blueheaven

Just on the income point, I still say that if the OF were given a smaller allocation, the "loss" taken from that could be offset by giving a larger allocation to Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Dundee, Hibs etc. If we'd stuck with giving these clubs the north stand and the north half of the Main Stand, we'd be able to sell more tickets to them throughout the season. If we so desperately need the money brought in by OF fans, why do we not also desperately need money from Aberdeen etc? It still irks me that when Fran was asked this question at the previous forum night, he brushed it off with something along the lines of "that's just what we budgeted for." So it's OK to lose out on ticket money from some clubs because we budgeted for it, but it's not OK to budget for it with the OF? So much of this seems to stem from their commitment to no longer have any away fans in the Main Stand, but in all my years of following Saints I've never heard a single fan complain about that. No one cared. Incidentally, it also annoys me that Fran said the changes would help the "flow" around the stadium, when we've seen at both the Hibs and Celtic games that the "flow" has become worse. Until the Hibs game I don't think I'd ever seen police having to form a protective line between the Main Stand and the Ormond Stand. I haven't seen anything at all in these opening games of the season to change my opinion that the club has made a massive mess of all of this.

I don't think anyone's denying that a lot of our fans can't be arsed to go to these matches. It's very obvious that a lot of people don't want to go. The frustration is that the club has never done anything to attempt to address that and see if the situation can be changed. And this season in particular they've actively taken steps to make these games even less appealing.

I feel very differently about the team and the club at the moment. Absolutely loving this team - they work hard for each other, have a bit of ability, and you can actually see the progress they're making. Bearing in mind the team is still very much a work in progress, with some positions still a bit up in the air and probably still to be strengthened, I've been really impressed with the last few performances. I think you can see how Simo's style from last season is gradually being played at a quicker tempo and with a bit more drive to it. It also looks like Campbell, Cotterill and Alic have been very shrewd signings who have significantly improved our options. And I also thought it was great to see Finlayson really step up and take his chance last night. We look capable of hurting opponents and scoring goals, and if we can cut out the occasional lapse at the back, we generally look solid in defence too. I'm excited about what's to come on the pitch this season. The club, on the other hand, I feel really disenchanted with. Hated that atmosphere last night and I don't buy into this idea coming from some that we should move on from these issues purely because they've been raised before or because they're negative. Sometimes negative feedback is important to discuss, especially when it's unresolved. Even if we accept that giving three stands to the OF is a necessary evil (personally I don't accept that, but that's another discussion), I think it's entirely reasonable to press the club on why: - Celtic fans were allowed to set up an elaborate display in our stadium, which included their fans being given permission to leave the stand and walk around on the track beside the pitch in order to co-ordinate. All of this directly in front of stewards and police. And is it not also the case that flags and banners aren't supposed to cover sponsor boards? (Speaking of the stewards, has anyone seen them ensuring that people are sitting in the correct seats yet? - This is one of the things we were assured would be happening this season.) - Celtic fans were allowed to congregate in large numbers in the area between the Main Stand and the Ormond Stand for around an hour pre-match. I've never understood why OF fans feel the need to hang around outside the stadium before the match anyway, but if this is something they must do, surely the police and the club could get together to work out where they should go? As it is, they have three sides of a four-side stadium to choose from and yet they're choosing to gather in the one area of the park that all home fans had to walk through in order to get to their seats. From a home fan perspective it makes the matchday experience dangerous at worst, downright nasty at best. I know it's been said already, but in my view the club had a big opportunity this year to try something different and positive with these matches, but what they've somehow managed to do is make them much, much worse.

