Michael W

f**k, there goes that then! Edited to add: I'd much probably have rather we'd signed O'Carroll tbh.

He scored a few goals last season, although not very many. In the goal scoring stakes, he'd be a step up from everyone in our team aprt from Baird. That's actually quite a depressing thought. I'm not overly enamoured by the prospect of O'Carrol myself. That said, our we're not exactly spoiled for choice at the moment. I think a loan signing is the best we're going to get, so we'd better hope we get a good one. Edit: Typos galore.

Oh come on! When was the last time Alex Williams did anything of note, let alone anything at this level of football? I don't exactly rate O'Carroll much either, but I'd far rather have him in the team than Alex Williams, who would be a complete and utter waste of a wage. He's under contract at Stenhousemuir anyway, according to wiki.

Behave yourself.

It's absolutely lashing it down outside. Anyone who thinks summer football is a good idea should remember just how bad this month has been for rain, and reconsider.

Yep. The only real criticism you could throw at Calderon regarded his tactics - his tactics could be overly negative at times. He did what was asked of him two years in a row, and I was really happy with the way the club was going under him. Safe to say, we certainly paid the price for what we did to him. It's only now that we've got ourselves back to where we were under him. Glad to see he's doing alright for himself back in Spain.

PICS, NOW!

I'd rather see the same, tbh. I'm not saying I wouldn't like to see us play in the SPL one day, but losing pretty much every week isn't something you want to see. At least being a good First Division side, you see your team win a good amount of games. 100 pages! Whoopa!!!11111

A goal every 7 games. Forgive me for being less than impressed should we sign O'Carroll. His record is poor, and we'd be starting the season with the strikeforce of a team which got relegated! Positive slant: Better than Graeme Weir!

Whilst talk of a promotion push is premature, I can see where some are coming from. I don't think we're any better than we were last season. Ok, we've brought in a striker who should actually be capable of getting himself into double figures, but that's it. We've lost two good left midfielders in Johnny Russell (back to DU) and Darren Smith, replacing them with Scott McBride, a player who is untried at this level. Similarly, we've brought in Willie Dyer who is also untried. Both these two may prove good players, or they may struggle. What is undeniable, is that people want to see the club move forward, even despite any financial restrictions that may be in place. People generally don't want to settle for mediocrity; you could excuse it last season as we wanted to keep ourselves up, but you would expect most people wanting to see us move forward a bit this season, maybe getting ourselves up to 5th/6th. It's also easy enough to see why some aren't best pleased. The single largest glaring flaw in our team - being light up front - still remains. Whilst I think we will get someone in on loan, we really shouldn't be looking to rely upon loan signings.

This is it, though. If McBride doesn't make too much of an impact, then we're left with Williamson to play out on the left. Without me going off at a tangent about his poor performances last season, I've never been convinced he's a solution out wide. He cuts inside far too often, resulting in us losing width and he really doesn't have enough pace to be playing out there. You can of course counter those criticisms by saying he was our second top scorer last season, but I'm not sure Williamson himself really knows where his best position in the team is. Edit: I still stand by what I said when he went - I'd have kept Darren Smith.

It's always our defenders out injured, isn't it? Hill will obviously miss the first few of games given he's only just begun training, and I'd imagine Ellis may miss the first couple. Murray will have to continue at RB in the absence of Wilson, so it's likely to end up as Wedderburn & Davidson at centre half. That's a combination way down the list on the priority list of CB pairings! In fact, it's the one I'd least like to see. The annoying thing is, we actually have ample cover in defence when you look at it on paper. I believe we have 9 listed defenders, and Davidson can also be used there when necessary.Anyone fancy a bet on how many CB pairings we'll go through this season? Regardless of their injuries, I think Hill and Ellis will both get a good pre-season behind them. Hopefully Wilson can do the same.

Cameroon. He was a good enough player initially, although his performances dipped after the quarter final at Dens. I don't know what it was, but he seemed to lose confidence/concentration or something after that.

It looked it! I can't say any of us envied you; we were all about on the verge of collapse playing Wembley.

Guilty as charged. I assume you were with the group behind where we were, doing pre-season training?

Gregory Tadé is hight on Hodgson's wishlist, but the owners won't sanction any transfer funds until he offloads a couple of players. This friendly is our compensation.

I don't think anyone's panicing, merely that some (including myself) have reasonably low expectations of what lies ahead. No matter what way you try and dress it up, we are very, very short up front.

Very bad news regarding Wilson, I hoped he'd have fully recovered by now. Hopefully he'll still manage to get a few games behind him pre-season. The team suffers quite badly when Wilson isn't fit, as he's the only right back we've got. Grant Murray puts in a solid display when he's there, but I'd rather have Wilson in there any day. With Dyer signed, Ellis is free to slot in at CB should Murray need to go out to RB. Yep, I think we'll be in for a similar sort of season to last, although I'm more confident we won't get relegated than I was going into last season.

Cheers. It's a pity it looks like he's going to miss pre-season, as that can have a negative influence on performances. I'm not worried from a fitness perspective, owing to his employment.

Well, this was posted on Fantalk: I've no idea which paper this was in, though.

It was probably down to the fact she was younger than me, and not quite as mature as she thought she was. I haven't had to deal with any hassle like that for sometime, and I can't say I miss it. Then again, things will likely be different this time around. Even if I do go out with a girl who is a year or two younger than myself this time, at least there's a higher chance of her being less likely to start jumping to the wrong conclusions over nothing.

Ah, that takes me back! I used to get that all the time. First it was I didn't trust her, then it was I didn't care because I didn't look like I was jealous. Of course, there's no way in the warped logic of your average female that that could mean I trusted here, could it? Unsurprisingly, both of these resulted in me being in the bad books. Lassies.

At least we'll all be getting behind the team.

I await the inevitable jokes.

Ah well, I must have been thinking of someone else then.