[The Queen of the South thread]

50 minutes ago, FrankReynolds said:

There must have been contact between Holt and his new team beforehand. 

Holt must have done the deal when under contract with Queens then got his release .

The idea of the 2 year contract is that we could sell him if we got a decent offer not just give him away 

 

 

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

1 hour ago, Skyline Drifter said:

I don't think any of these scenarios are particularly similar to the Holt one to be honest. El Bakhtaoui was transferred when an acceptable offer was received. We didn't want him to go but he was desperate to play in Morocco. We only got him in the first place when a move there had fallen through in the summer. A fee was agreed for a guy who wasn't on a two year contract incidentally and would have left for nothing three months later and he was sold. That's not similar to the others at all. If anything it's the same as Lyndon Dykes, though in that case part of the deal was we got him back on loan for 4 months more. That wasn't an option for El Bakhtaoui who wanted to move to Morocco.

Kerr and Baird had fallen out with the manager at the time (Fowler) and were causing a problem so were allowed to go (again Kerr wasn't on a two year deal either, though Baird was).

Harkins and Gary Naysmith had a difference of opinion about his role in the team and agreed he would move on. As far as I know it was entirely civil and no dummy was spat. They just agreed he'd be better going somewhere else. Again he wasn't on a two year contract and, given he made a total of 11 starts in the rest of his career I think it's hard to argue that it was a bad call.

Why was Holt not sold like El Bak surely Holt new club should have made a offer to Queens Holt had a year left on his contract so why just let him go for free 

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

19 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Thank you.

Another 5 tomorrow and 5 more on Monday.

This will probable shock you  but I like the articles on the reserve boys .

My thing about the reserves is all about cost for example will all the reserve boys have to be tested if they play in any friendly game .

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

9 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Personally I think the club deserve enormous credit for sticking with the Reserves when so many other similar sized clubs have mothballed them or ceased altogether. As Robbo has posted already, Ayr have abandoned their reserve squad. I believe Airdrie did too. Not sure about others.

It should be noted perhaps that one who did come through our Reserve / u20s set up very recently is liable to make his full international debut tonight. Appreciate his path was not exactly typical but it shows the merit in the set up. Connor Murray came through it too. Kevin Holt, Gavin Reilly, Ian McShane, and other guys who have made decent lower level careers like Aidan Smith, Scott Hooper, Pat Slattery, Ayrton Sonkur. It's not done too badly over the relatively recent past

This season it should all be about the 1st team squad maybe if things get back to something like normal next season then have a reserve team but not this season .Why bother when no league to play in .

Ayr have the right idea put everything they have into the 1st team squad building a very good squad really thought we would like Ayr gradually add to the squad but no looking like now we are hoping for decent loan signings 

 

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

Jack Hamilton available on loan again from Livi  wonder if Queens will make a move to sign him again 

[The Queen of the South thread]

2 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

No. He was over 23.

As you have said the board did a great job of getting a sell on clause on Dykes still amazed he went for 2 million but crazy money down south .

Do Queens start training on Monday hopefully many new signings to keep you busy 

[The Queen of the South thread]

1 hour ago, SUPERSOUTH said:

Livingston wanted to make sure they had Dykes for the following season Pre-contract deals can be broken by both parties, This was the best option for all parties involved. Queens definitely got a good deal out of it.. Would be great if we could sign a couple of young players with potential and the same could happen to them,clubs like Hamilton have benifited from this for years. 

Why sign a pre contract if it can be broken by both parties surely it means something  anyaway great how the Dykes   deal worked out .

Looks like we have agreed 6 new signing still miles behind other teams in the Championship Raith have a full squad ready to get going other clubs not far behind them.

[The Queen of the South thread]

8 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

This. And yet so many of our fans either watched it but didnt see it, or didnt want to see it.