Here's how the squad looks at the close of the window. In total we had 13 departures and 12 arrivals. Goalkeepers 1. Toby Steward - 2027 (on loan from Portsmouth) 39. Kyle Thomson - 2027 20. Ross Sinclair - 2028 31. Craig Hepburn - 2029 Defenders/wing backs 4. Morgan Boyes - 2027 5. Zach Mitchell - 2027 (on loan from Charlton Athletic) 6. Bozo Mikulic - 2027 14. Mattty Foulds - 2027 33. Liam Smith - 2027 2. Enes Alic - 2028 3. Cheick Diabate - 2028 19. Daniel Finlayson - 2028 Midfielders/wingers 8. Jason Holt - 2027 30. Joel Cotterill - 2027 32. Josh Campbell - 2027 (on loan from Hibs) 42. Reece McAlear - 2027 49. Jack Robertson - 2027(?) 7. Taylor Steven - 2028 11. Sam Stanton - 2028 23. Logan Chalmers - 2028 25. Macaulay Tait - 2028 26. Matty Todd - 2028 77. Unax Alvarez de Eulate - 2028 Forwards 10. Jamie Gullan - 2027 18. Kai Fotheringham - 2027 9. Josh Fowler - 2028 17. Louis Lloyd - 2028 22. Danny Schmidt - 2028 99. Ruari Paton - 2028 DEPARTURES Toby Steward (end of loan, returns to Portsmouth) Adam Forrester (end of loan, returns to Hearts) Alfredo Agyeman (end of loan, returns to Falkirk) Ruari Paton (end of loan, returns to Port Vale) Josh McPake (end of contract, signed for Hearts) Murray Binnie (end of contract, signed for Stranraer) Scott Bright (end of contract, signed for Stenhousemuir) Fran Franczak (end of contract, signed for Odra Opole) Jonathan Svedberg (end of contract, signed for IFK Mariehamm) Reghan Tumilty (end of contract) Stevie Mallan (end of contract) Sven Sprangler (Walsall, undisclosed fee) Jack Baird (Raith Rovers, undisclosed fee) ARRIVALS Daniel Finlayson (Livingston) Matty Todd (Dunfermline) Unax Alvarez de Eulate (CD Guadalajara) Logan Chalmers (Partick Thistle) Ruari Paton (Port Vale) Zach Mitchell (Charlton Athletic, season-long loan) Toby Steward (Portsmouth, season-long loan) Macaulay Tait (Hearts) Danny Schmidt (Fortuna Dusseldorf) Enes Alic (Zeljeznicar Sarajevo) Joel Cotterill (Swansea City) Josh Campbell (Hibs, season-long loan)

Has it been confirmed that the seat choice only applies to the upcoming Celtic game, rather than the whole season? Because Adam Webb really shouldn't have made the following commitment in his open letter to fans back in May if that is the case: "We have demanded that supporters will be permitted to pick their equivalent seat and you will retain that seat for any such matches throughout the season."

The squad as it stands. In total there have been 12 departures and 10 arrivals (though Steward and Paton are on both lists). Looks like Mallan and Tumilty are our only departed players yet to find a club, unless I've missed something. Goalkeepers 1. Toby Steward - 2027 (on loan from Portsmouth) 39. Kyle Thomson - 2027 20. Ross Sinclair - 2028 31. Craig Hepburn - 2029 Defenders/wing backs 4. Morgan Boyes - 2027 5. Zach Mitchell - 2027 (on loan from Charlton Athletic) 6. Bozo Mikulic - 2027 14. Mattty Foulds - 2027 15. Jack Baird - 2027 33. Liam Smith - 2027 2. Enes Alic - 2028 3. Cheick Diabate - 2028 19. Daniel Finlayson - 2028 Midfielders/wingers 8. Jason Holt - 2027 42. Reece McAlear - 2027 49. Jack Robertson - 2027(?) 7. Taylor Steven - 2028 11. Sam Stanton - 2028 23. Logan Chalmers - 2028 25. Macaulay Tait - 2028 26. Matty Todd - 2028 77. Unax Alvarez de Eulate - 2028 Forwards 10. Jamie Gullan - 2027 18. Kai Fotheringham - 2027 9. Josh Fowler - 2028 17. Louis Lloyd - 2028 22. Danny Schmidt - 2028 99. Ruari Paton - 2028 DEPARTURES Toby Steward (end of loan, returns to Portsmouth) Adam Forrester (end of loan, returns to Hearts) Alfredo Agyeman (end of loan, returns to Falkirk) Ruari Paton (end of loan, returns to Port Vale) Josh McPake (end of contract, signed for Hearts) Murray Binnie (end of contract, signed for Stranraer) Scott Bright (end of contract, signed for Stenhousemuir) Fran Franczak (end of contract, signed for Odra Opole) Jonathan Svedberg (end of contract, signed for IFK Mariehamm) Reghan Tumilty (end of contract) Stevie Mallan (end of contract) Sven Sprangler (Walsall, undisclosed fee) ARRIVALS Daniel Finlayson (Livingston) Matty Todd (Dunfermline) Unax Alvarez de Eulate (CD Guadalajara) Logan Chalmers (Partick Thistle) Ruari Paton (Port Vale) Zach Mitchell (Charlton Athletic, season-long loan) Toby Steward (Portsmouth, season-long loan) Macaulay Tait (Hearts) Danny Schmidt (Fortuna Dusseldorf) Enes Alic (Zeljeznicar Sarajevo)

