CallumPar

Nice to read people speaking fairly positively about Jackson Longridge. Just came on to see what your opinions were of him, as I haven’t seen that much of him. Sounds like he’s got potential and sounds a bit similar to Ryan Williamson, with less pace. Leaves us with 3 decent young full backs for next season. Also, while I’m here, congrats on getting Byrne signed up for another 2 years. Seems to have been excellent for you guys. All the best for next season, hopefully you can get the right manager and keep proving everyone wrong [emoji106]

In other news, Joe Cardle completed his UEFA A Licence. If Potter leaves (perhaps even if he doesn’t), I wonder if a player/reserve coach role may suit him? Cardle’s given a lot for the club, and it would be nice to see us giving something back and help him towards that path, that he wants to go down in the future.

Talbot away. Confirmed on Twitter.

Of those we don’t know about, I have a feeling only 2/3 will stay. Morris - will turn down contract Higgy - will turn down contract Cardle - may get offered contract if Higgy leaves Martin - will sign new deal M’Voto - will leave Talbot - won’t be offered anything, if Martin stays McManus - might stay, but think he’ll get a better offer somewhere else. To be clear, this is not me saying “I’ve heard this is what’s happening”, it’s pure speculation.

To be honest, I’d expect any top flight manager to resign, if their club signed Sibbald. No surprise that this announcement came so soon after that signing.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/scottish-championship/662873/exclusive-dunfermline-leading-the-race-to-sign-dundee-united-defender-mark-durnan/

Pars trying to sign Mark Durnan from Dundee Utd. Underwhelming.

Ryan picked up a few injuries last season. Definitely need someone to challenge him for a starting spot/provide cover, at the very least. Neither McManus or Smith are 15+ goals per season strikers at this level.

Isn’t the top seed always at home to the second seed?

Confirmed at the supporters council that Aird had agreed a 2 year deal with us, but just before he was going to sign, went and agreed one with United.

Reilly was never our player to release, he was only here on loan. Buchanan was offered the chance to come back for pre-season for a ‘trial’ when Johnston came in, but turned it down. Byrne has completely transformed and added a lot more fight and physicality to his game, since leaving. He has progressed a lot under Hopkin and didn’t look like he was going to do that, under Johnston. Would be a brilliant partner for Beadling, and is better than the other central midfielders we had at the club last season. Robinson couldn’t get a game, when he was signed as an ‘amateur’ for us. He wasn’t fit and looked very poor. We needed quality at that time, and couldn’t afford him the patience he would need. He also only played 25% of possible minutes for Livi. Not sure whether that was due to fitness issues or just not good enough? However, he looked quite good whenever I saw him play. For what it’s worth, Buchanan also couldn’t get a game at St Mirren or Livi last season - only appeared in 18 of a possible 38 league games (Livi had played 2 less than St Mirren when he moved), and played under an hour in 6 of those 18 games. I think Morris, Ashcroft & M’Voto are better players.

Pretty sure Elliott revealed that he was asked to sign a blank piece of paper, rather than a contract, and only actually had a verbal agreement in place? Once this became clear, Livingston stopped trying to take action, as they didn’t have a contract of employment in place with Elliott.

Didn’t Ross County pay St Johnstone a fee to re-register him? Or certainly there was something along the lines of terms being agreed between the clubs, for St Johnstone to cancel his contract - which certainly suggests he was contracted to St Johnstone...

It’s effectively the same as any other contract of employment. If it has been signed, then it’s legally binding. The picture certainly has him with pen in hand, as if he’s signed a contract, and the announcement does say “signed” the contract, so I’d assume this has been signed. It’s the equivalent of handing in your notice (whether it be one week, one month or three months) and signing a contract with a new employer, for a start date after your notice period has ended. Happens all the time.

