EdiBairn

I'm perplexed as to how we can only need 7 more signings- as it stands we only have Mitchell, McGhee, Muirhead, McKee, Kidd, Dallison, Robson, Brough, Lewis and O'Hara signed for next season. 7 more would only leave us with 17 players, which seems too small to allow for any squad depth at all. It would be 20 including Loy, Harris and Shepherd which could indicate Hartley sees them as part of the squad for next season.

I'll be surprised if Loy is still here next season, and even if he is he won't be playing. Shepherd is unproven at this level but Hartley may give him chance. O'Hara should be emergency backup at best. I'd not be hugely confident without a more proven goalscorer alongside Jak, Nelson and Lewis.

Jakubiak and Nelson is not a league winning strike partnership. They just won't score enough goals.

I'd also be disappointed if "he doesn't want to play for Falkirk" in fact equals "we made a mess of triggering his contract renewal".

Craig Sibbald is not as good as some say but I still don't think we'll be able to replace him with anywhere near the same ability(even if only shown inconsistently). But more than that, it's yet another player we're going to have to bring who'll take time to settle and gel with his teammates, so for that reason I'd have made him stay. We must be looking at close to 15 players now coming in- no way is such a new squad going to win promotion. We've also lost yet another player who has experience of playing in this division, presumably to be replaced by someone from League 2 or similar in England. He may or may not be any good, but some people seem to think that a player released from Stevenage for example will automatically be better than one released from Hearts, which is complete nonsense. I am glad Hartley is expanding the scouting range and I think it might pay off but 1. It won't be next season and 2. There is a reason these players aren't good enough for Morecambe/Port Vale, and we're just as likely to bring in a dud by this method as Houston's. Dennon Lewis for example scored 4 goals in 27 appearances for Woking followed by 0 in 10 for Port Vale. If he'd played for Hibs with that record, the signing would've been castigated, yet we're getting rid of players who are at least proven at this level to replace them with players who aren't obviously any better. It's a big risk and I hope it pays off but it will take time and Hartley and the BoD shouldn't be given a free pass that Houston wasn't.

I'm not overly keen to get Nelson back. I'd rather have a proven goalscorer beside Jakubiak or Lewis. Nelson and Jakubiak are too similar for me, and I don't see it being a league winning strike force.

I'd be forcing Sibbald to sign a contract as I just don't think we'd be able to replace him with anything like the same quality. It's all very well bringing in players who've never played first team football but it's going to be a long season if we're relying on them all making the step up. 'Fans' telling him to get to f**k need to get a grip.

He is perfectly entitled to go and look for more money. But if he's signed a 2 year contract, we should be enforcing it IMO. It's complete madness to lose the services of our best player for nothing when we he is contracted to the club. Then he can move up a level next season, either with us or someone else.

Surely heads have to roll if we've messed up triggering Sibbald's contract extension. We were supposed to have the option to keep him for an extra year- only Falkirk could mess that up.

He absolutely hosed the championship with far better players and a far bigger squad than we're going to have. It's ludicrous to suggest having double training sessions which will undoubtedly increase injuries and knocks which we absolutely don't want if we're going to be running with a squad of 18 next season.

Neilson ran double training sessions from when he went in at Hearts. It's well documented it ended up with unhappy and injured players. This idea that longer training sessions=better is complete nonsense anyway. Pep certainly won't be training all day every day with his squad. Some of our fans need to realise it's 2018 not 1978. What matters is the quality of training, not that they're spending 6 hours every day running about.

Doesn't work- that's the reason Neilson failed at Hearts.

Even if they were involved, I don't think we can say they were totally at fault. Hartley has a reputation for falling out with players at various clubs including at least 5 at Falkirk. The common denominator in that isn't Lee Miller.

Kerr wasn't a designated scapegoat last season people just noticed he was old and pish He was no worse than at least 5 or 6 other players on the pitch but got 100% of the abuse- just like McCracken 2 seasons ago and Muirhead now. He also wasn't picking himself so to shout personal abuse at him was completely unnecessary.

Miller and Kerr were good players on the whole for the club and I think it's ludicrous to suggest either didn't give 100%. There was obviously some falling out with Hartley, but the abuse Kerr got as our designated scapegoat for the first half of the season, and Miller is now getting is crazy from some of our 'fans'.

The signings we've made so far have barely played at first team level for anyone, so it's going to take time for them to settle in. I'm not expecting immediate fireworks.

I hope he's gone too, but there's no point in us paying £1000+ a week in wages to another team when he could contribute something here.

you could be right but a massive risk and if a club takes that risk it's very likely it will be on a lower wage on the back of being a year older a very poor season and health fitness issues and he may not be prepared to take that pay cut if indeed ever offered it Absolutely, I think we'd have to pick up a lot of his wages if he goes elsewhere which then begs the question of whether we'd be better keeping him in the hope he can recapture his form.

I'm struggling to see who would touch loy now. he scored 1 league goal all season and it was against Brechin I think. when he came on he looked really out of sorts. Loy has a goalscoring record in this division unmatched by many. There were clearly personal/health issues in play last season and if he can get rid of those, he'll be an asset to someone next season.

Not me unfortunately- there's quite a number of people slagging off O'Hara on the Facebook groups. Are you related to O'Hara by any chance? Only I don't see you jumping on here to defend Alex Harris or Joe McKee or trawling Facebook pages to find people criticising them.

The main reason Sibbald is still playing for Falkirk while Fulton, McGrandles etc have moved on is a question of attitude, not ability IMO. There's pictures of him every weekend on social media in Warehouse. Players who make it to the top won't be doing that, never mind drinking buckfast in Magaluf.

Nope, his issue is lack of ability.

His lifestyle is why he's still with us.

I suppose if there's no fee to be paid, he might be able to get a move to a Hamilton/ Dundee United or English league 2 equivalent. I don't see him getting anything beyond that though, unless Hibs might be interested as a replacement for McGinn/McGeouch.

I'd agree with that. I do think he's one of our best players, but I don't think he's as irreplaceable as he once was. I'm struggling to think of more than 2 or 3 games he's really stood out in this season.