This has all been discussed on the thread already so feels like it's going around in circles a bit, but given that the club has confirmed East Stand season ticket holders will retain the same Geoff Brown Stand seat for Category A games throughout the season, why would any season ticket holder not reserve a Geoff Brown Stand seat? Even if not planning on attending the first few OF games, it surely makes sense to have that seat reserved in case there's an important/unmissable game later in the season?

I'm not a massive fan of alcohol at the football for a bunch of reasons, but from what I've experienced it's a more pleasant atmosphere/experience when people are free to just take their drinks wherever they want to. I've found at English Premier/EFL grounds, everyone congregates drinking in small concourse areas that often weren't designed for that, and it makes them overcrowded with people trying to down their drinks quickly to get back to their seats. I was at one game at Charlton Athletic where there was a real crush in the concourse at half-time, to the extent that it was starting to feel dangerous. The McDiarmid concourses already get pretty crowded and I really dislike the idea of that being added to by people drinking, if that eventually happens. At German games and English non-league games I've been to, people have watched the game with their drink at their seat or on the terracing, and it's felt a lot more relaxed. The most annoying thing in that circumstance is probably the increase in people having to get up and down to go to the toilets or to buy more drinks. I think the sheer price of the drinks would hopefully mean you wouldn't get many people wanting to throw their drinks around when there's a goal. I can see the appeal of watching the game with a nice cold pint on a warm summer's day, but anything like that during the vast majority of Scottish games when it's freezing cold just holds no appeal to me at all. Maybe mulled wine is the way ahead. 😁

The fixtures in general are looking really rubbish from a home fan perspective. In August we have four consecutive weekends without a home game, then a run of three more without a home game in September/October, and then another run of four in November/December.

