Yngwie

He is entitled to leave on a free, but until that happens we have to keep paying him. So since the end of last season, I would think we've paid him about £25,000 whilst he basically works on his latest painting. That's us one player down already. I fear that he knows what a financial liability he is to the club and might be sitting tight in the hope of a 5 figure pay off, before accepting one of the contract offers he's had.

The real issue is not so much the goalkeeping, it's that if he decides to just sit out his contract it prevents us bringing in 2 or 3 decent players.

What sort of team will we put out? Let's face it, nobody gives a hoot about this tournament until the final, so it's typically a good chance to experiment a bit and give some fringe players a run out. But we are also still trying to get the team playing better and this is a good opportunity to get more practice at the basics. So I wouldn't expect many changes at all.

The crux of the problem us that he is one of the highest paid players in this league but is miles away from bing one the leagues best players.

True, but we are more likely to be signing free agents.

Is Hughes off the payroll yet? Would be quite a situation if we were paying 3 managers at once, with the current manager being paid less than the 2 gardeners!

It was a fluke though, ball into the box that everybody missed.

Disappointing after a good first half for us.

1-0 ICT. Morton's keeper distraught!

Fair point, but all that £150,000 fee means is that as a teenager he had potential. As you will know, a significant proportion of teenagers with potential, especially Scottish ones it seems, just don't make the grade.

He might get a second bite at the cherry, as Albion seem to be in a bit of bother for fielding an ineligible player.

True, but I'm pleased for the Hospice that they have finally managed to convert the gifted shares into cash - particularly as it was revealed just a couple of weeks ago that they were sickeningly robbed of about £500,000 in a telephone banking scam.

And when it does, maybe someone could write a book about it!

Are you referring to the bit about crisis management?!

Going by the use of the £500,000, I think we can conclude that these sums will just go towards our wage bill, covering ongoing weekly losses and stopping us going bust this season.

Best statement we've had for a while, which isn't saying much, but it is well written and does try to address several areas of concern. Apart from the change at the top, the most significant point is that £500,000 is to be invested to clear the debt we racked up trying to stay up last season and to go towards this season's operating loss. Doesn't say who is putting in the money, though.

Nope, big waste of money, in the end. Only 4 goals from 15 starts, he was nothing special second time around.

Have we hit rock bottom yet?

I've no idea if this applies to Trafford, but there's a scheme whereby descendants of Polish Jews impacted by the holocaust are eligible for a polish passport. Thats why Gil Blumenstein had one.

When I saw that Aberdeen had signed Stevie May, I briefly carried an optimistic hope that we might get Miles Storey on loan for a few months, but I see he has just signed for Partick.

Source?

That's a pretty strong accusation and I don't think that is what Jamie Durent is saying - which to me is something more along the lines of "it's not as clear cut as has been portrayed by ICT". For example, IF there was an understanding that if Draper put in a transfer request then the club would accept the bid, then ICT would be telling the truth and Draper would be unhappy about being portrayed as the bad guy.

Disappointing but not surprising re Draper. A point that hasn't been mentioned so far is that he wanted to leave and put in a transfer request.

A narrower defeat than I feared before kick-off, but still disappointing.

10 years ago in the same fixture I thought it was great that they played defender Lee Wilkie as a lone striker. Our defence couldn't cope with him and we lost 0-3.