Council Juice

Esson Tokely-----Bully-----Munro-----Golly ---Proctor---Duncan*--- Imrie-----Sanchez-----Foran -----Rooney**----- * Maybe McBain as I've never been totally sure about Duncan. I think he is good enough, but prefer old reliable Roy, plus he can naturally give more cover to the left side with Procotr able to help out on the right. ** Barrowman perhaps as more of a poacher and we should be looking to press them. I think Proctor should always be looking to be prepared to tuck back to allow Tokely freedom to make his runs. Cant fault the 3 of Foran (hat-trick) Sanchez (3 assists) and Imrie (goal plus general ability to create) Hayes and, in particular, Cox are still young. They will get their chance soon enough. Odiamhbo could be and interesting change to make but needs to get some time in before he starts IMHO.

The thing is most fans would probably be willing to pay a small subscription fee (as with Club Dundee, Ayr World) if the highlights were done to a decent standard. It would give us a professional shimmer to club promotion, could be entirely supporter run and would probably pay for itself. I know colleges are always screaming out for opportunities such as this for their students (I know this as fact having studied Televison Operations myself) as it would be a great thing to have on a cv for a prospective camera operator/editor. Add to the fact colleges have access to the better editing suites than are generally affordable p.s Whilst I have mentioned I am experienced in such activities and know my way around a camera etc my location and general bone idle nature would probably have to see me opt out of any pro activness on this front - Im more of an ideas man. A muse so to speak. I would however be available for any imput if it was ever required should we ever get this moving. I think putting it top of the banter would be an idea. There is very little that we can do via the banter in terms of actually doing something. If the club were willing to get any licences sorted required for it, Im sure letting a volunteer group film games would be of benifit to them in terms of promoting the brand etc.

Is midtable the right place to be? ...Well it's better that bottom. Its ok but I wouldnt mind another 2 or 3 points.

Looking at the Butcher thread, there was a guy from Ayr posting and offering a link to his fantastic videos of Ayr games. I feel for him. Not only does he have to watch Ayr games he also has to watch it over in his edit. Anyhoo, got me thinking. Is there no way, we, as a club (or fanbase) could do something similar with our games? As there is no real coverage of the games in the 1st is there any rights to screen? Do we own coverage rights in our stadium. Does anyone know anything about it? I did hear BBC Alba were negotiating to screen live SFL games. (alas i dont recieve this almighty channel to the best of my knowledge.) but would it be possible and cost effective to do some sort of web video page. Is it worth including in the Boardroom banter? Perhaps involve the local college if they have a film course. Extra curricular work experience for budding Tv/film makers. This would be both cheap and get us involved with the community. They get into a game for hee haw (and a free pie and fizzy pop) and some worthwhile experience. We get a internet available game package and cheap labour. It must be possible otherwise Ayr wouldnt be doing it.

I am an Ayr fan (& also do the match video). I thought the singing from the Inverness fans was the best I have heard from away fans in the league for a while. Virtually non-stop singing and quite a varied songbook. Well done! (My favourites were "No pies in Ayrshire" & "There's only one Dean Keenan" after he was awarded the MotM.. very magnanimous!) Thankyou for that wonderful link... shame Im to tight to pay for a weekly pass to see the video. Ha Ha!

Rooney does lack pace yes but how many times does he seem to get one and one with keepers? Fair enough he fluffs alot of them but work on his placement (as opposed to firing it straight at the keeper hoping he'll kindly get out of the way) He is slow, but he moves well and looks for the correct areas to run to. There are plenty great strikers that lack pace. 2ndly, more often than not a defender is more powerful than the attacker bar a few tanks out there. But he could benefit from a few weight sessions. Work on his upper body strength. He's not quick so we dont really have to worry about him losing a yard of pace if he puts a little muscle on up top. I dont like Foran as a striker. His ability to work his socks off is wasted as a striker when he can still score from out wide. In fact he seems to score more from left midfield than he does up front. Sanchez seems like a decent 2nd striker. He is fair beginning to rack up the assists. If he's not scoring it is not a problem if he is creating for others instead. Good to see Imrie back. He can be a tad ambitious and wasteful but he does have a useful spark about him and works hard as well.

I think the club has well and truly made a meal of the whole transfer. That we can all agree on. Marius was entitled to a fee and unless the club got it in writing that he initiated a transfer or agreed to waive his fee then they dont really have a hope in hell regardless of whether he did or not. The only thing in black and white is his Marius Niculae's contract and that states he is due his 30% fee so we really should just live with it. Now, Stevico any chance your good friend, as a thankyou for helping him relaunch his career, would accept installments? Lets say ?1 a year for the next 250,000 years? Hell We'll even throw in 20p extra each year as interest. Think how much he'll make. If you could just run that by him, see what he thinks...

Completely forgot to even put Proctor on the bench Put him in for Stratford then on the bench.