A few random/disconnected thoughts on yesterday. Has anyone seen the stewards making sure people are sitting in their correct seats, as we were assured they would be doing? I haven't seen any sign of this happening. What I did see yesterday was *nine* of them heading to the back of the Ormond Stand to do what looked very much like bully a group of East Fife fans. It would be good to get some confirmation of what those fans were actually doing to merit this treatment, as it didn't look like they were doing much other than banging a drum and singing. Will our stewards be just as proactive in dealing with the Old Firm fans when they come to town? I know the League Cup group games are always a bit quiet, but the general atmosphere so far has been lousy. There should have been a real buzz going into our first home games after winning promotion, and a boost in crowds, and neither of those two things have happened. I'm assuming we also haven't beaten last year's season ticket total yet, or the club would have said? Those running the club have brought this entirely upon themselves, and it's not going to help the efforts of Simo and the players one little bit. What's more, every single time we have a bad performance now, people are going to (rightly) bring up the value of the seats they're paying for. The club has created this and it's no good to anyone. It's actually quite laughable that our new Family Stand, which we were told would be better for families because it's "warmer", has been closed during the very small number of games we get each year where the weather is actually warm. It shows a real lack of foresight and planning for how some of these changes would actually play out in real life. I'd been of the opinion that, with Simo in charge and a fairly settled squad, the League Cup group stage embarrassments of other recent years would be a thing of the past. I'd basically expected us to be boring but professional in getting the job done, and that was true of the first two games. I was fine with writing off the ICT game as a one-off blip, based on difficult circumstances, a tough away trip, a weakened line-up and a general off-day. But not being able to beat East Fife at home, with basically our strongest team, and the manner in which we failed, is a big worry. Our players looked slow, lacking in ideas, unadaptable and generally just nowhere near ready for serious top-level football. This time last year we were going into the league campaign with a front four of McPake, Sidibeh, Mallan and Gullan. This time round the first choice front four at an equivalent stage appears to be Chalmers, Paton, Stanton and Gullan. To me that's a major downgrade and it's a worry that we're essentially going into a better league with what looks like a significantly weaker attack. And yesterday we had barely any attacking options on the bench, other than Fowler and Fotheringham who I think both have to have serious question marks over their heads at this point. And I know we still have Lloyd and Alvarez to come in but they're very much unknown quantities who are going to need time getting up to speed. The thought of Diabate going up against Rangers or Celtic terrifies me. I felt he looked good last season when we had the lion's share of possession and he was able to stroll around knocking passes about, but on the rare occasions he came under any level of pressure he always looked ropey. We saw exactly the same thing yesterday. He's going to be under constant pressure in some games this season and unless he sharpens up his game significantly that could be disastrous for us. We desperately need Mikulic back to his best but who really knows when/if that will happen. I can't believe we're a week away from the league campaign starting and we're still basically asking Liam Smith to cover the entire right-hand side of the pitch on his own, because the player in front of him is a central-midfielder being asked to play out of position and drift inside. It was a weak fix in the Championship and it's never going to work in the Premiership. I'm not expecting a fully complete squad in July, but we should have done more to strengthen the wide areas of the squad by now. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we're already close to some players losing the manager's faith and never being seen again. We saw with Tumilty and Griffith that Simo can be pretty ruthless when it comes to casting players aside, but it's really not great to be on the verge of that happening again when we're only in July and most of the squad have only recently signed new contracts. The one hope I'm clinging to is that, as Simo says, it'll be different when we play Premiership teams. We won't be favourites any more, and teams won't park the bus against us, which means we should have more space to exploit and try to attack. I'm also expecting some players to rise to the occasion and show a different side of themselves. But that could very easily be wishful thinking on my part.

Updated squad list below. Not including released development players who weren't really involved in things, and leaving out Steward and Paton who left and came back again, that puts us at nine departures and six arrivals in this window. Given that we've also been told Simo's budget has gone up, that presumably means there's still a decent amount of money available to bring in a couple more. Personally I'd be prioritising an additional attacking player. I know people are thinking we still need a winger but my preference would be a big, powerful centre-forward who can shake things up a bit. I like what we've done with our business so far but it does feel to me like we're lacking a bit of quality and experience in attack. Goalkeepers 1. Toby Steward - 2027 (on loan from Portsmouth) 39. Kyle Thomson - 2027 20. Ross Sinclair - 2028 31. Craig Hepburn - 2029 Defenders/wing backs 4. Morgan Boyes - 2027 5. Zach Mitchell - 2027 (on loan from Charlton Athletic) 6. Bozo Mikulic - 2027 14. Mattty Foulds - 2027 15. Jack Baird - 2027 33. Liam Smith - 2027 Arran Brookfield - 2027(?) 3. Cheick Diabate - 2028 19. Daniel Finlayson - 2028 Midfielders/wingers 8. Jason Holt - 2027 42. Reece McAlear - 2027 49. Jack Robertson - 2027(?) Dougal McAdam - 2027(?) 7. Taylor Steven - 2028 11. Sam Stanton - 2028 23. Logan Chalmers - 2028 25. Macaulay Tait - 2028 26. Matty Todd - 2028 77. Unax Alvarez de Eulate - 2028 Forwards 10. Jamie Gullan - 2027 18. Kai Fotheringham - 2027 Arran Clark - 2027(?) 9. Josh Fowler - 2028 17. Louis Lloyd - 2028 99. Ruari Paton - 2028 DEPARTURES Toby Steward (end of loan, returns to Portsmouth) Adam Forrester (end of loan, returns to Hearts) Alfredo Agyeman (end of loan, returns to Falkirk) Ruari Paton (end of loan, returns to Port Vale) Josh McPake (end of contract, signed for Hearts) Murray Binnie (end of contract, signed for Stranraer) Scott Bright (end of contract, signed for Stenhousemuir) Fran Franczak (end of contract, signed for Odra Opole) Jonathan Svedberg (end of contract) Reghan Tumilty (end of contract) Stevie Mallan (end of contract) Sven Sprangler (Walsall, undisclosed fee) ARRIVALS Daniel Finlayson (Livingston) Matty Todd (Dunfermline) Unax Alvarez de Eulate (CD Guadalajara) Logan Chalmers (Partick Thistle) Ruari Paton (Port Vale) Zach Mitchell (Charlton Athletic, season-long loan) Toby Steward (Portsmouth, season-long loan) Macaulay Tait (Hearts)

