blueheaven

That's the point, though, is it not? A short-term bounce could be the difference between staying up and going down. It could be all we need. How can that not have been worth a try? I haven't seen anyone asking for Cleland to be given the job permanently, but given a choice between Cleland or Levein in charge for the remaining games, I know who I'd feel more confident with. I wanted us to put Cleland back in after the Hibs defeat and nothing has happened since then to say that wouldn't have been the right call. The fact that we've lost both games since then has been entirely predictable, and yet for some baffling reason there were some saying you can't sack a manager with four games to go and that we should wait and see. We were still 10th in the league with one more point than Ross County at that stage. Now look at where we are. We're waiting and seeing ourselves all the way down to the Championship and it's the most infuriating thing I've ever seen happen at Saints.

My feeling is Levein will look at Livingston's two goals as justification for going with a more defensive set-up, and revert immediately to his old ways. So Gordon, McGowan and Considine all starting in the middle of a back five, Sidibeh on his own up front, Clark pointlessly in midfield, and May back on the bench. Really hope we get a big, supportive crowd for this one that gets right behind the team, but I'm not feeling hopeful about how things are going to turn out.

That result is entirely on Levein. Yes the players missed chances, but these things happen in football. It's human error. What's not human error is to just stand there and watch and do nothing as the opposition grow more and more into the game, make their own proactive changes and start to dictate the play, while our players visibly tire and lose a grip on proceedings. Watching the game I said just before Livi scored that an equaliser was coming, and said just before they scored their winner that their winner was coming. It really was that obvious. How could some rando like me watching the thing from home on a live stream see what was happening, and yet a former Scotland manager with 25 years of experience couldn't? There's just no game management at all, no Plan B, and no attempt to read what's happening on the pitch and turn it around before the damage is done. And then when he did finally make his subs, not only were they too late, but they were an absolute mess. What's the point of bringing one on in the 75th minute and the next in the 79th minute? We only have three substitution windows, so why not make those changes at the same time? And what's the point of bringing on two more players in the 87th minute? What chance are those players going to get to even get a touch of the ball, let alone change the game? And those last two subs actually did more harm than good because they removed our two central midfielders and left a wide open path down the middle of the pitch that led straight to our goal. It's just complete Amateur Hour stuff. That's 15 points now lost from winning positions under Levein, and yet only last week he was still coming out with nonsense like "if we score, we can stop attacking." The guy's just completely clueless. Worst manager I've ever seen at St Johnstone by a long, long, long way.

Keeping this absolute grifter in a job because it was mistakenly thought he was in some way saving us from relegation is going to go down as the sole biggest mistake of the Brown era. It's been obvious for weeks now, if not months, that the only direction he's taking us in is down. We had bags of time to get rid of him and we've sat on our hands and wasted it. If there's one thing I find more disappointing than anything else, it's the club's cowardly head-in-the-sand attitude to this whole mess. They've done literally nothing to turn it around. The incredible thing is there's actually still time to do something about this, and our snoozing, hiding board will continue to do nothing. I honestly don't think we'd be any worse off right now if we'd just stuck with Macca.

The really terrifying thing about this latest Levein interview is that he's actually talking about his plans for next season in it. Please. God. No.

I'd have thought it would be reassuring to the players to know that the manager is actually doing his homework and coming up with a plan for that eventuality. Regardless, I'd be amazed if Saints weren't sending someone to watch these play-off games. It's a valuable exercise as much for scouting potential signings as it is for preparing for having to play against any of them.

After that game we went on to chuck away a huge amount of points from winning positions. At one stage this season the number of points we'd lost from winning positions under Levein would have had us equal in the table with Kilmarnock. That was a couple of months ago so not sure what the situation would be now. But for me that really shows the flaw in Levein's comment at the weekend that "if we go ahead, we don't have to attack". There are multiple times since his appointment where we've done exactly that: we've gone ahead, we've stopped attacking, and as a result potential wins have turned into draws or losses. All of these have put us where we are in the table now. If we'd even just won that Motherwell game where we were 2-0 up, we'd be 10th in the league now instead of 11th.

It'll be interesting to see what the transfer strategy will be once we have the majority of these guys off the wage bill this summer. With a huge chunk of the budget about to be freed up, there shouldn't be any excuse for the manager (whoever it is) not to look to the long term and go after some up-and-coming players. I actually quite like what Levein has tried to do with his signings so far. They've all been a good age, have signed a good length of contract and have mainly been surprise moves out of left-field. Connor Smith has been poor so far but I think Keltjens, Kimpioka and Sidibeh have been good finds.

I wonder if Keltjens could move across to play at left-back. He seems fairly two-footed and he's pretty versatile. Of course that would mean we'd have to find a right-back, but there's still McGowan and Olufunwa. Personally I'd rather play May as an attacking midfielder than Connor Smith or Crawford.

I think those central defenders need full-backs/wing backs in the wide areas next to them, so if you played that team you'd basically end up with a back five with two defensive midfielders in front of it, which is arguably even more cautious and defensive than Levein has already been playing. It would be really hard for Wright and Carey to remain in attacking positions if they don't have full-backs behind them, and Phillips contributes nothing going forward. I'd also question whether Carey has the energy and mobility to cover an entire flank by himself. I think we really need to ditch playing three central defenders. It hasn't worked for us for a long time. It leaves us with too many players behind the halfway line and means we're always outnumbered when we try to move the ball forward.

I really don't think we should be going for guys like Hanlon. 34 years old and falling out of the picture at one of the clubs we need to get back to competing with. To me that would be a real Callum Davidson type of signing, and the type that is partly responsible for getting us into the mess we're in now. He's basically another Considine. We need to get back to signing players who may have lost their way elsewhere but are still at a good age and can help form part of a long-term plan and maybe even have some sell-on value. I'm not totally against signing one or two older players if they're too good to turn down, but I wouldn't put Hanlon in that bracket.

We're second bottom of the league and in our third relegation battle on the trot. There's going to be negativity on a fans' forum and people are going to want to discuss the reasons why we got there. It sounds like you actually agree with the reasons people have been mentioning so I'm not even sure what's been said that you think is so wrong. On the one hand you say you're against stifling debate, but when people debate with you you say they're "piling on" and you call people stupid. As far as I'm concerned it's just a discussion with opposing views - it's what forums like this one are for. I hope Saints stay up too.

I've been in. A few teething problems but the place on the whole is impressive. They've also done a pretty good job of presenting the stone and making that room interesting and atmospheric - not all that easy a task when you consider it's essentially just a stone in a room. I didn't see a Saints shirt when I was looking round the rest of the building so will have to have another look some time. Wouldn't say I'm convinced it's the best use of that part of town, or of the money that went into building it, but I do think they've done a good job with it.

In a back four I'd choose McGowan at centre-half instead of Considine, yes. May has routinely made an impact and added energy to the team each time he's come on of late (other than the Aberdeen game which I didn't see so won't comment on) and he's a far better player than several of the guys Levein keeps picking, so yes I'd definitely have him in contention for a start.

So why do you think we're in the position we're in? I'm really curious to hear an explanation for our position that doesn't assign blame to anyone and keeps the "well run club" myth intact. The whole "hindsight" thing would be a valid point were it not for the fact that so many of us were highlighting the issues with so much of this while it was actually happening. And sorry but if you weren't calling the previous poster stupid, then what was the point of posting all that stuff about your High School teacher? You just randomly wanted to share a completely unrelated anecdote?