nosferatu

Alex Ferguson's target when he arrived at Love Street was to make the top 6 in order to get us into the new First Division. He achieved that. But its far different these days. You can't "consolidate and build" anymore. The days of being able to build a team over a number of years are long gone.

It is not possible to "consolidate and build". With the biggest budget in the division outside Hibs & The Rangers, securing one of the TWO remaining play off spots is the MINIMUM requirement of Ian Murray this season. If he doesn't do it then he has failed and should go.

No one is denying that its a difficult league to get out of. However, getting into the top 4 shouldn't be THAT difficult. We will have the biggest budget - or thereabouts - outside Hibs & The Rangers. There are 2 spare play off spots available. And, as I pointed out, clubs cannot spend a year or two rebuilding. You can't do that these days when you are a diddy club. In these days of Bosmans and 1 & 2 year contracts, any decent players you find won't be here in 2 years time anyway!

And based on his quote, I doubt he told Murray that this season is a consolidation exercise, which is what you believe.As I stated in my post, I'd wager that the target is to get into the play offs. You then have a shot at promotion and anything can happen. We will be up against the likes of Falkirk, qos, faith for the 2 remaining okay off spots. IMO, the intention to win promotion in 1 season = reaching the play offs. I don't think that anyone can argue that not reaching the play offs will be failure.

Couple of points... IMO Losing loads of players every summer and having to find replacements is now the norm. In these days of Bosman and the widening gap between the rich and poor clubs, clubs have a large turnover of players every season. The days of keeping a good team together over many seasons just doesn't happen. Therefore, I don't believe Murray has been brought in to 'stabilise' the club. I'm pretty sure the target is to finish top 4 and have a bash at winning promotion via the play off. On the subject of trialists, IMO, this is the way of things now. Rangers have just signed a load of players after trials. Dundee United signed Ciftci after a 3 week trial and they've now just sold him to Celtic for £1.5 million FFS. Hopefully we can unearth a couple of gems ourselves.

I wouldn't go to Ibrox even if they paid me. Going by one or two stories my Hearts supporting workmates told me of their visits to Ibrox last season, I would avoid wearing colours and keep in a group. These people are animals.

I thought Conlan was decent as well. The Bradford right winger was fast and Conlan kept him under control. As others have mentioned, I didn't see Howieson put in any crosses against Bradford. We were on the back foot most of the game though and he put in a shift defensively. Hopefully we'll get to see his attacking ability soon.

Good. He was the best trlalist.

Does that mean that the other 3 are?

The Yes campaign certainly lost a lot of votes as a result of the ridiculous nationalist campaign against the BBC. We had a bunch of Rangers fans marching on the BBC because they are biased against Rangers and to this day they are the Bigoted Broadcasting Corp. The reality is that the BBC get attacked by small minority extremist nutjobs from all walks of life. The extremist nationalist element is just one.

^^^^ absolutely raging! I suppose that's what happens when you don't live in the real world!

It wasn't until I was half way there that I remembered we don't play at Love Street anymore Cock breath

Baird and Kelly both fell over because they were facing their own goals with an attacker bearing down on them and they were caught in 2 minds about what to do - pass it to the keeper or boot it into touch. Reilly fell over because he's hopeless.

You heard it from TC?

Yourself?

Agreed

Think the comments about Thompson are unfair. He was up front on his own and our shitty tippy tappy play usually ended with us losing possession in our own half. McMullan gave him son support on the right but Howieson was a complete ghost and I don't remember him putting in a single cross.

You are being unfair to chocolate teapots

Conlan was ok

Gow just hit the bar with a free kick

The big Jamaican striker is never a player. He makes Arquin look accomplished.

Morgan, McLear, Cuddihy & Stewart on

I like the look of Rooney

Reilly just had a great chance in the box... But fell over the ball. He's useless

Plus Rooney for Naismith