stewarty

Says it all about the BBC if these are Rob Maclean's talking points from the weekend... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40921920

I felt that Motherwell clearly attempted to be more physically challenging in the second half on Sunday. It was succesful up to a point and they played well, but we stood up to it. It wasn't without some issues for us - particularly when mixed with some excellent cross balls which caused us problems. Trying to look at the match objectively, those two areas would be what I would be targeting if I was in Lennon's shoes so I think we can expect some of that on Saturday. Hopefully we can continue the habit of getting an early goal and put them under pressure early!

Sadly it just didn't look like working out for him after last year so it looks to be a good move for him personally, I think. He'll probably make some extra cash and will likely get much more game time.

Welcome aboard Bill!

Yes. Organiser's prerogative!

Oh agreed - there ain't no party like a BH-organised party. So I'm told

Fair enough - I wasn't aware the player's Dad had been involved. Regardless, I'm taking this to mean that there is something happening which could see us concluding things in the near future. I could also be completely wrong!

This is the ground in which this stuff works... take a kernel of information, sensationalise it, mix it with some plausible stuff up to fluff it out and then watch social media devour every aspect of it to the point nobody has a clue what is real and what isn't. Apart from the ITK posters, of course...

Exactly... Which is what makes me think its a little mischievous

This is where you missed a trick. In the same way that the victors write the history, the organiser gets to choose the dates!

Definitely interested in coming - I will make it one of these times! Gone for the Killie date, but in reality it wont be till nearer the time before I can work out if its something I can make.

There's a couple of interesting articles referred to on the Beeb's Scottish football gossip for today... one that reports Don Cowie being surprised that we are the only club showing interest in Walker... and another suggesting that Hearts are about to offer Walker a deal that would make him their highest paid player. We could of course accept both of these at face value, but I do rather suspect that this might either be the work of Hearts to sustain their inflated valuation of the player, or perhaps the player's agent to try and extract maximum value from any potential deal with us. Either of which would suggest progress is being made towards a deal.

Agreed. But because of some of the results in his short tenure, he's lost the goodwill that goes with most new managers and wont be afforded much more time. He needs immediate results.

I nominate Ian!

What a dreadfully written piece from Michael Gannon. I could only manage a few sentences. Thankfully the operative parts were highlighted so I could skim over it quickly. This is just reinforcing my previous post....

Spot on. If anything, I'm guilty of something in between as well. I'll give someone the benefit of the doubt when perhaps I ought to be slightly more sceptical - both in terms of initial impressions and making allowances for poor performance.

I've not bought any paper, let alone the Daily Record for several years now. However I don't think much about clicking through to their online stuff. Stuff like this just shows that I now need to re-think my approach and just get any Rangers-related stuff when its posted on forums, or just ignore it completely.

Fairly sure I'd seen him doing a twitter Q&A in the last few weeks. Has he perhaps taken up a new role this week?

SFA statement now. But its broken their website.

Celtic have released a statement that puts pressure on the authorities to review their position on titles, etc. Scottish football is about to eat itself. Again.

And what to do now? We've got a month till our first competitive fixture and barely anything lined up until then. And another thing I'm concerned about is the trend that both Warburton and PC have shown in terms of how they prepare the squad from a fitness perspective. We all know that Sports Scientists control this to a large degree and I'm sure there will be plenty of evidence that shows that the players are as fit as they should be at this stage, and haven't put the stress on their bodies that pre-seasons of old might have done. But I can't help but think that one of the reasons that Rodgers got so much success last season was because they worked so much more on fitness/sharpness to allow them to play the all-energy pressing game that puts the opposition under so much pressure. We certainly couldn't cope with it, and the with the lethargic way we've approached this fixture, I'm concerned it'll be the same again.

Given the level of investment, I don't think he will be sacked, but any goodwill he had built up in a relatively short space of time over the summer, has gone completely. Many will now have made up their mind and wont be changed from it. As we saw in his first few games in charge, there are question marks about whether he is able to get his ideas across - this will only increase. My other worry is that the exact same game plan that was too good for Warburton, will be enough to beat Caixinha, with clubs domestically knowing they just need to sit tight and we wont have a clue what to do.

Quick, someone revive the Totty thread...

I'll bet she was delighted with her Rob Kiernan t-shirt...

I mean that I'm sure the club will clarify timescales for the delivery of new stock and give some form of explanation - such as lead time for manufacture, or whatever. I'm sure they will also promote the amazing response from fans since Thursday's announcement.