Digs

Exactly that. Whilst the Commercial Manager is about developing, maintaining and increasing revenue streams, whether that be by advertising, selling/hosting events at the ground, or increasing bums on seats at games. Anything to do with revenue generation is in his purview and he is responsible for not only overseeing what is already in place to maximise the revenue, but to come up with new ways of doing that too.

So the answer is abandon their ten year plan for short termism? That makes no sense. The two things aren't mutually exclusive and I'm pretty sure they aren't just hoping for the best. Do people not remember where we were chucking good money after bad chasing a pipe dream? Clearly the team needs bodies. That doesn;t mean an entire business plan should be chucked out the window in the hope that we might get some extra money from being promoted. Being promoted would absolutely not have been the target at the start of the season, they are far more conservative and patient than we are clearly. We are currently 4 points off the playoff, with a game in hand and playing the team currently in fourth on Saturday with 17 games to go. Realistic talk of relegation is knee jerk nonsense. We're closer to the playoffs than we are relegation so people need to stop wetting their knickers and calm down. Our support is so bipolar it's ridiculous. Win a couple of games we're talking about catching 3rd, lose a couple then we're in a relegation battle. It's a crazy way of thinking.

Absolute Rolls Royce of a footballer. RIP Der Kaiser.

That was never the intention and they have been crystal clear about that from day one saying it multiple times. Building a sustainable infrastructure for long term gain has always been their priority. I don't understand why people still think this tbh.

Unlikely as that page talks utter bobbins pretty much 100% of the time. Makes stuff up, and posts fan rumours. I guarantee you could make something up and it would end up on his page.

Sad news. I didn't know him but he sounds like a top bloke. RIP.

I really hope he hasn’t. He is exactly the sort of character he doesn’t want in the dressing room. Also, if ever there was a player who enjoyed an unwarranted reputation by having one good game in every 3 or 4, it’s him.

Agree with the second part. He's not being asked to drop 'deep' though, he's being asked to drop into the hole, but the onus is then on the 'supporting strikers' or the midfield to get beyond him, like Matty Todd did so well last year. It's the reason he scored 11 goals. We've not managed to do that as well this year and so folk just think he's being lazy by not getting on the end of crosses as if he's the only person in the team who should do so. I like Jakubiak as well, and I thought with his two goals at Ayr, he'd finally cracked it but he was a bit unlucky with the one that hit the bar but equally it was a poor finish in the first half when he pulled it past the post when he went down the left. He did have a good game otherwise though and I thought his hold up play was excellent, he linked well with midfield and was willing to run the channels too. Anyone who can't see that should probably take up another sport and stop talking about football because frankly, they've no idea what they're watching. This is our issue, we've got good footballers but no-one who is looking like a lethal striker who can do both. I do think though, if they could, they'd be worth a few quid. I personally don't like the forward formation we play but I get why we do it. I just think we should maybe have adapted it a bit better depending on the personnel available rather than trying to get players to do things that might not suit them. Two up top together gives more options, as opposed to our 1-1, especially for getting on the end of crosses, but it then means our midfield really need to do more in getting on the ball. Chalmers remains our only midfielder willing to get on the ball at every opportunity. Which btw he does even when folk are giving him stick or he's just made a mistake, which speaks to his strength as a player. Lesser players would hide in those circumstances. Summers and Moffat are clearly talented boys, and I don't know if it's what they're asked to do or not, but for me they need to get on the ball more and show for it more. Look at Summers goal on Tuesday, he's clearly capable but he and Moffat don't show for it in the same way Chalmers does, ie every time we have the ball. The two of them doing that would surely create more gaps, commit more defenders and win us more free kicks in the final third?

He's playing there as that's what he's asked to do. I went to a thing at East End and McPake spoke about him dropping into the hole to both leave gaps and occupy defenders but also try and drag midfielders out of position as it's an area where the responsibility for doing that becomes unclear, whilst picking up short balls to get the ball moving through the lines. When he plays, most of the moves going forward start with him. Even when fit, he's never going to run the channels and I wish folk would get that. On the missed chances, I agree he's missed a few recently, but I also think like you that it's lack of sharpness as he is without doubt the best finisher at the club. It's also worth saying that when a striker gets so few chances in the box, any he does miss are going to be amplified. I was thinking about going, but going to give it a miss and watch it on TV.

