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Agreed. Although I reckon Brew would have been very happy to have scored Marius's goal today - top drawer.

For anyone who remembers the Flumps and who tried to make their own in days long gone, here's my Pseudo-Brewster Flumpster. Looking for better efforts (shouldn't be difficult) - anyone to do with the club qualifies. Pink Ladies do not good managers make :003:

I'd like peace on earth, goodwill toward mankind and Angelina Jolie begging me to come back. If the Mace could stock cola cubes, that would be good too.

It doesn't get any smellier than ICT these days. Contract negotiations seem to have become personal rather than business affairs (if they were ever otherwise), team selection likewise. Perhaps we've players who aren't being professional but it's hard not to come to the same conclusion about management, too. If we could see some football every other Saturday I'd be less prone to complain, but by feck... Mr. Sutherland, please stop leaving the meaning between the lines and get yer boots on.

No idea how accurate - given all the stuff flying round - but I heard from another player that Grant had told Brew straight that it was felt Denzil's contract withdrawal was out of order. Y'know, players like Blackie were once recommending the club to guys they used to play with, which was one of our biggest assets; doesn't sound like that's the case these days :007:

Brew lost the dressing room when he pledged his loyalty and fecked off last time... As I read it he carried most of the dressing room the first time round, mainly because he could change things with his boots: he lost half of it when he brought Malky back this time round, and the rest when he started trashing the squad, culminating in the Wyness Contract ****-up. Edited to add: I've no doubt that Niculae's presence has made things 'quite challenging' in contract negotiations :007:

You could play Torres with the service Niculae gets as a lone striker and see nowt. He ends up dropping deep to collect or defend when an increasingly negative (and under-staffed) midfield sits behind the halfway line. Jim Duffy would be ok, but I think we're looking more at the Jim Harvey level in terms of wages. Besides, Sir Alex had a heart attack and never looked back. Probably, though, nobody will replace Brewster. Who's likely to take the job?

If I work for a bank as a cashier, I can't necessarily run a bank as the MD (although I may be allowed to run it into the ground). Brew was a fantastic striker but I've never been convinced about his ability off the field. This last run makes it look pretty grim. I've no doubt the guy wants the best for this club - I'm just far from convinced that he can deliver.

None of this really matters. In Brew's own words, league position doesn't lie. We may well finish second bottom, by dint of Gretna staying in business and being docked ten points. There is still a side there - though Marius really should be away in the summer - which can hold its own in the SPL, as long as there's a manager who can decide how to play and carry the dressing room (which includes attracting players rather than driving them off).

Wrong. Brewster's decision to slice from the squad those midfielders who had the ability to come off the bench and positively change a game - Rankin, Hart, Morgan, plus Wilson and Sutherland on loan - was idiotic. His decision to play Ritchie this afternoon was a mark of his confusion - as was Vigurs' start - but perhaps also a belated realisation that there's the one player still kicking around at the club who gives him an attacking option when things are going tits up. Unfortunately he's been languishing in the reserves after a prolonged lay-off (his own fault, I know) and isn't properly match fit.

Alex, are you saying that the Director of Football has no responsibility for the comings and goings of players? So if he presided over Brewster shipping out the entire first team squad and bringing in the Govan Community Boys Rehabilitation Under-21s as a replacement, he'd be blameless cos, hey, he's just Director of Football? Perhaps I should be made Minister for North Sea Oil on the basis that, whilst I use oil, I know hee-haw about its production, wouldn't do anything if I did, and would hire someone who I thought knew a bit more and let them get on with it. Sheesh...

Really? :023: Ach, it's one we could contest till the cows come home (I have no cows, so I'll be waiting a while)...

A very happy one to you Dennis - you're best off out of this club if that's the way it goes. If you're waiting to see if Brew gets the heave-ho then fair play to you too. These are strange times.

reefinweed, my point is that there are solicitors, teachers, CEOs etc, etc, who use recreational drugs as a matter of course but who, whilst often on comparable or vastly superior wages to Richie Hart, don't get fingered at music festivals by fans of rival law firms/ schools/ businesses or discussed on fan forums.

If you mean it's what lots of professionals - footballers or otherwise - do, then you're probably right. The fact that, under advice, he admitted possession while on holiday, as opposed to tanking nandrolone on the job, doesn't seem to register with some folk. Recreational drug use is a fact in our society, like it or not, and disbarring lawyers, sacking footballers or deselecting MPs isn't going to change that. It does remain, however, an entirely different issue from performance-enhancing drug use banned by a specific sport: it's not cheating (if anything it's likely to have an adverse effect on your performance). I know I asked RichieKass to let this lie on another thread, but it seems that some people are still living in Cloud Cuckoo...

Totally agree. Serves no purpose whatsoever !! :008: Apart from to show that Brew doesn't have much of a clue. Oh, and possibly to change a game, an ability which Hart used to have when played regularly. MrKass, please don't restart the flood of sanctimonious comments which we saw here after the court case - it's all been done, we know your opinion, let it be.

I'm not a shareholder, so not privy to that sort of info, but if the director of football lets things get to this state then it's time for the man to stop putting in his expenses claims. Maybe there's a non-exec job going at Bear Stearns...

