Russ

If he's so good why did West Ham release him? Not a signing that would win us the league imo (in my opinion).

But these '3 or 4 players that could play at a higher level' why if they could play in the Premiership would they choose to sign for us when they could be playing there instead? They wouldn't. That's why we need to be taking a punt on players. Either players from England or abroad who are unknown quantities or players like Harris who are still young not quite reached their potential yet and who could still improve in the future. Something else I'd like to see Houston do this season is make the most of the loan market. That's something we've not done enough off in recent years.

I imagine the reaction has been mostly because the signing was so obvious and like I said lazy. Obviously nobody is expecting to go out and sign a world beater or anything (well apart from maybe one person) but it would be refreshing to see Houston look elsewhere for players. For instance I'd much rather we looked down south and took a punt on someone from there than sign some Championship jobber that we know is going to be bang average (Im looking at you here Lewis Kidd) Now I'm not meaning that directed towards the signing of Harris but just overall at Houstons signing policy. For all the faults that Pressley had at least he did try something different in the transfer market occasionally. Sure they weren't all a success (Andy Haworth for example) but it's a risk worth taking if there's more players like Higginbotham, Vaulks, Leahy, Taylor etc... out there. I feel a bit sick for giving Pressley a bit of praise there. c**t got us relegated, made BoB our captain and signed such wonders as Ross Perry and Chris Smith. I fucking hate Steven Pressley.

Now I'm in now way backing up Shadwells utter pish that he's been spouting the last few days. But this patter about asking who we should sign instead is just dreadful. Who knows how much our budget it is, how much we can offer per week and we've no got access to the scouring network that I assume the club will have. That's just as bad as Shadwells dreary pish. My personal opinion on the signing is whilst it is extremely underwhelming and lazy, I think a lot of people including myself pretty much called it as soon as he was let go by Hibs, it's not the worst signing in the world and I'm sure there is a player in there somewhere so let's see how he gets on. We got Tom Taiwo from Hibs 3 years ago and as far as I can remember he didn't get great reviews from them but he's been a solid signing for us.

We still need 2 full-backs, 2 strikers and a couple of wide midfielders. Assuming that Houston still goes with his 4-4-2. What I think we'll end up with though is another centre midfielder, 1 striker and Alex Harris. Possibly a left-back if we sell Gallacher. I don't think Houston sees right back as a problem which is a bit of a concern. Muirhead does a job there but he gives us nothing going forward and Lewis Kidd should be getting binned this summer. Might be a player in there somewhere but he's definitely not a full-back.

This. Would be a very poor signing. He's on trial at St. Mirren. But he's exactly the sort of player we should be looking at. Young, done a good job in the division below and should be looking to move up a level. I'd be surprised if he's even been on our radar tbh.

Sorry to clutter the ICT thread up with this, but that is extremely harsh. The first 6 months of the 2015/16 season he was outstanding. His hold up play was good, he was still pressing the ball and was banging the goals in. It's been a slow decline since January 2016 and he was played far too much last season and his return of 7 goals in 35 league games just wasn't good enough. He's still got something to give in this league but he's not quite the player he was 18 months ago. His finishing has never been great (don't let him take penalties) his movement is quite poor as well but he's a grafter and will chase the ball down and work his arse off for the team.

Give it a rest fs. Shepherd is fucking hopeless. Not even close to being good enough for this level. Waste of a wage.

Stanton is a centre midfielder. They are 2 signings that definitely have Houston written all over them. Stanton probably would be a good signing but a centre midfielder is not what we need right now we already have 4 (5 if we re-sign Sibbald) first team players that can play there. As for Harris has he not been shite since that first Semi Final against us? He'd probably just take Airds place on the bench.

Of course the Board, George Craig and Eddie May were all at fault as well. But for you to come out and say that it wasn't Presley's fault at all is just a load of shite. Any competent manager would have kept us up. We shouldn't have been picking out if they 3 at all. None of them should have been anywhere near the job. Also I've seen a lot of people make that comment about May that he didn't want the job. But surely if he didn't want it he simply wouldn't have took it? And certainly wi isn't have stuck around for so long.

