Dibbles old paperboy

OK didn't have any transfer targets apart from Kyle McAllister and Popescu. He didn't even have any ideas on who should replace Jimmy Nicholl as his assistant. OK didn't list McAllister as a priority target. Gordon Scott did. I wonder who wanted the biggest say on who we signed? Scott didn't find any cash for any of Kearney's targets for this summer.

About a week before they had their massive fall out GLS and Kearney both gave interview to STV on the same day. If memory serves me correctly Kearney spoke about his top targets being Popescu, Muzek, Hodson and Dreyer and said he hoped we'd get at least some of them back again this season. None of them re-signed and we didn't make serious offers for any of them. We did however land Gordon Scott's top transfer target for this season... Kyle McAllister (who has barely contributed anything so far this season). In their STV interviews there was nothing to suggest that there was any doubt Kearney would be in charge again this season. What happened next? Could it be that Kearney was told our budget was being cut and all his priority players to re-sign for this season were too expensive and he would have to rebuild the squad with the remnants of Jack Ross's squad and without most of the quality additions who made the difference to us from January to May last season (apologies to LJB for discussing a previous manager)... but not to worry Oran we are confident we can bring in McAllister on a 3 year deal! Following on from Oran being sacked Goodwin's budget will have been further reduced to help pay off OK.

The average wage is the Scottish premiership is about £3.5k a week. I would guess you are perhaps looking at Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts paying that money to theirbetter players, and Rangers and Celtic being quite a bit higher than that while St Mirren, Hamilton, Ross County, Livingston etc on £1k a week or thereabouts.

I'm not sure there is too much in Ross' CV to suggest he would instantly turn Hibs or Hearts around if given either job and have them climbing the table before Christmas. When he came to a St Mirren side in the Championship and with Jason Naismith, Gary MacKenzie, Stevie Mallan, Lewis Morgan, Kyle McAllister, Kyle Magennis, Lawrence Shankland at his disposal we still lost his first 6 league games in a row and fell way behind Ayr United at the bottom of the league. It took the January window and a squad rebuild with 11 out and 11 in before we began to start stringing results together in February and March, almost 6 months after he was appointed. I have a feeling that Budge and Dempster will be hoping for a swifter 'new manager bounce' than we enjoyed when Jack Ross was appointed, and they'll also hope they don't have to buy a new squad in every transfer window only for Jack to apply for jobs elsewhere if he strings together 1 good season with them.

Six league defeats in a row for Hearts might allow free-scoring St Mirren to pull two points clear.

Perhaps you could name some of the stunning saves pulled off by Killie's keeper then? If only some points could be gained from shots being in the close vicinity of the post or crossbar eh?

Makes you wonder why Thommo said he thought a nil - nil draw might have been a fair result when we had 'the better chances by far'... from memory Killie had about 3 defenders getting back for the Andreu chance and I can't remember us flooding the box with players in support. Mullen gets no decisions from referees as he is perceived to always go down at the merest hint of contact. I'm sure Killie had a few chances which would have gone in at the other end if only Hladky hadn't saved them.

I can't help wondering if Killie have 'almost double' our points tally* because as the second lowest scorers in the league they have scored 'almost double' the amount of goals that we have while conceding less goals than we've conceded. * 17 points is more than double our 8 points. Other low scorers in the league (Hamilton Accies, Hearts, Hibs, St Johnstone) have scored 10 goals to our 5 as well. We've lost the most games in the league this season (6) while Goodwin has set out to make us, er, hard to beat.

Are referees now on a higher match fee than players at clubs like ours?

His problem is Celtic have enough wingers to practically field a starting XI using only players in Lewis' position. He's been adamant he doesn't want to come back to us on loan, and in the summer he said he didn't want to go out on loan at all. His best bet for the next season however would be to do a Ryan Christie and go on loan to a top 6 Scottish club (Aberdeen or Hibs being the most likely clubs) and do well there and show he can step up from being a great Championship and Scotland U21 player and show Celtic that he can do well in the top end of the Scottish premiership week in and week out. I think he is good enough to play for Celtic and Scotland (further down the line perhaps) but he needs to show he can make an impact at this level on a consistent basis, and if Celtic are going to keep him he needs a proper run of games rather than 10-15 minutes coming off the bench once every blue moon!

Was in the Kelvingrove a few weeks ago for lunch and saw some of the exhibition from the outside corridor. I think its around £10 entry for adults. Saw the gift shop was selling prints and looked like some of the photos have been published before. It also looked like there was a steady stream of people going in. Oh, and to tip the hat to Cornwall Saint, the cafe is taking part in Meat Free Mondays while the exhibition is on - lots of veggie and vegan foods but the Monday menu may not be to everyone's taste.

Not been online as much and hadn't seen McAllister was injured. My first reaction to the starting XI and bench is that we might not be making the most of the limited attacking options we have at our disposal. Durmus has been inconsistent but I'd give him a run in the team in the hope he finds some of the form and confidence he showed in his first few games before Goodwin dropped him. It's been almost 5 hours since we scored a league goal and our starting XI in a home game against the only team in the league below us suggests that we are setting out to keep things tight and with little intent to attack.

