ALMONDVIEW PODCAST

@ Almondviewpod

Last season was a minute away from ending in a European dream, thanks to a Motherwell equaliser putting us in the bottom half of the late- season split. The big talking point is how we keep our squad together, with a lot of our players being linked with moves away. This season will be different because if the majority of them stay, we should hit the ground running for once.

Our key player will be ex- Hearts and Rangers midfielder Jason Holt [ above] – he’s the heartbeat of the team and should feature all season.

I won’t be happy unless we at least score against Hearts! Four games and no goals last term was tough to take.

Our most underrated player is James Penrice [ below], who often flies under the radar… thankfully. He’ll really make a name for himself this season. The opposition player who grinds my

gears is Zander Clark. It was a struggle to get the ball past the St Johnstone keeper, so just as well he’s left them. The back active is Shaun player Byrne. I’d Just love gone to have down with Dundee, but he fits our system.

Fans think our ground is a fortress – only lost twice there since Christmas. The thing my club really gets right is their speciality pie selection at games!

Fans think our owner is a good guy – he’s running our club so we don’t get into financial troubles again. I’m least looking forward to playing

Kilmarnock. Yawn- fest. The opposition player I’d love here is

Callum Hendry. He had a chokehold over us – I’ve never known a player to score so consistently against Livi since Henrik Larsson at Celtic. Luckily, he’s headed south to Salford.

The fans’ opinion of the gaffer is that David Martindale is Livi through and through. Questionable at times with his subs – on two separate occasions last season, he brought a player on, only to sub them off five minutes later. If he left, he should be replaced by all five members of the Almondview Podcast? Or Marvin Bartley, of course.

The pantomime villain will be new signing Esmael Goncalves, once of St Mirren and Hearts. Whether he’ll haunt away fans or our own I don’t know.

We’ll finish a hopeful 6th.

FFT VERDICT

8TH

Martindale continues to do a great job at Livi, with one of the smallest budgets in the Premiership. He has an eye for a player and is tactically savvy enough to get the best out of them. The addition of all- action midfielder Stephane Omeonga last summer was a masterstroke.