On the subject of Shankland and Dykes though since you mention him, I was thinking about this yesterday actually. Two very different players with different attributes but its an interesting contrast between them and how their respective clubs handled their departures. Its not meant as a criticism of Ayr because I'm not sure how much it was in their control and whether anyone he wanted to go to made any serious offer but in Jan 2019 both ourselves and Ayr had a forward attracting the interest of bigger sides. Most of the clamour was around Shankland of course because he scored goals. There was speculation of 6 figure bids from abroad and England but Ayr took what their fans felt at the time I think was the bullish approach of not selling him but letting him see out his contract and try to earn them promotion. Meanwhile QoS quietly negotiated a deal with Livingston thst saw Dykes switch clubs in January but stay on loan for the rest of the season with a sell on percentage of a future fee. 

Both players played for their existing side for the rest of the season then left. Shankland had a quiet spell and Ayr finished 4th, losing the playoff to Inverness. We floundered our way through the 2nd half of that season, eventually finishing 9th but Dykes was excellent in the playoffs and pretty much destroyed Raith in the 1st leg of the final. 

12 months on Lawrence Shankland had surprisingly joined Dundee Utd as a free agent but had a stellar season, firing them to the title and getting capped for Scotland. There remains speculation now of big money moves to France or elsewhere. Ayr didnt get a penny for him however.

Lyndon Dykes had a standout year in the top division at Livingston, earning himself a 7 figure move to the English Championship and apparently an imminent international call up. Queen of the South may well end up breaking our 25 year old record transfer fee in a secondary fee percentage. Now whether you are a Dykes fan or not, you have to give credit to our Board (& to Livi for agreeing the terms). Well played to 'the suits', well played indeed.

Well done indeed to the board on the Dykes deal but surprised Livi did not just sign him on a pre contract in Jan .

Would they not then got Dykes for free in the summer .

[The Queen of the South thread]

22 minutes ago, SUPERSOUTH said:

Manager not back until Monday 24th.

No idea why the manager is still on furlough surely this week he should have building a squad ready to start training next week .

Are Queens set up for testing the players expensive think over £100 every test but has to be done this is when the James Anderson money will be used 

[The Queen of the South thread]

44 minutes ago, Rjc-1988 said:

Not sure how many of the rumoured signings will actually come to fruition but if we get Fitzpatrick that would be potentially a great signing. Disappointed we went for Buchanan - hope I’m wrong but players that continually fail to impress at consecutive clubs rarely turn it around and in all honesty, a good Championship centre back should have strolled it in League 1 with a team expected to romp away with the title. Happy to see Devine return - came at a bad time last season when the whole team was in free fall but I think he looked promising and will surely only improve. A fit Semple would be a good signing but have no idea how he has looked after himself in lockdown.Glad that we are at least attempting to sign midfielders who can “play a bit” as opposed to honest grafters who struggle to keep the ball.

Progress being made if we can get some of these over the line.
 

Is AJ still on furlough till next week is that why no signing have been announced ..

Are Queens set up to test players twice a week the James Anderson money  to cover costs 

 

 

[Coronavirus and the Scottish Championship]

Are Championship clubs allowed to train next week ? I take it all players and staff will have to be tested twice a week.

The James Anderson money will it cover all cost of testing 

[The Queen of the South thread]

54 minutes ago, SUPERSOUTH said:

No obsession....  With all the talk of having a young squad, I thought the signing of both Semple (21) & Pybus (22) would be good assets for the club. In my opinion they were the best young players at Queens last season. 

A fit Semple is a good young defender but his fitness is the problem .

He really missed a huge part of the season when he struggled to get fit enough to play get him in for pre season training to get a look at him before offering him anything .

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

11 hours ago, qos1990 said:

AJ should be back full time from tomorrow we are going to miss out on players with him off another week .

If we had a core of a squad together it would not be so bad but to only have 3 players signed makes us miles behind any other Championship team .

When does training start back  before the end of August ?

 

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

9 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Patience.......

Going to keep positive this season AJ will have a decent few signing  already lined up just as you say be patience for another couple of weeks  .

