Magic Monkey

I'll say this for Ashley: he ain't daft. It's what concerns me about him potentially taking over Sevco. He will run them in an efficient way and his involvement there pretty much precludes the chances of them going into administration for the first time in the club's history. He will find a way to make money from Sevco, even if it's just associated tracksuit sales to neds. But he won't asset strip: he'll be looking for ways to make money in the long term. They'll end up being a financially well-run club, with no players on stupid contracts, and he'll make a killing from selling them off.

I've been 'skilfully' avoiding those for years.

Any chance Brewster could let us tap into some of his millions?

I am not a youngster and I will learn nothing.

I've seen three of them play, and they're definitely not. Ferguson is fast, left-sided winger who will take the piss at that level. Bigirimana is the sort of midfielder we should have signed, and Vuckic, while a bit more of a luxury player, is very classy. Not quite a full-on number 10, but has got a load of talent. Surprised he's not made the step up to the NUFC first team yet. I guess that's the one downside to binning Tommy Craig, though, on balance, it's clearly still better that we did.

Also, there's no thread for this, but see what's happened at Sevco? Massively strengthened by NUFC loanees. That's some insane talent for the Championship. We really, really can't be banking on winning a play-off against them. (And there's no way Hibs are overtaking them either.)

Not even two years on yet from a League Cup win, and from a matchday squad of 16 on March 17th 2013, just five players remain at our club, and one of them is the manager (and, let's assume, not playing any more unless we're desperate). Ok, three of the guys that day were loanees, but still, it makes me sad.

I'm available for a very reasonable rate.

It was cramp, not a hamstring.

My mistake, thought he played at the weekend. Re Sonupe... I can actually see the point in signing another winger. I really can. Thommo, Dayton and Sonupe up front, Osborne, mcginn, and Mallan in midfield. Of course, if Ozzy is out for a while, we're still f**ked.

He'll have played for too many teams so couldn't play for us too.

I'll give you the semi final, but we were horrendously over-run in the first half hour of that final, and then again in the last 15/20 minutes. IIRC, didn't we switch to a nominal 4-4-2, with McGinn pushed wider, Gowser sitting deeper, and Isma closer to Thommo, that forced the improvement from 30 mins onwards?

Was that in the game vs Dundee where everyone said McGinn played one of his worst ever games for Saints? They're not natural DMs, anyone can see that. We are measurably worse when we have no DM in the side.

I think Tommy Craig well and truly took his ball home with him on that front...

This is brutal. I've got loads of work to do this afternoon but instead I'm gonna be checking back here every few minutes to see if we've signed anyone. Fuxake.

I've got another one of those with a gif of Conor Newton's goal in the final if you want? And another with Paul Dummett's assist in the same game...

I can't think of a single reason.

I can't think of a single reason.

Fake account, sadly...

Yes, this. Why the f**k aren't we signing established first team players from south of the border with the zero money we've had for transfers for years?

Yeah, we have, and have had, plenty of players with some sort of Old Firm link/past. Given the way the Ugly Sisters have hoovered up young talent in the past, it's kinda hard to avoid that. As long as they then try their hardest for the Saints, I don't really care.

If he was playing well, I wouldn't give a shit. But he's doing this at a time when his team is struggling and he's not bothering his arse. Gowser nailed his colours to the mast very publicly, too, but did so when he was our best player. His commitment to our cause wasn't up for debate. Wylde can GTF as far as I'm concerned.

Any guesses as to the line-up for tonight? I fear Thommo may be thrust in. Personally I'd give Ball 50 minutes then Thommo the last 40. Predicted team: Ridgers Naismith, Cheesy, Tess, Kelly Goodwin, Osbourne Dayton, McLean, McGinn Thommo

To clarify, it's not that it's found not to be legal. It will have been legal then, and remains so until the point HMRC decides it isn't. HMRC can change the rules. It's equivalent to road authorities deciding that actually 60mph was the limit, and fining everyone who's been over that in the past five years. (Just to clarify, I'm against excessive tax avoidance, but it's a massive grey area and wouldn't know where to draw the line. I'm not going to lie or be a hypocrite here: I've run a Ltd company in the past that consisted of just me and the Mrs, because it was financially beneficial to do so. We ended up a couple of grand better off.)