Although it’s a different scenario, in terms of how crucial he was to the team, I remember Faissal’s agent was constantly ‘leaking’ info to the press, hoping to attract big clubs. This is a common tactic that’s used. In Faissal’s case, it almost failed - Dundee got in touch, as he was on his way to East End (having not been paid in about 2 months by this time!) Sometimes, announcing that deals have been offered/terms agreed can attract other bidders, sometimes it means that clubs are put off bidding. Agents generally get more money from a player moving club, than they do for the player signing on at his current club. That’s a big factor in the lack of loyalty players show these days.

Let me get this straight, Nicky Clark has (reportedly) decided to move on. His contract was up and he was offered better terms elsewhere. This is not a player that came in and spouted some nonsense about loving the club, he’s someone that came in, to do his job - and did pretty well (37 goals in 2 years is a good record). Why should we have an issue with him for this? Even more ridiculously, why should we have an issue with his dad? We offered him a contract. He got offered better terms elsewhere, and is likely to leave. Happens all the time in football. He’s got to look out for himself, Football is a short career. As for his dad, in his role as our assistant manager, he has to look out for the best interests of the club. He wouldn’t be doing his job, if the club offered more than we could afford, just to outbid other clubs to keep his son.

If it’s true that Aird’s now signing a 2 year deal with United, and Clark’s likely to go there too, we really need to re-think our contracts. I realise that one-year deals suit the club, in terms of not committing to longer term deals, but surely ‘key’ players should be getting longer deals? I also don’t understand why our important players haven’t been offered deals until now. Should have had them signed up before the end of the season, rather than allowing this sort of situation to develop. We were on a great run, putting in good performances. Losing a large number of these players and having to re-build would undo all of the good work done there. Should definitely have tried to get the important players to sign new deals once playoffs were confirmed and before everyone else decided released/retained lists and started looking at our out of contract players, since we always seem to be the last team to make contract decisions. I would imagine this also means that we’re behind other clubs in terms of recruiting new players as well (since we won’t be doing that, until we know what we need). Other clubs making signings and negotiating with potential signings. Of course, I hope the club make an official announcement today/tomorrow and I have got the situation completely wrong. However, this is what’s happened the last 2 years, we just haven’t got the squad sorted early enough.

Would be happy with a first team squad of Robinson Murdoch Williamson Morris Ashcroft M’Voto Martin *new full back - preferably one that can play both left & right back* Beadling/a mobile defensive midfielder Vincent (or another box to box midfielder) Craigen (or another attack-minded CM) *new CM* Higginbotham/Cardle (try to keep one) Aird *new winger* Clark McManus Ryan Smith I would loan Gill out (if possible), before people mention that he’s still under contract. I realise that we probably won’t manage to keep a hold of all of the players listed above, but if we can get as close to like for like replacements, that would be good. Probably try and bring in a few more youngsters as well, if we’re planning to play in the reserve league. Surprised we punted Duthie and Lochhead, as I thought they looked ok and had potential. Whilst not being of first team quality yet, I thought they’d be regulars in the reserve league and adequate cover for the first team, if required.

Aird averaged a goal/assist every 88 minutes in the league, for us. Hard to understand why he only played 969 minutes! Anyway, do any of the ‘in the know’ folks on here know if we should expect an update in the next few days? Seems strange that every other club seems to have made these announcements a lot earlier than us.

I would assume that Talbot, given he’s nearing the end of his career, will be wanting a regular game. I don’t think he’s going to get that with us next season. To me, he has struggled this year and he’s only going to get poorer. I would also imagine he’s on more money than Martin, who looks to be a much better left back. Nothing personal, I just think it’s time to move on. As for Paton, I agree he’s a talented player, but he clearly doesn’t fit into the manager’s plans and seems to have become very injury prone. 2 years at this level and he has been constantly injured. I would be surprised if he’s been available for 50% of games. Even when fit, he also doesn’t seem to be in the manager’s plans. Why keep paying him, if the manager isn’t going to use him? As I said, for me, the cover/competition for places is too weak. Not so much the starting 11. We need different options, not just like for like changes. United were a totally different team, when they brought Mikkelsen on at half time. Morton have undone us with changing systems and bringing on other options, on more than once occasion. We can’t react to that, if we don’t have other options available. Our bench is generally made up of players that are just poorer versions of the players ahead of them, without offering anything different - unless we play them out of position. The only way to change that, is to get rid of those lesser players, and bring in other options. Having said that, I don’t know what’s available in the transfer market. I don’t know who’s out of contract, or who’s available for loan. Obviously, if it’s not feasible to bring in a better/cheaper option that can cover the full back area, I’d keep Talbot. Likewise, if there’s a cheaper option out wide, that would offer something other than Cardle, without sacrificing quality, why would we keep Cardle - who I’d suspect is a high earner, and I think Aird is a better player.

