Shadow Play

Can’t see Hibs or Aberdeen coming close to the fee required, even if they include a player swap. The best we can hope for is Hendry is sold to Crystal Palace or Bournemouth and part of the agreement is a pre-season friendly down there. A wee summer trip down south following Dundee would soften the blow. From what I’ve seen of him I reckon Eddie Howe is exactly the sort of manager that would get the best out of Hendry.

Never actually thought of that but you’re spot on Yenitit. O’Dea should have tried to kick the ball out further up the field rather than simply kicking it out the way he was facing. As well as losing his speed O’Dea seems rigid as though he’s lost his flexibility as well. That may well explain why he is so easily turned by younger faster players these days. O’Dea’s attempt at the header was indeed poorly judged. Meeking’s effort to clear was extremely poor as well but I actually think Kamara has to accept a large amount of responsibility. He is ball watching when his man runs onto the loose ball. Overall a very badly defended throw in. Have a look again. There appears to be very little communication between the players. For that O’Dea has to take a massive amount of responsibility given he is the captain and central defender.

I personally think we are playing better football and we certainly have have a more balanced side with better players. Apart from Moussa and Wolters the players McCann has brought in appear capable of playing the way and in the positions McCann wants them to play. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the vast majority of Hartley’s signings. Don’t get me wrong Hartley did a good job to begin with. Unfortunately when we lost Hemmings and Stewart it showed how much the team relied on them. Hartley will do fine with Falkirk in the Championship. I just think that he struggled in the top flight when he was up against managers who read the game better.

Agreed but that still means we’re not very good.

Did the board and Hartley not both say there was no £250k clause in the contract of Kane Hemmings?

Yeh, I read McCann saying Hendry had the flu in his post match interview. Does anyone know if he was at training during the week? At the risk of sounding cynical I doubt they would come out and say he was dropped to protect any potential sale.

If it was the reason for Hendry not playing I can only guess that it would be Dundee’s decision alone with no discussion with Celtic taking place. It would possibly make the player more desirable if he was not cup tied. If Celtic have their eye on two central defenders of roughly equal quality it may be they would go for the one that is not cup tied over the one that is. More likely though I think he wasn’t played to avoid any injury. That could be a strategy that back fires on Dundee. It’s hard to be believed that your determined not to sell one of your best players and then not play him in case he gets an injury that stops any transfer.

I guess we just have a different perspective on the matter. Plenty of things have happened before I was born that means more to me than things that have happened since I was born. I was born before Dundee last won the league cup but too young to go to the match. If I were to follow your logic should Dundee winning the League Cup mean more to me than Dundee winning the league at Perth?

Ah, yes. The classic “I’ve got to have seen the win for it to mean something”. Still, if you want to judge things on that level - there isn’t anyone, alive or dead, that has seen St Johnstone win the League Cup or the top league.

Never even thought of that - doh. It does sound like the board are, at the very least, trying to keep that extra bargaining chip. The trouble is if keeping him out the team results in us getting knocked out of the cup at this early stage it will probably cost us more than any extra money we can squeeze out of Celtic.

Being a St Johnstone fan I know the Scottish Cup is of great interest to you. It is the only major trophy your club has won after all.

Just heard and was about to post exactly that KT. Smacks of being too worried he gets an injury. We will probably be told that he has a slight injury and that is being rested. He doesn’t strike me as the type that would be phased by all the transfer talk.

The Polish Premier League must be a worse standard than the Scottish Championship and we all know how poor the Championship is these days.

He did play for Partick. He didn’t play for United or Reading though. One out of three? Sounds like United’s last game against Dunfermline.

Yeh I think you're right there Chateau. I never mentioned this on my post but 3-2 Hibs is written on the back of the ticket. Some things never change

You can go right off people Spud. Why did you have to bring that up. The memory of selling Billy Dodds to St Johnstone is still raw Shaw was the other player was it not?

Cheers Biggie. Yeh, good to have a keepsake reminding me that supporting Dundee has long been established in my family.

Seeing as the big teams are having a break just now and it’s a bit quite I thought I’d share this with the best bunch of fans on P&B. Came across this ticket while sorting out my dad’s files. His memory isn’t so good these days and he can’t remember anything about the match but written on the back of the ticket are what I assume are the names of Dundee players that night: Hill, Scott, Gill, Gerrie, Pottillo, Boyd, Cowie, Gallacher, Irvine, Gollan, Brown. Any price to watch Dundee is a bargain but reckon 1/6 is hard to beat.

Seeing as there’s no top flight Scottish clubs playing today and i’ve nothing else to do I’m going to guess who will leave: Vincent, Haber, Low and O’Dea. I’ve no idea who we will bring in.

The game before was Hamilton at home when Bain is said to have shouted back at McCann something along the lines of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’. This was during the first half and it was during half time that Parish was summoned from his half time warm up to the dressing room. Supposedly McCann was all for subbing Bain at half time but McGowan stepped in and smoothed the waters enough for Bain to stay on.

He’s not very good at coming for crosses either....so he’s not very good at saving penalties, not very good at crosses, not very good with the ball at his feet, not very good at communicating with his defenders, not very good at keeping clean sheets and not very good at getting on with managers and fans. Other than that though he’s OK...

Agreed but Vince Mennie doesn’t rhyme Much better. The Derry will make it so.

The said thing about that Johnnydun is your not far off the truth there but I do know a player who is better than Sara: Oh, eh, oh we’ve got Glen Kamara. Oh, eh, oh he’s better than Juan Sara. Oh, eh, oh he never gives the ball away. 1,2,3,4......... Joking aside after the St Johnstone game McCann was saying he hadn’t really looked too deeply into bringing in new players as he’s just been concentrating on winning. I’m hoping he was just saying that to deflect the inevitable next question. A decent striker is an absolute must!

McCann came in saying he’s got a certain way he wants the team to play. He was determined to get the defence to pass the ball out from defence, rather than the big punt up the park. As was seen at St Johnstone the players are looking far more comfortable with this now and it’s beginning to pay dividends. He’s clearly not scared to completely drop established big name players from the team when he thinks it’s necessary, Bain being the prime example. Seems to have, in the main, replaced existing players with better players. Meekings > O’Dea. Hendry > Julen. Jon > Holt. Kamara > Vincent / Ross / Hately combined! The one big issue McCann hasn’t addressed successfully is the strikers. I think we all agree Moussa and AJ are not good enough. If McCann is able to bring in a half decent striker I think we should have a very good second half to the season.

One thing’s for sure. If we’d kept Hartley there would be plenty of distance between us and the play-off spot. A whole division to be precise.