RE Pawlett/Harkes
The biggest issue for me is that they were both given new contracts when we should have moved on for better.
Pawlett had 1 good game vs Morton on his debut and after that was either pretty poor or injured or a very brief spell in a game where he looked like he was finally at it. Bizarrely he prob showed more in his recent attempts of a comeback than he did prior to getting a new contract. No doubts injuries ruined him, i think there was a player in there somewhere.
Harkes was chased throughout the summer for an extension like we were losing someone who was way better than he actually was meanwhile neglecting the fact we need midfielders of another type badly. For me, hes one of the biggest reasons we have never been able to control a midfield for years as he's like playing a man down when in possession due to his positional sense and his amazing ability to stand behind players and never be on for a pass. Have i seen worse... yes a lot worse but we never pursued them to stay the way we did with Harkes and for me one of TA's worst bits of business was doing that.
Once that goalie goes is there anyway a block can be Put on the Forum to stop his name from being mentioned ever again.
This is my concern - we know they chucked it in order to get Jack Ross out, and then again to get Liam Fox his jotters, but I'm not convinced there wasn't a similar effort (or lack of) to try and dispose of Jim Goodwin. Just seems odd how we could go from 3 wins in row against teams vying for the top 6 and European qualification, to losing 5 in a row against teams at the bottom of the league and with nothing to play for, and looking utterly hopeless in the process.
This goes back to the earlier part of the thread and the question of which players do we want shipped out and who (if anyone) do we want to stay. The downing of the tools needs to be thoroughly investigated and anyone involved needs to be jettisoned from the club in no uncertain terms, although I think Jim Goodwin may have alluded to that when he said
"I made it clear to them that if they don’t want to be here or they don’t fancy playing in the Scottish Championship, then just let me know. I’ll not be difficult to deal with. If they think they can go and get something better, then no bother. come and see me and we’ll rip up the contract and send them on their way."
It's the "rip up the contract" bit that I like. JG knows exactly what he is implying/saying. He is letting that lot know exactly how things are going to work under him. If any existing players feel they are better than Championship level, fair dooz, off yi pop, but on our terms. If they want their contracts financial side honoured, fair dooz again, but... you will be playing Championship futba next season.
Simple really. Unless we can't afford to do that, and have to let them go due to other teams interest. I think this might be the case with a few.
I’m hoping he’s implying, that those recently dropped will be nowhere near the first team next season, regardless of division, so rather than seeing out their contract warming the bench or playing in the reserves, then we can mutually part ways!!
I don’t want some of those players anywhere near the team even in the Championship, especially poppadom hands, Mulgrew or Watt.