CallumPar

MacDonald and O’Hara both apparently signed for Hamilton today. Good luck to them both. Sure they’ll both do well for them in League 1 next season.

Could be wrong, but think the emphasis is on the ‘blue’ - is the logo not white on the away shirt? Looks blue, with a white outline on the coaches’ training gear though. I think we’re all expecting the new srj logo to appear on the home kit.

I’ve genuinely not heard anything about Snodgrass. Just assumed it was nonsense. Can’t see us bringing him in, although I do think he would be a fantastic signing for us. Yeah, srj branding far too big. Think the training gear looks good in general though. Like the shorts - hopefully they make an appearance in the club shop, as I’ve been needing a new pair of black shorts for fives!

I believe we should expect 2/3 signings to be announced before the St Pauli game. 2 are done deals and could be announced today, but knowing the club, the announcements are likely to be delayed by a day or two. The other is training with us, as of this morning, and is expected to sign, but the coaching staff wanted them to prove their fitness before the contract is signed. There are also trialists with the squad, who may be involved on Friday.

Was definitely announced as 17:15. I’m more concerned about how expensive our pre-season trip to play St Pauli away will be, if Scotland are in the euros in Germany next year.

MacDonald wasn’t captain and never really got a decent run in the team in his 2 and a half years. Was loaned out towards the end of the 2021/22 season as well. Good player, who can put a very good cross into the box. He came up with some crucial assists last season. Also works very hard for the team. He’ll be a very good option for a league 1 team and could probably do a job in the championship, if he’s at the right team.

I’d have thought they might want to sell it ahead of next week’s game, so today would make sense. Players are in for their pre-season testing today, so they won’t be short of models (and a couple of new faces). Although, they might have already filmed the launch video for the home kit. Still got a third kit to launch as well, which will probably be closer to the start of the season/just before we’re due to wear it.

Lang was here before and was never fit. Seems to have had missed a lot of games with the Rovers too. He wouldn’t improve our defence, so no point in bringing in ‘cover’ if he’s unlikely to be fit to provide cover. Not sure Spencer would improve our midfield, but might have been alright as cover, I guess. Don’t feel like we’ve missed out on much yet anyway.

He is. But, without Otoo signing yet, we only have 2 CBs signed up, so every chance we’re planning to bring in someone more experienced. Having said that, a player having more experience doesn’t always mean that they’re a better option. It’s all about finding someone who’s the right fit for our team/system.

Definitely got potential, was good at driving the team forward. But was also suspect defensively. Having said that, he’s young and seemed to improve during his time here. Not convinced by someone so small at CB, but there’s definitely a player in there somewhere. Clearly needs regular first team football at this stage of his career, so the move would make sense. Hopefully McPake can get the best out of him.

That home kit is the kind of thing I thought we’d have as a third kit. Proper German flag vibes.

That’s when you leave and head to the Old Inn!

Yep. Don’t know why people can’t just wait another couple of days until we announce a couple of new faces. Not back for preseason yet and still 4 and a half weeks until the first league cup game.

Plenty time yet. Will likely see a few signings and trialists once the team are back. Until they’re back training, there’s no rush to get contracts signed.

Fair enough. I honestly don’t know (or claim to know) the rules on compensation. Will be peanuts I’d imagine, but could go a long way to seeing them keep going as a football club!

Not sure - remember Partick actually released him, he wasn’t sold/no compensation was due. So I’d be surprised if they’re now entitled to any?

League cup fixtures confirmed. Sat 15 July - Raith away (5:15 ko on tv) Tue 18 July - Annan home Sat 22 July - Killie home Tue 25 July - Albion away

I think we need some sort of physical threat up front. If there’s no better option for that available, I’d like to see us keep Todorov. For me, McCann is likely to play left of the front 3, so shouldn’t be counted in our ‘striker’ options, which now consist of just Wighton. McPake likes to have players that offer something different, certainly doesn’t seem to make like-for-like changes. So I’d be surprised if we brought in someone similar to Wighton.

No, but as I said further up the thread, they know who is home and who is away. 2nd seeds play 3rd seeds at home.

Rovers are at home for the game against us.

That was crazy. Teams warmed up no bother, then there was 10 mins of torrential rain that left the pitch completely unplayable. Was still July, if I remember correctly.

Last year was the first year of 4th/5th seeds. I think every group played the following: 1st seed - home to 2&4, away to 3&5 2nd seed - home to 3&5, away to 1&4 3rd seed - home to 1&4, away to 2&5 4th seed - home to 2&5, away to 1&3 5th seed - home to 1&3, away to 2&4 Based on that, I’d assume we’ll play: home - Killie and Annan away - Raith and Albion

Queens Park only playing at Lesser Hampden until mid-September. From then, all their league games will be at Hampden. Assuming there’s still issues with Lesser Hampden…

Yeah, I’d be up for some sort of refresh. But I definitely prefer the current format to the prior format (and all the garbage pre-season games that used to fill our July). Current format must also be a large reason that the TV deal for the competition is better than the Scottish cup, as viaplay have no other live football to show in July.

You’ll never avoid the scenario of teams in the same league playing each other. There’s only 8 groups and there’s 10 teams in each league. Even if they made it 10 groups of 4, there’s only 7 top flight teams involved, so teams from the lower leagues would have to play teams in the same division as them.