MarciaBlaine

As far as I understood it, it means players can be supported to study alongside playing. It follows schemes that are popular in the USA, the likes of which Luke McBeth took part in.

I'd say a lot of our need will stem from how Wilson wants to set us up, and we don't really know what that means yet. If we continue from last season with 1 striker, for example, then I could live with a main one and Diack. Equally, if we play a back 4, we can just about manage with the 3 centre backs we have and someone like Dolan as a 4th choice, plus it then frees up McBeth as an option in defensive mid. Conversely, a regular back 3 means, at minimum, adding another CB as additional cover. Not saying we should necessarily play in any of those particular ways, but recruitment needs to be shaped by team shape - and hopefully not the other way around!

I think we're seeing a bit of a systemic issue here. With 3 choices from 36 numbers, each ticket has a 1 in 7140 chance of winning. When multiple people play, the chances of there being a winner each month obviously comes down, so it's all about the volume of players. If 10,000 (!) tickets were sold each month, by month 3 there'd be an almost 99% chance of having a winner. Something more realistic for us, 800 tickets per month, means that after an entire year there's still only a 74% chance of anyone having won the jackpot at all. Or to sum up, with a smaller fanbase such as ours, this scheme is destined to have many, many rollovers. Nice for the person who eventually wins it, but it does give the monthly announcements a bit of a groundhog day feel.

Most weeks

Absolutely. I'm sure he's a bit raw at the moment.

1 Dunfermline 2 Raith 3 Ayr (or some variation of this top 3, but this is where I'm landing) 4 St Johnstone 5 Thistle (or less likely, Thistle 4th, St J 5th) 6 Arbroath 7 Ross County 8 Airdrie (again I think these 3, from 6th to 8th, will be much of a muchness) 9 Morton 10 Queens Park

If we had a minimal number of midfielders signed up, I'd keep Bannigan because he's been very good since coming back into the side imo. The problem is we have so many other contracted midfielders, several of whom I'd happily ship out before Banzo is shown the door, but we're likely stuck with them. Putting it another way: if we could treat our midfield like an old school Etch-a-Sketch and start from the beginning again, I'd have no qualms about putting him in the picture, but the screen's already crowded and I'm not sure there's space for him.

I heard we're down to a shortlist of four

He specifically says he was interviewed, the implication being at the same time as Graham, so that would mean the shortlist of four that was bandied about wasn't correct. However I suppose it's possible Wilson was interviewed on Wednesday after Graham turned the job down.

I find Dabrowski to be an excellent shot stopper but his kicking is pretty dire. Bud was very good with his feet. So I guess it depends how we're set up to play.

There's been no mention of Wilson, either in the shortlist of four or today's strong rumours that it's BBG getting the job. From that, I wonder if no longer being a co-manager means Graham will need to retire from playing. I'm feeling more certain that, one way or another, we've seen the last of him in a Jags shirt. As an aside, I wonder if we could afford Ross Docherty if it saves us an assistant manager's wage...

The trick is to think of the dullest, least inspiring combo available: St Johnstone, Hamilton, East Fife and Clyde for me.

Would welcome him 100%, but suspect he can command wages beyond what we can offer.

👀

Och, I wish I knew. I do though think we have the potential to do it - we're in a big city without the erse cheeks' baggage, and can be a really attractive proposition. There's a potential audience there, no doubt. But I'm not going to pretend I've cracked the code on how it'd happen. Credit where it's due, 'kids go free' was exactly that kind of long-term thinking and it's certainly been successful in bringing in more punters who are now paying customers. My point really was that using up our energies on trying to achieve the impossible or downright lucky, year on year, is to me a bit of wasted effort and it'd be a castle built on sand if performances ever dropped along with crowds. Build the foundations and we could afford the management, players and facilities that would sustain us in the top flight.

I think the above few posts get to some of the quandaries here. If we want to become a stable presence in the top league we can either: - become incredibly innovative and do things other clubs our size don't, and keep innovating indefinitely - get very lucky with management and players, and keep getting lucky indefinitely - increase our fan base so that we can afford to spend more money on quality players and staff i.e. compete with the top teams financially Of these, the only one that's not a total fantasy is the third. So we can all hope for a miracle manager (or SD/head coach), source a genius chief exec who isn't poached, unearth a clutch of young players who are brilliant, adore the club and sign 15 year contracts, etc. But the only route to sustained success at the top table is to get a bigger home gate. No new gaffer is going to guarantee long-term success.

A glutton for punishment, perhaps, but time to start thinking about new signings. Edit: I forgot about keepers! Think we need at least one if not two. Clearly a tight budget might constrain us, but we desperately need full-backs. Otherwise, defensively, we have 3 very capable centre backs so that's a solid footing. One more backup who can also play at full-back would suffice. In midfield, another defensively-minded player in the mould of Martin is required. I do wonder whether we'll lighten our midfield by releasing some contracted players - we have a glut there. Goals from midfield are clearly an issue but we have players who can, in theory, fulfil that number 8 role in Stanway and Crawford. We have 4 wingers contracted (Fitzpatrick, Chalmers, McKay and Lawless) and that's plenty - perhaps too many, depending on how we set up. And up top, we need at least one more striking option even with Diack returning from loan. The future of Graham being the elephant in the room, of course. Who should we sign? And more importantly who can we afford? The likes of Docherty and Moult, who've been released by DU, would be great but are a pipedream, financially.

Can anyone shed light on what's recently changed to power Montrose's amazing run of form? Because I'll have a large glass of whatever they've been on.

We'll need a new women's manager too now https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/brian-graham-to-step-down-as-ptwfc-manager/

According to Jagzone we've found one: Stuart Bannigan!

If both McBeth and Ashcroft are out then I think he'll have to play there. Putting Dolan in there, live on TV and in such a crunch game is a bit irresponsible I think. Fair enough Low was a similar punt, but centre back is a different situation with far graver consequences for slip-ups. You could damage the boy's confidence for good.

Just an aside really, but we were much less honking at throw-ins when Stanway came on. He seemed to find space better than most and his touches back to the thrower seemed flatter and far easier to control. When he's the taker, Megwa gives up far too easily on creatively finding a recipient and just chucks it up the line.

In brighter news, congratulations to Stuart Bannigan who tonight received his 100th yellow card for the club. Proud to say I was there to witness history in the making.

Seems that the general chat is Turner is out and O'Reilly will return. So with other inuries, the team somewhat picks itself at the moment: Mitchell Megwa, McBeth, Ashcroft, O'Reilly, Low Bannigan, Stanway, Crawford Chalmers (if fit) or Fitzpatrick Graham

Sorry for self-quoting, but this aged pretty well! (it doesn't happen often)