TopCat

En route to Blyth now :

Delighted to see tesselaar back at the club. A young, talented and consistent footballer who will be a great addition to the squad and provide cover in a few positions. I can't quite fathom why people we be down on this signing. A player with a good proven track record at this level.
Welcome back Tess!

Beyond Ken in getting it wrong shocker

He certainly played centre back for Killie a few times, don't remember him doing so for us.
I expect that's where he will be used for us this season. We actually have some healthy competition for places at the back now, at least in the centre half and left back positions!

He's a versatile, experienced defender who can play left back and centre back.
I'm happy with this signing, he knows the league, we know him, and I think he will do well for us.... Again.

He certainly played centre back for Killie a few times, don't remember him doing so for us.
I expect that's where he will be used for us this season. We actually have some healthy competition for places at the back now, at least in the centre half and left back positions!

I would have thought a player who is versatile was a massive bonus to our team?
We get slagged off for having a small squad so a guy like this is the way many teams have decided to go, versatility.
Just seems no matter who we sign some people look for a negative angle................................what will be will be, he's a St Mirren player and has a decent pedigree.
Welcome.

No it wasn't. It was changed from General Manager to Chief Executive Officer.
He runs the club very well but he is not a director.

http://blythspartansafc.co.uk/new_php/?p=11196

2 of the last 3 chancellors have been Scotsman elected by Scottish people. No control over the pound indeed Also, comparing the relatively large, complex Scottish economy to places like Gibraltar and Bermuda? Both those territories have populations lower than Paisley FFS

They never have. Nobody has ever said this. What they HAVE said is that it would be a negotiated accession just like every other country that wants to join. The EU themselves have been very clear about that. The SNP leadership have actually altered their position on this in the past 18 months or so since Salmonds incredibly stupid "in terms of the debate" blunder where he attempted to lie about legal advice he never received.
Scotland will eventually join the EU of that I'm pretty sure, but the process will be exactly the same as any other country joining. Which will also mean the negatiated terms being put to the Scottish people in a referendum. Something Salmond is shitting himself about as he knows we will lose a lot of the opt outs the UK has managed to negotiate prior to Lisbon. The Lisbon treaty completely changed the entire process of joining and negotiated opt outs are no longer available in certain areas such as VAT on food and certain other zero rated thing, the Euro etc.
To join the EU we also need to have our own central bank, something which we dont yet have. We have to have our deficit down below a certain,level (3%)from memory, something which will take a bit of doing as it currently stands at over 8% (the biggest in the EU)
We shall see, but its just another area where the SNP have been incredibly poor and another area where they have had to rely on assertion to try and get them across the line. Poor.

We don't even get projections from the Scottish Government, just assumption, presupposing, and sneering rhetoric. It's pretty sad really.
Chris, don't you think the Independence movement has shown a strange grasp of what responsibility and control is though? Take away the notion of a Scotland / England border, just for a moment, and you realise that we currently do have responsibility and control. We currently control our own currency. We can borrow from anywhere on the financial markets. We can set our own interest rates. In Europe we have responsibility and control where as well as being valued and powerful partners with a loud voice we also retain three different kinds of veto's which means that if the European Parliament tries to enforce their will on us we can tell them to f**k off. And within the current arrangement we enjoy full control of our NHS, education and law making amongst other areas.
Vote Yes in September and we accede control of our currency, our borrowing, and our interest rates to the Rest of the UK. We lose our European veto meaning we lose control of our law making powers and we'll be forced to offer free places at Scottish Universities to all English, Welsh and Northern Irish students who wish to study here.
Democracy isn't about getting your way all the time, it's about accepting the will of the majority. After Independence do you think that people in Aberdeen, Inverness, Dumfries and Dundee will feel they are adequately represented by the Parliament where the majority is made up by Central Scotland MSP's, or do you think they might want to "take responsibility and control"?

Thaaaatchaaaaa!!!!
FFS it was over thirty years ago. Quarter of a century since she left office and the old lefty tragedies are still bleating about her. Its no wonder that particular grudge isnt flying well for the nationalists, particularly among the young folk who simply couldnt give a shit about forty years ago and who firmly reject this unnecessary shrinkage.
Interestingly, the one party doing best out of this referendum drivel is actually the scottish tories who have overtaken the SNP in voting intentions for the GE next year.

no she didnt
thatcher revitalised the Scottish economy
loss making industries were replaced with north sea oil, financial services & high tech industry
labour (complete with Scottish prime ministers, chancellors and cabinet ministers) and the snp subsequently did their best to ruin the Scottish economy

Erm, the English, the Welsh and the Irish. They are just like us. Indeed most of us share the same heritage, ancestry, and bloodlines these days.
Whas no like us? Well typically the Norwegians, the Germans, Italians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Romanians, Croatians etc.

