Sons' sorrow

[BallochSonsFan]

Gray may well have a few health concerns. But that doesnt mean that he hasn't had a major strop.

Not great tbh. Whoever is advising him needs a kick in the stones. At his age another year playing regularly in League 2 is hardly the end of the world. Another year of playing regularly and impressing. A good season and he walks for free next summer with our thanks and has a chance of securing a good move. Throwing the toys out the pram isnt a good look for a young player. He doesnt want that reputation.

[Jan Vojáček]

Highlights from Saturday. Two main things to take from them:

1 - I really like Michael Ruth.

2 - If a life or death situation was decided by the ability of a Dumbarton player to land a cross on the perfect spot, then I would choose Div Wilson to deliver that cross.

 

[Skyline Drifter]

23 hours ago, pleslie99 said:

Sorry I disagree, Finlay missing again stinks of not wanting to play so he’s not cup tied. If he has indeed thrown the toys out the pram then we should cash in on whatever offer QoS or anyone else makes and move on. Hanging onto him, paying him a wage when he doesn’t want to be here is stupidity from us

 

23 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Aye, that's fine in principle, but no way should DFC be accepting a pittance.  If QoS or anyone else seek to sign the player then they should make an offer sufficient to conclude a deal.  It's quite simple, and Dumbarton will not stand in the lad's way.

Is there any basis in fact to keep linking us with Finlay Gray other than Marvin Bartley taking in a couple of Dumbarton games last season? If we ever had any immediate interest in him I doubt it's there now. We're not needing a midfielder currently. We've Josh Todd, Harry Cochrane and Reegan Mimnaugh playing, and Iain Wilson out injured as well as young Ben Johnstone to cover for the moment.

[Jan Vojáček]

1 minute ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Is there any basis in fact to keep linking us with Finlay Gray other than Marvin Bartley taking in a couple of Dumbarton games last season? If we ever had any immediate interest in him I doubt it's there now. We're not needing a midfielder currently. We've Josh Todd, Harry Cochrane and Reegan Mimnaugh playing, and Iain Wilson out injured as well as young Ben Johnstone to cover for the moment.

There was certainly at least one concrete offer made from Queens to DFC for Finlay. And you guys offered Kalvin Orsi a contract too. Those two things came from the horse's mouth(s) rather than just being based on Bartley being at games last year.

I don't know if there was a second bid for Finlay made or if people are just putting him not playing and Queen's previous interest together and making five. But I know the above definitely happened.

[microdave]

On 23/07/2023 at 10:24, The Moonster said:

I don't think this has been mentioned yet but that second Bonnyrigg penalty miss was hilariously bad. Just a complete sclaf that you'd see in U12s football. 

 

It's the worst penalty I've seen since Diana Ross in 94.

https://youtu.be/BAKsGT9-XB0

[Skyline Drifter]

35 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

There was certainly at least one concrete offer made from Queens to DFC for Finlay. And you guys offered Kalvin Orsi a contract too. Those two things came from the horse's mouth(s) rather than just being based on Bartley being at games last year.

I don't know if there was a second bid for Finlay made or if people are just putting him not playing and Queen's previous interest together and making five. But I know the above definitely happened.

Fair enough. Slightly surprised at Orsi, not all that surprised about Gray initially but I'd imagine that was before we signed Mimnaugh. I'm not seeing us needing a midfielder right now. Not to start games anyway. Perhaps we'll come back in for him next summer.

[Jan Vojáček]

Just back from Morrisons where I bumped into none other than Armand One buying some lemon sole.

A club have reportedly had an offer rejected for Finlay (full-time, but don't know if it's QOS again or someone else). He dropped out of contention whilst that was going on behind the scenes because, understandably, his head was a wee bit all over the place by not knowing if the move would go through or not and where he would be playing his football.

This was apparently a 'much higher offer', and Armand informs me that it was potentially even in five figures. It's been rejected though and Finlay will be back playing for us - possibly from as early as tomorrow night. No toys exited any prams in the process of the transfer negotiations.

Personally I'm staggered we rejected an offer of that amount, assuming it is accurate. But I'm also really keen to see Finlay playing in the new style - high tempo, high pressure, box-to-box attacking football is what he was built for.

[BallochSonsFan]

2 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

Just back from Morrisons where I bumped into none other than Armand One buying some lemon sole.

A club have reportedly had an offer rejected for Finlay (full-time, but don't know if it's QOS again or someone else). He dropped out of contention whilst that was going on behind the scenes because, understandably, his head was a wee bit all over the place by not knowing if the move would go through or not and where he would be playing his football.

This was apparently a 'much higher offer', and Armand informs me that it was potentially even in five figures. It's been rejected though and Finlay will be back playing for us - possibly from as early as tomorrow night. No toys exited any prams in the process of the transfer negotiations.

Personally I'm staggered we rejected an offer of that amount, assuming it is accurate. But I'm also really keen to see Finlay playing in the new style - high tempo, high pressure, box-to-box attacking football is what he was built for.

Would £10,000 be acceptable for Gray? I'd want a bit more than that, but it does raise the question as to what he's worth?

