This piece is an extract from yesterday's The Rugby Road Gates newsletter, which is emailed out at 6pm every Wednesday. To receive our full, free Kilmarnock newsletter straight to your email inbox, click here.

We’re heading towards the middle of the summer, and I sincerely hope everyone has enjoyed whatever they’ve been up to during a well-deserved break, whether it be on these shores or in sunnier climes!

It’s hard to believe that the new domestic season gets underway in a little over two weeks. I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn when I say that the gap without football during the off-season feels like it’s closing in every year. Not that it’s a bad thing, of course, with our regular staple diet of Killie soon to be back in our lives.

It has been 60 days since Derek McInnes’ side last kicked a ball competitively. They’ve been back to complete their pre-season work for a few weeks now, with a seven-day trip to Marbella squeezed in as part of the players’ essential fitness and conditioning work ahead of the campaign and of course, highly-anticipated European fixtures this month. Cercle Brugge come to town a week tomorrow. It’s been a quick turnaround since the draw was made in mid-June to the point where the big Europa League night is finally upon us after several months of excitement. Rugby Park will be rocking next Thursday evening in what is sure to be a night to remember on the hallowed turf, with noise levels peaking similarly to the night we played Arbroath to win the Championship in 2022.

The manager will have the team ready. He’s seen and been in this film many times before. Although his Aberdeen teams never managed to achieve group-stage football on European duty, they featured in the qualifiers more or less every summer and built up an experience level to defeat the likes of HNK Rijeka, FC Groningen and FK Ventspils, and coming up against Real Sociedad and NK Maribor. McInnes is a very clever communicator and usually knows how to play the media in terms of getting across his point, so he would never be so blasé as to publicly state that he’ll repeat that kind of consistency at Killie. Privately, within the four walls of Rugby Park, that’ll be the aim, though.

Roll on Thursday, July 25 for what promises to be a special occasion on home soil, before we do it all again for the much-awaited second leg in Belgium!

ANOTHER THING

Let’s get behind our new man Robby McCrorie. He endured a difficult night at Somerset Park last week and for sure, he deserved to be criticised for Ayr’s first goal. It was a howler and there’s no other way of putting it. Hopefully, it was just some nerves or a distinct lack of match sharpness taking its toll.

The 26-year-old will probably be disappointed at the second goal too. He did get a foot on the shot by Ayr’s Marco Rus, but had he reacted quicker a save could’ve potentially been made. There were plenty of other errors in front of him for that one, though.

Goalkeeper is regarded as one – if not the – hardest positions in the game. Mistakes nine times out 10 cause goals, and pressure is frequently on them throughout 90 minutes.

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He made some errors during his first game, he’ll know that more than any of us. He has to be given the support of the fans and his teammates to bounce back and show what he’s capable of, though. Killie don’t pay fees all too often. The club wouldn’t have forked out to make the transfer with Rangers happen if McInnes, Russ Richardson and his staff didn’t believe McCrorie had what it takes to be No.1.

If we cast our minds back 12 months ago, Will Dennis was heavily criticised for his performances during the League Cup group stage games prior to the start of the real stuff. Some fans voiced genuine concern about how he would cope playing against a team of Rangers’ stature in the opening game. With the benefit of hindsight, we all know how that one panned out.

I suppose the message is let’s give Robby some time to settle in (albeit he doesn’t have much of that before the two legs against Brugge) and hopefully we have another sellable asset on our hands because, after all, he’s OUR player now, and isn’t another loanee. He certainly doesn’t lack self-confidence having listened to his recent interview with Sky Sports.

AND FINALLY

Motherwell sold Theo Bair to French side Auxerre earlier this week. The numbers on the initial fee read an eye-watering £1.6m for a player who was released by St Johnstone just last year. They will also potentially earn a further £500,000 in future add-ons. Madness.

Fair play to the Canadian forward and Stuart Kettlewell for finding the right fit, and playing to his strengths in order to make the move work. He gets a big pay day and the opportunity to play in one of Europe’s top five leagues, while the Fir Park side pocket a very healthy sum.

Given they sold Kevin van Veen for £550,000 last summer, evidence shows Motherwell as a club appear to know exactly when to sell their most valuable assets. David Turnbull and James Scott are also relatively recent examples. Lennon Miller will be the next.

For Killie, the business model they’re trying to forge relies on maximising profit when moving players on, such as Danny Armstrong. Everything points towards Danny leaving this summer given the public messaging coming out of KA1 that he’ll not be extending his contract.

Much depends on how much interest there is in the player. It all seems to have gone quiet on that front. It then depends on how much any potential buyer is willing to pay, and if they would match the club’s asking price. Without doubt though, Killie should be taking a leaf out of Motherwell’s book when it comes to selling players.