 

[Transfer Rumour Thread]

9 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Yeah I knew what he meant but lets not start encouraging Partick Thistle to thinking they were cheated again. We hadnt won a game in 2020 but neither had Thistle. They couldnt beat us on their own pitch a week before lockdown. Maybe we were worse at the time, maybe they were, there certainly wasnt much in it. Crucially though we were better earlier in the season before we lost 3 big players. We lost the best keeper in the division, our best centre back and our most creative player / lead assister. Any team would struggle to deal with that combination. We certainly couldnt.

Okay we lost 3 key players 2 we got a transfer fee for but the idea is your try and replace them with the same standard of player .

AJ signing in Jan every one was very poor .

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

Really good interview with the Chairman.

Staying full time but going with a young squad according to the Chairman 

It is very difficult to work out a budget this season .

I was really surprised that we do have a sell on Dykes him being sold could get us another 2 or 3 players 

[The Queen of the South thread]

1 hour ago, Skyline Drifter said:

I assume it will entitle you to a streaming link.

It won't include away games. If those are available it will be on an individual match basis bought from the home club I'd presume on the same basis the Premiership are operating from this weekend. And only if the game isn't live on tv anyway. Nothing confirmed about individual games yet but given that's what the Premiership are doing it seems inevitable we'll be the same.

We will surely have crowds at games come October .

Palmerston is easily big enough and safe enough to have social distance crowds cut the capacity in the stands if need be .

I take it there will be a code on my season ticket to let me stream games if I have to .

Any idea when the Queens shop will be open ?

[The Queen of the South thread]

Michael Doyle has signed for Queens Park.

Would have liked him back at Queens but we miss out again .

Other news fixtures out tomorrow at 2pm live on Sky sports 

[New signings?]

Tommy Goss signing for Queens .Will he be good enough to make the step up  huge jump from South football to the Championship .

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

Will the walk up price be put up to £20 instead of £18 .

This is the time to do it most clubs seem to doing that but can we do that now that we have set out season ticket prices .

Is it right the fixtures come out this week

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

2 hours ago, Steeplechat said:

 

15% sell on clause. Wrong yet again Jack.

 

Time will tell who is right but it will be nowhere near 15% be surprised if we even have a sell on clause 

[The Queen of the South thread]

1 hour ago, lowland star said:

Sell on 15-20% and was told Livingston want 1.5-2 million for him . They turned down 1.1 million from Barnsley

It has not been confirmed anywhere that we have sell on with Dykes .

If we do it will be nowhere near 15 % more like 5 %.

[The Queen of the South thread]

13 minutes ago, ayrunitedfw said:

I’m not sure if it’s common knowledge amongst you guys but it’s in the Sun that Allan Johnston will come off furlough middle of August. 

Was in our local paper reporter getting the story from there .

We are miles behind Ayr and everyone else all seem to have a core of a squad signed.

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

18 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Yep, thats the one who was here too. He is a brilliant character, a real heart on the sleeve fans favourite with a great work rate. But his best position was centre back, not right back, and he was prone to the odd horror mistake now and again. I will see your penalty v Hearts and raise you a comic own goal at Tannadice. I would have happily had Doyle back but I am more disappointed to lose Mercer.

Doyle is a far better full back than Mercer  

Doyle defends no messing about can't remember many who fly past him  

Mercer is easily beat for pace   okay good going forward but that is not enough for me  

 

 

 

[The Queen of the South thread]

10 minutes ago, Fae_the_'briggs said:

Wullie Gibson still stays in the area. There's a piece about Gibson's career in yesterday's Courier in which he signs off by saying he's been keeping himself fit during the lockdown and wants to keep playing,  and in his mid 30's thinks he can still do a job for someone.  Queens haven't signed Gibson or any other new players yet and the Manager is still furloughed. There is obviously a doubt about Gibson's current Reserve Team Manager's role at the club, has the BoD decided if we will be running a second string in the new season?

Surely they will be no reserve team this season hard enough getting a 1st team squad together .

Gibson could do a job for us in center midfield his experience will be important for us