Couldn't agree more, G.

He is clueless as a manager. What does that say about his employers? :023:

With bad cup runs and a dismal finishing league position, can we afford to compensate Brewster for taking our squad apart and leaving us thanking Gretna for staying in business? :029: Or could we sack Bennett as well and use the saving of his clearly wasted wage to offset Brew's compensation? CC could double as Director of Football and probably do a far better job. Incidentally, aren't we now on the same run of form which saw Charlie quit, only playing even worse?

Plenty. The fact that he's been required to back-fill in midfield should tell people something about his scoring record this season. The one-up-front system should tell them something more. I'm not convinced about Brewster, but I'm prepared to accept that those further up or further down the chain may be the real problem. Nevertheless, we've a weary midfield, a sh!te bench who couldn't change a nappy, and no teeth at the front. Does it really take a fan to point that out? :017:

Fer feck's sake, is it not ok to say things are going to sh!t when they're going to sh!t these days? Folk pilloried Charlie but the bugger knew more about forging a team than Brew ever will and over the piece I suspect his results were better than grey 'ead's. The side that came back from the dead against Celtic isn't there any more, and anyone who could come off the bench and change a game has been farmed out to Perth/brought up on drugs charges/sold to Hibs because - well, why? How many of our starting eleven could reasonably expect a regular start at Easter Road? If there's even a sniff of personal clashes affecting team selection then certain feet shouldn't touch the bloody ground. If there's a suggestion that players are leaving because of personality issues then frankly a clause should be written into the contracts of future management - as well as those of players - insisting that the good of the club is paramount and that a departure from that goal because you take against someone is unacceptable and legally punishable. Brewster will never be more than a competent coach, whereas we could do with a competent manager. Get him out. I don't know whether or not the rot stops there, but taking the screen away would make it easier to see.

The league without Gretna doesn't make particularly positive reading from our point of view, though - Killie and St. Mirren both hot on our heels with a game in hand. [table] [tr][td]Position[/td][td]Club[/td][td]Played[/td][td]GD[/td][td]Points[/td][/tr] [tr][td]1[/td][td]Rangers[/td][td]24[/td][td]40[/td][td]59[/td][/tr] [tr][td]2[/td][td]Celtic[/td][td]25[/td][td]43[/td][td]58[/td][/tr] [tr][td]4[/td][td]Dundee Utd[/td][td]26[/td][td]5[/td][td]42[/td][/tr] [tr][td]3[/td][td]Motherwell[/td][td]24[/td][td]1[/td][td]37[/td][/tr] [tr][td]5[/td][td]Hibernian[/td][td]25[/td][td]1[/td][td]32[/td][/tr] [tr][td]7[/td][td]Hearts[/td][td]26[/td][td]-9[/td][td]31[/td][/tr] [tr][td]6[/td][td]Falkirk[/td][td]26[/td][td]-10[/td][td]31[/td][/tr] [tr][td]8[/td][td]Aberdeen[/td][td]27[/td][td]-17[/td][td]30[/td][/tr] [tr][td]9[/td][td]Inverness CT[/td][td]27[/td][td]-20[/td][td]27[/td][/tr] [tr][td]10[/td][td]Kilmarnock[/td][td]26[/td][td]-14[/td][td]24[/td][/tr] [tr][td]11[/td][td]St Mirren[/td][td]26[/td][td]-27[/td][td]24[/td][/tr] [/table]

Given some of Russell's recent performances, I'd agree with you: given some others, I'd disagree. It's too much toss-of-a-coin with him, and it can vary from minute to minute, too. I much preferred Richie Hart to Duncan - in the days when you often saw one lose out to the other - for sheer effort and attack-minded football, let alone consistency (when Richie was crap he was consistently crap and you knew when he should be dropped).

The midfield is almost always where the wheels fall off for us. Wilson should not be sent on loan - he should be used to bring Imrie along (Barry, I am sure, knows that he can't expect to play the full ninety: nor should Dougie be asked to provide all the answers in the SPL when barely three years out of junior football). Rankin should never have gone without a credible replacement being brought in. Hart provided us with a midfield aspect which no other player in the squad could or can bring (at least since Keogh was sent West). Oh, and does anyone remember Juanjo's promise in the hole, if only John Robertson had stayed, and Neil Lennon never existed? There are three midfielders there - four, if you count Keogh - who were included in the tally of our 'embarassment of riches' in the middle of the park, who have now gone. The nightmare of it is that every one of them was someone you looked at on the bench and thought - this or that player could be brought on and change the game: no speculation involved, you'd seen them do it. Looking at our bench today I couldn't see a single player who I'd back to turn the match around. When you struggle to hold on to players because they're better than you can pay, it's painful but inevitable: when as a fan you see value in a player that the manager doesn't see, you think, hey, doing well in a fantasy football league really doesn't make me a manager; when you see the effect of that player leaving of a Saturday afternoon, and the manager scratching his head wondering what to do, what to bring off the bench - well, that I can't forgive. After the fact, the dead wood seems to be more of the suit-wearing kind.