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Ok, answering in turn:-

1). I would argue that the squad is in fact BETTER than it has been. Look at the players bought in during the last 12 months or so;-

Pitman - could have gone to Blackpool in the prem, turned them down to come to us (hmmm..)
Hunt - yes, I know but there is something very wrong with this as you don't go from being a regular in the Prem to crap overnight
Stewart - good and bad, no in between
Stead - premier league pedigree
Albert - no comment required
NM - IMO, waiting to see who comes in before possibly committing to us with a prem release clause and back to top form

Most of these could be considered a step up on our original 4 year old squad. A lot of teams would kill to have our forward line options in Stead, Maynard and Pitman

Any good player you've mentioned has been attack minded; few would doubt that we're lacking in that department. However, neither Pitman nor Stead are Premier League quality, and given recent performances I've say that all three mentioned forwards are decent enough Championship players. They could make the move, but not until they can light the Championship up repeatedly.

On the Maynard deal, I'm quite frankly offended that he's had a contract in his hands for MONTHS and still hasn't committed himself to the club. If Leicester were to offer £6M again I'd bite their arm off as to me it seems like he'll be out on a free or with little compensation.

What worries me is not just our defence, but the lack of confidence in said defence. We can go forward, but we always seem to have one eye backwards in case the ball goes into our half. Outside of the wings we seem unable to do anything with the ball other than to give it away. The same rules apply; we need a solid defence and midfielders that do more than work hard. Outside of Ribeiro, Nyatanga and perhaps Wilson I'd say that our current crop are League 1 on a normal day. McAllister and Carey are simply too old and with luck the first thing McInnes will do is invest in a solid set of defenders.

As for the manager, I agree that it is not ENTIRELY about the manager, just 90% - have you ever had a boss whose methods and ideas you didn't agree with..? If so, what happened to your motivation, did you want to leave...?

No, I continued to work hard and eventually I was rewarded. Ultimately, players win games and if a group under-performs they'll be the ones playing League 1 football. Wiggy's response to the Millen sacking suggests to me that he feels that the current crop of players are the ones responsible.

As for not being good enough, did you go to the Reading game...? - we have all seen with our own eyes that the squad is COMFORTABLY good enough. It just needs new ideas and motivation and on that subject, why do we need a "big name", where did Mouriniho start, was he a "big name" - no, he wasn't, he was just a VERY capable bloke that someone gave a chance and the rest, is history. You say we need experience but that is also no guarantee of success whatsoever...

A big name isn't necessary, but I feel that we won't get out of this mess unless we have someone who can draw in good players, and if the worst were to happen we need someone who can get the team back up on the first try. If SL won't invest then we're not going to buy, so we need someone who can command the loan market and either flog some players in January or hand us a batch of players who will win us enough games to survive.

If we do survive, we'll also need our new manager to be able to land the kind of player we require to be contenders again. We have a number of players with their contracts up in the summer, and with so many players with their eye on the door it's not surprising that morale is so low. I would assume that SL will be more likely to invest when the squad is reduced, so I'd like someone who is shrewd enough to properly rebuild.

As I have repeatedly said on here, people with successful leadership qualities stand out like a sore thumb and I believe that McInnes fits the bill massively in this respect but of course, only the interview will reveal "star quality"...

I like what he's done with St Johnstone, but that's no indication that lightning will strike twice. The Championship is an entirely different beast and quite frankly I think

THIS IS FAR FROM A RELEGATION SQUAD....

A number of vocal fans have been crying out for the following for a while:

  • A creative midfielder
  • A replacement for Carey
  • A replacement for McAllister
  • Getting rid of dead wood, like Hunt, LJ and Clarkson
  • A better left-winger than JCR

That's effectively half a team. Whereas I agree that we're not a relegation squad we're definitely not contenders and at best we're mid-table. I'm surprised that we're bottom and I do expect us to improve, but relegation is a real certainty as we've not improved in many of the key areas listed. A couple of signings from McInnes that alleviates these concerns and I'd fully expect us to push for safety and be competitive next year.