beyond our ken

Not good for the game as fans best excuse for a day at the fitba is to attend a contentious and competitive cup-tie. I've decided to go through, I'm already off on the 12th and 13th for a trip to London so I'll take the 11th off too as the journey home will be a bugger if there is extra time and penalties (hopefully no VAR as that could add 10 minutes between these two sides). At least I can have a few Heineken zeros after the game and a better drink at home (if I feel like watching the highlights 🤨). Maybe Junior will come through with me for this one as he has rarely seen us beat Hearts and we can make a night of it.

He looks like what we need, seems to be over his hip operation from last year and celebrated with a collision into the concrete bollards and a 2-week concussion break. He seems content to see out his contract at Walsall though so maybe just a PCA? We still need a better RWB and to get more from Tanser. If we can do that this season then MAYBE there is a chance of playing forward more effectively for the next stretch and into next season.

Looks like the puggy could drop on this one sometime soon, not sure if he's contracted past the summer but I think he may well have more than a year on his deal at Lincoln https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/transfer-fee-claim-made-on-lincoln-citys-ethan-erhahon-jovon-makama/ https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/oxford-united-should-flex-lincoln-city-transfer-ethan-erhahon/

I don't think this is as simple as "asked". He was loaned out and he agreed to go on the basis he would get games. I don't think he was ever in the picture for Robinson as a long-term project and i don't think Kenny, Penman or Mooney will get a real chance either. I think the fact that none of the kids have let us down shows that they deserve some planned first-team game time and the fact that they aren't getting very much, despite how poor our starting line up can perform is an indicator that they won't get a chance, or much of one due more to policy than anything else. If you think about it, Reid and Sutherland got their moves at a young age after either excelling at Scotland level or on loan. Noe of the above have achieved that, including Fraser Taylor, and that tells me that the club thinks they are better with experienced loanees and free transfers. The hard fact of being a kid at St Mirren seems to be that you need to provide a decent financial return early or you will be moved on.

and Italy, and Aberdeen and, of course, home games for Scotland Saw him in a couple of friendlies, home internationals and the famous victory over Czechoslovakia in 1973 (scariest night at a game ever, at that point in my life, 3 of us swept off our feet and kept off the ground by the movement of the crowd for what seemed like an eternity when the winner went in).

The last paragraph is as much about the development as it is about transfers, you know that. Toys out the pram, he assumed he was playing against rangers and invited loads of family over from Ireland and went ballistic when he was told he wasn't playing. Rather than have him cool his heels we let him go even though he was under contract and started a process that eventually led to Hemming (who did well, if a wee bit last minute as a signing) joining us for his first spell. Without knowing what was said or how, i think Trevor was a better all-round keeper and was very good at keeping the defence on point, however the relationship was damaged.

The Hearts support will sell out their allocation and as long as it is not a daft Monday night tie then we should have a good home turnout. It depends on performances from us in the run-up to the game. I'd like to think there will be some incentive to attend offered if it is played at a daft time & day but standard pricing if it is Saturday or Sunday. Preferrence would be Saturday at 15:00, then maybe 17:00 that day or 15:00 on the Sunday. A long day out for the travelling fans of both sides if it is Monday night

I wouldn't include Groyan Strain in that, i know he was out of contract. He has recurrent injury issues and I would have been happy for the club to not offer to extend his contact . I think he is not the 90 minute box-to-box RWB we tried to play him as. I wasn't aware there was a fee for Gallagher, I would have preferred to keep him and was surprised the club gave him his requested move, gutted even. Shaughnessy has his faults but he is better and more adaptable than the likes of Iacovitti, there were hints of a fall-out between the player and coaches. Carson made an arse of himself, I know. Possibly the kind of player you can never keep happy. Bolton signed a contract and knew what he was getting into, he proved really solid for us once he got in the side and I was disappointed he was allowed to leave. One thing seems to stand out, the club seems to accommodate players wishes once we have spent money on their acquisition and/or development. With the exception of Taylor and maybe Gogic who overlapped some of these guys in their time here, we have replaced them with less capable players.

It's not just prospects. While we have unearthed very good pros in the last few years, several have either complained about family ties or stuff outside football in order to get released. 2 very good defenders and a very good goalie have ended up on Tayside and James Bolton is back in the north of England. All were contracted for longer periods and were simply released, yet we pay a fee for players who spend more time in treatment than on the team sheet and they generally just see out their contracts (or in some cases have them extended with no prior evidence of a return) without making the expected contribution. Our signing failure rate is high and there are a few ex players in the premiership we really could do with just now.

