Cornwall_Saint

It was 4 degrees here at 5am, quite chilled. Gone up to 9 degrees now and could be a decent day, we shall see.

Agreed. I have a major dislike for our ten team leagues offering promotion to 3rd and 4th placed sides. Excellent to see Willo Fud and co crashing out. May their pain continue. I'm still adamant that if they kept Ray McKinnon they'd have either won the league or succeeded in the playoffs. More decisive games tomorrow. Peterhead v Stenhousemuir in the battle for promotion to League One, Stenny take a 2-0 lead up north. Cowdenbeath are defending their L2 place against Highland champions Cove Rangers. The first leg was 0-0 in Cove.

How do you know Jack is interested in EVERY job? There may have been other approaches for him that he rejected, we just didn't hear about them. "Crappy" Barnsley were in the Championship at the time and Jack said afterwards he didn't feel it was the right time to move. "Dundee FFS" were a League above us at that point and again Jack said he had unfinished business with us. Of course Jack's going to turn his head at offers in better leagues, who wouldn't? Fact is so far, every time he's stayed put where others may have opted to move at the chance. Ipswich is a massive opportunity for him should he be offered it. "One season to finish the great job", or as others are saying give us one year of commitment, it could be a stunning year for him. It could also be the year that sees his stock go to shit if we end up in a relegation dogfight. As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot. Jack owes us absolutely nothing, he saved us from visiting League One and gave us the best 18 months we've had in a very long time (the only thing coming close in the last decade was the League Cup success).

Bunch of f**king skid marks. Football doesn't have "loyalty" any more. When an English Championship club asks to speak to Jack, it's an opportunity for him. Of course he's going to see what they have to say. What matters is this. Is he still going to give us 100% while contracted by us? Of course he is. He will try to sort out Gavin Reilly's contract and he will still try to bring in the acquired targets until the day he signs a contract elsewhere. As others have sensibly stated, if you are offered 3x, 4x your salary to do a similar job elsewhere, are you going to stay out of loyalty? Are you f**k. The idiots saying he such just bugger off because he isn't "committed" need to get a f**king grip.

Depends where Reilly is located. He might not want the hassle of moving elsewhere right now. If his family and himself are located in/near Paisley that should only benefit us. This was the real reason but we covered it up as "carrying an injury".

Agree with this. I also think there aren't many clubs better than Ipswich who would come in for JR right now. EPL sides aren't going to touch him right now, while those like Stoke, WBA and (probably) Swansea will have bigger targets in mind should they part ways with their current crew. The three clubs who won't go up in the playoffs won't be interested. That only leaves around 5 clubs who finished above Ipswich last season who could potentially show interest. Barring some incredible results from us (Top 6 finish, Cup win) the clubs a step above Ipswich will never gain interest while he's in Paisley. If he fails in England he can still get a decent gig back in Scotland like McInnes. If he fails with us next season it could be a killer, Danny Lennon had some excellent achievements with us yet he's now managing Clyde. If Jack wants to have a chance of making it in England this could be his calling. Of course like many others I hope there are better candidates available and he'll still be here for next season, but if he wants to try making it as an EPL manager this is an excellent opening.

Good luck to him. He had been excellent for us and put in his all. Harry, if you read this, go sign for Plymouth Argyle. Then tell Sonny Bradley to come join Saints.

Yes, clearly I want rid of JR

Decent day today albeit high was about 13 degrees.

It's awrite, someone else suggested they take Alex Rae.

It's the off season now, we are not currently playing any football good or bad!

Ross' dressing rom influence has been incredible. It was noticeable as we were making our comeback to avoid relegation in 16/17 and he managed to make a lot of his Jan signings permanent in the summer. All the player interviews mentioned the "feeling" in the dressing room. The positivity never left them through the season. Most of them may not experience it on such a good scale again. It was brilliant. The connections could be a problem. His connections in Scotland (combined with his assistant Fowler) are excellent for a club like ourselves. But where Ipswich is an obvious step up in quality this could be difficult. That being said Alex Neil hasn't been held back by that since moving to England, so it's not something he can't work around. Quality of football? Best the Saints have seen in years. The fans who disliked MM for style needn't worry, Jack had us playing some wonderful football.

