CallumPar

It doesn’t seem to be any more of a ‘meh’ signing than Fisher, Otoo, KRH and Moffat were at the time. All turned out to be decent enough. Hopefully the boy does well and earns himself a longer stay at EEP.

Out of contract at Blackpool in the summer. If he plays well, I’m sure a contract will be offered by us. Similar situation to Fagan-Walcott. Seems like we’re kind of using the loan deal as a trial.

6’2 striker, just turned 21. Scored 4 goals in 19 games on loan at Southport (National League North) in the first half of the season and 3 in 20 games in the same league 2 years ago.

pen gif, but with Blackpool rock - it’s Joe Cardle, isn’t it?

Here’s something I wasn’t expecting to see today - Harry Sharp’s been named in the SPFL team of the week.

As much as we don’t need midfielders (in terms of squad numbers), I feel like that could be a good addition if it’s with a view to a permanent move in the summer. We have a lot of midfielders at the club. But some have been regularly covering in defence and we’ve severely lacked quality in the middle of the park this season. Worrying that we can’t seem to convince these defenders/strikers we identified to join the club.

Very good point. Completely forgot he was injured. Wighton will start in his place.

Think we’ll line up with: Mehmet Fisher Fagan-Walcott Otoo O’Halloran Hamilton Chalmers Edwards Summers McCann Wighton Allan, Moffat, Fenton, Young, Little will all be on the bench. I think, much like the majority of the season, we’ll be fairly resolute defensively. But we just don’t have that cutting edge up top. As we’ve seen (many times) as well, the defence can only deal with so much pressure, something has to give eventually and when we’re struggling to score, it only takes one goal to beat us. We really miss the energy/creativity of Todd and KRH and, unfortunately, that’s just how it is. Nobody can offer something on a consistent basis. Moffat, Summers and McCann all had decent performances, but all struggle to keep that momentum going, after a good game. United will win this, simply because they’re set up to win games and, with the players at their disposal, they have much better options. I think we’ll put in a respectable performance and get the whole “that team’s too good to go down” nonsense. But you need a bit of consistency to guarantee safety and we just don’t have that. Obviously hope I’m wrong and we get a win. edited to remove Jakubiak. Forgot he was injured.

Genuine question here. The role Greg Shields had… has the title been lost in translation somewhere? “Head of Professional” - it just feels like there’s a word missing at the end. But it’s been used so often that it doesn’t seem like it’s just been missed in the article. The job title just makes no sense and you’d think someone would have tried to fix this? It’s just weird.

I’m sure McPake has said he tried to sign Comrie for Dundee. Can’t imagine he’d have tried that, if he thought Kerr was a better RB. Maybe a better option at RWB than O’Halloran though, if Comrie’s needed in the back 3? I’d be happy if we signed Rudden to be fair. Think he’d improve our attacking options. Did well in a poor Falkirk team at this level and did fairly well at Partick, I think.

You believe the earth is flat, don’t you?

If we can bring in players of that calibre, that would be excellent. Also worth noting he says we’re still after another defender and a striker. Here’s hoping we see a couple of arrivals soon.

What are your doubts/concerns? For me, I think it’s sensible/logical. Certainly more sustainable as a football club than buying/paying big wages for a squad of players at their peak/on their way to retirement. Do we need a bit more experience? Yes, I think so. But I’m happy with the younger guys we have and the potential to sell a few of them, who will go onto bigger and better things. Regarding loans, I’d imagine we’re trying to build a positive relationship with clubs like Celtic, so we get to work with some of their best youngsters. Otoo was desperate to stay, then both Summers and Moffat said he was a big influence on them choosing to come here (albeit, on loan). If we loan players from these clubs and they tell teammates about loving their time, it might help us to recruit some that don’t make the cut at first team level there.

Update from club, issue fixed, but under soil heating has not been turned on as a precaution. Game likely to be on.

Obviously depends on the player. Key players, particularly the younger ones, we’d probably be looking for 6 figures and a sell-on %. Some players, we’d probably be happy with £30-50k plus a sell-on. There’s others that we’d probably let leave for very little. Also got to consider the fee we paid and sell-on % due to other clubs for some of our guys, when considering any offers we receive. I believe that we are very clear with players though, that they will be allowed to move on for the right price. We’ll only stand in their way if the fee/package offered by doesn’t match their value to the club and/or if it’s a club in the same division. Ultimately, in the modern game, we’ll never really know what players are bought/sold for as everything will be ‘undisclosed’.

Yeah. Even those that I want to stay, if we get a half decent fee/sell-on, I’d be fine with them moving on. Very few players at the club are irreplaceable.

Think this is harsh on Fisher, unless you’ve just missed him by mistake? Particularly when you’re looking at Comrie/Chalmers as possibly being on the very safe list. If everyone was fit, I’d rather have Fisher than Comrie at RCB and rather see KRH at RWB, so not sure what role Comrie would be very safe in. We’ll need to upgrade Breen’s role in the team and add more depth, if we want to challenge for promotion. We need a new keeper too and better players than Allan as midfield cover. Upgrading attacking options is an absolute must. I just don’t think Jakubiak or Wighton are the answer to improving our scoring return. Agree with your list of players to get rid of. Only issue is, the majority of them are under contract for next year.

I know what you mean. After a quick check, I think I’ve been to every home game, but it feels like we’ve not had many. Looking at it, we had long gaps without a home game at points, maybe that’s part of it? Was 4 weeks without a home game late Aug to late Sep. Then was another 4 weeks until our next one. Then we had 3 in November. Guess that’s part of the issue, we’ve played 9 home games and 3 of them were back-to-back in one month. Other than the 3 in a row, I think you’d be close to 2 months between trips to East End, if you missed just one game. We played 1 home game in September, 1 in October and 1 in December. Only counting league games for this, since nobody wants to remember cup games…

If this is on, watch us get 2 keepers injured, since it’ll be the first time since September we don’t have 2 on the bench.

Think the Queens Park game takes priority for rearranging, as it was originally due to be played first. As it stands, we’ll have 2 midweek games - one of the rearranged games, plus Inverness. So not too bad right now, assuming we get players back from injury and have a squad that can cope.

Who wants to tell him? Also, Thursday is now expected to never get above freezing temperatures, with a low of -5, according to the BBC. It’s safe to assume our flooded pitch will freeze. Game will be off. Will be rearranged for 10th Feb.

If you think we’ve got it bad, Falkirk fans invaded the pitch to celebrate scraping a 2-2 draw with Edinburgh City today…

Yeah. I think I’m just very aware we need to sign players and get results now. We can’t afford to say “we’ll be fine in a month, if players return”

That’s us just 3 points clear of 9th now - and we play them next week. Will be a very crucial week.

I’m genuinely surprised it’s not something that drainage/sunshine can solve before kick off today. But, it’s probably not bad for us to have the game off. Doesn’t sound like an issue that’ll be fixed ahead of the freezing temperatures this next week. To be honest, I’m not sure it’s worth fixing at all, without investing in a whole new system one summer. Seems to be an endless stream of issues with the USH and I’d imagine a lot of it is due to age of the system. A new system would hopefully cut the running costs and improve reliability. Although, it’s a cost we probably can’t afford in the near future. Feels like we could spend thousands fixing this, just to get another issue the next time we turn it on - that’s what seems to keep happening anyway. Hopefully Fisher can be back in contention and we can bring another player or two in over the next week or so anyway. We have a free weekend on the 10th February, so do Queens Park. Airdrie will too, if they lose to St Johnstone next week.