mychurch

Good signing for United, but at most levels of football it’s the team with the best defense that wines the league, not the best attack. All to play for, but I’m more than happy how our squad is turning out.

Unfortunately it’s very rare for a team going down to bounce straight back up. All potential candidates know this and they must also know that failure to come back up will probably mean they will be sacked. If you were smart and wanted the job, then the start of the 2020 or 2021 season would be the time to sign on. I think the board might agree that an immediate return is unlikely and will budget and choose a manager accordingly. It might be cheaper long term to stick with the current management team and let them take all the fall for not going up next season - as long as they put the foundations in by blooding some young players, then it might be we start 2021 with some momentum. you also have to remember that the board want us to play attractive football, whatever that is. I’m not sure that that is the style that is needed to get us promoted from the Championship and maybe they have to fail again before they realize it. Hard times ahead, but surely it’s what we all want deep down inside. Finishing 5th or 6th every year and getting beat in cup semi-finals would bore the pants of me.

The Championship is not a league to be in, but I think you get a better class of poster and debate on the forum. Odd season. If Moussa had not missed that penalty in the first game, then we may still have had McCann as a manager. Likewise, had Millers penalty gone in against Kilmanock, then we would be clear and safe by now. Can’t quite believe how we have fallen away since then. The American may have made mistakes, but they have given our managers the best backing since the madness of the Marr brothers tenure. Let’s hope it does not end the same way.

This could actually be the result that turns out season around. Holding on for draws is something that McCanns team could never do, and this is a hopefully a sign of some fight in the team. If we can pick up a win and a few draws in the next few games, then there is hope for the new year.

Indeed. I have no doubt that he is on the club radar, but my guess would be that his appointment would probably coincide with the new stadium. Not sure if changing the manager is really going to help as its not clear how much of the football philosophy is determined by the manager. From memory the club said at the start of last season that they wanted a more attractive style of play, and my fear then was that we would not have the players to implement that style of football. A number of people argued here that containing football, with goals scored via set-plays and breakaways, is more productive than expansive play and can be implemented with lesser quality players. Its the Man City v Chelsea comparison, where Chelsea are almost as effective, despite usually defending a lot and having less of the ball,. If we take a new manager in and the board tell him that he needs to continue to play expansive football, then I'm nor sure what will change . In saying that, nothing can mitigate against your central defender falling over as a cross come over. These sort of mistakes happen and it just seem that we are on a bad run at the moment.

We needed an older, experienced striker and there are really not that many around, so he gets my backing. This type of signing can go well - Boyd for Kilmarnock is a great example - but I am old enough to have seen the great Jimmy Johnston play for Dundee, and that did not work out.

Surely the type of deal indicates that he is one for the future rather than a solution to our current problems. We still need a back up/replacement, experienced target man.

I imagine the deal with Caluker would be structured so that if he wants to go, he goes and that any fee will be partially decided by him. Fair enough. He was smart enough though to come to us to get his life and playing career back together and there must be a good chance that he will think it’s worth staying here for the whole season. It will cost him money, but that may not be his main motivation.

Quiet season, so time for some appropriate nostalgia

Well done to big Kevin McDonald. Not many players have gone from home grown Dee to being a Premiership player. Obviously Fulham may see this as a step too far, and sell him to another Championship team for xmillion, but there is a good chance they won’t.

Out of interest, how many other full English Internationals have we ever had playing with us ? Dont think Stainrod was ever capped. Graham Rix ? Noel Blake obviously deserved a cap, but was ignored.

Sad that some people find mental health issues as something different to other medical conditions. It's not and I know a lot of people who have had mental issues over the years and are fine now. Cant quite believe we have a 26 year old ex England international on our books. I to was down when the last minute Henry sale went through, but already you can see what it has done. Good players with something to prove will see us as a potential stepping stone back to the big time. At the same time our youngsters will get the chance to train and play with great players. Can only be good. It will be interesting to see who he ends up playing with.

