Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[DAFC.]

We've got a good team on paper, but need to start playing to our strengths and nailing down our best starting XI because there's been quite a number of changes every different game. 

Thought we missed a trick in not going for guys like Jordan McMillan and Jeroen Tesselaar at full back, but we keep Jason Talbot and Rhys McCabe, when we're sorted for centre mids. Once we get Murdoch back hopefully then our defence will be a bit more secure but Williamson and Martin are quite naive when it comes to actually defending and doing their primary job, which doesn't fill me with confidence. 

[D.A.F.C]

Have to say AJs management in the close season in terms of personel was a bit off.

McCabe and Spence kept and Josh let go? 

No right back with defensive qualities, Reid not replaced.

Fais, why wait around for someone who left his medals at EEP? We lost out on some good players but fortunately managed to get Clark and Farid through good fortune. Reckon Bury and ICT could have kept them. 

Ashcroft has been a success and Nat seems like he could do a job. McMullan has come good but has forced out Cardle who was scoring for fun. No idea why he resigned Hopkirk?

As said though there is a quality eleven in there but we should know it by now and be settled in. It will come good but we really need to beat two out of three of our next three opponents. Thing is, they will be saying the same.

AJ spotted and corrected the problems with Jefferies side and dealt with them, even after Fordyce got injured along with Ryan he still picked up good replacements. We started the season with a squad weaker than last season and boasted about being top four. Within weeks we are playing aimless hoofball and making basic errors in every game.

For the first time I'm wondering how we fix it.

[HoBNob]

Have to say AJs management in the close season in terms of personel was a bit off.

McCabe and Spence kept and Josh let go? 

No right back with defensive qualities, Reid not replaced.

Fais, why wait around for someone who left his medals at EEP? We lost out on some good players but fortunately managed to get Clark and Farid through good fortune. Reckon Bury and ICT could have kept them. 
?
.

Josh wasn't all that, he was also apparently wanting quite the wage which we didn't deem him to be worth, apparently.

We could do with another right back, however a left back would be handy which could mean Martin could play at right back, I think Martin has been good thus far tbh, rarely gets beat.


And again, we were apparently very close to resigning Fais, unfortunately the move with Dundee happened very quickly with them selling Hemmings, we were so close. I have no qualms with waiting for him, and if Clarke and El-Alagui hit if off then we'll look back and think how good it was to wait. Reilly hasn't worked out at all, given the hype he came with we wouldn't have expected that.

Hopkirk is a weird one though.

[Black and White Tragic]

Josh wasn't all that, he was also apparently wanting quite the wage which we didn't deem him to be worth, apparently.

We could do with another right back, however a left back would be handy which could mean Martin could play at right back, I think Martin has been good thus far tbh, rarely gets beat.


And again, we were apparently very close to resigning Fais, unfortunately the move with Dundee happened very quickly with them selling Hemmings, we were so close. I have no qualms with waiting for him, and if Clarke and El-Alagui hit if off then we'll look back and think how good it was to wait. Reilly hasn't worked out at all, given the hype he came with we wouldn't have expected that.

Hopkirk is a weird one though.

Hopkirk, weird, how so?

[Poet of the Macabre]

The same people that cry about AJ waiting on Faiss would be sooking his arse if he'd signed him. Therefore, pretty tricky to take their bleating seriously. It was a gamble and it didn't pay off. In the end, we have three pretty decent strikers which should be enough to get us competitive in this league.

I'm not AJ's biggest supporter but he shouldn't be lambasted for the Faiss situation.

[HoBNob]

Hopkirk, weird, how so?

He's fifth choice striker and fifth choice to play on the wing, we signed him on a two year contract.

[Wasps1]

Honestly Nats a cooowwwwwwww !!!!

[D.A.F.C]

29 minutes ago, Poet of the Macabre said:

The same people that cry about AJ waiting on Faiss would be sooking his arse if he'd signed him. Therefore, pretty tricky to take their bleating seriously. It was a gamble and it didn't pay off. In the end, we have three pretty decent strikers which should be enough to get us competitive in this league.

I'm not AJ's biggest supporter but he shouldn't be lambasted for the Faiss situation.

If he was close to signing why did he leave his medal and not turn up to the POTY award?

AJ needlessly tried to embarrass him or make a point in front of his family who came to see him at some expense I'd imagine.

Has Fais commented on it? What was he doing in France and then Blackburn while we trained? 

Noy buying it, sorry.

[HoBNob]

1 - Chances are he didn't see or appreciate the significance of it, he'd already been at one POTY event and was a bit fed up at how his season ended. Regardless what happened 2/3 months previous isn't exactly a barometer of how close he was to signing is it?

2 - AJ didn't play him because he wasn't signing a contract, he was not going to be our player, there was nothing staked on the game and AJ wanted to see other options, good management. The hysteria that some fans descended into made it all the better.

3- Y'know, probably on holiday and then trying to win a deal at a fucking English championship club?! We obviously weren't his first choice and he wanted to try himself at a higher level. Regardless though come the end of the summer he didn't have anything sorted and was looking likely to come back, Dundee sold Hemmings and made a move, he realised his ambition of moving up a tier.

[TheMessiah]

7 hours ago, D.A.F.C said:

Have to say AJs management in the close season in terms of personel was a bit off.

McCabe and Spence kept and Josh let go? 

No right back with defensive qualities, Reid not replaced.

Fais, why wait around for someone who left his medals at EEP? We lost out on some good players but fortunately managed to get Clark and Farid through good fortune. Reckon Bury and ICT could have kept them. 

