Julian Banjos

Let's not kid ourselves, minus the 2 Edinburgh teams and the continued absence of that lot from Glasgow the league this season will be the weakest ever. It won't be long until all 3 revert are back to their long term norm and our league position is knocked down by 2 or 3 places. Maybe, with that in mind, we should go with youth this season and hope that the likes of Brown and Reilly become as established as Naismith and Kelly are now. Would put us in good shape for the bigger battles to come.

"Yes Paisley" opened up their shop in Old Sneddon today. Similar places have also appeared in Greenock, Hamilton, Kilmarnock, Largs to name but a few nearby. Better Together premises thin on the ground thus far. Struggling to find volunteers to man them, apparently. I think we are beginning to see now the gulf in numbers on the ground for the two sides. Instead of opening a shop, Better Together had Labour MP Hillary Benn up getting his photo taken on Benn Avenue. Seems like this is how it's going to go. A growing grassroots Scottish movement for yes with plenty out canvassing and wanting to persuade people. No, meanwhile, largely top-down, heavily reliant on the media, supporters who will vote, but don't care enough to hit the doorsteps.

Weather warning for Strathclyde tomorrow - heavy rain forecast from lunchtime. Wee Dublin End?!?

Ha! Post-independence, with more fiscal control, I'd hope more job opportunities would open up. Wouldn't like to see people leaving the country.

I have a few reasons for voting yes but the big ones are:1. The renewal of Trident. I think it is is morally wrong for us to possess WMDs, plus there's also the fact that its renewal is going to cost 100 billion quid. The money should be spent on improving the lot of people in this country. 2. Democracy. For about half of our lifetime, the tories will be the party of government in the UK and make decisions on behalf of us. 10-15% of the Scottish electorate vote tory. That is not democracy in my opinion, and is too high a price to pay for remaining in the union. 3. The thought of an independent Scotland genuinely excites me! I think the yes campaign, regardless of the result, will prove to have been a great thing for the country and will change it for the better. Politically and culturally it's been creative, interesting and inspiring. At Westminster, for a long time we have had the opposite. Millibland, Cametron and cronies are monochrome, career politicians who will pander to whoever they need to in order to gain or retain power. No ideas, dull, disconnected. Of course I would have some concerns about the future but I also have concerns about where we are heading with the status quo. Foodbanks, the rise of UKIP, leaving the EU, the NHS, the health of Scots... Let's go for it!

Haven't posted on this thread before, but wanted to say something about the opinion polling. Bettertogether have been taking a lot of solace from the YouGov polling, which has had the vote at 60:40 in favour of NO pretty much the whole year. Most other pollsters have seen it shifting to YES something like 55:45. Here are the 2011 Scottish parliament election results with with the YouGov pre-election figures in brackets afterwards: Constituency Vote SNP 45.4% (YouGov 41.2%) Lab 31.7% (YouGov 36.3%) Regional Vote SNP 44.0% (YouGov 34.7%) Lab 26.3% (YouGov 34.2%) YouGov underestimated the SNP vote at the last election by 4% and 9%, whilst overestimating the rival Labour vote by 5% and 8%. Who knows what is going on with their methodology for the actual results to be 9% and 17% swings to the SNP compared to their polling. It looks like something similar might happening with the referendum polling though. With so many more YES than NO canvassers plus the saltire waving at the Commonwealth Games, I reckon YES will have enough to win this. Fingers crossed. It's time for change, and the debate surrounding the referendum has been the best thing to happen in Scotland for a long time.

Steven has averaged 40 games a season for us in his mid-30s. It's testament to the way he looks after himself, but we've also been fortunate that he's not really suffered an injury as a St Mirren player. He's 36 later this year. I hope he turns about to be a Kevin Phillips or a Teddy Sheringham who can keep playing at a good level until the age of 40. Sooner rather than later though we will probably have to look beyond him.

I reckon it's pretty unlikely there will be another striker in before January, let alone an experienced one.

Like Marwood it's a fingers crossed job. . Thompson has been top goalscorer every season he's been at the club. Of the other strikers, Isma and Nigel have had the best return with both managing 8 goals. Would make a huge difference if somebody could get into double figures alongside Thommo.

For the record, 19 year old Thomas "not good enough" Reilly has started 3 games for St Mirren FC.

The TC quote after he got the job was: "You're looking at somewhere between six and eight players will probably have to come in, but I'll get down to the nitty gritty of that in due course." Sounding like, ultimately, we'll have five when the season kicks off and that's without McLean going as had been expected. I'm presuming that TC knew his budget when he made that statement and he's just been unable, thus far, to attract the calibre he's looking for (Stevenson went to Thistle instead, for example). Hopefully that means that there will be money left to strengthen in the January window or even by the end of August should the right player or players become available.

Strange one. Wright may be exaggerating a bit of pressure on Brown. Apparently they've got a guy in on trial at the moment. I guess we'll find out for sure in the next few weeks how the loss of the Edinburgh teams has affected team's budgets. For St Johnstone though you would think that would be balanced by Dundee's return.

