Bainsfordbairn

Unless there is a valid reason for it; a reason which isn't the manager falling out with the player. These sort of things tend to come out in the end. Let's wait and see what gets said over the coming weeks before jumping to conclusions. Possibly BPM can do some digging and explain it for you.

Cheers BPM. All have been noted. James Maxwell looked a cracking player when he came on against Dundee Utd at Glebe Park. There was definitely potential there. His dad used to be the head honcho at the Inchyra and was an Ayr fan. Nice bloke too. Jack Hodge came along to U20 matches once or twice but I don't think he ever got any game time. Dominic Lavelle was another one who was part of the squad a few times. He played up at Fraserburgh against Aberdeen. I mind thinking he didn't look out of place, which for a debut appearance against one of the best teams in the country suggested he had potential. None of the other names are familiar to me.

Any names Shodwall? I didn't attend FVFA games so I don't know anything about the U15 and U17 sides. However, there were a few boys who were sometimes promoted into our U20s to either make up the numbers, or get a taster of a higher level. None of them stood out for me. I don't recall any getting into Scotland U17 teams for quite some time either. That's not a dig; I simply don't know enough about that level to comment on their potential. However, there have been a few folk online since the academy closed, like yourself, telling us how good the kids we discarded were. I'm really curious to see who they were and how they turn out. If one of them signs for the Old Firm and turns out to be the next big thing them I'm sure there will be a number of "told you so" posts from those were involved with the academy. Who should we be looking out for?

We have eight youth players at the moment. Five who came through the ranks at FVFA a year ago, Mutch & Laverty who were recruited last summer and Young who came in this summer. When the Reserve League starts they'll be supplemented by first teamers who didn't play on the Saturday. Not sure about the strips. So far they've played in both last years home and away strips and this years away. Might just be a case of what's available on the day.

If you look at the size of the squad you'll see that it's not actually that much different from last season. Out since May - 14 senior pros, or non-youth players. (Thomson, Grant, Taiwo, Watson, Tumilty, Hazard, Blair, Nelson, Jakubiak, Longridge, Welsh, Sibbald, Loy & Blues. In since May - 15 senior pros. Can't be bothered listing them as I shouldn't need to. The main difference is in the amount of youth / reserve players. Six departed and only one has come in. This years squad is smaller. And that's before you take into account the three whom we'd presumably like to get off the books.

If there were strong rumours (note the plural) they would have been heard and repeated by multiple people on multiple forums. Yet it seems you're the only person who's aware of them.

I am sure if he can find his way into our team Levein will be happy enough to leave him to it. If he goes weeks without any appearances though its in Hearts and our best interests that he plays football. Beat me to it ya bugger!

O Hara and Shepherd often played in our U20s when they were on loan elsewhere. I think it's a fairly standard arrangement amongst clubs. The fact that he's available for reserve duty with Hearts doesn't mean that he'll be playing every week though. Reserve league games will be on a Monday this year, so I doubt he'd play for them two days after playing for our first team. I suspect the coaching staff at both clubs will be talking regularly to make sure he's looked after and not burned out.

I suppose it depends on exactly what Hartley's looking for. I had a wee look at the ages of our first team squad - all are in their twenties apart from Paton, Irving and O' Hara. And Kev will be 20 in less than a fortnight. You're right in that most of our summer recruits don't have a lot of experience though. The players that do come into the "Houston-type journeymen that many fans don't like" category - Kidd at 24, McKee at 25, Aero at 27, and Froxy at 25. I guess decent experienced players might be outwith our wage bracket, which means either bringing in more Tom Taiwos / Paul Watsons / Sean Welshes or spending big money on a Rory Loy. Given that a lack of experience didn't seem to hinder Robson, Nelson or Jakubiak I'm hopeful the same will happen here. As you said, time will tell.

There have been numerous examples over the years of unwanted players being asked to accept a settlement which is less than their full contract value. They'll l often take it, either for the chance to get out and start again, or because they can get another deal elsewhere where the value of the new contract and previous settlement is greater than what they were on before. Or is for a longer duration. As we don't know what they were on at FFC, what they've been offered to leave or what's on offer elsewhere, it's not really fair to criticise the players. So I'm on your side with that one. However, I'd be very surprised if they'd been asked to "rip up their contract for free". I don't believe that's how things are done. What basis do you have for making such a claim?

