houston_bud

Not to split hairs, but Agnew starts for Stranraer pretty much every week. Admittedly they are having a poor season. I have no idea about Carswell. Quinn came in in January, and was known to have injury problems. So Rae, after losing 4 centre mids in the summer, brought in one.

Queens haven't won since the middle of September, and have only picked up 5 points during that time. We've picked up 10 in the same amount of time. If there is one team in the league I think we can catch it's them.

I'm not sure how you managed to interpret what I said as support for Ian Murray's time in charge. He left a dreadful squad. Rae took that dreadful squad, and somehow managed to make it even worse. The players I mentioned - Goodwin, Agnew, Kelly, Carswell, Howieson - were all told to collect their boots. Every single one of them would have improved our squad this season. Rae got rid of 4 players who could play centre mid, during in the close season, and signed one - who happened to be worse than any he'd let go. One of our centre mids then gets injured. He also seemed completely adverse to giving any of the young boys a chance in midfield. I'm not defending Murray, and I even said previously that I thought Rae only getting 6 games seemed pretty harsh. My comments were in reply to someone saying that Rae would have got more out the current squad than Ross is getting. I don't believe that for one minute.

Who would you have brought on? Two of our centre mids, and one of our wingers couldn't continue. Rae didn't sign any of the player I mentioned, that's my point. All of those players would improve our current squad (maybe not first 11, but definitely squad). The only one of those players that he couldn't have kept was Watson. All the others would have stayed, he got rid of them to bring in his own players. And his own players were worse than what he'd let go.

I think that's a fair point. 6 games did seem pretty short. Dunno it was down to ego on Scott's part though. Thompson still offered something, also Goodwin was there, Watson, Sean Kelly, all of them would have featured this season. Agnew wasn't great but still bagged a few goals, Howieson another who wasn't great but could play a few positions and had a couple of decent games. With Quinn's injury this season Rae started with 2 centre midfielders. As it turned out one of them was worse than Goodwin, Agnew, Howieson, and even Carswell. That's criminal.

I don't know if it's the argument, but it's how I see it. I also think that the squad that Rae inherited had much more balance, and also experience, than the one he left.

It's not really a fair comparison. Alloa would have had about the lowest wage budget in the league, possibly the smallest squad, and were part time. Rae came into a club who had just been relegated from the Premier League, have first class training facilities, and had some available money to add to the squad.

When Rae came in last season he made is hard (or certainly harder) to beat. We picked up enough points to be comfortably above the relegation spots last season. What was inexplicable though, was when he had the chance to build his own team he signed appallingly, worse than even Murray managed. Add to that he had little or no interest in trying to bring on youth players. Ross has the dismal, lopsided squad to work with. He's already got rid of two loanees who looked disinterested, and Kyle Hutton - who is a contender for the worst player I've ever seen in a Saints jersey - and replaced them with a couple of hungry young players who have given 100% in every game. For me that in itself is night and day between the two managers. It would be difficult to judge Ross until he has had what Rae had, two transfer windows. I realise come the second of these windows we might already be relegated, but there has been signs of improvement since he came in and we can't keep changing managers, because it's getting us nowhere. Should we go down, I reckon Ross is the right man to bring us back up.

Getting way off track here. This thread was to try come up with some ideas we could help charity, from the club and fans.

I certainly think this could be a good idea. Was there not a game last season where a few volunteers collected donations for a food bank? I'd be more than happy to help arrange something along those lines, it's quite far away but the Morton game on Hogmanay should see a decent crowd and with people in the festive spirit are probably more likely to make donations. We could approach the club for a few free tickets for a match in January that, like Stuart says, could be given along with the food donations to the food banks. I would be very happy to volunteer at any food bank collection events at the ground. If anyone wants to get the ball rolling send me a PM and we'll take it from there.

Good addition. He's still good enough to get goals at this level. Him, Clarkson, and Gordon all look like pretty solid signings. Really looking forward to the season now.

Just 'renewed' mine there, having been abroad for the past 3 years. The same seat was still available. I'm already looking forward to the new season, hopefully a few more signings will be announced and the new kits out soon.

In fairness to Gilmour I think he said that 'personal criticism' was unfair.

Fair enough. I would agree with a lot of your gripes regarding, successive councils in Renfrewshire. Didn't realise the comments were from the students, so I take your point. I'm sure we could find foreign students who enjoyed their time in Paisley, and those who didn't enjoy Edinburgh however.

The one in Edinburgh probably had double the cost of rent though, more for a beer, meal, gym membership etc as well. Paisley isn't the greatest place admittedly, but it has some nice buildings, a couple of decent boozers, a choice of sporting activities, and everything that you need for day to day living. It's also 10 mins on a train from Glasgow, which has a better selection of shops, and a far better nightlife than Edinburgh. You've highlighted some great things about Edinburgh, then picked one of the poorer parts of Paisley (in terms of available activities and amenities) to compare it to.