Over the summer the playing squad underwent a major transformation. The only first teamers to avoid the cull were Kirk Broadfoot, Mark Dempsie, Simon Lappin, Ricky Gillies and Hugh Murray. Out went the likes of Ally Mitchell, Jamie McGowan and top goalscorer Martin Cameron, to be replaced with, among others, Allan Russell, Mark Crilly, Kevin Twaddle and Eddie Annand.
It is fair to say that hardly any of the new signings has done well. Mark Crilly was hyped up and whilst he started well, he has been awful recently. The same can be said of Russell. John O'Neill finds himself in a similar position, although he has been injured and suspended recently. Injuries have put paid to Twaddle, Annand, Barry Lavety and, when we still had him, Paul McKnight. Other new signings, like Robert Dunn and Kevin McGowne, haven't done much to convince the fans they should have been signed, whilst the likes of David van Zanten have takena long time to start to show they can play at this level.
Out of all the summer signings, the only one who can definitely be branded a success is Craig Hinchcliffe. Laurie Ellis was showing he could play at this level so you an probably add his name to that list, and O'Neill as well. Taking Chris McGroarty, Andy Millen and Gus MacPherson out of the equation, that means the rest have been poor. Crilly, Russell, Dunn, Annand, Twaddle, Lavety and the rest have, for one reason or the other, not been up to the standard. Admittedly the five players who stayed have done well, but that is simply not good enough. Far too many of the squad have been picking up wages whilst being injured or simply not good enough.
The argument that many of them should not have been signed is a fair one, but that all comes down to one man who, thankfully, is no longer at Love Street. John Coughlin was appointed the manager in the summer, despite winning sod all games last season. When the first game of the season saw us 2-0 down at half time to Queen's Park (not Rangers, not Celtic, not Hamilton, but Queen's Park), you knew something was well and truly wrong. Had the board acted more swiftly and sacked him in September, or not given him the job, then we might find ourselves a bit further up the table. Certainly we wouldn't be in the relegation bother we find ourselves in at the present.
Of course, the current manager Gus MacPherson isn't entirely blameless. After a good start, things seem to have been going badly over the past few weeks. We haven't won a game since beating Queen of the South 3-1 back in late January, and have only scored two goals in the four games sicne then. We needed a striker in the transfer window yet we didn't sign one, though thats's probably more to do with lack of money and Ellis' injury. However, Gus seems to make the subs when it's too late, the cup game against Caley Thistle being a prime example. Hopefully this is just the managerial learning curve and the problems won't happen again.
The lack of money can easily be blamed for the poor form. If we'd had money we could have signed better players, and signed a striker. Sadly, we're skint, and we'll just have to live with it. However, in my opinion, it's far more important to stay in the first division than it was to stay in the second. Spending that bit extra to bring in a new striker now might help keep us up, and keep the wolves from the door.
Can we stay up? Of course we can, we are after all seven points clear of the relegation zone, and there are three other teams involved. But whether we will or not is another matter, and it's not something I'm confident of at the present.