Fri 5th Jan 24 Queens Park 0 v 2 Dunfermline Ath (27 / 1695) Sat 6th Jan Airdrie 1v 2 Raith Rovers Ayr Utd 1 v 1Inverness CT Dundee Utd 2 v 1 Morton Partick Th 2 v 1 Arbroath

He's a full back and has never played centre back to my knowledge. He is, but no, he's just lazy apparently...🙄

I thin people assume that his job title means his main focus is to watch players when in all likelihood, especially since his job title seems to imply a wider role, that he co-ordinates the scouting and the reporting and is the go between with the management team and the actual scouts telling them what we need and reporting back to the management team. That would make more sense to me.

It’s nothing sinister as far as I’m aware, he’s back training and also trains with us.

McPake just been on the news saying defensive players are a priority and we are looking at loans and players out of contract both north and south of the border, and are currently having players watched.

There is absolutely no chance of us paying the sort of money he will be on. We need to get real here.

I'd think it unlikely we recall Sam. He's not been injured, he's been ill. If he comes back to us, unless it's to start it's a waste of time. The long game is his development and he is playing 90 mins every week. I wouldn't put him in the same bracket as Sutherland as he wasn't starting every week, so he's as well sitting on our bench as theirs. We do only have two free loan slots, unless Sharpe goes back as I think he was only signed for 6 months anyway. so unless we are going after free agents we really need to ensure anyone we bring in is going to be able to play every week or it's a waste of a slot. Wighton is clearly not fit, but again, is putting a shift in for the team, something he has done before and something a lot of folk don't seem to appreciate, they'd rather slate the guy and ignore any good stuff he does do.

What a lot of folk don't realise is this building still remains, they built the new stand round it.

Whilst I agree we should have been trying to get more shots away, again, I put that down to how well organised they were, especially since we walked right through the middle of them to get our goal. They got their second and then just played a really compact back line and midfield in front of it making it very difficult to get the space to shoot through. Moving the ball wide was as much about trying to stretch them and create those gaps to shoot as it was about getting it down the wing for crosses due to that space not existing.

You must have been at a different game from me because I agree with them. Only thing that let us down for the most part was the set piece defending (which we know is an issue) and the final ball. We controlled much of the ball for large parts of the game. Fair play to the Rovers, they got their goals and stayed very well organised and were hard to break down, as they have done in every single other game we've played them.

Tues 2nd Jan 24 Airdrie 1 v 1 Inverness CT Arbroath 1 v 3 Dundee Utd Dunfermline Ath 0 v 2 Raith Rovers (36/7492) Morton 2 v 1 Ayr Utd Partick Th 1 v 0 Queens Park

Sat 30th Dec Ayr Utd 1 v 1 Dunfermline Ath (27/1972) Inverness CT 0 v 0 Morton Queens Park 0 v 1 Airdrie Raith Rovers 2 v 1 Arbroath

Fri 22nd Dec Queens Park 0 v 2 Dundee Utd (J) Raith Rovers 2 v 1 Ayr Utd Sat 23rd Dec Airdrie 1 v 1 Morton Arbroath 0 v 2 Dunfermline Ath (27/1698) Partick 1 v 0 Inverness CT

That doesn't really make sense though because his concentration was absolutely tested more last season by not touching the ball for long periods in games and having to make saves, which he did. To me, for whatever reason, the confident keeper we had last year has been replaced by the one we had in the championship previously whose confidence was in tatters.

That is an outdated cliche. The boy next to me was banging on about that as well. Where the cross swung and where the header was made, there was no way that was his ball. He absolutely should have done better with the header though but I agree with Livi par that Edwards defending for it was absolutely honking. Caught wrong side of his man, and does nowhere near enough to put him off. The header was almost right in line with me, facing me, the boy just threw himself at it and hoped for the best, it hit the top of his head FFS. You've got to show more desire there and the manager even mentioned that in his post match comments. The second goal, you see how he dealt with that, and you want him coming for crosses? I'd rather take our chances with the defenders if he's going to drop an easy catch under absolutely no pressure.

No worries pal, I was only joking. It's not like I'm going to be troubling the leaders any time soon. Hope you're feeling better.