Maybe the club have something 'up their sleeve' which the marius faction dont know about, ie from the German team. We also have to understand that Stevico is a wee bit biased here and so his comments will always support his mate. Well why didn't they produce that for FIFA they had a year to do it. And while you might consider me to be biased I can assure you Fifa were not What I still dont quite get, is that Mr Niculae was apparently allowed to go home on personal reasons (not sure but had he perhaps been recently married?) and that surely does not qualify as negotiating terms on a contract with another club. It seemed that he had agreed contract terms etc and then a bid was made (in euros) and that the club reluctuntly accepted (even if it was a ? sterling bid it was still lower than other offer on table) due to it being lower than the bid Kaiserslauten had approached with. This was because this was Marius's preference. The bid was lower so why would it be accepted unless the players asks as such. This to me is instigating a transfer of the players preference. We seemingly lost out on money because of the players wishes to join a certain club a deal hadn't been finalised with. Some could say he negotiated terms whilst in contract also (tapping up?) Stevico, maybe you can clear this up for me, what with your insider knowledge, as it is still one big muddle in my eyes. But I wish it would just all go away.

Esson <-Bulvitis - Munro - Golabek-> Tokely ------------- --------------- Djebi Zadi Cox - McBain Imrie-----------Foran Sanchez Im going 3-4-2-1 with 2 attacking wing backs. I have deployed two players in a centre half postion that can cover the full back areas. I'd expect the defence to push over depending on which full back was getting forward. I have deployed foran and Imrie as 2nd strikers behind a main striker of Sanchez. They would both look to help out in wide areas, cut in and get beyond Sanchez where appropriate. Cox would be encouraged to have a go where possible and McBain would do the running around in the middle. If the team comes under pressure they can adapt a 4-5-1 if required however it is based on a variable attacking 3-4-3. Bench Allison; Duncan, Hayes*/Eagle/Ross, Stratford, Rooney/Barrowman * -1st choice if fit

I for one hope he does stay till the end of the season as It would only be further deprimental to the team to dismiss/lose him this early on. There is a good chance that once the team starts to gel we might just click. 3 wins in a row and we'd almost certainly be right in there. We are a little behind granted but lets not get to jumpy... again. As for writing of the season. That would just be giving up. No use in that. We need to get some noise in the fans. We have a good 1st division fanbase so why are we not making a racket?

Scotty that post was spot on. Think I hinted in mine that we all knew we had a fight on our hands. Nobody realised quite the extent. We knew no team since 99 had bounced straight back but most thought, "nah we'll be different" even if they never said as much. I'll admit I thought we would be higher up the table than we are. I still support Butcher fully. I think once he gets the team bloodied in, which will take time due to lack of real 1st team experience, results will become more consistent. People have to remember the only way Butcher will find out if his players can cut it and are up for a scrap is to try them out. He's protecting younger players like Ross as he obviously needs to break him in slowly into a more settled team as to not hinder his progress. Your right on the money in saying we need to ditch the arrogance. We are not a SPL team any more and are the team to beat. We are the benchmark others want to exceed. Which makes it even harder. We need to stop taking thinks for granted as a team and as a support. But its so easier said than done.

He was certainly one of the best. But i wouldnt say the best. For me, Tokely is our best ever player. Name someone who was better? Whittaker, Dillon, Hinkel, Wilson is probably on par with Tokely. Hutton in his last 6 months at Rangers was the best in the country by a mile and very similar in style. Uncompromising in the tackle and loves to get forward. IMO Esson is the best, at his particular job, in the team. The best outfield is probably Foran Hayes has probably been our best signing this summer followed by Sanchez. Cox and Ross are the ones to watch for the future. Eagles has flattered to decieve

Thinking about it, Just after Duncan, Tokely McBain and Munro he's the longest serving current player on the books (if you discount Golly since he left and the came back. Most of the others have been here 1 , maybe 2 seasons at best. Imrie is probably next in line after proctor with 2 and a half years. Ridiculous how much of a turn over on the playing staff we've had. Always felt his best position was in the midfield role or sitting just behind letting others play. But he can also get forward to support which in recent weeks has proved most useful indeed.

George Burley is the manager of Scotland - It really does count for nothing. However I do agree that Butcher does have something about him and should be given more time. Last season he was trying to do a salvage job be failed by a single goal. Falkirk are showing this season that it wasn't just bad luck they nearly went down. They should have. As for the subject matter. I'd rather be playing Mcbain alonside cox. He's as fit as anyone out there. Carries the occasional goal threat and is a competent passer. I feel he'd be a decent foil for Cox, who despite a lose of his early season form has something about him.

Hope it aint too bad. He seems one of the more dangerous going forward and most creative. At least Imrie being back softens the blow but I'd rather have them both playing.