Whit? That's just absolute nonsense. He was in charge for 15 games that season and he won 3. He had 5 games after the split where we failed to score from open play, 1 penalty in the 5 games against the rest of the bottom six. He is a fucking dreadful manager and he absolutely does deserve a big portion of the blame on us getting relegated.

Neither of the 3 of them were proven at all when we signed them though. Farid was an unknown from the French amateur divisions, Lyle Taylor had only scored goals in the 7th tier of English football and Rory Loy hadn't really done anything of note before coming to us. Of course I would absolutely love for us to bring back Rory Loy, not just a goal scorer but a great footballer at this level. I'd like to think if Dundee are willing to let him go we'd be in the mix to try sign him.

That stat is completely irrelevant. It wouldn't matter in the slightest if all his goals came against the bottom 4 teams. He still managed to score more goals against the same teams than any of our strikers last season.

Clark got 15 goals in 30 league games last season for Dunfermline. I'll give you Declan McManus though, he's fucking rank. And Mark Stewart? f**k sake. Aye Shepherd is utter shite but come on to f**k. We can only hope. Nothing against Bairdy he has done a good job for over the last 2 and a half years and probably has been one of Houstons best signings for us but it is time for him to move on. What calibre of player do you think we are able to attract? Andy Ryan got 23 league goals and was arguably the best player in the league below last season. For me that is exactly the kind of player we should be going for.

What is this pish? First he was 'honking' in the 10 minute or so that he played and now he didn't play more because of his attitude? He didn't play more because the manager didn't select him. Simple as that. Only 7 outfield players started more league games than Hippolyte last season and 3 of them were defenders. Tbf a lot of our fans are simpletons.

Can't say I know anything about McCallum but Zwick is fucking shite. Still if he's cheap enough he'll do just to sit on the bench.

Stanton would be a decent enough signing although it's width in midfield that we should be after. I know Harris is also mentioned there but he'd be just as shite as that *** c**t Aird. And Paul Quinn? I'd be very surprised if we're after another centre back with 3 (plus Muirhead) already signed up. Especially one so injury prone and shite.

I can see why Swansea would take a punt on him he was extremely raw but cheap and they already had both Fulton and Kingsley from us. For us the only real thing I can say was at least he was better than Taylor Morgan. Am I right in saying he only scored for us at Tynecastle? Remember him scoring twice there but that's about it.

Aye that's pretty much my biggest memory of Botti. Baird was fucking sensational up front on his own that day.

Don't really see the problem with that if true. I'd imagine he'd be cheap enough and will only be second choice to Thomson next season anyway.

Next season I'd imagine we could easily have the biggest budget in the league if Dundee Utd go up. Or if not their certainly won't be a lot in it between a few teams. All this pish about the board needing to release funds is absolute nonsense. We should be living within our means and quite rightly so. Houston will be given one of the biggest budgets in the league next year and if he chooses to waste that on dross like Henderson, Shepherd, Kidd or Kerr and Baird who are now way past their best then that is not the boards problem but solely down to Houston.

I'm really surprised we've let Lewis McMinn go. For me he'd have been the ideal back up 'keeper next season. He always looked decent enough when I seen him for the under 20s and it would save a proper first team wage. Always liked the look of Cameron Eadie as well, kind of like a younger Peter Grant. If Paul Watson goes then I fully expect this to happen. If anyone thinks Fash isn't good enough then they can get themselves to f**k.

Aye it's all but confirmed that he's off to Walsall. He was looking for a move back down nearer Coventry. Tbf to Rogers he only lost his place when he got an injury and when Robbie Thomson came in he didn't do anything wrong to justify being dropped. Rogers really is a cracking 'keeper he still needs to improve from cross balls but he deserves better than being a second choice next season and you could certainly do a whole lot worse than him.

It's terrifying just how plausible that signing and quote is.

Just see that Joe Chalmers has been released by Motherwell. I'm getting the absolute fear [emoji45].