By the end of his loan he'll have played for us for two consecutive seasons. Is there really any big difference between that, and signing a permanent keeper on a two-year contract who then leaves at the end of it? Mitov was a permanent signing but we only had him for half of that time.

Squad as it stands. Unsure of the contract lengths of some of the youngsters who have played recently so have question-marked those. Goalkeepers Toby Steward - 2027 (on loan from Portsmouth) Kyle Thomson - 2027 Ross Sinclair - 2028 Craig Hepburn - 2029 Defenders/wing backs Bozo Mikulic - contract expired Zach Mitchell - 2027 (on loan from Charlton Athletic) Morgan Boyes - 2027 Mattty Foulds - 2027 Jack Baird - 2027 Liam Smith - 2027 Arran Brookfield - 2027(?) Cheick Diabate - 2028 Daniel Finlayson - 2028 Midfielders/wingers Jason Holt - 2027 Reece McAlear - 2027 Jack Robertson - 2027(?) Dougal McAdam - 2027(?) Sam Stanton - 2028 Taylor Steven - 2028 Unax Alvarez de Eulate - 2028 Matty Todd - 2028 Logan Chalmers - 2028 Forwards Jamie Gullan - 2027 Kai Fotheringham - 2027 Arran Clark - 2027(?) Josh Fowler - 2028 Louis Lloyd - 2028 Ruari Paton - 2028 DEPARTURES Toby Steward (end of loan, returns to Portsmouth) Adam Forrester (end of loan, returns to Hearts) Alfredo Agyeman (end of loan, returns to Falkirk) Ruari Paton (end of loan, returns to Port Vale) Josh McPake (end of contract, signed for Hearts) Murray Binnie (end of contract, signed for Stranraer) Scott Bright (end of contract, signed for Stenhousemuir) Fran Franczak (end of contract) Jonathan Svedberg (end of contract) Reghan Tumilty (end of contract) Stevie Mallan (end of contract) Sven Sprangler (Walsall, undisclosed fee) ARRIVALS Daniel Finlayson (Livingston) Matty Todd (Dunfermline) Unax Alvarez de Eulate (CD Guadalajara) Logan Chalmers (Partick Thistle) Ruari Paton (Port Vale) Zach Mitchell (Charlton Athletic, season-long loan) Toby Steward (Portsmouth, season-long loan)

It's not falsely buying tickets. It's reserving a seat that, as a season ticket holder, you're entitled to reserve. If people are happy with the season ticket arrangements and want to see the same arrangements repeated year after year, then they are of course free to "let the process play out". My suggestion is that those who are not happy could actually do something to make that point to the club in a way that will be noticed.

This is exactly it. The club was at one point considering selling a non-Old Firm season ticket - why do people think they chose not to do that? It's because they realised they could get the maximum amount of money out of fans who would still happily pay up for the full season and not go to these games, and then the club could sell their seats for a second time. The season ticket arrangements for this season are crap, and there's very little that the fans can do about that. But if East Stand fans are genuinely unhappy about those arrangements then the one small thing they can do is make sure they reserve their Main Stand seats for OF games, and make a noise about it if the seat they end up with isn't the equivalent standard they were promised, because that will demonstrate to the club that this season's arrangements are flawed, and it will force them to think about that when they come up with the arrangements for the following season.