ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds

Bright Prince wearing a yellow third kit

It’s odd isn’t it? I’m happy enough with the business we’ve done so far but we haven’t really made any marquee signings that obviously improve our first team. I think Todorov is a good signing and will give us an alternative up front that we lacked last season, but he’ll start the season behind Gallagher in the pecking order. McMaster I like but obviously he’s behind McCabe at the moment and still needs to develop to be a regular in the Championship. The two Hibs boys are a completely unknown quantity but is Aiken likely to challenge Frizzell, Telfer (if we keep them) or Devenny for a place in the team? I hope so. Is he more likely to have a similar role in the squad to what Stanway had? Probably. Would O’Connor start over Smith if we still had him? Probably not. I think all four could be very decent signings and they might all play a massive part in our season, but those signings hardly scream “no mercy” to the other Championship sides.

A contract update or two today and a new signing modelling a new kit tomorrow please

When we had him we had Leon McCann at left back and McCann definitely seemed to be the better player, quicker and better defensively, so I was actually a but surprised when Dunfermline paid a fee for MacDonald midseason. What MacDonald always had over McCann though was an absolutely killer cross.

The club mentioned on both the Watson and Todorov announcements that there will be interviews with both released on Diamonds TV next week. I assume that means the squad will be back in training next week?

Based on their time at Airdrie I prefer Watson, but based on how MacDonald performed last season for Dunfermline I think you can definitely make a case that he might be a better option. No point signing him when we have Watson and Ballantyne though. We need a left back. I get that both Ballantyne (and MacDonald) can play on the left, but a naturally left-sided full back should be the priority. For the record if we signed MacDonald I’d be fairly happy with it, I just think right back’s the one position we don’t need to sign for at the moment.

Wikipedia describes him as a centre back that previously played as a striker. We’ve described Todorov as a forward that’s “capable of performing in defence”. What’s the betting that at some point we’ve got East up front and Todorov at the back?

Probably would be a decent signing but with Janny re-signing that would give us a third right-footed full back

Does anyone know which game Josh Rae will be suspended for? He still has a match of his ban to serve after his red card against Falkirk but I’m not sure if it will be the first league game of the season or if it will be served in the League Cup

Queen’s Park just finished 3rd and they were the first League One team to be promoted via the playoffs since Alloa in 2018, who stayed up a lot longer than most people would have expected (3 seasons I think?) However, the season before Alloa it was Brechin that went up via the playoffs and they finished the season with 4 points and hastily got themselves relegated to the highland league. They were promoted from League One alongside champions Livingston in 2017, massively different experiences for those clubs.

Last two seasons he’s played almost exclusively on the left of a front 3. Not prolific enough to be a centre forward imo, and he said himself last summer he prefers to play off the left. Works his socks off which I think can be seen more when he plays out wide as well as he’ll track back to help the full back defend. At his worst he’ll miss a few sitters and seem to lack confidence in front of goal, but at his best you’ll love him.

I think the only players named in the update were ones that had already agreed a deal at some point during the season (we have a habit of not announcing these until the end of the season). Still no update on ATS, Watson, Telfer, McGill, or Frizzell.

Have to say I’m a bit gutted but hopefully this is an opportunity to replace Smith with an exciting signing.

About half our playing squad, including McCabe, are all represented by the same agent group. Frizzell’s one of them.

Yeah although the club never disclosed the length of his contract this article from last summer has a quote from Cammy saying it’s a two-year deal. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/former-dundee-united-defenders-home-27129205 Technically I don’t think we’ve had any official confirmation that McCabe and Fordyce are signed up for next season but I think we can assume they will be with about 99% certainty. Of those actually confirmed either by the club or the individual themselves we currently have more players on loan from Hibs (2) than players not on loan from Hibs (1).

Bit early for final standings predictions but I agree

My one request this summer is that when we announce contract extensions and signings the announcement includes the length of the contract (My second request is that we somehow sign Kerr McInroy or Kyle Turner)

St Johnstone have just released David Wotherspoon who is represented by Consilium Sports Group

I think looking at Queen’s Park, Partick Thistle and Arbroath all having promotion pushes shortly after promotion from League One does show that it’s not impossible for us to do similar, but I’d be happy with a season where I’m not worried about relegation. Hard to gauge genuine expectations before we know what squad we’ll have.