Keep: Robinson, Morris, Ashcroft, M’Voto, Martin, Higginbotham, Aird, Craigen, Vincent Beadling, McManus, Clark Indifferent: Cardle, Lochhead Release: Talbot, Paton, Wedderburn, Shiels, Splaine, Armstrong (end of loan), Duthie Not included Murdoch, Williamson, Smith as they’re under contract. Think it’s important to keep most of this squad together, and that includes the manager. The performances and run of form we’ve had recently, has shown that we can challenge. We can’t afford to have big changes and have a sticky spell waiting for things to ‘click’ after every transfer window.

Shiels at RB? Not for me. Don’t see him as a RB at all. Most likely scenario would be Aird to RB, Cardle to left wing. Other than the obvious height difference, Aird’s strengths are fairly similar to Williamson’s (running down the wing, with the ball). For me, the only other option (and one I would not like) would be Wedderburn at CB, Martin at RB. Can’t throw a youngster like Duthie into this level of match - he struggled (and got sent off) against Arbroath earlier in the season. Not ready for this level of football. I think we’ll miss Aird’s constant threat, if he’s moved to RB. Cardle hasn’t really performed since his injury in September, whereas Aird has been excellent for the last couple of months - including being our biggest threat last night. Ideally, we need at least one of Ashcroft (should win an appeal), M’Voto, Beadling or Williamson available. Comfortable with McManus and Clark up front. McManus was causing their defenders problems all night. Lack of cover is an issue though. In terms of first team players, if all of those that went off last night are unavailable, we’ll have the following: Starting: Robinson, Aird, Morris, Martin, Talbot, Higginbotham, Vincent, Craigen, Cardle, McManus, Clark Subs: Gill, Armstrong, Wedderburn Obviously Duthie was on the bench on Tuesday as well, but I wouldn’t class him as ‘first team’.

Fair play to Caley. Put in some effort in the last few months and very unlucky to miss out on playoffs. Keep the majority of your squad together, and I think you’ll definitely be up there next season - hopefully we’ll be battling with you (we won’t go up). Will certainly be keeping a close eye on your summer activity, as I think you’re real title contenders next season.

Out of interest, why do you think that? I completely agree that Stein and Leishman are well ahead of Calderwood. I would probably put Paton ahead of him too. But I’ve never really understood why some fans just seem to dismiss Calderwood, like this. Took us from 1st Division, to our highest top flight finish and a cup final, that we probably would have won, if the referee hadn’t missed a blatant hand ball. There is no denying, that we played our best football in generations, under Calderwood. Personally, I don’t think it’s worthy of having a stand named after him. But he doesn’t seem to get any appreciation for what he achieved at the club. Look at all the seasons immediately before and those that followed, between Leishman leaving and now nobody before or after him, was able to come close to emulating his success.

100% agree. This time last year, I feared the worst for him. He seemed to have taken a real step backwards. However, he seems a totally different player now. He’s good defensively (for a full back - still don’t see him as a CB), wins high balls and is surprisingly assured with the ball at his feet. One thing I noticed v QotS is that he actually had the vision to drive forward and draw a defender away from Aird, before playing the pass. He did this a couple of times on Saturday, which left the one defender left with Aird, backing off nervously and giving him space. For me, Martin has played a really big role in this unbeaten streak we’re on, and has been consistently performing at a good level. I like Talbot but, on current form, Martin looks like a better option at LB. Given their ages as well, I’d prefer to see us stick with Martin in there next season.