There's only one thing I'm thinking reading this. Alex Neil. Took Accies up at the first attempt, and by January (only a half-season Premier experience more than Jack) Norwich (a club who's recent years have been better than Ipswich with EPL spells) came in for him. He's had more playing experience there but with the last of those games coming in 2005 it's not like he was loaded with knowledge going into it. He has now done a very respectable job at Preston. Jack's problem with refusing an offer is if things go tits up in the Premier League. If we are in a relegation dogfight and not making a good account of ourselves, his stock will decrease rapidly and hopes of moving to the English higher levels will die out. Even Danny Lennon, the man who gave us our highest SPL finish in our 9 year spell and our first major trophy since 1987, is now managing Clyde. While the chance is there, if the feeling is right Jack would be silly to reject it if he wants to take the move. Unless Jack does a Leicester and wins the league with us, how many better clubs than Ipswich will want to speak with him?

What the hell is he supposed to do? Tell Ipswich to f**k off and warn other clubs to avoid him? We might as well tell the likes of Cammy Smith and Kyle Magennis to piss off too then as they are two players capable of going on to better things. Don't even know why we brought Morgan back on loan, he should have told Celtic to bugger off instead of taking their offer and then having the cheek to come back. Interest in Jack is of no shock to us. He will move when he feels the right offer comes in (Ipswich is a possibility, much better than Barnsley). Until he signs a contract for someone else, he will be working his arse off for us getting things in place like normal. Btw the headline reads Ipswich ask permission to speak to Jack Ross. Not Jack Ross begs Saints board to speak to Ipswich. It isn't like he's come out declaring his undying love of Ipswich Town FC and how he'd much rather be there than here. Give the man a break ffs, without him we'd have been visiting Albion Rovers and Arbroath this season. Hopkin has already proven himself with a step up in leagues. He won League One last season and took Livi straight to 2nd place with a chance of promotion. If Livi go up he's a non-starter for us anyway. The biggest problem however is our squad are too lightweight to play Hopkin's way. He would need to bring in major personnel change and that would be too drastic right now. Ideally we need someone who's style is similar to Jack.

DougJamie... Thread on Derek McInnes - Started in e-Saints Thread on deaths - Top Fives I telt ya yesterday to take Ricky's Thread Starting course!

That's fantastic news. Well done Stelios!

Been released by Plymouth Argyle so he's available.

Alloa Athletic 0-1 Dumbarton Stenhousemuir 2-0 Peterhead Hoping Peterhead pull it back, a 4th placed finish in a 10 team league doesn't deserve promotion.

Hearts 2-1 Hibs, Naismith just scored. Blatant dive from Lafferty for the free kick. He's a f**king embarrassment to the game.

It's a permanent mad house!

Haven't seen an update from Faraway regarding the weather on the east Scotland for a whole 3 or 4 days since he's been placed here, so this is for Faraway! f**king pissing it down here ATM.

I did see that yesterday they should tell the players that before the match... Are you actually supposed to still be here or gave you decided to set up premises here

Also, DougJamie I think you require a thread starting course from Ricky. What connection does Derek McInnes have to e-Saints?

In agreement with all of this. I think he's done a fantastic job. Your last comment is the unfortunate downside to him but at least him (and Neil Lennon) are giving the Sevvies a headache just trying to become Scotland's second force again!

You are right on Hearts, but their return was looking good under Neilson until he moved on. Cathro was then a disaster and Levein perhaps doing the minimum expected. Their resources now should not be far off that of the Dons. I think you're being harsh on the European front. Most countries who sit around the same co-efficient as Scotland do not see their sides qualify for the group stages. Sides who start in Q1 and Q2 are generally assigned harder ties as they progress so their chances are minimal barring those from top 10 countries. You get your exceptions like Dundalk for instance, but where Aberdeen are placed into the competition, it's made very difficult for them to go far. 1 or 2 rounds is a realistic expectation. As I say while Hearts were knocked out by a team from Malta, Sevco by a side who finished 4th in Luxembourg, and St Johnstone being knocked out by Trakai and Trencin, Aberdeen get by sides of similar ability or better. Also remember Aberdeen once had McGhee