Ane how many of those wanted to go ?? I reckon every one would have stayed if a) they were not forced out had been offered a contract early enough as so they wouldnt be tempted away when it was running out bar maybe Dods and Dargo who wanted to move for lacation reasons. A team of - - Brown(:) - Tokely - McCaffery(a) - Munro - Hastings(a) Wilson(a) - Cowie(B) - Black(a/B) - Rankin (a) Wyness(a) - Bayne(a) with a bench of Fraser(B)/ Esson; Duff, Vigurs(a) on it would be the stuff of dreams right now. Who knows if Black had got on with Brewster or Brew had been shoved out before Black signed a pre contract? Who knows if Wilson hadn't been frozen out by CB Who knows if Wyness hadn't been offered a contract then had it removed by CB Who knows if Bayne's work ethic and ability to actually win a header had been honed by someone in similar playing ilk in CB. Who knows in Rankin hadn't been told he wasn't wanted (by you guessed it, CB) only to go on to a higher profile team in Hibs. And what if TB had recognised Vigurs talent over people like Eagles and given Hastings more of a kick up the arse rather than freeze him out completely. While its folly to believe we could have kept all those players. (Niculae would have eventually moved on and Caff was never 1st choice) If we could have one or two now in the 1st Div it might ease the wounds (or something like that) Cowie was excellent for us in his 1st season a new deal should have been offered then.

Its not that I really want Butcher out because we all knew it would be tough coming down. Rarely do teams bounce straight back up etc. It's just that I wouldn't be too disheartened if he did go.

Scotland didnt play so badly??? What game did you watch. Lee Wallace had a decent game but players like Whittaker and Ross Wallace had stinkers. I'd also give pass marks to Conway for his deliveries and perhaps Adam for trying to go forward. We officially never even mustered a shot on goal. Steven Fletcher was too busy try to round the keeper while showing him the full ball instead of dinking it over a keeper who stood at 1 foot nothing. But hes got that hibs striker lack of composure thing going on. Riordan being the exception, though he just goes missing in the bigger games where people are looking at him to impress. Cowie played well when brought on but Stephen Hughes was completely anonymous. Its not even as if we can blame the call offs. They had them as well and they didnt even play Shinsuke Nakamura. Long gone are the likes of Nakata, Ono and Takahara etc. It was a drab preformance with no cutting edge whatsoever against a very ordinary team.

He's a fairly average player. Might be worth trying to move him on in January and try and get some money for him. I would also imagine he is on a decent wage so getting that away would be nice. We have enough strikers if you include Barrowman, Odiambho, Imrie, Foran and Sanchez especially If we're only going with 1 or 2 up. Then we need to get in a creative centrally attacking mid.

I'd rather see young Ross play in front of Eagles. At least he seems to get at people. No idea why we let go off Vigurs if Eagles is his replacement. Surely can't have been a wages thing. Butcher just clearly does not rate him. Not that I've really seen much of him but he doesnt appear all that impressive.

Please bare in mind that Tokely and Zadi are meant to be in wing back roles even if my diagram does not quite show this.

I reckon a change if defensive formation could help. maybe 3- 2 (wing backs) -2- 3 say - Proctor - Munro - Golly Tokely Zadi Cox - Duncan Hayes - Sanchez - Foran Golly is a touch slow for getting up and down the line but reliable and can drift out to cover any holes on the left. He can also defend. Proctor may not be the greatest centre half but he too can play there and would be able to drift across when Tokely bombs forward. Either that or play Bulivits there. Cox and Duncan would sit in the middle. Under the cosh our two wide forwards can drift back to help out. Hayes could pull into the right leaving two men up also and go 4-4-2 at points. Or either he or Foran could drop off the main strikers when our wing backs go forward allowing space for crosses and cut backs etc. I'd want Toke and Zadi to get forward at any opportunity to terrorise the full backs. I'd be a little nervous about two 6 ft plus guys charging at me. It's not a perfect plan but i'm not long of the night shift and heading to bed. But I reckon it would plug the gaps up without taking away and even adding a little attacking impotus.

I have a funny feeling that this might harm the guys legend status here

Lee Wallace? Hes a LB....Brown is getting ankle surgery after the OF and will miss the Scotland game. I would also rather fecking Munro and Proctor at CB than McManus and Caldwell.....Couple of fannies! Lee Wallace, who is indeed a LB, isnt in the squad (though from what I've seen of Fox I'd rather have him in.) Its Ross Wallace from PNE who is in the squad. He can play LB but I believe his strongest natural position is on the wing. League 1 is really really average in terms of quality. There are only 2 decent teams in it. Im unsure if it's any great feat scoring 11 goals in that league. For example, if Jermaine Beckford was as good as his goal tally suggests he wouldn't still be playing at that level. So Snodgrass, perhaps worth a friendly punt but I'm not expecting too much from him. And given Burleys distaste for Boyd in training I'm suprised he's called up Riordan. Though I'd have him in the squad over David Clarkson any day of the week.