Where do you want us to finish this season. Surely nobody actually wants us to be promoted ?

Under the dud gaffer, bottom by the looks of it! 

17 minutes ago, CaleyTennis said:

Under the dud gaffer, bottom by the looks of it! 

Second serve

What harm would it do if we went up and then came straight down?  Assuming we didn't stupidly overstretch the finances in an attempt to stay up.

Increased revenue plus a parachute payment for the following season, to be balanced against demoralised players and coaching staff (and supporters).

I understand your point, and I'm playing devil's advocate here...

Play off spot finish is all I'm hoping for at this stage. Champions seems a billion miles off at this point, unless some miracle happens...

Yes Snorbens you are right let's tell the Team that.

It'd be mint to get promoted tho tbh think there's more chance of us getting dragged in to the bottom 4 way things are going! 

Seriously fed up

At very best the best we can hope for is to finish 4th this season but looking rather unlikely

Predictions for league positionend of season mon pass an unusually dull Saturday I'll go 1 County 2 DUFC 3 Patrick 4 Ayr or our gd selves probs Ayr

My expectations were to improve on last season, I would be aiming for getting into the playoffs. I don’t think we are there yet for promotion but that is where we need to be aiming.

I forgot how much I enjoyed The rants from Thurso so I’d be ok with us going into a bit more turmoil just for that. 

Any sane person would be looking for 4th place , at the very least it will give us some much needed pennies from the play offs?

I hope we miss the play offs as it'll be a real wake up call to the players, management, board and fans. Otherwise we are in danger of too many parties patting each other's backs that the season was a success and masks where we are. The fact we can even be considered in contention still is damning of the lack of quality in the league. We are ***** and our record and number of points show it - 7 wins in 24 isn't a level which should be deemed acceptable.

Our form at the moment is so unpredictable. We seem to really struggle to beat teams below us in the league, but have had a few good results against teams in the top four. The way things are going, I can't see us holding on to a top four spot. Some of the teams below us are starting to put runs together, Partick being one of them, and they have just signed a proven goalscorer, Scott Mcdonald,  till the end of the season. Some teams in the league have gambled and thrown a lot of money in their efforts to get promoted, and it seems to be paying off at the moment. The problem is we have played it safe, money wise, and have lived within our means, which may be counter productive in the long run, if we don't make the playoffs and have shot at promotion. Another year in the championship will probably mean another reduced wage budget, players leaving, and the possibility of a poorer quality of player being recruited. If we are finding it hard to recruit players with the money we are offering in wages now, I dread to think what will happen next season,  especially with the ever decreasing attendances and possible lower season ticket sales. We have to start giving more of our young players game time with the first team, and have them ready for next season, it seems the only way forward, unless we find our own Roy Macgregor.

7 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

I hope we miss the play offs as it'll be a real wake up call to the players, management, board and fans. . . The fact we can even be considered in contention still is damning of the lack of quality in the league. We are ***** and our record and number of points show it - 7 wins in 24 isn't a level which should be deemed acceptable.

I hope we keep our play off spot but I can't see it happening, Queen of the South are right behind us and one win puts them into the mix and given the fact we have been so poor recently its likely we will drop down a couple places and miss out. 

The fallout is a lot of fans will be fuming given that we narrowly missed out last season and will call for Robbo to go (but Im sure he has a 4 year contract and hell stay) and those fans will then not renew their season ticket meaning even less money. 

It's a huge week for us now. Beat County and Morton and things will be so much more positive. Lose both games and Robertsons position must be under threat. 7 wins from 24 games makes pretty grim reading. 

6 hours ago, Jaggernaut said:

 The problem is we have played it safe, money wise, and have lived within our means, which may be counter productive in the long run, if we don't make the playoffs and have shot at promotion. Another year in the championship will probably mean another reduced wage budget, players leaving, and the possibility of a poorer quality of player being recruited. If we are finding it hard to recruit players with the money we are offering in wages now, I dread to think what will happen next season,  especially with the ever decreasing attendances and possible lower season ticket sales. We have to start giving more of our young players game time with the first team,

Last statement is the point. The club should have looked weeks ago at where we are and our capabilities along with what and who we have next season. The youngsters should be in NOW getting game time while we are not realistically going to make the play-offs and if we did then it'll be an embarrassing **** show for the club and league. Start being realistic and look to build a plan moving forwards - if Robbo is here 4 years then we need to stop short term year on year fire fighting.

45 minutes ago, LairdMattie said:

I hope we keep our play off spot but I can't see it happening, Queen of the South are right behind us and one win puts them into the mix and given the fact we have been so poor recently its likely we will drop down a couple places and miss out. 

The fallout is a lot of fans will be fuming given that we narrowly missed out last season and will call for Robbo to go (but Im sure he has a 4 year contract and hell stay) and those fans will then not renew their season ticket meaning even less money. 

