Quote Originally Posted by fatfan View Post
I was pointing out how the players are getting all the praise when the team start winning but the manager gets it in the neck when things are going south and nothing or very little is said about players. Do I think Johnstone is doing a decent job? In answer to that I have to say he's doing what's expected of him so far. Without knowing any facts, I can't see how there is any ambition to take the club into the next level and the sole expectation is to survive in the championship, which so far he has done with smaller resources than a few league 1 clubs. Now with us having such small resources, it's surely the bod job to manage that. The other point is that there seems to be this thing about maintaining full time status. Football finances have changed dramaticly in recent years and as a result there are a large number of good players who would rather remain part time cos they will make more money in a full time job accompanied with part time football. As such I think the club are possibly missing a trick there
I agree about the advantages of part time players and this is something I have advocated a few times before on this Forum. I would rather have a talented young part timer who is looking to make his way in the game while keeping down a full time job supplementing their income with football whilst learning a trade rather than any of the mature, being kind here, journey men that we occasionally pick up who have done all they can in the game and are doing nothing other than taking a wage prior to finishing. I do like you idea of a mixture of full and ambitious part time players.
There certainly seems to be little interest from the current board in taking the team up a division but this is probably as much to do with the finances than anything else and until a major investor comes along this is likely to be the case for the immediate future unfortunately.
Hopefully Johnstone will prove me wrong and the current run of good form, coupled with a couple of decent recruits, will continue well beyond the January transfer window Covid-19 permitting. His good run back in 2012/13 was in the first division against part time clubs and I thought that he should have stayed and proven himself for the first season back in the Championship however the allure of Killie was just too much for him to turn down which was understandable.