True, but in these early stages I'd be inclined to trust Hartley simply because he appears to be signing players with the physical attributes we need. He's brought in big bruisers for our centre-halfs in Dallison, Harrison & maybe Brough. He's brought in pace for the wingers / wide players in Lewis & Petravicius and I suspect Greenwood too, though I haven't seen enough of him to judge. He's also brought in a physical presence upfront in Haber & Mackin. True, he hasn't brought in a bruiser for midfield but I'd say Paton has enough physicality to fill the enforcer role. There may even be an argument that the number ten role, which I suspect TOE and Irving will be in competition for, doesn't need pace. Or to be a heavyweight. Sibbald had neither and did well enough and the obvious example of a player with similar attributes would be the little magician. I think Hartley's a bit more switched on in terms of recruitment than people give him credit for. The question is how many will perform as he expects them to and how quickly will they gel?

As you haven't seen him play you have no idea whether he does either of those things. You can't judge him from You Tube clips, given how little they show of a players overall game time. You can't judge him from (for example) a Jambo workmates opinion, because he may be able to score regularly at our level if not the Premiership. Too many assumptions and too quick to condemn.

So do I actually.

In the reception area of his hotel. We couldn't use the stadium because of the Little Mix concert.

You don't usually get much emotion after goals during reserves or U20 games, unless they're scored by a player who don't net very often. That particularly applies during friendlies. To answer the question someone asked last night, the goals were scored by Greenwood (2), Harris (2) and Jarvis.

I think he will play 2 up top. I think he was maybe seeing how Dennon would cope on his own or if the three supporting players would suit it. If we were to play 1up top it would have to be Mackin however he would need plenty of support when he got the ball He said at one of the roadshows in May that we would be playing two forwards this season. Last night may have been an exception because we were playing a higher-league team away from home.

Once all the signings are concluded I suspect we'll find that a right-back was never on our shopping list. So if the Devlin part is inaccurate then the Graham part likely is too. He doesn't fit the profile of the "young, hungry, something to prove"-type players that Hartley's bringing in.

Stephen Dobbie is a red herring because he wouldn't leave QOS, even if we were willing to better his (alleged) 2K a week deal that Houston told us he was on. Would that not come under the "ridiculously expensive" bracket? Nicky Clark I'll give you, but we'd probably have had to bust our wage structure by a similar amount to outbid Utd. And after the Loy scenario last year I wouldn't be keen to go back down that road. Keatings didn't exactly set the heather on fire at Tannadice last year so for me he would be a risky gamble.

That's been said a few times on the facebook pages too. A proven, experienced goalscorer is not going to come to play in the Scottish Championship as he'll have better offers elsewhere. Or do you have anyone specific in mind that would come, we could afford, and that we should be going for instead of Nelson?

we should have shipped out kidd ohara Harris and shepherd. maybe even McKee too. that's 5 players out and we could have had 2 or 3 better players in The manager obviously disagrees with you on the first two. As for the others, you can't ship players out if they're under contract unless they choose to leave. Albeit they may just be biding their time to see what offers they get first. I think the window is still open for another month.

He has. He played on the left wing in the closed-door match last week against the Shire. He set up our second goal.

Indeed . The headline of the link kindly posted by Keithy is basically a repeat of what Hartley said at the various fan forums. So the information is accurate, albeit two months out of date. What the headline doesn't tell us is if it's any more likely to happen than it was at the start of May.

There's nothing imminent as far as I know, though now I've said that I'll probably get a call to come in on Monday. PH knows the positions he wants to fill and is looking around. The squad rebuilding is probably 4/5 complete and the transfer window still has more than a month to run, so I'd speculate that he'll take his time to make sure he gets the right players.

I'm normally down the stadium four or five times a week but apart from games most of these visits are favours for the commercial department. I don't think you'll get rumours of signings, or at least not accurate ones. Virtually all the names we were linked with online turned out to be folk who we weren't chasing. Dan Turner was an exception but I think that one came from press reports.

These people don't go very often then. I can think of plenty worse. Losing five to Livingston and Peterhead springs to mind. Being three down against Queens before halftime. Never mind some of the aberrations last season. I don't think anyone's defended the first half performance. It was dire and nobody has claimed otherwise. If we play like that for both halves in every game after the league begins then nobody will defend either the players or manager. Certainly nobody did after our dreadful start last season. The knives were out on P&B pretty early on. It's hard to defend a team that doesn't win any of their opening seven league games. So no, we're not happy clappers and no it wasn't the worst performance ever seen in fourteen years of football at TFS. Conclusion - you're talking shite. Again.