Thats because like this season we were mainly ***** and if it wasn't for the run of 10 or 12 games at the end of the season when Oakley & Austin hit form then Robbo might have been gone. The 'feel good' factor for many at the end of the season masked just how bad we really were. Fans need to realise where we are and what is needed - short term fixes signing jobbers and journeymen don't work and if the club did start to invest more in youth and we could see a young side starting to progress and the sense its building for the future with a decent style of play then fans will renew & maybe even see small increases in footfall.

Edited February 17, 20197 yr by bdu98196

Mind the last time we gave a manager such a long contract? Sure he was the ex-captain and had a funny looking beard. 

1 hour ago, bdu98196 said:

Last statement is the point. The club should have looked weeks ago at where we are and our capabilities along with what and who we have next season. The youngsters should be in NOW getting game time while we are not realistically going to make the play-offs and if we did then it'll be an embarrassing **** show for the club and league. Start being realistic and look to build a plan moving forwards - if Robbo is here 4 years then we need to stop short term year on year fire fighting.

Thats because like this season we were mainly ***** and if it wasn't for the run of 10 or 12 games at the end of the season when Oakley & Austin hit form then Robbo might have been gone. The 'feel good' factor for many at the end of the season masked just how bad we really were. Fans need to realise where we are and what is needed - short term fixes signing jobbers and journeymen don't work and if the club did start to invest more in youth and we could see a young side starting to progress and the sense its building for the future with a decent style of play then fans will renew & maybe even see small increases in footfall.

Gotta agree here if the end of the seasons dead rubber which it's looking like it probs will be noes the time to put the youngsters in see what they're made of id rather see that than the dross journeymen who ain't gonna be here nxt year anyway keep getting game time defo needing a change of direction Rebuilding with gash journeymen nobody else wants every season hasn't worked ! Said at the time we went down when people were saying we had no dollars should've looked at a manager like Billy Reid who brings on youth players only way if your as skint as we claim to be! Shame likes of Trafford are on longish contracts waste of a wage really

16 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Where do you want us to finish this season. Surely nobody actually wants us to be promoted ?

We are a long way from being prepared for the Premiership but nobody in their right mind would turn down promotion.

Even if we were to be immediately relegated the extra million pounds plus from being in the top tier would be a very welcome and timely boost to our depleted coffers and, even if we did go back down again, there would be another two years of parachute payments.

More optimistically, you never know, the bottom few teams in the Premiership are not much better than those at the top of the Championship and with a bit of luck and some judicious recruiting over the Summer we just might survive and eventually prosper.

That's basically what I was trying to say yesterday - except that I looked only at the worst case of coming straight back down.

As well as the boost to finances, it would also give the team experience of football at the higher level.  That would clarify who could make the grade and who couldn't - and would also identify those who have the desire to make the grade versus those who don't.

If it was a referendum, I'd vote for promotion!

47 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

We are a long way from being prepared for the Premiership but nobody in their right mind would turn down promotion.

Even if we were to be immediately relegated the extra million pounds plus from being in the top tier would be a very welcome and timely boost to our depleted coffers and, even if we did go back down again, there would be another two years of parachute payments.

More optimistically, you never know, the bottom few teams in the Premiership are not much better than those at the top of the Championship and with a bit of luck and some judicious recruiting over the Summer we just might survive and eventually prosper.

Who would you trust with this "judicious" recruiting wev needed a striker for 2 seasons and Robbo still hasn't found 1 the reason why we aren't battling for the title!

7 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

If it was a referendum, I'd vote for promotion!

Snorben Sturgeon ?

At least we would be guaranteed a Brexit the following season.

We have no chance of promotion with this small squad if we cant beat Partick at home with all "key players " in the team Then the chairman sells a striker on deadline day to save a wage on an already threadbare squad whoever comes down if it is Dundee or St Mirren or whoever will have bigger squads than us and parachute payment we have dwindling fans and in all honestly no hope on a good day we play every bit as good as all other championship teams but sadly those days do not come around very often and it is nothing to do with how loud fans sing.

Based on the rest of the teams in the league bar County and Dundee Utd most seem to have a balance of 1st team players and youth starting games. We throughout an 11 have a higher standard throughout the overall 11 to most but i dont believe our better players are as good as the rest. 

Most of our starting 11 would get games at other teams in the divisions but few would be standouts and those that would aren't in the right areas to win us games Ridgers, Coll etc. 

I'd like to see us lose a lot of the average players in the squad put the youth guys in and the wage saved to be put into bringing a higher standard of player to start in games. Ayr and QOS have poorer squads IMO but the better players in their sides would start easily for us.

Charlie Trafford is no better than Jack Brown, Roddy MacGregor.

Anthony Macdonald and Macauley were brought in to take the burden of young daniel and haven't yet shown why we are playing a 17 year old hearts loanee over one of our own lads to gain vital experience and Macauley looks no better so far.

Mchattie, macauley and macdonald all are reasonable squad players but do little to improve the 11 as opposed to the squad and are simply a wasted wage imo when we could have allowed Harper, Macgregor, Mackay, brown etc to pick up vital minutes and experience.

Are they ready yet? Maybe not but id sure as hell rather watch them play with the understanding its the long game as opposed to failed journeymen who are clearly playing at their level already.