RicoS321

I wouldn't have given McInnes the same budget (not directly to him I mean), but I said at the time that he should have been given the full setup of sporting director, proper recruitment team etc (that he now has at Hearts). He was clearly a decent coach, with weaknesses in recruitment and youth development. The separation of those areas would have given him a huge boost in my opinion. I just don't believe that a manager can make good judgement calls on players when they're spending most of their days coaching. It's easyish for the first couple of seasons when you can call on talent that you have seen previously or contacts that you have, but the longer you are at a club then these avenues become a little less useful. A contact might change club or role. A player who was good two years ago might not be quite the same. McInnes obviously had the one off bonanza of being able to pick the best of the rest too, with the other challengers liquidated, administered or Butchered.

I think the philosophy thing is just a framework with room to manoeuvre. The idea is that you adopt a system from youth to first team, and you coach attributes that fit into that. If a particular manager chooses to be a zealot then that usually ends badly. On the other hand, if a manager chooses to play pragmatic, stuffy shite in perpetuity then they also get the boot. It sort of makes sense, it means that you're signing for a system and when you change manager you know the type of manager to look for. Most of what I just said applied to managers without the framework too of course, McInnes had a style very clearly. If it's clearly defined, then at least it can be subject to review within. It's something that is a nice to have though and should be subject to regular review and change. It's easy to say that it's modern fitba pish, but then in the same breath suggest that we shouldn't sign Robinson (for example) because of his style of play. I can't remember the last time we ever just needed 3 or 4 players in a window. It doesn't work like that. If you need 4 players then you sign between 6 and 8. You also need to make sure there's a constant stream going out the way. Contracts don't work to suit one in one out, players get injured long term, players leave for money etc. The biggest problem, though, is the transition between managers. All the knowledge, contacts etc go with them. That should be the property of the club. That's why the change has taken place. As I said previously, McInnes gave us the ceiling in that model. It was clear when he began to struggle that he didn't have any way to recover it. One shite window spiralled into many, and he was signing guys based on their games against us. There are so many examples of atrocious signings where someone in house should have had a veto (Storey, Tansey, Main a quick sample). In reality, a club of our size should have a collaborative model that allows the manager to pick two or three, and the recruitment team to do all the legwork. However, both sides should be open to scrutiny, with the final say going to someone with the authority and responsibility. Hence the sporting director.

Fuck. It's the Dons isn't it? That's the bad news

You can't just invent new formations, that requires a licence. A 4-1-2-3 has never existed.

He could either be away, or maybe just being cautious at Ibrox with a player who probably isn't match sharp

Not quite sure what that is. Lot of central midfielders in there. I'm guessing four at the back. Maybe Shinnie and Kjartansson sitting, Polvara left, Armstrong right in a 4-2-3-1? Or Polvara at the back alongside Milne and Knoester?

Yep, Cormack has been ably assisted by the idiot BBC pundit in this regard, who constantly go on about Thelin "been backed". He hasn't. Backing either comes in the form of giving him the keys and the money, or having a structure in place to allow him to do his job. It doesn't come in the form of £X expenditure. Just shelling out cash isn't backing anymore than giving someone a hundred lottery tickets and telling them to buy a hoose with it is. It's the fourth manager in a row who can leave saying that the club didn't allow them to fulfill their potential. I don't think any of them would have made for the perfect manager, but under no circumstances should Dons fans buy into the nonsense narrative that they were "backed".

Obviously I couldn't give a fuck about the English pish, but agree with this. You can see how well McInnes is doing with the recruitment largely taken away from him. The problem is that if every other club has a team of analysts doing the recruitment then they're likely to see a better return over time - probably. You're also not going to get a good manager who'll want to spend days trawling data too. There's a ceiling to it, and we reached that with McInnes, who was spread far too thin with us. The sporting director is just the guy that pins together the recruitment, the sports science, youth team and the manager. He makes sure that the high level goals are being met and everything is staying in balance. Clearly what happened in the summer should never happen under a competent sporting director. He'd have questioned the recruitment of too many similar players, the lack of athletic midfielder, as well as insisting on space for youth. He holds all departments to account.

I wonder if the Killie board were looking at their pitch thinking "we could probably get another couple of years out of that"?

Not so sure. Those two will have been on at least seven figure sums at the BBC, given the quality of their output, and won't be a cheap, desperate, hire by any means.

Does that mean Maloney won't be coming to us? Bonus.

Remember that een. Brian O'Neill wasn't a very good footballer.

I suspect that is because almondvale is a nightmare in any rain or snow, whereas Ibrox (pitch wise anyway) will almost always be able to get a game on. I don't think the authorities give a fuck about fans either way. Or the clubs, really. The Dons fans were expected to travel to Falkirk and will be expected to do so to any other midden.

Is it snowing in weegieland like? If nae, I'd rather they just got it out the way. Will be really interesting to see how Leven lines up for it. As someone who was here the entire time, it'll be intriguing to get a glimpse into how much he really believed in Thelin's project.

They're not actually stopping any drugs though, just blowing up fishing boats for a laugh.

Aye, so it's not that he didn't know about the signings, just that he didn't speak to them during the recruitment process.

The problem here is that the whole thing has been put in quotes. It is not unusual for Pressley to refer to himself in the third person, so it wouldn't surprise me if he said the first part about the travelling support.

I don't think Yengi was a terrible signing. In that I can see what some might have thought we were getting. A unit who is reasonably mobile and might be able to cause defences problems in a Josh Magennis type fashion. Ideal for a third striker to bring on when needing a bit of luck. Unfortunately he looked terrified of being on a football pitch. Obviously, if he was signed as a starter and on large wages, then that's a big problem. He should have been punted on loan immediately, as his confidence - if he ever had any - was obliterated the moment he set foot on the pitch.

His brother Farley S Rusk was a massive Dandy.

That's the wrong way round. The real money behind Trump knows that without access to fossil fuels (of the right type) then the US is fucked (as is every other country as we'll see). That they can also offer the deportations as a sop to their base. At least they're giving up the pretence of it being about drugs.

Failed Hibs manager Maloney would be up there with Warnock. I doubt it would happen.

Fairly certain the St Gallen coach won't be coming here, even though we are Scottish cup champions of Scotland.

Not yet, I think is what he meant. Might fancy it now.

The worst thing about sacking Thelin is that we have to go through the whole "it'll be a fresh start" shite again. The whole point in Cormack's strategy was succession planning and transition, which has been shown on numerous occasions to be bollocks. It shouldn't require a new manager in the door to make a call on the existing squad, they've generally made their beds. Hopefully Leven will be in post for a couple of weeks and can aid us in getting shot of at least five or six. It's important that we don't miss windows and keep things moving in terms of getting players in and moving them out. The new manager will have the shite he's dealt anyway, and if we can make that squad lighter then all the better.

"But we were shite when he signed us"