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The Arbroath Thread


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We got massively caught out in August/ September last year when we needed at least one striker from the loan market and we ended up with nothing. For 6-8 weeks I was hearing various names we were after, all of which on paper were a good fit and would've definitely improved things. Unfortunately on almost every occaision within a week or two of hearing of something potentially good, you'd see said player popping up to score the winner having come on as a substitute for his Premiership team, or an injury happen to the player infront of them and low and behold loan is off and you're back to square one. It seemed to me like in the end very few of these players ended up out on loan, it's not that we missed out on them, it's that they didn't become available when it was expected they would. Come January, you then ended up with the guys who were miles off it at Premiership level being loaned out (as Dick says) and this was the loan market we, and everyone else, had to work with..... a significent drop off in quality to the loan market in previous years.

Certainly turning our back on the loan market would be downright silly, but it seems to be accepted by the management team that we cant go into August still needing key players - we can pick up some loans to supplement the squad, but we can't be in a situation where we are relying on picking up loans to fill holes in the starting 11 come mid-end August.

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5 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Yeah watched the video and I am going to lay off the greeting about trialists.
 

Pink says they’ve been watching these guys since February and they’ve all played at a good level, so away to just see what happens and try enjoy the football starting back up 

The big question is

 

How many of them are Nouble's mates?

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2 hours ago, RedLichtie86 said:

The big question is

 

How many of them are Nouble's mates?

 

Best watch what you say, the usual crowd will get all triggered by suggesting that :D

It was a real stinger, i reckon P&B should award me with the best line of the season, that was so funny but so true it was a classic.

You think we will get a few raj's from Uxbridge ?

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Lichteeeeee said:

 

Best watch what you say, the usual crowd will get all triggered by suggesting that :D

It was a real stinger, i reckon P&B should award me with the best line of the season, that was so funny but so true it was a classic.

You think we will get a few raj's from Uxbridge ?

 

 

 

Think you will find, the “raj “ from Uxbridge, has gone already 

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11 minutes ago, Vegetableman said:

We Have signed Miko Virtanen 

opinions please  ?

Superb in his first spell but half the player when he returned for his 2nd. Think League 1 is probably his level. 

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1 hour ago, Vegetableman said:

We Have signed Miko Virtanen 

opinions please  ?

He seems broken now compared to what he was in his first spell here - good player if he can regain his fitness and physicality - didn’t seem to be there when I’ve seen him since.
 

If he gets proper fit and back to his old self he should do well. A very basic defensive midfield player but a good one (if the above happens)

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1 hour ago, Vegetableman said:

We Have signed Miko Virtanen 

opinions please  ?

If he is fit, on form and ready to go he will be a great signing - was outstanding on his first loan period at Gayfield, but lost his form during his 2nd loan period. I wish him well and hope he can regain his early promise - will be a stand out player for Alloa if he finds his form.

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15 hours ago, Vegetableman said:

We Have signed Miko Virtanen 

opinions please  ?

Everyone seems to be writing him off but a move to L1 might be just what he needs.

He’s still young and definitely has talent so perhaps playing at that level for a team that’ll likely be at the pointy end will see a return to form.

As has already been said, he was really good for us in his first spell, a shadow of his former self in his second stint and looked poor for Accies and particularly Cove. Best of luck to him.

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9 trialists on Saturday and no Stowe, McKenna, ToB and potentially McIntosh. Disappointing as Stowe the player I probably wanted to see the most. 
 

I think for now - if season kicked off tomorrow 

 

Gaston

 

Stewart / Steele

Little

ToB

New LB (Colin Hamilton out until October)

 

Stowe / Stewart

Balde

Slater

Dow

 

McKenna 

 

McIntosh

 

Would be starting line up - interested to see Steele. Hopefully he’s solid so he can be a regular. I think Slater will slot in not a problem. Hopefully Allan can show what he can do after a pre season. The above seems reasonably solid but I still think we need a lot more.
 

Really unsure on the trialists and probably will be right up until they get 4/5 good league games under their belt (if any sign) 

 

I think if any of the trialists are any use they really should look a cut above Brechin tomorrow. Yes it’s a pre season friendly but realistically anyone on trial should be going all out in these games while the signed players might use it more for fitness. 
 

 

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19 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

… I think if any of the trialists are any use they really should look a cut above Brechin tomorrow. Yes it’s a pre season friendly but realistically anyone on trial should be going all out in these games while the signed players might use it more for fitness. 
 

 

Completely agree with this. Literally none of the trialists this time last season looked anything other than average. Fosu’s screamer v Montrose aside, there wasn’t a single contribution from any of them that deserved a contract.

These guys have to stand out tomorrow… not just be ok or even decent. If they can’t be far, far better than Highland League standard then I’d be disappointed.

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1 hour ago, 1320Lichtie said:

9 trialists on Saturday

Would imagine that Brechin will also be under strength and playing a few trial players tomorrow - basically a warm up pre-season game to test out a few things for both teams.

As others have said, last season summer signings were a big error of judgement - can't allow a repeat of that this season.

 

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32 minutes ago, clashcityrocker said:

Would imagine that Brechin will also be under strength and playing a few trial players tomorrow - basically a warm up pre-season game to test out a few things for both teams.

As others have said, last season summer signings were a big error of judgement - can't allow a repeat of that this season.

 

I would hope that every single one of the 9 has been playing regularly and performing well at a good level (in relative terms) 

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Agree with all of the above regarding the trialists - as always at this time of year there will be fitness issues and I wouldn't be judging anyone by their fitness/ match fitness/ sharpness but in terms of the basics on the ball, positioning etc. I think we, and more importantly the management, will be able to see anyone who definitely isn't up to it..... none of our trialists last pre-season were up to it, and in an ideal world we wouldn't have signed any of them.

Realistically we're going to be looking at signing 2/3 of these guys out of the 9 and seeing where we're at/ what we need after that I think... With 15 signed up/ available (excluding Hammy) for the League Cup currently, we'll need to do so in order to have enough players for two games a week...

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