I think we have probably spent all the club intended to by getting Oseni, so any upfront money we get could be spoken for. Admittedly the squad isn't currently strong enough to get us back into a conference qualifying place so mid-table safety is priority 1. Maybe some of the crocks will recover and get us back on track but with only a couple of months to the split and other clubs looking stronger we have maybe missed the boat on top 6 so no big spending. If it wasn't for the injuries and unplanned departures I think most if not all of the graduates in the first team would have been moved on by now

Just go to your bed then.

Had to beat Hearts for our last 2 trophy wins, good to get them in Paisley

A disgrace that both clubs are complicit in. They will be getting telly money as well

I used to work in Houston a fair bit and several of my colleagues were based in an arc from Panama city, through Louisiana and East/Southern Texas. They relied on Mexican labour for everything from house-painting, groundworks and roof-tarring to gathering the harvest on family farms. Despite their reliance on the cheap labour, they still treated them really badly saying they couldn't trust them. The real criminals are still safely holed up outside the USA.

That's anyone's guess. The manager has expressed a preference towards taking on players with some attributes he likes and trying to shape them into something better. I'd say that there is more chance of that with a 20 year old who has been well coached and physically well conditioned for a few years than there is with a journeyman who is on a treadmill of loan deals in EFL leagues 1-3 (or lower). It would be great to see if Kieran is the one who can do it because, of all our forwards, only Olusanya is currently showing any kind of threat up front. We have just signed Oseni though and although I really hope not, it could close the door on Kieran who might be off to the likes of Raith or maybe Ayr. If the reputed £70k offer from Crusaders is true then perhaps there is a slightly bigger offer coming, or maybe Saints are saying to Crusaders "up your offer or lose him completely". The again, maybe Kieran is being recalled as injury cover for a forward the manager has just signed or hopes to land in the next week, you never know. With several young players reaching a certain stage of maturity and getting in to the second half of their current deals, I think this window will be a good indicator of where the manager intends to take us in terms of player development.

If only it was one thing, I wont remind you of specifics but the amount of time you and others spent pursuing him, Roddy and others was a disgrace. And over 10 years ago? You would have been in your 50s then and old enough to know (but not seemingly care)better.

Well you'd know about the family thing as you have tried to use the family thing to get at me before. And some of the stuff you directed at my brother was beneath contempt.

The guy hasn't played in a year, how long does anyone think it could be before he is available for us? In October, the Wrexham boss said he wanted to put him in the squad for the start of 25, however the player wasn't where he wanted to be regarding strength and power (are those 2 different things in a player?) So he is not in the squad for Wrexham, which means he is not at the required fitness levels to be listed as being fit at any point in the remainder of their season. A seemingly very good player whose current manager is not willing to risk in the next 5 months due to a back injury. I hope he is fit and does as well as expected for us if we sign him. In this situation, it seems that this signing would be based more on hope than reality when it comes to fitness. Maybe he is willing to "play through it" in the hope it will be alright. And save the broken record routine, the list of signings who come to us with a bad injury history that just doesn't get better is alarming.

Injury, Eh? And he is Irish too. Talk about breaking the mould? Just might be worth taking a punt on the guy, It can't really go wrong.

On recent experience, the the ability to be both permanently and easily injured is a pre-condition of signing for Saints From his Wikipedia He sustained a calf injury in a 1–0 defeat to Bolton Wanderers at Vale Park which saw him ruled out for a minimum of eight weeks County finished in the relegation/promotion play-off place at the end of the campaign, which the club won. However, Iacovitti was unable to feature due to injury.[34] "He suffered an injury early in the 2024–25 season, which kept him our of action until Christmas" "signing a two-year deal with St Mirren, who paid Port Vale an undisclosed transfer fee."

Trump says a lot more than he means.

I have a concession ticket that is free of charge for anyone who is attending and isn't yet in possession. I am reliant on public transport this weekend and it is simply too long a journey time for me. If you want the ticket then it is available to the first genuine concession qualifier, please PM me.

You know this for sure?

That surface probably cost us another 5.

Not enough to persuade the manager about a recall, he apparently spoke to Fraser recently and just told him to work hard and keep it up with no talk of coming back. https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-courier-advertiser-angus-and-the-mearns-edition/20250106/281964613354524?srsltid=AfmBOop-zZ2FCRMC_43hlhjKkUUxZYIMWXe6OLjlb4sDjhZv0QPsvkS2 Fraser himself says he is very happy at Arbroath for now, maybe he doesn't plan to stay there but i just get the impression that the manager isn't feeling it. His track record suggests that he favours big units on the pitch and that creativity isn't enough, we'll see as if he cant secure more signings we could be down a couple more players by the end of the window with Jamieson and Scott seeming to be moving on, Adeniran failing to feature (maybe the Jaden Brown fall-out), Idowu just not being very good and even a rumoured £70k offer for Offord from his loan club being on the table we could be down maybe 6 players plus crocs from the 1st team squad we started with.