Shadow Play

If you sit in in the Famous Five Stand you’ll soon hear him shouting at the fans around you.

United got Andrew Robertson from Queens Park for next to nothing. 1-2 years later he was sold to Hull for just under £3m. As a defender Hendry shows more composure on the ball than most midfielders in the Premiership. Assuming we are not desperate for the cash there is absolutely no reason why we can’t hold off and get £1m plus for him. If Celtic are willing to pay £500,000 for him you can be sure that they think he’s worth far more than that.

Spot on Yenitit. Looks like McCann has learned from O'Dea's sending off at Dens a few weeks ago. Talking of O'Dea, surely it's fairly unusual for the captain of a club not to even make the bench (I'm assuming O'Dea is not injured). I wonder if McCann realised he would struggle to live with O'Hallaron's pace?

BBC Radio Scotland saying Bain is likely to move to Hibernian on a loan deal. I'd rather Dundee for once played hard ball and told Hibs and Bain the only way he will be moving in January is if a transfer fee is agreed. Otherwise, keep him in the stand at Dens. The board need to show players they can't simply cause bother and manipulate the transfer they want. Also, does Parish's composure with the ball at his feet not just highlight how bad Bain was in similar situations?

It’s amazing how Dundee can lift your spirit.

Good work Ludo. You’re not a private investigator by any chance, are you? Dya reckon you’d get odds at a bookies for him to sign in the January window?

No but I bet O’Halloran would love to play for Dundee. That way he’d never have to go up against Cammy Kerr again!

If true I’m guessing the potential signings are players they manage. Anyone any idea who they manage? Damn, where’s RandomGuy when you need him?

I don’t think we will take 4,000 through but then again I don’t think St Johnstone will have 4,000 home fans either.

McCann kept Bain as first choice keeper for a long, long time. Anyone want to argue McCann was wrong to drop him in favour of Parish? Yet at the time of Bain being dropped there were still plenty of people arguing Bain was still making outstanding saves and should remain first choice. I don’t hate O’Dea and I do like his passion but I just think he’s slowed dramatically and he doesn’t seem to read play well enough to compensate for that. All just my opinion of course and I’d be more than happy if O’Dea proves me wrong.

Kamara is 22 years old and will develop nicely over the next few years. O’Dea is 30 years old and getting slower all the time. If Kamara was to leave Dundee how many Premiership teams would be interested in him? How many would be interested in O’Dea? Yes Kamara makes errors but at least he doesn’t look to blame everyone else for them or gets himself needlessly sent off.

O’Dea has slowed down massively in the last year, let alone since his last international call up. When he under hit the ball back to Parish and Griffiths nipped in and almost scored O’Dea went off on one to Parish. O’Dea had plenty of time to control and release the ball yet blamed Parish who is still settling in. Is that the way a player with the experience you’ve highlighted behave?

What was obvious from the Celtic match then? El Bakhtaoui hasn’t the heart, concentration or vision to play at this level. BBC summed it up perfectly describing him as “the week-willed Faissal El Bakhtaoui”. He lost the ball far too easily to Scott Brown in the lead up to the 2nd goal. I’m afraid he’s another experiment by Hartley that simply hasn’t worked. He will never make it in the top flight. A decent Championship player maybe. Moussa has not got the killer instinct in front of goal. Got himself in a great position near the end but the header was pathetic. Any half decent striker would have at least troubled the keeper. McCann obviously doesn’t rate Waddell. Meekings gets injured and he’s replaced with O’Dea. The only real chance of scoring was going to be from a set piece. Waddell showed he can do just that when he scored twice from a corner against Hearts. Don’t think he’s had that much of a chance in the team after that.

I thought Spence did OK when he played the few games he did. I think there is potential there but, even when fully fit, I don’t think he’s ready for a regular place in the first team just yet. I agree El Bak is not a winger. Unfortunately as it stands I don’t think he’s a striker, midfielder or any other position at this level either. There is no doubt he has bags of skills and tricks but he’s still missing so many other basic requirements. I’m just not sure if he can develop what is needed to let his undoubted talent shine on a regular basis.

Ouch. Didn’t mean to upset you Liam. Ive no hate for tattoos. I was simply playing on the ‘If Carlsberg did Footballers’ advert that showed a footballer dipping his arms in a barrel and bringing them back out fully tattooed. The jokey message from the advert implying that to make it as a footballer you have to get a full sleeve. I think it’s fair to say there are one or two players that seem to be over concerned about their image and ego. Kerr I’m delighted to say is not one of them and fair play to him for that. I never mentioned Bain but.......

It’s coming up for Christmas. Can you not have lied and made a good few Dees happy? . Cheers anyway.

Kerr is a top bloke and a true Dee. Happier spending his spare time giving something back to the community rather than sitting in some tattoo artist’s studio!

Anyone know if there is any truth in the reports linking Vincent with a move back to ICT?

I definitely don’t hate him and would be delighted to have him as a back up. I’ve explained previously what I think his shortcomings are. That, coupled with his physical style of play makes me wonder if he should continue be a first choice now he’s in his 30s. He’s been a great servant to the club, of that there is no doubt, but you’ve got to look to the future. The fact that the team are better with him in the side doesn’t mean that McCann shouldn’t be considering a younger replacement. I agree with others though that there are a good few others I would look to get rid of first. The trouble is they are all still in contract.

Kamara for me is the best by far. Intelligent, fast, good at tackling and as the song goes - he never gives the ball away. As much as he’s our friend I’d be tempted to look at replacing McGowan. Yes he works hard and drives the team on but he’s very slow to make a pass, not fast at running and can’t shoot. A good midfielder should have at least 2 out of 3 if these skills IMO. He’s also quick to criticise team mates but seems slow to hold up his hands when he’s to blame. Hopefully the board will work hard to convince O’Hara that he’s got plenty of time to improve and McCann is the man who can help him.

Fairly sure it would be a boring journey for you in any case Ross. I reckon Bain would be full of his own importance.

Agree with the first bit. Disagree with the second. A loan player’s goals and contributions count exactly the same as a fully signed player. I think with AJLS in the team we’ve more chance of him or others scoring and keeping us in the league.

Article in the Tele today about AJLS. He’s saying he hopes to be offered an extension on his loan deal until the end of the season. I reckon he’s worth that.

Cheers Capt. Unbelievable. I would have thought he’d be better off concentrating on trying to get back into the 1st team. I’m just hoping we never have an injury situation that ever requires recalling him to the 1st team!

There’s no way that can be genuine. Surely there is no way a player, let alone captain, of any club would think it’s appropriate to congratulate a club on an unbeaten run that includes a number of games against their own club. To do that would demonstrate incredibly poor judgement.