What would be an acceptable bid?

[George Parr]

1 minute ago, BallochSonsFan said:

Would £10,000 be acceptable for Gray? I'd want a bit more than that, but it does raise the question as to what he's worth?

What would be an acceptable bid?

Agreed.

Jan's note suggests some fucking chancer has offered less than £10k. Derisory.

[The Moonster]

Hawd on, we've no got a shirt sponsor, we had a previous £35k sponsorship hole to fill and we're knocking back circa £10k for a guy who will walk next summer for next to nothing?

[Jan Vojáček]

Just now, BallochSonsFan said:

Would £10,000 be acceptable for Gray? I'd want a bit more than that, but it does raise the question as to what he's worth?

What would be an acceptable bid?

Imo I'd accept 10k for any of our players with less than a year to run on their contract. We haven't sold a player for cash since Tony Wallace I don't think (?) and the club is skint. £10k isn't huge, but it's also not to be sniffed at for a club who are seeing a decent chunk of their budget made up by a groundshare.

The WOSFL has kind of thrown valuations up in the air, and there's silly money being thrown about there. But I think Darvel paid round about that (£12k or so) for Ross Meechan from Forfar when he was their captain. So £10k or so for a top end League Two player is maybe quite a fair price? 

Just now, George Parr said:

Agreed.

Jan's note suggests some fucking chancer has offered less than £10k. Derisory.

Considerably less than £10k was offered at first by all accounts. And when I say considerably I mean that in an extreme sense. Apparently there have been five or six bids since the initial interest.

[BallochSonsFan]

I reckon £15k would do it.

We may well lose him next summer for nothing, but if he was able to help us get promotion then that's worth more than £15k.

Edited July 25, 2023 by BallochSonsFan

[The Moonster]

Just now, BallochSonsFan said:

I reckon £15k would do it.

We'll get a third of that if he goes next summer. 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

Just now, The Moonster said:

We'll get a third of that if he goes next summer. 

Aye, but we might, just might, be a division higher too if he stays.  And there is no correlation between the sponsorship void and Gray or anyone else's worth, they are separate issues.

Because the Board entered into an ill-advised arrangement shouldn't result in a player fire-sale to try and balance it.  Given the bid for Mbappe (doesn't chase back) then £15-20K seems reasonable for Gray.

[FifeSons]

Anyone know if Dundee are streaming tomorrow's game?

[The Moonster]

4 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Aye, but we might, just might, be a division higher too if he stays.  And there is no correlation between the sponsorship void and Gray or anyone else's worth, they are separate issues.

Because the Board entered into an ill-advised arrangement shouldn't result in a player fire-sale to try and balance it.  Given the bid for Mbappe (doesn't chase back) then £15-20K seems reasonable for Gray.

If we got anything near £20k for Gray I would absolutely rethink my opinion on this board and their financial handling but it's just not going to happen. Gray has proven himself a good League 2 player but he's still young and elements of his game still need work. Kane Hester went for around £30k, you're just not getting that sort of money for a box to box midfielder.

It's also not a firesale. It's a singular asset being sold on in the exact situation we planned for when we offered him a contract extension. 

If he stays and his head is right I'll be delighted, I think he's a great player to watch and he has a lot of potential. Forgive me if we get to January though and need reinforcements and I balk at suggestions the club doesn't have a pot to piss in, as we seem to get every year. 

[Nigel Blackwell]

2 hours ago, Jan Vojáček said:

Just back from Morrisons where I bumped into none other than Armand One buying some lemon sole.

A club have reportedly had an offer rejected for Finlay (full-time, but don't know if it's QOS again or someone else). He dropped out of contention whilst that was going on behind the scenes because, understandably, his head was a wee bit all over the place by not knowing if the move would go through or not and where he would be playing his football.

This was apparently a 'much higher offer', and Armand informs me that it was potentially even in five figures. It's been rejected though and Finlay will be back playing for us - possibly from as early as tomorrow night. No toys exited any prams in the process of the transfer negotiations.

Personally I'm staggered we rejected an offer of that amount, assuming it is accurate. But I'm also really keen to see Finlay playing in the new style - high tempo, high pressure, box-to-box attacking football is what he was built for.

Excuse my ignorance, but how on earth would Armand One know all this??

[BallochSonsFan]

27 minutes ago, Nigel Blackwell said:

Excuse my ignorance, but how on earth would Armand One know all this??

He was in Morrisons buying lemon sole. Presumably he heard it from the woman on the Morrisons fish counter.

[pleslie99]

1 hour ago, Nigel Blackwell said:

Excuse my ignorance, but how on earth would Armand One know all this??

There’s over 2500 pages in this thread. Boil the kettle, make a cup of tea, shut the weans outside and settle down to enjoy. The answer is in there……

[super-son]

You’ve got to look at it with a view to getting promoted this year.

If we get promoted and Finlay Gray has made a good contribution towards that, then 10k is a pittance compared to the prize money and the resulting prize money in the years to come in the league above compared to what we get now.

If we can keep him and his head is in the right place then I would be delighted.