Renegade

Barry Wilson said on Radio Scotland post-match that a 'northern club' was after John Rankin. Now it's not going to be Aberdeen and Ross County have a pretty settled squad all ready to go. It can only be us he's referring to and he definitely seems like somebody Yogi would go for.

Even if Raven wasn't playing, our defence would still be stronger with the Warren-Meekings partnership restored and Horner or even Polworth at right back. That pairing last season was the best in the country. It simply has to be restored. I can't help but think though that Hughes is simply doing this to spite the supporters. That's not good management, in fact it's the complete opposite.

I might be wrong but did the bus information not used to be in the programme years ago? Certainly having it in there can only benefit the bus really.

Thinking there what I'd play for tonight. A Marcelo Bielsa hipster-style 3-3-1-3 for me! Fon Williams Raven Warren Meekings Tansey Draper--------------------Tremarco Mutombo Storey--------------Foran------------Roberts Subs - Esson, Polworth, Devine, Hughes, R.Williams, Horner, D.Williams

In the 60s Alex Bowman was signed by Leicester, straight from Caledonian I think. He also played for Clach and Thistle as well as Nairn. Seemingly he turned down Aberdeen and West Brom to move down there, but I don't think he ever played a first team game. Should probably be mentioned as well that when Schmeichel played for Falkirk, he was teammates with Russell Latapy and was managed by Yogi Hughes!

What?! I've been waiting patiently for Andrew Considine and Darren Murray to turn up for weeks now. Why did no-one tell me it was baloney?!

Stuart Golabek has been named as the new manager of Brora Rangers. Grant Munro will be his assistant.

Interesting tweet from yer man from the Courier there. Suggests a certain full-back might not be leaving us after all...

I don't know about anyone else, but I left the two Astra games with quite a bitter taste. Some of their thuggery, gamesmanship and downright cheating was disgraceful.

I wonder if John Rankin is one of them. A midfielder? Check. Played under Yogi before (and was complimentary of his ability)? Check. Experienced? Check. Plays guid oanest passin' fitba? Check. Out of contract shortly as well so I wonder if he's one of them. His style would certainly fit with our current team.

The fact it said pre-contracts means that it people currently employed elsewhere. In that case Tafazolli is an candidate. I was thinking the other might be that boy with the French sounding name who was mentioned a while back. He might be unattached at the moment though so that'd rule him out.

Oooh living dangerously there. I called them out on it once and they banned me!

Oh now come on! 'Mediocre'?! He wasn't that good!

Have they copy and pasted anyone's name yet and passed it off as their own....?

Polworth signs a three year deal. Excellent news!

What I thought was quite interesting was the way the Accies side worked managerially. Beuzelin, who is the club assistant manager, was in the dugout while their manager, Canning, played himself. I believe Alex Neil also used to play himself in these fixtures often (I recollect seeing him in the dugout for an U20 game at the Caley Stadium before he went off to Norwich). It's a good idea if you're in that position, the manager plays himself and talks the rest of the team through the game. If you've got a player/manager it seems like a really clever idea, especially for players so young.

I was there Impressed with Sutherland, Horner and MacRae. I think the latter has the potential to be good player for us. His fast, direct, tricky style reminds me of Ryan Christie. This Gilchrist at centre-back also looks composed in terms of playing the ball out from defence. Jordan Roberts strolled through the game and looked, in terms of ability, miles better than everyone else. Why he's not in the matchday squad is incredible! I won't be surprised to see Liam Hughes released at the end of the season. He was just anonymous throughout and the only incident of note was a tackle where he was lucky to stay on the park. No sign of Yogi there by the way, which I felt was strange. Brian Rice was there though.

The one thing that struck me about that interview was how he looked. Look at the difference in the pictures from last season where he looks bright and healthy. In that press conference he looks like he's aged about 10 years! Public abuse of other club employees, strange subliminal digs at the board in the press, bemoaning the clubs size/level of influence on transfer targets, rumours of a cold stance behind the scenes and poor man management, openly talking of letting go Raven in order to get a more forward-minded player in without explaining what the plan is for the defence and not forgetting of course, the weird Russell Latapy departure which was never really explained. There's something not right here. There's also the fact that Foran seems to be getting no game time at all now, not even as a late sub, while Jordan Roberts has gone from being the main man only few weeks ago, to disappearing from the matchday squad completely, says a heck of a lot in my opinion. What the heck is going on at the club right now?!

I heard at the game yesterday that Yogi's been told his playing budget for next season, is £80,000 lower than the one for this season.

I can give you a number of names I wouldn't want... When the time comes it's guaranteed someone will want John Robertson back. No thanks.

It seems to be a recurring thing though. As I sit in the North Stand I didn't see it, but I was told that when Motherwell scored the winner the other week Hughes ran screaming into the face of Ryan Esson blaming him for it! There's something amiss at the club right now and for one can't shift this end-of-days feeling at the moment. I've said it before, I've felt for a couple of weeks now that I really have a feeling Yogi is going to chuck it at the end of the season. I've had no tip-offs or anything like that, but just have an inkling that he won't be with us much longer.

Someone on P&B was saying that words were exchanged between Hughes and Rice at one point! Something I've wondered about Foran on the bench, is it purely a ceremonial role? In recent weeks, we've taken off Storey and brought the soon to be departing and out of position Danny Williams on upfront ahead of Foran. Even stranger, at Tannadice the other week at half time I was stood by the barrier over the looking the pitch when I saw Richie Foran walking down the touchline with a drink in hand. Lucozade? Water? No, coffee! Doesn't seem like the type of beverage someone about to come on the park would be drinking!

I see that horrid, serial plagiarist of a Facebook page ICT Loyal Army have asked if people would like to see Butcher back. A depressing amount are saying yes. One fan reckons though that if Yogi was to leave, we should bring in Ronny Deila!

Thought Tremarco was our Man of the Match again. I always felt a lot of fans were quite harsh about him on the whole but he's improved dramatically these last few weeks. Looks far far more solid in both defence and attack and seems to have worked out the rash tackles from his game. Our stand-out defender this season IMO.