Farewell Clarky

For a player who is still relatively young, David Clarkson seems to have been around for ever. He broke into the side when we should have been relegated in 2003 and then enjoyed a breakout campaign when he netted 14 goals to be top scorer as we finished 6th in 2004.

All the best

The next seasons were leaner, possibly due to Scott McDonald taking on the role of star striker, but despite some fans giving him stick he kept plugging away. Two excellent years were enough to make him a regular in the Scotland squad, if not the team, and he has more than earned his big money move south.

Just how much money we received is unclear but it seems safe to hazard a guess that it's in the region of £700,000, give or take a hundred grand or so. That's certainly not a fortune but with Setanta falling apart our negotiating position was perhaps not as strong as it could have been.

Jim Gannon now has an almost unique chance when he takes over as he will hardly have to move any players on before bringing people in. He's starting from scratch as if/when Paul Quinn leaves, we will scarcely have a team from Thursday night. The Llanelli games are definitely important - should we lose in the first round we will have a huge gap where our pre-season should be if nothing else - but assessing who can step up from the youths and who can be brought in is number one priority.