Durmus on the bench in a home game against the only team below us in the league.

Stephen McGinn back in the starting XI today but no Kyle McAllister in starting XI or bench. No Flynn either, and no wide player in the starting XI. https://twitter.com/saintmirrenfc/status/1185537341928235008/photo/1

I tweeted Alan McManus about it. He followed my account, deleted my tweets from his page, and set his own account to private / friends only for a period of time. I doubt if you asked the club for 'their version' that you would get a reply. The PFA Scotland were involved but they'll probably say the way the issue was resolved was confidential. The player concerned went from a 1st fringe player in matchday squads a few months after signing for the club (hardly a sign of a discipline problem) and making his debut in Scotland youth team one month, to being suspended from playing for St Mirren for 4 weeks and lost his Scotland place as a result of being 'dropped' by St Mirren over 1 incident. When challenged about the player losing their Scotland place our head of the youth academy said his only concern was St Mirren.

I'm referring to an incident within the past year affecting a youth academy player and Scotland youth international player. Do you think the punishment handed out was proportionate?

So you think that banning youth players for playing for St Mirren youth teams for 4 weeks and losing their place in Scotland youth squads is a fitting punishment for sending in app data in 1 hour late on 1 occasion? What does a youth player learn from being suspended for longer than Alfredo Morelos for sending in info in late on 1 occasion? How does the club benefit from excluding them for selection on matchdays or not being included in Scotland squads? Youth players have normally already shown plenty of discipline already (sometimes for a decade) if they have reached the latter end of the youth programme and been included in Scotland youth squads.

Here's hoping the boys get all their app data to the club on time or else it will be Scotland career and St Mirren career over.

If I remember correctly the press were speculating that JR was in the running for some English vacancies and his reply was that he wanted to stay at St Mirren for a full season in the premiership before looking at moving on to bigger clubs after that. As it turned out he was doing the exact opposite of what he was saying in public.

I was head-hunted for my current job and took a small pay-cut to take it (working on an issue close to my heart in a place close to my heart!) and have been in that same job for over 13 years. I had been on a 5 year contract in my previous job and was four and a half years into that when I was approached, and told my employer I had been approached about another job and went to the interview with their blessing and I worked 4 months notice so there was plenty of time to sell my flat, move and do a hand over at my previous work.

I've never said I agree with anyone calling JR a traitor or snake. I have said your narrative of Sunderland poaching Jack Ross is false. Why would Jack Ross ask for permission to speak to Ipswich and Barnsley and go to those interviews with the club's knowledge and blessing but not mention anything about Sunderland until he had pretty much signed on the dotted line? You were the one who introduced Rae to the discussion. If you are applying for lots of vacancies during the close season, its probably a sign you don't have any intention of remaining as St Mirren manager unless its a fall back Plan B option.

Jack Ross had an interview at Sunderland when he was down south to talk to Ipswich (with the club's permission) but he didn't mention to the club he had applied to Sunderland and been given an interview and had the interview and was about to be announced as their next manager. Rae didn't have us dead bottom - when we fell to 2nd bottom after 4 league games he was sacked. Does Jim Goodwin have us dead bottom currently and is his squad not good enough to stay up - we've almost played the first round of games so he has had more games to prove himself to GLS than Rae had. The narrative that bad old Sunderland broke the rules and poached a reluctant Jack Ross away from St Mirren is a false one. Jack was 'on his way', had no intention of managing us in the premiership and applied for the job himself at the same time as saying publicly he would be St Mirren manager for at least another season.

I think the stat was that only 2 teams had LOST less games than Sunderland under JR. Plenty of other teams had more wins and it was the amount of draws rather than defeats which cost Sunderland promotion.

My point is Jack Ross did not turn down jobs he was offered by Dundee, Ipswich, Barnsley (none of them got as far as offering their job to him) and Jack wanted away and was applying for vacant jobs down south without his employers' knowledge and while he was still speaking to the press about his plans to make St Mirren attack-minded and competitive in the premiership. I've always had a pragmatic view on Jack Ross - for the squad he had at his disposal the results were awful until the cheque book came out, and I think he was allowed to blow a huge amount of money and break the budget to achieve what he did. Should a team with Shankland, Morgan, McAllister, Magennis, Mallan, MacKenzie ever have been in danger of relegation from the Championship... that's like Stubbs failing to reach the play off final twice with a Hibs team which included McGregor, Allan, McGeoch, McGinn, Cummings and Stokes!! The upside was we had 2 very exciting seasons and 1 season which was very successful. The first time Jack applied for another job and was then offered it he was offski (SMTID or not).

You're entitled to your opinion but Jim Clunie had a 3rd place finish (in the premier division) and a 3rd= finish and had us in Europe.