Now that the dust has settled a bit I’ve started to wonder a bit more about who should be retained for next season and who we should be looking to improve on. Definitely Keep Rae, Fordyce, Ballantyne, McCabe, Frizzell, Devenny, Smith, Gallagher, McGill Debatable (keep or improve upon?) Watson, ATS, Telfer Prospects Deveney, Byrd, McMaster, McGregor, Bright, Dixon, Riley The Definitely Keep section is self-explanatory. I think we should be trying to have every one of those players in our squad for next season. That’s one goalkeeper, two defenders, three midfielders and three forwards. Definitely shows that the most important part of recruitment will be in defence, but we absolutely need to strengthen in midfield and up front too, and it might be that some in that category end up further down the pecking order if recruitment is good. Of that list I think we only know for a fact that Ballantyne is signed up, although I think we can safely assume both McCabe and Fordyce will still be at the club, and it has been hinted that Rae will be too. The next two categories are a bit more difficult to define, and I’ve decided to separate these players by age. The Debatable section includes only three players, and I think all three are players we should be looking to improve upon. That doesn’t mean we should necessarily get rid of these players, but if all three stayed, along with a few from the next list, you might wonder how much room there is in the squad for improvements. I don’t think any of the Prospects section would be good enough to play regularly in the Championship, but of those players I personally like McGregor (who made a great impact in the playoff final and has the potential to be a good impact player for us) and McMaster (very tidy DM but might not be ready for the Championship). I know McMaster is a loan but it has been rumoured he’s signed up with us now, so I’ve included him here anyway despite leaving out Stanway for obvious reasons. Deveney played a lot as well, but I don’t think he’s good enough at the moment to be as involved this coming season, and the rest have hardly played at all. Worth mentioning as well that Justin Devenny is of an age with these guys and is also a prospect, but Is far more deserving of his place in the squad. I think of these last two sections we can only afford to keep a few around the first team squad in order to leave room for better players to come in. I don’t know if we can afford to (or if it would even be in our interest to) send a couple of guys out on loan or set up a reserve team again. I personally think we should only be keeping two or three from these last two lists in order to leave room for better players to come in, especially considering we have Aiken and O’Connor joining as well.

Notice a couple of clubs are going down the player/manager route for this coming season, with Elgin appointing Ross Draper and Kelty Hearts appointing Michael Tidser. I know we were far from the first team to do it, and at the time of McCabe’s appointment there was at least one other SPFL team that had a player/manager (Wullie Gibson at QOTS comes to mind), but you do wonder if McCabe’s success has inspired other teams to give their more experienced players a chance at managing.

I think someone joked that some fans would be suggesting we sign Roberts on the facebook group as a way of having a dig against the posters on there, and somehow it’s turned into an actual discussion. He’s nowhere near the level required for the Championship, and wouldn’t even be the level required for the top end of League One if we’d stayed down. We obviously won’t be trying to sign him and I think it’s more likely he’ll sign for a team in League Two. Nothing against the lad, but that’s his level. We should be looking at established Championship players for this coming season.

Looks like Ian Murray is heading to Dundee so that might change the situation a bit. If he fancied any of our players for Raith would he think any of them capable of stepping up to Premiership level?

Under no illusions about the Championship. The current squad without additions would go down. We wouldn’t dominate games often enough to get by on attacking strength as we have in League One. The squad also has nowhere near enough depth. The positive of that is that there is a lot of room within the squad. I think we can keep the vast majority of the squad that actually played a bit this season, and that will only amount to about 13-14 players, so there’s still room for plenty of better players to come in. Goalkeepers Rae New backup Defence Ballantyne Fordyce New CB New LB ATS (backup) Watson (backup) Midfield McCabe New DM Frizzell Devenny Aiken (new loanee) New CM Forwards Gallagher McGill Smith McGregor O’Connor (new loanee) New CF The omissions there are Byrd, Deveney, Telfer, McMaster (loan ended), Stanway (loan ended), Prince and Dixon. Three of them were almost entirely uninvolved that season which shows how small our actual squad was. I expect Prince to be loaned out again or play with the U18’s. Heard a while ago McMaster was signing with us and I do like him as a player, but wouldn’t mind seeing us loan him out to a League One side if that’s something we can afford to do. I wouldn’t be against Telfer staying but I think he could make way for someone a bit better/more consistent.

Was expecting Hartlepool to release Paterson and wouldn’t be surprised if we’re in for him. Would love Turner who I believe is out of contract but Thistle will want to keep him. If they lose in the playoffs would he consider a move to another team in the Championship? Possibly. Would we be able to offer as much money as Thistle? Probably not. Is he represented by Consilium Sports Group? You better believe he is.