Would be great to have strength in depth but it's difficult to find good players who will sign when you can't guarantee them a starting place. I'm inclined to think we should spend our budget on a quality core of maybe 15 or 16 and then have youngsters fill in the gaps. Last season we wasted a lot of money on players like Bahoken, Caprice, Campbell and Djemba-Djemba.

The quality of our starting 11 has been pretty good for the past couple of season. Lennon's problem was getting them to play consistently well. If you look at the team who beat Ross County to keep us up: Dilo Naismith McAusland McGregor Kelly Newton McGinn Goodwin McGowan McLean Thompson Kello in for Dilo, Plummer in for McGregor, Wylde in for McLean, Teale in for Newton..... Kello Naismith McAusland Plummer Kelly Teale McGinn Goodwin McLean Wylde Thompson Clearly we could do with a few more signings, but It's not a bad looking side and I don't think TC's starting 11 will be all that different from DL's. As I said before, the key is getting them to produce week in week out what they're capable of.

"Want" and "get" are two different things. Signing "8 quality players", in one summer, who are affordable and want to play for us? Maybe he set himself up for a fall there. There are a few in that bracket who have signed for other clubs, but I can't think of anyone obvious who is still available. Unusually, there is also very little in the way of rumoured signings. Names were banded about a few weeks ago, but there's not a lot of chat now.

I would like at least another 3 signings, but we have to be realistic and say we might not get that. Have a look at our transfers over the past few seasons. Very few players come in after July 1st. The majority of squads are fairly settled as pre-season training begins. We have missed out on Stevenson, possibly Craig and no doubt others who have opted to go elsewhere. The players available for us to get in at this stage are a. still at their club but unwanted b. on the dole c. loanees. The quality is not going to be high, and we might have to hope we get lucky with an unproven Isma-type unknown. That might mean that TC keeps hold of his money until January. Wouldn't surprise me if we get the usual "quite happy with the squad but still looking" statement in the next week or so.

Don't forget that Williams and Brown have been brought into the first team squad. Yaqub and Reilly are also ready to be involved again after lengthy injuries. Would be very surprised if there are 5 more signings before the start of the season. Most of the Scottish-based players worth signing have picked up new contracts with new clubs after their old deals expired last month. We will not sign anyone for money so are into trialist / loanee territory now. I reckon a maximum of 3 more signings before August with cash left over for another couple in January.

The squad is beginning to take shape: GK Kello Ridgers K. Hughes Defence Naismith Kelly McAusland Plummer Williams (Trialist - Mevla) Midfield Goodwin McGinn McLean Wylde Teale Yaqub D. Hughes Brown Attack Thompson Marwood Reilly (Trialist - Caldwell) If a couple out of the youngsters can do as Naismith and Kelly did last season then TC might not be too far away with the squad he wants. Will be interesting to see if we bring in another midfielder. Stevenson would have been the marquee signing I suppose, but maybe that money ended up being used to keep Kenny. I wouldn't be too unhappy with that squad if the 2 trialists turn out okay. A bit light but there will be a cut from losing the Edinburgh away supports. Also, we have to persist in giving the academy players a chance.

Funnily enough he signed for Gateshead earlier this week, I guess as Marwood's replacement. Guy had quite a good start with us then tailed off I thought. Last season 1 goal in 23 appearances for Carlisle.

There seems to be a fair amount of luck involved in these signings from the lower leagues down south. For every Billy McKay or Adam Rooney there's also a James Collins or Lewis Guy. We're due a good one so fingers crossed with Harwood.

Seems like bridges were burned awhile back with Harkins. Like other areas though, we are now light in the centre of the park, and that's somewhere we've had a fair amount of depth in recent seasons. Left with a veteran player-coach alongside a couple of players (McLean and McGinn) who we will do well to retain for the duration of the season. As the weeks go by, I'm getting the feeling that there will be nowhere near as many coming into the club as have gone out. Is it 10 out so far and 2 in? I don't think we'll get more than 5 signings before August. There is probably an assumption now that every season 1 or 2 of the young players will break through to the first team to replace older ones. Quite right as well. After Danny took over we definitely got better at this, and it's the correct way forward for us.

McLean/Newton replaced with Stevenson/Craig would be a promising start to TC's transfer dealings.

No harm to Darren, but I think the bottom 3 or 4 in the SPFL is about his level. He will have to become a good deal more reliable to become a regular for a top 6 side, and I'm a wee bit surprised to see the clamour for him. The main issue with him going is his replacement could well be an unknown. There don't seem to be many decent centre-halves available in Scotland, so we might end up with a young loanee or lower leaguer from England.

Mo Yaqub staying would reduce likelihood of Carey returning perhaps?

Incredible. 1 win between February and May and they would have been out of it. Couldn't do it. Defend a 2-0 lead at home. Couldn't do it. Was reading there that the Scottish league will be the only one in Europe without a capital city team in the top league.