ascender

Its been very funny to hear the Jambos creaming themselves over McGhee, pretty much for the last 3 months or so. How its a done deal according to my mate who cleans his windows etc. And now it looks like he's staying with Motherwell. It couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of deluded & paranoid supporters IMHO.

There's a few comments from WS this morning faintly praising Boyd and alluding to the fact that he could play a big part for us next year depending on who we sign. Also an interesting stat, that Boyd started 25 of our 68 games this season and scored 25 goals.

I'm more worried that his signing is an indication we're in for another season of one-up-top and a fairly negative approach to games tbh.

I've never understood this argument and this season has surely been the perfect counter to it. This year we've made heavy weather of beating many teams in the SPL and dropped numerous points to the so-called "smaller" teams in the league. None of our forwards are the sort of complete, all-round forward who is best to play in a lone striker role. But then its not surprising as that sort of player is very expensive! So I thought we'd play with two strikers who can compliment each other, but that's not really been the case either. I'd have thought that given how many goals he scores, we shouldn't be looking to get rid of him. And its bizarre to criticise him for scoring free kicks, as no-one else seems able to do it! And someone has to take the penalties. He's also saved our skin in the two domestic finals this season and is a bluenose yet can do no right in the eyes of some fans.

Chelski have terminated his contract. So does that mean Rijkaard is on his way? I also see from the papers that Romanov and Mourinho are on speaking terms again....

I always like Italy too. Spain 82 was the first World Cup I remember being excited about, collecting stickers for etc and when the Scots got knocked out, I followed the Italians. Weird how something like that, from such a young age, stuck with me. I also liked the French recently as I thought Zidane was on another level to most footballers in recent memory and I never tired of watching him play.

That game kind of summed up our season. We've been so close to winning nothing this season on many occasions and today was another time where we could quite easily have lost to a supposedly inferior team.

Remind me why we're wanting to get rid of Boyd? Not a bad free kick for someone who is useless from outside the 6 yard box.

Kenny Miller story just won't go away unfortunately. I'd be more concerned about the tactics we'll play to accommodate him rather than the player himself.

I still think we have the basis of a good squad, but if this season has shown anything, its that some of the players I thought were good enough, clearly aren't. And what's the point of having a much larger squad if WS won't use the whole squad?

We've dropped far too many points against average opposition this season, since the start. That's what made our task even more difficult at the tail end of the season when things like the fixture list made a bad situation worse. We've been distinctly average for a few years now and while we managed to grind out a great run of results earlier in the season, we were always walking a very thin line between winning and losing. I don't think we have enough leaders on the park either. Maybe leaders isn't the right term, but I mean those players who stand up and be counted when needed and can turn games around and inspire those around them.

Looks like the worst kept secret over the last while was accurate and McGhee will be the next manager of the Jambos. OK, so they're going through the usual things of rejecting the official approach, but we all know what'll happen next. Its an interesting one, because while many will say that anyone who wants to work with Romanov is just mental, I'm sure McGhee will have a clause saying that he gets 100% control over team affairs couple with a nice clause guaranteeing a big payout if things go pear shaped and he has to quit. I wonder how he'll do there, meddling aside, as he never seems to last very long at any club he goes to and he had been rumoured to be in the running for the Celtic job if Strachan left.

No surprise if Cuellar goes in the summer. His situation is identical to Hutton's IMO. The number of mentions Carlos is getting in the English media is amazing considering the disdain they look upon the SPL with. It was the same with Hutton, for the first time in ages, you'd hear his name cropping up time and time again on programmes and news articles who'd previously not single a Scottish player out for that sort of praise. Hopefully Carlos will want to stay for another couple of years before moving on. On the other hand, what would people's opinions be if his leaving meant WS doubled his summer transfer budget in one fell swoop?

He shouldn't have played for us again after what he did in the UEFA semi, that was a disgrace. To then do something similar against Dundee United and still be played, was just mind-boggling.

He's had his moments. I'm sure quite a few of us were delighted he'd signed on more than one occasion as we finally had someone who wasn't afraid to shoot from outside the box. Another quality we've lacked in years.

Unfortunately the fee for McCulloch was just because he played in the Premiership and there was no way round it. Could it have been better spent elsewhere? Maybe. WS was trying to sign players like him who he'd worked with before so even at that fee I thought it was fairly low risk. McCulloch hasn't been a total waste IMO, but he needs to do much better on a regular basis. Of course, playing him in the same position from one game to the next might help....

The signing of Cuellar has shown that there are still relative bargains to be had if you have a decent scouting network in place and are willing to pay reasonable fees and wages.

Of course we threw it away. Celtic were the better team over the course of the season as they got more points than us, therefore they won the league. Leagues don't lie in the way that one-off games can. We didn't have to rely on favours from anyone else. If we'd won our remaining games, we'd have won the league, regardless of what Celtic did. But we couldn't.

We don't have the money for a big clear out surely?

I know that we've exceeded expectations Fraser, but the point is, we threw the league away and have been forced to watch some terrible football and truly gutless performances, particularly since the new year. There's still some great memories from this season, but its so disappointing that many of the problems in the team which have been there since day 1 of the season were never addressed.

He's already mentioned the fixture backlog again and while that's caused us real problems in the last couple of weeks, its not what caused us to throw away lots of points since the turn of the year.

Alan Smith? I thought Robbie Fowler was coming in the summer?

I'd just love to see some decent interviews with WS in the wake of what's been a disappointing end to the season. Surely its not asking too much for some of our esteemed journalists to have some balls and ask him the questions that fans have been discussing amongst themselves all season? Or will he just get arsey again and question our right to question him in the first place? Yes we've made progress and possibly over-achieved according to his plan, but that doesn't excuse the way we've gifted Celtic the title. I'm not for hounding him out the door or anything, but I'd just like him to explain some of his baffling decisions this season which are scarily familiar to anyone who remembers his first tenure in charge. Is that asking too much?

Can he be any worse than Cousin recently? So long as we get rid of Cousin and sign some creative midfielders, I don't care who we play up front.

We've been average for much of the season, ridden our luck and made the most of limited resources in the squad. But its been so frustrating to see another season full of baffling decisions at times. Its almost like every manager we get is given a list of things they must do (play players out of position; ignore youth) and things they must ignore (lack of creativity in the midfield). Its been like this for how many years now? Absolutely gutted. And even more gutted for all the guys who've followed the team to all the away grounds this season and see some truly gutless performances.