stewarty

A good piece. But what hope do we have of providing in-depth tactical analysis if our flagship weekly highlights provides no more than 4-5 minutes of each weekend's games; and to then rely on a host of former players who then criticise "laptop" managers and make sneering comments about Caixinha's analysis and use of glasses to illustrate his points. Its all rather tired, lazy and predictable at the moment. And thats not to say there isn't a place for that type of programme, but we also need the in-depth analytical approach and it strikes me that there is a chunky market out there for content of that nature. Will any broadcaster attempt to break the mould?

It was just after he signed on again with Burnley. No doubt the FA were tipped off following the SFA proceedings - which only serves to highlight what a sham this whole thing is. And to be honest, Barton is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg. I've no doubt that there will be plenty of players who will be using accounts set up in the name of their wives and girlfriends to get around exactly this type of thing

Harsh or otherwise, it certainly puts the ban from the SFA in perspective. Whilst I'm sympathetic that the length of ban is harsh, I suspect his defence about having a gambling addiction just seems to be equally ridiciulous. Roughly 3-4 bets a week? And from the examples above, well within his disposable budget - who is he trying to kid? How many posters on here would be immediately searching for the nearest Gamblers Anonymous meeting if that was the criteria?

In fairness, the wind was really chilling yesterday

I think whatever the justifiable reservations we have about PC, he deserves a chance to put his own slant on the team and to then be judged on results. As for the differences between Warburton and PC, I'm sure there are those much more competent to describe in detail, but PC will adopt some of the Mourinho style, with the focus on attacking play, pressure and transition (i.e. from defence to attack, attack to defence).

Yeah, agree it's a tough one. But if we're setting targets, I think that's what we should be aiming for.

Most folk I speak to talk about signings in the same places - it boils down to the spine of the team - CH, CM, CF. Those are the areas I'm hoping Pedro is targetting, with the rest of the squad uplifted depending on who leaves. I'd fancy our signings will come from places we are not as familiar with, such as Portugal and perhaps even South America. I suspect we will be able to uplift the technical ability of our squad without paying the inflated prices we've paid for the likes of Garner. With that, I hope we will be better able to implement the transition based game Caixinha is trying to put in place. Target for this time next year - a reasonable run in the Europa League, a domestic cup final and minimum of 2nd in the league with a much smaller gap in terms of points.

Sad news, RIP big man.

Good that he recognises he needs to do better.

I only heard Dalziel's initial comments, but it was very much a case of taking on the role of devil's advocate for the sake of stimulating some calls/debate. It was a very poor attempt at it, mind. You could tell he felt he had drawn the short straw during the pre-show planning.

I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand, I have a lot of respect for what Craig has done, putting himself in the firing line on a number of occasions, and seemingly to his detriment given the profile that has come with it. But on the other, the statement is pretty self-indulgent and glosses over conflict of interest issues and concerns that appear to have been raised by fellow directors. However, it would seem to be that there is perhaps more to this than meets the eye. Based purely on the fact that given the circumstances described, there would seem to be some fairly simple things could have been done on both sides to prevent these issues escalating. Nonetheless, its regrettable that we have lost some good people from the c1872 board.

Was away over the weekend so caught up with the game on Monday as well as the Sportsound podcast (that downloads automatically but is usually deleted)... I was treated to Richard Gordon and Willie Miller build the narrative about the mad last 15 minutes... In fairness, they waxed lyrical about our clinical finishing and the way we finished the game, but offered absolutely no explanation for this other than Aberdeen switched off and made mistakes. Could it have been that despite their pressure for the first 25 mins of the second half, they mostly fed off half-chances and that we actually defended pretty well. Could it also have been that even though the game progressed to the final 20 minutes, rather than letting our levels drop, we noticably maintained (and even increased) our pressing game and forced them into making mistakes at the back which led to the goals? A classic away performance, one might say. But no explanation or deeper analysis than "Aberdeen were excellent and the better team for 75 minutes, but then a mad final 15", was given. I expected no less. its these brief forays back to the podcast that reinforce why I rarely tune in to the show live, and mostly delete the podcast when it downloads.

I'm hopeful that Pedro will have an eye for previously untapped markets that might allow for good quality players at prices that are not as inflated as the English lower leagues. The Finnish leagues via JJ could be another one. Should be an interesting, if short, summer break.

Met him at an RF meeting. Good guy. Congrats and good luck Greg!

Probably someone like Spartans in Edinburgh.

Agreed, and its all very normal stuff that arises from governance reviews. But we know from as recently as the Warburton departure, that we seem to have delays in key decisions caused in part due to the availability of non-execs, so I've no doubt things can be improved.

Fod for me. He's made some crucial saves and has improved his consistency a lot from last season.

Annoyingly I'm down south that day.

Reading between the lines it seems to be an effort to streamline the governance arrangements. What needs to go along side this though, is clarity over roles, responsibilities and delegated authorities. Additionally, the club board need to set a framework for making time critical decisions that are normally reserved for RIFC non-execs oversight, but where they are not available. And ultimately, if Stewart Robertson is the MD, he needs to be allowed to be the MD.

Having a wee chuckle at the Easdale dig...

Pretty sure it can be done, if someone is willing to register as an agent.

I think we should combine this and the club1872 threads. On that basis, my vote for Pedro's "Cultural Attache" is Craig Houston.

I seem to recall reading a couple of board meeting summaries, but couldn't remember how many. I checked and minutes/ summaries of board meetings held on the following dates are available to members: - 29 October 2016 - 2 December 2016 - 9 January 2017 - 30 January 2017 - 6 February 2017

A sensible response from the remaining board. There are always two sides to any story, so hopefully the public meeting will allow for that to be put forward. On the face of it, it is really concerning to read what came out over the weekend. My only aside though, is that given the way that Blair's views on independence and conflicts of interest during the Board elections have been undermined by his actions in the Takeover Panel, and possibly now by this, I don't have a lot of faith in his views if he is one of the two members with significant governance experience referred to.

Just doesn't make any sense. Why would he move north, to the team of his boyhood rivals, for probably less than a third of what he's on or could get staying down south?