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Chanka Zimba’s first call-up has been mentioned elsewhere, but I think it deserves a thread of its own. It’s quite an achievement to get noticed by any country when playing in Scotland’s 3 flight. The circumstances of tonight’s Argentina-Zambia match are somewhat bizarre, not least because it kicks off just a few hours after Zambia’s 1-0 defeat in Zimbabwe, where they seem to have fielded a young team, while the first team was in Buenos Aries. Argentina were supposed to be in the Middle East playing the ‘Finalissima’ v Spain and then a friendly v Qatar, both cancelled for obvious reasons. So they hastily arranged a home friendly v Guatemala. After it was announced, it had to be cancelled because Guatemala would be breaching some FIFA rule about playing friendlies in different continents during the same international window. So Argentina had to quickly find new opponents, in a week where most countries already had matches scheduled. Hence Zambia. But I’m not sure why FIFA the rule about playing in different continents doesn’t apply to Zambia - maybe it’s ok if they use completely different squads? But here we are, and we could find ourselves waking up on April Fools Day to reports that an ICT player, who has failed to score against the likes of Cove and East Fife, and happens to be suspended here, was up against Lionel Messi and the rest of the world champions. All very strange, but good luck to him!

Excellent post BC. There has to be a reason why the team is chopped and changed too much. I too have heard rumours that certain players had to be played who were on loan as, otherwise the loan would be withdrawn. Personally, I don't think Kellagher would survive in the Championship but if the club insist on keeping him, he needs an experienced number 2. Had Malpas been brought in earlier to assist Foran, would we have avoided relegation?. The other issue I have with Kellagher is a lack of tactically awareness. Teams now know how we will play and he seems unable to adapt. Playing players out of position, when everyone can see it's not working doesn't help.

What has that too do with the question I asked 🙄, did you not read the part where I said it's not worth discussing as it's off topic!! And in reply to @ICTPaisley above this post, I think I said he was on the same level as Terry Butcher in terms of how I view his tenure to date, though I can't remember now as my memory isn't as good as it once was 😂. Thank you to @Gringo @CaleyCiuin and @big cherly for actually giving their opinion on the question I asked and not veering off topic like some are 👍.

Cut the cloth dramatically! Six or more players (+ Kells) will be thanked and shown the door IMO. bc

If they do get promoted, they'll have to strengthen the playing squad. If they don't get promoted, they'll have to strengthen the playing squad.

Well here I disagree CT85. I would have thought (hoped) the club is well past the days where we blindly retained a employee because of sympathetic reasons, ie long time at the club, was a buddy of the CEO, came through some tough times; to the hard headed business of providing a successful product on the park ( which is always winning football matches). The argument whether SK is a good enough manager needs to be separated into what he has achieved to date in that role, and is his potential good enough to be a success in a higher division. Let’s assess SK’s performance first the past two seasons. He was appointed manager by the new owner during the administration period, who I would expect on recommendation from C Christie (later to the club’s CEO). The driving credentials I envisage being - available, cheap & already integrated with the players and systems. A fairly large turnover in players (under CC /AS direction) brought in higher skilled individuals that strengthened significantly the player pool. The brave decision was taken to retain full time status providing valuable training advantage. Kells managed to steer (despite the penalties) the club from avoiding relegation that season. Full credit should be afforded to Kells for achieving this goal. - I put aside the performances (as more than a few were average), as it was his first stint at a manager and learning the ‘trade’ and mistakes are to be expected (and allowed for ). This season again we carried a 5 point penalty to overcome. Again a fair few (experienced and skilful) players were brought in to compliment the player pool. Kells would have have input of course but I suggest any deciding decision was CC + AS. Has the manager progressed and developed into the post. Two categories allow us (the fans) to gauge this:- 1) Results (most important) - most games won albeit Stenny (part time) have done well also on victories. 2) Performances - Up to every fan to provide their own view. For me there has been two or three exceptional performances. Quite a few average ones and a good number of quite awful performances. Criticism of Kells this season IMO has mainly been :- Changing the players far too often and not playing his strongest team. - I personally question whether Kells is fully in control of this due to any contract arrangements made by CC. Unable to determine when a substitution is required and what type of player is needed to affect the game. Too loyal to the players. Or in other words not hard or demanding enough of them. Can he separate friendship from what the match needs? In the event we achieve promotion (either as champs or the play-offs) to the championship has Kells demonstrated he has the potential and ability to deal with the pressures and stress of a higher standard of opposition with the objective of not being immediately relegated. Thought it worth putting more content to allow the discussion to be developed on making an opinion. Over to the others. bc

The whole point of these friendly games so close to heading to the world cup is look at various different options. This helps the managers get the best information to put the most appropriate players on the pitch and adopt the best tactics when the team takes the field in June. This means playing fringe players who haven't played with some of their international team mates before. The manager needs to see how they interact in a competitive game and how they fit in with a style of play which is maybe quite different from that in which they excel at club level. And given the fact that there is nothing at stake for the team if they win or lose, the match will lack the urgency and competitive edge. Friendly matches are never going to be as exciting as those with something at stake. Think of it as a training session rather than a competitive match. Having said that, it is important this close to the world cup for teams to play this type of game in front of a large crowd. The problem for me, is the price. If you pay £40, you can reasonably expect to be entertained. If the purpose of the game is to learn more about the team, and for the team to familiarise themselves with the international experience, it is wrong to exploit the fans by excessive ticket prices. Cap it at £10 and maybe people will have more realistic expectations of what to expect. Hopefully they will then cheer more and boo less. It is worth noting too, that Japan are a very good side. They are currently ranked 26 places above Scotland in the FIFA rankings. It may not have been the greatest watch ever, but I'll bet Steve Clarke got some useful information from it. Incidentally, England are playing Japan in a friendly tomorrow. It'l be interesting to see how that one goes.