StockholmSyndrome

We don't need Mr Perfect, just Mr Adequate.

The first manager I had made my life a misery. I know I didn't work as well as I could have done at that time, as my confidence was at rock bottom. I can't imagine that it's any different for footballers. If a decent squad is consistently underperforming, it must say something about the man in charge.

All this talk about "belief" gets my back up. Belief is only possible for so long without evidence to reinforce it. If one is given no evidence, belief tends to disappear pretty quickly. Anyway, like probably most other fans, I have plenty of belief in the team; we have some good players out there, and it's not lack of belief from the fans that's hindering them, it's lack of direction and awareness from our so-called manager. Until we get someone who knows what he's doing, we will be incapable of moving forward.

It's just getting embarrassing now. He should walk before he has the chance to do any more damage.

I can't stand Russell Brand and I don't understand how he managed to get a career in the media in the first place given that he can barely string a coherent sentence together half the time. I'm glad he's got his comeuppance. Jonathan Ross is grossly overpaid and I don't find him funny at all. It's been calculated that every licence fee payer has contributed ?1 toward his huge salary. If he goes as well, then good riddance.

We still need a striker who's experienced a this level, though. We really shot ourselves in the foot when we let all our experienced strikers leave without replacing any of them. I remain to be convinced about Barrowman: there's a gap the size of the Great Glen between division 2 and the SPL.

A season where we play to our potential, produce good entertaining football like we used to and at least try to finish as high as we can would be nice.

As has been pointed out, relegation would be a disaster for the club's finances. Unfortunately though, life in the SPL isn't exactly a bed of roses either. One thing that's bothered me for a long time is that being in this league is no fun, for a number of reasons. This is probably one of the least competitive leagues in the world and the monotony really gets to you after a while. I really miss the fun days out we used to have visiting all sorts of grounds all over Scotland and being able to mix with other fans inside the ground. Unfortunately, however, if we want our club to survive in its present form, the SPL is what we're stuck with.

Hi Mrs Jnr, I've been learning German for a couple of years now and would be happy to help if I can. Just PM me and I'll see what I can do.

That would be clutching at straws, to say the least.

That's exactly what worries me. We used to have the best team spirit in the league, but it seems to have slowly evaporated.

Good grief! I hate squad numbers, always have done, always will do.

You can't get from the middle of the North Sea to Dundee any other way, I seem to recall.

Hi Beastie. The same thing happened to me as well. On the old site I had quite a high post count (can't remember what it was exactly, but it was pretty respectable) and when the site was re-launched I lost the whole lot! As I don't have a home internet connection any more I haven't had much chance to build up a proper post count again, which makes me look like a newbie even though I'm not. So if you don't mind, I think I'll join you on this thread and maybe we can both rack up a shedload of posts!

IMO, Ross deserves a lot more respect than he gets. He always puts in a lot of effort, even if he doesn't always succeed. The guy is a legend.

Things have gone a bit quiet in here, hmm? Oh well, time to bump it back to the top of the board!

Yeah, what did happen to I-Cat? I liked him. Anyone else remember Gregg Hood? We signed him on loan from Ayr Utd in 1997, I made three appearances then disappeared again. Absolutely pointless signing. And what about Mike Newlands? Never played a first team game, IIRC.

I think most of them need to pay more attention by the looks of things. Even better, maybe the manager should pay more attention to how he can play to his players' strengths instead of randomly shifting personnel round the park. I'm with CaleyD on this one though. Ross epitomises everything this club used to stand for and he can still do a job for us when teamed with the right players. He's really no better or worse than many other players at this level and if the whole squad had his commitment we would be all the stronger for it.

Or is it...?

BUMP

The players we have are capable of much better than we've been seeing from them. The squad is a bit thin, but that's no excuse for the lack of initiative on the park. I don't want miracles and I don't expect to win every game, I'd just like to get the impression that we're actually trying something out there. I don't like seeing us constantly repeat the same mistakes the way we have been.

I agree, Don. He certainly hasn't earned much respect from me, and I don't even have to work for the guy. In some ways he reminds me of someone I worked for a few years ago. She was brittle, inconsistent and had an unerring knack of rubbing people up the wrong way. She got to me so much I ended up leaving to get away from her. Maybe Brewster's not as cack-handed as she was but his seeming lack of management skills worries me.

I was thinking something similar, Kingsmills, but I was too polite to say it!

I've never understood the rationale behind Brewster's substitutions, or indeed a lot of his other decisions. Sometimes I suspect that he cuts off his nose to spite his face and persists with a decision because he doesn't want to admit he was wrong. It would certainly be interesting to hear him explain the reasoning behind his substitutions.