Ashcroft has been a success and Nat seems like he could do a job. McMullan has come good but has forced out Cardle who was scoring for fun. No idea why he resigned Hopkirk?

As said though there is a quality eleven in there but we should know it by now and be settled in. It will come good but we really need to beat two out of three of our next three opponents. Thing is, they will be saying the same.

AJ spotted and corrected the problems with Jefferies side and dealt with them, even after Fordyce got injured along with Ryan he still picked up good replacements. We started the season with a squad weaker than last season and boasted about being top four. Within weeks we are playing aimless hoofball and making basic errors in every game.

For the first time I'm wondering how we fix it.

Behave petal, we did not start with a squad weaker than last season you utter minter.

4 hours ago, Poet of the Macabre said:

The same people that cry about AJ waiting on Faiss would be sooking his arse if he'd signed him. Therefore, pretty tricky to take their bleating seriously. It was a gamble and it didn't pay off. In the end, we have three pretty decent strikers which should be enough to get us competitive in this league.

I'm not AJ's biggest supporter but he shouldn't be lambasted for the Faiss situation.

My gathering was that the offer will be there regardless, take it or leave it, what I don't agree with is that we seemed to set that money aside rather than actively find a replacement a soon as possible. If we found someone we should have said to him "now or never, take the offer or we'll sign this boy"

3 hours ago, Grant228 said:

1 - Chances are he didn't see or appreciate the significance of it, he'd already been at one POTY event and was a bit fed up at how his season ended. Regardless what happened 2/3 months previous isn't exactly a barometer of how close he was to signing is it?

2 - AJ didn't play him because he wasn't signing a contract, he was not going to be our player, there was nothing staked on the game and AJ wanted to see other options, good management. The hysteria that some fans descended into made it all the better.

3- Y'know, probably on holiday and then trying to win a deal at a fucking English championship club?! We obviously weren't his first choice and he wanted to try himself at a higher level. Regardless though come the end of the summer he didn't have anything sorted and was looking likely to come back, Dundee sold Hemmings and made a move, he realised his ambition of moving up a tier.
 

I don't agree with the not playing him v Peterhead tbh, it was the title party, a big love-in w**k-off and a lot of the fans were desperate to see him show his class one last time, might have been sensible management from a purely practical view, but realistically it was daft and a bit childish.

If Hemmings had stayed at Dundee he'd have resigned so it was a ball-hair away from being a gamble that paid off.

[Poet of the Macabre]

8 hours ago, D.A.F.C said:

If he was close to signing why did he leave his medal and not turn up to the POTY award?

AJ needlessly tried to embarrass him or make a point in front of his family who came to see him at some expense I'd imagine.

Has Fais commented on it? What was he doing in France and then Blackburn while we trained? 

Noy buying it, sorry.

Oh well, if you don't buy it then who should I believe in this crazy web of riddles?!

Bottom line; it doesn't matter one bit. Clark, Reilly and Farid should be more than enough firepower for us this season. If AJ can't get them scoring the goals then he deserves all the flak going. Not for whether or not we could have, maybe just, signed Faiss.

[D.A.F.C]

They should be good signings but my argument would be that we should have had these guys in weeks ago. Hopefully it will come good.

[smpar]

Messiah - can't be arsed to quote your post and pick out the bit I want, but re your point of Faiss getting a run-out at EEP for the trophy winning w**k-off:

He did.

[HoBNob]

We couldn't have had these signing weeks ago though? El-Alagui was with Inverness and Clarke was at Bury, in both case we got these guys as quickly as they could have possibly got to us.

[Gaz FFC]

4 hours ago, D.A.F.C said:

They should be good signings but my argument would be that we should have had these guys in weeks ago. Hopefully it will come good.

No meaning to be funny or sound like trolling but both NC and Farid wouldn't sign wi Dunfermline  (a mid-table championship team) until they were sure that was the only offer.

Unless of course you are throwing stupid wages around but I'm sure DAFC wouldn't do a thing like that.

[D.A.F.C]

Fans favourite Stephen Kenny getting a draw with AZ Alkmaar tonight.

Guess the team talks in the cupboard works.

[Rob1885]

11 hours ago, Gaz FFC said:

No meaning to be funny or sound like trolling but both NC and Farid wouldn't sign wi Dunfermline  (a mid-table championship team) until they were sure that was the only offer.

Unless of course you are throwing stupid wages around but I'm sure DAFC wouldn't do a thing like that.

NC had rakes of offers.

 

Thanks for trying though.

[TheMessiah]

16 hours ago, smpar said:

Messiah - can't be arsed to quote your post and pick out the bit I want, but re your point of Faiss getting a run-out at EEP for the trophy winning w**k-off:

He did.

He got a cameo, think most fans were expecting him to start, get a goal, then get subbed to a standing ovation.

I think the fact that it was Ryan fucking Wallace who started ahead of him is the fact that irks me.

Then I remember D.A.F.C saying we started weaker this season when our squad contained Ryan fucking Wallace last season.

[Poet of the Macabre]

22 hours ago, D.A.F.C said:

They should be good signings but my argument would be that we should have had these guys in weeks ago. Hopefully it will come good.

Yeah, this is total pish. these guys weren't available weeks ago. AJ took a gamble, it didn't work out and now he's had to find alternatives. I think his recruitment has been pretty decent for the most part. Not many clubs in this league would turn down Farid, Clark or Reilly IMO.

Whether AJ is a good enough coach/man-manager to get them firing is another question. I have a few doubts but he's earned this season to get it right.

[Gaz FFC]

9 hours ago, Rob1885 said:

NC had rakes of offers.

 

Thanks for trying though.

So you are paying too much then