Amazing how fragile football teams are. If the penalty or 1 of the other chances went in against Partick, then we are climbing the league and full of confidence. It missed, we paid the price and now it's panic I like the fact the McCann is trying to play football and I like that he is prepared to give young players a chance. My problem is that attractive positive football is more difficult than destructive defensive football and you need better players. I really don't know what the answer is: if the team clicks, we might go on a long winning run, but we are probably more likely to extend the winless streak. All goes down to how big the pockets are of the owners, but personally I think we need to continue with McCann.

Bobby Conner and Gavin Rea are the only 2 Scottish midfielders I can remember getting a call up while actually playing for us. Big fan of Gavin - industrious type, with a great engine. He would do well in our current team. Strachen is the best we have had since the 60's, but even though he was my hero as a kid, he never made an impact until he left us. Same with McCann. You could argue that both were more wingers though, than real midfielders. Wieghorst for me above McDonald.

I presume though that its only the price of the entry tickets that are split and that the home team gets a boost with sale of extra corporate packages. Either way, 20k fee paying customers and a bit of tv money over 2 games must be worth at least 1 additional player..

Can anyone tell me how the gate receipts are split in the League Cup games ? 2 home Derbies must be worth a lot, especially when you consider how we have performed in the cups in the previous few years. A long cup run would be better, but surely these 2 games must give us an unexpected boost..time for a new signing ?

Glad that Gadz has signed on and I hope he is getting a big pay rise (if the rumors about him being a low earner were true). Got to say though that maybe he could have made a better deal for himself by going down a division. He should be at his peak now and a Championship team with sites on the SPL might have been smart in offering him a 2 year deal. Still a year with us starring as we go 10 games without conceding will boost his earning power...

If Wighton was 26 and at the end of his contract, then yes, I would let him go. He is still young though and hopefully will have leant a lot from his first full season in the SPL. He deserves another year, but I'm not sure exactly where we should play him.

What is that the the Red Lady says 'the night is darkest before the dawn' ? We Stay up this year and our future is bright. We already have 2 young home grown players in our first 11 and in O'Hara and Holt (less so) we have a couple of other talented youngsters. "You can't win anything with Kids" though, so hence the recruitment of some seasoned pros from our nearest rivals. The 2 signings from Inverness may not be going down well, but look at where Inverness are now. Coincidence ? Probably, but weakening a potential rival is always a good strategy. If there are no funds at the moment for new players, then hopefully we can sign someone from ICT/Kilmarnock/Hamilton on a pre contract - it costs us nothing now and will increase our odds of staying up. Very surpised actually that none of our rivals have done the same to us - really like Gadz. As for Hartly, he has to be judged on whatever goals he was set at the start of the season. Minus points for the bad cup form, but the value of Kerr must have increased and Wighton is progressing. El Bak is a work in progress and we won't see the best of him until next year. I would stick with the manager and keep him for another year at least. Hopefully someone will get the Dundee - Amsterdam route sorted out before the end of the season...think relegation won't be sorted out until the very last weekend and we are likely to be involved.

I saw them play Friday night for the first time in a while and I think we need some changes - Haber played great as a target man and looks to be irreplaceable. If Loy is going out on loan, then the money needs to be spent on a back-up - I dont think Jordi is either ready or big enough to take on that role, and without a target man we will not score. Even with him its proving difficult... - O'hara was not fit and although the midfield improved when he went off, the midfield was continually out muscled for most of the match. While there is plenty of skill in the middle of the park, football seems to be going down the road of "bigger is better" and a 2nd transfer target has to be a combative midfielder, reparable with a lot of physical presence. - Vincent was the target of abuse from a lot of fans, but I'm not sure it was justified. I noticed more than 1 ocassion where nobody was making themselves available for an out ball. The same thing happened at throw ins where, up until the very end, there seemed to be a reluctance to go for the ball, Thats a sign of low confidence and hopefully the win will have helped. - Wighton has a lot of talent, but he dived a few times and was lucky not to be booked. The physical side of the game still needs some work, but that should be solvable with a good gyme/fitness prgram - i have been a fan Gadzhalov from the beginning and agree with earlier comments that he should be given an extended contract. - with Kerr, O'hara, Wighton, Curren all in and around the first team, we are sitting at a potential nexus point. Even Holt is only 23 and all these players should continue to improve over the next 4/5 years. The future looks bright, but we need to stay up, otherwise kids will be sold off at cheap prices to balance the books. the same will happen if we stay up, but then we will hopefuilly sell from a position of strength

