ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds

What’s the betting we announce five signings on Saturday morning?

Not watching the game today but the twitter feed alone seems to suggest Trialist 7 (Ruiz-Diaz) is running the show

Everything about this potential signing is Griffin Sabatini 2.0

I wasn’t that impressed with him but I also wasn’t impressed with Gabby McGill as a trialist this time last season and I’d say he went on to prove me wrong.

He actually finished the game as the deepest midfielder, though that was maybe to conserve some energy before tomorrow’s game. Looked like everything was intended to go through him, with him dropping deep to collect the ball and start most of our attacks, much like Easton did last season. I think he will get a better return this season if he plays that role. One goal and one assist at least today, and while I can’t remember perfectly I think it might have been him that put the ball into the box for the third goal as well.

Telfer looked good. Frizzell played with the freedom Easton played with last season. Rae didn’t have too much to do but his kicking seems a massive improvement on what we’ve had recently.

McMaster’s taken number 14, so presumably 8 is still being held for someone expected to be more involved in the first team than him

I think he actually finished the season as assist leader for the league as well, which isn’t bad considering he was played out of position for a team that only just made the playoffs

I know most of the Turner stuff has been a bit of tongue and cheek but given he was modelling Thistle’s Kingsley kit the other day I can’t imagine they’ll be trying to move him on. Although I think if we mention his name in every transfer window it might happen eventually, like it did with Andy Ryan.

Thomas Robert’s coming back, speaking of “unfinished business at Airdrie”. Everyone’s livid and I’m seeking out my Tam Rab shirt to wear while I await the announcement.

I see the bookies have odds priced up for our league now. We’re 11/2 with McBookie and William Hill, 6/1 on Bet365 and 7/1 with SkyBet. Fourth favourites behind Dunfermline, Falkirk and QOTS, although the odds would suggest they don’t expect there to be much between us four and Kelty Hearts (well except SkyBet who don’t seem to rate Kelty at all and have them 12/1 behind Alloa)

Aye the trials he was on while contracted to us were bizarre, but the Belgian B league might be a higher standard than the Scottish third tier. All I’m saying is he had some ability, and there was a spell in his season with us where he looked very good, and he’d maybe even have suited our more technically gifted side from last season a bit better than the side he was in. Scored a screamer against Cove and finished off a great team move against Forfar.

Controversial opinion but I thought Robert was actually quite good. If it was announced tomorrow that he was returning as a squad option I’d be fairly happy with that. He might need to bulk up a bit though.

Paddy Pyott

“In your new football team” implies he’s going nowhere

That’s the one that had lots of Gibsons liking his picture on facebook! When I seen he’d been playing for Benburb U18’s I wasn’t sure if he was just there to make up the numbers or not but will be interesting to see how he develops

In theory should we not have more available funds for wages than last season? Presumably as a rookie manager McCabe is on less than Murray was, and since he doubles as a player his entire playing wage is freed up, plus whatever the difference between his and Murray’s wages are? Cantley’s wage also freed up with Hutton replacing both him and Jim Low which might not be much but it’s still something.

Couldn’t find a highlights video but this is from the match report on the club website. Back three with Watson at wing back if I recall correctly.

For comparison, this is where we were this time last season (that’s the team that played Cumbernauld Colts in the NL Cup). Frizzell had been signed at this point it should be said, but was out injured. We’ve got four of those named players still in the squad now, plus Frizzell who was injured and McGill who was one of the trialists. After this we signed Salim and Smith who we still have now. Currie’s been replaced with Rae, Wardrop’s been belatedly replaced by Ballantyne, Cantley’s been replaced by Hutton. We’ve brought in Devenny as well, but I wouldn’t call him a direct replacement for any of those named players. We’re definitely a bit lighter than we were this time last season, but I think we’ve got a bit more quality now, with the exception of Easton of course.

I reckon a lot of those trialists will be involved in the NL Cup games at the weekend, same as last season when our squad for those fixtures was made up of trialists. Of last season’s NL Cup trialists I think we only signed Gabby, Lyons and McDonald, so I’d expect something similar where very few of those boys are actually signed (without knowing much about any of these players my money’s on McMaster, Vata and Euan Deveney). I think we’ll start making other “first team” signings and some loans during the League Cup group stage.

Assuming that’s a list of who’s been training with us, obviously still got Gallagher, Smith, Salim, Watson and Hutton to add. I’d also mention that there’s no way we’ve released Pyott just to sign him back, so he’s obviously been allowed to train with us to help him get back to full fitness and find a team. When the training pictures were put up on Facebook I had a look at the likes and deduced that the young lad was Cole Gibson, there were three people liked his picture called Gibson and one of them (presumably his dad) had the boy as his profile picture holding a trophy he’d won for Benburb U18s. Wouldn’t think he’d be a first team signing by any stretch but it does give this list some validity. Not familiar with many of those names, I know McMaster was a young player at St Mirren and Vata at Celtic, but not much more. I looked up Ruiz-Diaz since the name was more interesting and see he’s Australian. Wonder if he’s a youngster Celtic are looking to sign and loan out given their Australian connection and our proclivity to bring Celtic players in on loan.

Every season under Murray we had a couple of loan players that were first team regulars. Smith and McCann. Turner, Paton, Connell. McInroy, Paterson, McGill. Not just to make up the numbers.

Don’t really see the need for pointless arguments with fans of rival teams. We went unbeaten in our last 20 league games of last season. We finished with a higher points total (or points per game when compared to recent shortened seasons) than the majority of league one champions. In another year we might have won the league, but Cove were even more impressive than us. We lost a playoff final to a team that deserved it over the two legs but certainly didn’t deserve it over the course of the season after finishing 21 points behind us. It was gutting but it’s done now. Of the players that have left us the only one that most of us are bothered about is Easton. From what QOTS fans are saying we’ve got ourselves a superb goalie, who I think we all expect to be an upgrade on Currie. Ballantyne we know to have been the best RB in this league over the last few seasons and seems another great addition. We’ve kept Fordyce, McCabe, Frizzell, Gallagher, Smith et al. Squad’s still very light and more signings are needed but I think we can be quietly confident without lowering ourselves to petty arguments.

Hearts extended McGill’s contract but there’s no way he’s ready to play for the third best team in the country, so he should be going out on loan, although I think Hearts are going to have a B team in the Lowland League next season which might complicate things. I’d have him back definitely.

I think Turner is extremely unlikely, he might not have been one of McCall’s favoured centre mids but he played right mid a lot and I think finished the season as the league leader for assists.