My problem with all of that is that an irrelevant vote will change nothing in the landscape to improve that situation.It's the same landscape we've had for decades.
Nationalists are hoping to use the British pound but would be now completely bereft of any means of controlling that use of a currency being deployed by the same people who are currently in power.
There is no desire by Nationalists to remove the figurehead/the lynchpin of that same forelock-tugging system - the monarchy. Again let's not rock the boat chaps, we'll let the Jocks, the mad ones anyway, canter their country down the road of divide and conquer. Vote for so-called separation, Jock.
The Capitalist system will still prevail, unless Scotland becomes the first place on earth to invent a new way of living outside that system. But it isn't going to be outside. The Nationalists are too scared to rock the boat, too scared to suggest real change cos it will not be easy, pretty or... come cheaply.
I've always hoped it could be so, but current Scottish politicians of all stamps give me no belief in that.
It will take more than a single September vote to bring about transformation.
Capitalism' s not going away without revolution. The offer on the table steers far too clear of that.
London and its economic power, England and its economic choices are all still going to be there, on this same island. Better to be inside the big tent trying to change things than outside being pished upon.

Yep. Then we started signing players and it became clear we weren't going to take that opportunity.
That's in the past though, time to look forward, and the future's bright, the future's black and white!

Regardless of whether you think our squad is shite or good, if you're dreading the start of the new season in July, then I don't think football's your thing.
Find something you want to do instead of following something you dread.

How thin is the squad? I always think a good test is to take out 6 important players and see if we could still field a competitive side.
So take out, Kello, McAusland, Goodwin, McLean, Teale and Thompson.
We could field:
Ridgers
Kelly
Williams
Plummer
Naismith
Hughes
Wylde
McGinn
Brown
Marwood
Caldwell
with Yaqub and Reilly spare.
To my mind that team is ok but lacks experience. We need a minimum of two additional players. Another central defender (to replace either Williams or Plummer) and another midfielder (to replace either Hughes or Brown).
Based on the trialist and the talk about the extra Man City loanee in the passed couple of weeks, it seems that the club feels exactly the same way.

This is the 4th biggest event in the calendar for these guys, behind the Olympics, Worlds and Europeans.
If they aren't 100% fit they aren't going to risk it.

Some shitebaggery of the highest order starting to become evident now
For me, this is the best shape we've been in at this stage of pre-season in years.

1). Yes I do. Contrary to yes scaremongering, these facilities are extremely safe and the economic benefits to Scotland and the area which they are based are huge.
Was speaking to a family in Clynder yesterday, it's quite literally on their doorstep, you over look the base from their front window. You won't be surprised to learn that they are passionate no voters who are terrified of a yes vote and the prospect of the base shutting. Places like their town and Garelochead would suffer huge job losses directly and in directly as a result of that closure. I would wager that the towns around the base will return some of the largest percentage no votes in the country in a few weeks. If they're happy with it, so am I.
2). Well if we join NATO ( as Salmond wants to do ) we will continue to be involved in wars with nothing to do with us. That's what being in a military alliance entails. I do think the Wests appetite for foreign wars has been chastened hugely by what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can see this now with the reluctance to get involved in Sudan and Syria etc. Any military operations on the scale of another Iraq/Afghan is pretty unlikely in the next generation or so IMO, if it did happen, we'd be involved regardless of the result of the referendum.
3). You been to Aberdeen recently? House prices are booming up there, it's an economy unto it's own, it's one of the richest cities in the UK. Scotland is already benefitting from the oil we have, thankfully we aren't dependent on it as we would be if we are independent. The way the price of the stuff and the production of it varies from year to year is really scary stuff. I read a stat a few weeks ago that taxation gained from oil varied by the equivalent of the annual Scottish education budget year on year. You want to be so exposed and dependent on such a volatile commodity? I don't, especially when we won't even control our own currency.
4). We have our own parliament, we control education, health, transport, all major domestic issues. All this whilst retaining the security and representation of the wider UK.
The UK hasn't voted for a conservative government since 1992 and is unlikely to do so again for the foreseeable future. Even if it did, that's the price you pay for being part of a large and prosperous union. Texas never voted for a Democratic president, they've had one for eight years. They might not like it, but they see the bigger picture of what being in the USA means for them and get on with it. We should too.
Why is change badly needed? I think Scotland is fantastic and we are doing brilliantly. Our economy is recovering at a quicker rate than the rest of Europe, we have our own parliament yet retain representation in Westminster and we are one of the cultural capitals of the world. What a success story we are, long may it continue. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Is it September yet? This has been one of the most drawn out and boring campaigns in history.
Can't wait till the Scottish electorate decimates the nationalist cause.

He done really well, Ive seen him many times in the U20s games and hes a excellent young player, I think he will be the one to make the breakthrough this year,

Spot on BB Greg Wylde has been excellent in pre season, His crosses into the box have been top notch, Hopefully a full pre season behind him he will be a top player this season,