Look at Ross McCormack. 29 and still attracting multi-million pound transfers, despite not being seen as EPL standard. If Greg played all season in the Championship, scored 15 goals and had 15 assists, then another EPL club could easily bid a few million for him. I personally think he needs more pace to play in England at a high level, but the talent it there.

He is under contract, but contracts are just pieces of paper that you resort to when you cant make sensible agreements between 2 parties. He is worth more to us in the short term than the 400k I assume we will end up getting, but if you dont let him go, you wont get the same player who has been with us for the past 2 seasons. We are long term a selling club and we have to show our colours and let players go every now and again. If we dont let a player go for a reasonable sum of money (he cost us nothing remember) when a bid comes in that can change their life, them we wont be able to attract other players in the future. I would be all for forcing him to stay if he had come up through the youth system for 10 years or had 3 years still on his contract, but thats not the case here. We let him go, we make a large profit and we, hopefully, get him back in a year when he becomes "homesick". If there is a bidding war, then I think we should be asking "Who can you offer us on loan ?" as part of the negotiations.

Sad that he is leaving, but we cant force him to stay. This is the contract that will give him security for the rest of his life and while we could possibly offer him a 2k+ per week, in the Championship he should be able to get 4x that, possibly a lot more. Agree with other posters though. He is fit, but the Championship is full of internationals and is probably the 4th or 5th league in Europe. Like Arjen Robben, everyone knows what he will do - cut inside - and just like Robben, he does it time and again and scores. Undoubted ability, but the difference with Robben is the speed. At our level he is a world beater and I wish him all the best, but I'm not sure he is strong or fast enough for England. I hope we manage to insert some sort of buy back clause in the contract - more important I think than a sell on clause.

When Hemmings moved to Dundee he did appear to take the 1-step-back (in wages terms) to go 1-step-forward. Shame if its not more than 250k, but getting the goals and the 250k is a lot better than having had an inferior striker last year, The positive in this must be that if you are a talented striker, in need of a revival, then Dundee have shown that they will do business with you. That will help us get new talent. The big negative though is the timing, There is always a merry go round towards the end of the transfer window, but losing the focal point of the attack after all the pre-season work, is bad planning. The other negative is that Hemmings seems to have been Harlteys number 1 striker choice for the past few years (it was rumoured we wanted him before his move to Barnsley). We have invested a lot of time in him and I wonder if Hartley really does have another striker on the radar that he can both trust and afford. Big decision now has to be the style of play. Yes its great to play attractive, attacking football, but as Leicester and Peterhead have shown, resolute defending can be much more cost effective. Not nice, but unless we get a good goal scorer - I agree that Loy is not probably a 1st choice SPL striker - it may be the wiser choice.

Quick Boys are based near me in Katwijk, which is a cross between Broughty Ferry and Whitfield... There is a brief interview with him on the Dutch Football International web page and he seems keen. From the interview - he was in the youth team of Almere City (Dutch 2nd Division) , but did not make it there due to knee problems... - Telstar (another 2nd Division team) were interested in him. The agreement though with Quick boys was that he could leave if he found a new club before 1st June and he thought that the Dutch clubs would take a while to offer a contract. - The deal is for 2 years and the manager has told him that he should not feel any pressure for the first year and that he should just enjoy himself. - He is aiming to be a first team player next season and likes the look of the town Putting it all together it looks like we are taking a chance on someone who has had injury problems in the past, but is desperate to grasp his last chance to be a pro footballer. Sounds to me that he has his head screwed on properly, but I have a few friends here who work in the horeca branch and I'll see if they have any gossip on his nocternal activities... With the new flight having opened between Dundee and Amsterdam, it might be that we can temp a few more Dutch lads over.