve got a lot of players out on loan and the highest level we have them playing at is bottom half of League 1 (not including Hernandez).

He was only getting game time because their first choice right back Brooks Lennon was injured.

Looked like it was a penalty on the highlights there, Bates with a handful of the guy’s jersey. Seemed like Bates was the one who was supposed to be tracking Morelos for their first goal too.