The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours

[DaftTon74]

No deal for Frankie Deane.

[Mr Toon]

32 minutes ago, DaftTon74 said:

No deal for Frankie Deane.

If true I hope it is because we have something else in the pipeline.  He looks like a very good midfielder in the making.

[Cowshed]

5 hours ago, DaftTon74 said:

No deal for Frankie Deane.

I seen he was on the bench for East Kilbride tonight 

[TONTROOPER]

6 hours ago, DaftTon74 said:

No deal for Frankie Deane.

I'm seriously angry about this....I can only imagine Dougie thinks he's too wee...too easily bossed. Hey Dougie...did ye catch his skill?

[TONTROOPER]

O.K. I've calmed down.

Dougie... sign Deane... you have to before fekin East Kilbride does.

[TONTROOPER]

Anyone remeber Fred's (Bachirou) initial performances ....he wasnt great was he?

Rest my case.

[jagfox]

Five Morton trialists learn fate from boss Dougie Imrie

[ClydeTon]

It doesn't really make much sense for Morton not to have offered Deane something. Perhaps what he was on at Burnley / what he's willing to drop down to was beyond what we can offer.

If he's going down to Birmingham City then he's probably already been approached by them.

If Morton have just flat out said no to signing him- well that's just bizarre.

[madton]

2 hours ago, ClydeTon said:

It doesn't really make much sense for Morton not to have offered Deane something. Perhaps what he was on at Burnley / what he's willing to drop down to was beyond what we can offer.

If he's going down to Birmingham City then he's probably already been approached by them.

If Morton have just flat out said no to signing him- well that's just bizarre.

I'm slightly surprised as well but in Dougie we trust etc etc.

If its purely down to his size, why bother inviting him to train in the first place?

If its down to ability, fair enough but he does look a good footballer but of course Dougie has seen him day in day out for a few weeks so much better placed than us fans.

Certainly an area we need another body in for me so hopefully Dougie has someone else in mind. Gillespie and Blues are decent but I'd like someone better in there. King will certainly help with competition but still young. Finding another Tidser would be ideal.

Doesn't look like we will have a second keeper or RB before League Cup starts which is a bit disappointing. 

[ClydeTon]

32 minutes ago, madton said:

I'm slightly surprised as well but in Dougie we trust etc etc.

If its purely down to his size, why bother inviting him to train in the first place?

If its down to ability, fair enough but he does look a good footballer but of course Dougie has seen him day in day out for a few weeks so much better placed than us fans.

Certainly an area we need another body in for me so hopefully Dougie has someone else in mind. Gillespie and Blues are decent but I'd like someone better in there. King will certainly help with competition but still young. Finding another Tidser would be ideal.

Doesn't look like we will have a second keeper or RB before League Cup starts which is a bit disappointing. 

Agreed that we could do with another man in midfield, especially after losing grimshaw's quality. Deane seemed really good on the ball and his assist for McGrattan was too notch.

Now that I think about it, though, perhaps that's why we haven't went for him; maybe he's saving room in the budget to get a RB or a backup GK in, then he'll see what's left and go for a midfielder.

[madton]

I'd like to think there's a decent amount of budget left if as Dougie suggested, the budget is similar to last season.

Schwake- replaced by Mullen

Green

Strapp

Carlo

Ambrose- replaced by Broadfoot

Grimshaw

Roy.

Miller- replaced by Boyd

A.Crawford

 

 Obviously we have signed Waters so covering his full wage and gave Baird a new deal which presumably was some sort of increase but I doubt Mullen and Broadfoot are on high wages and Boyd is probably average for the squad.

 

[ClydeTon]

8 minutes ago, madton said:

I'd like to think there's a decent amount of budget left if as Dougie suggested, the budget is similar to last season.

Schwake- replaced by Mullen

Green

Strapp

Carlo

Ambrose- replaced by Broadfoot

Grimshaw

Roy.

Miller- replaced by Boyd

A.Crawford

 

 Obviously we have signed Waters so covering his full wage and gave Baird a new deal which presumably was some sort of increase but I doubt Mullen and Broadfoot are on high wages and Boyd is probably average for the squad.

 

I imagine Mullin will still take up more of the budget than Schwake. I imagine Livingston would have been paying most of his wages as part of the loan agreement (taking that guess because of Dougie's ties with them)

Doubt Mullen will be on much as you say, but probably costs Morton more than Schwake did.

[Jamie_M]

4 hours ago, ClydeTon said:

I imagine Mullin will still take up more of the budget than Schwake. I imagine Livingston would have been paying most of his wages as part of the loan agreement (taking that guess because of Dougie's ties with them)

Doubt Mullen will be on much as you say, but probably costs Morton more than Schwake did.

Accounts from Livi fans would point to the contrary and Livi are actually insistent on a decent percentage of wages covered for loan players 

[madton]

25 minutes ago, Jamie_M said:

Accounts from Livi fans would point to the contrary and Livi are actually insistent on a decent percentage of wages covered for loan players 

Aye read the same that apparently Livvy won't let players go out unless most of their wages are covered.

Believe we paid most if not all of Gavin Reillys wages when he was with us.

 

 

[ClydeTon]

45 minutes ago, Jamie_M said:

Accounts from Livi fans would point to the contrary and Livi are actually insistent on a decent percentage of wages covered for loan players 

Fair enough. Come to think of it, Livi aren't exactly rolling in cash.

Edited July 12, 2023 by ClydeTon

[SpoonTon]

18 hours ago, madton said:

I'd like to think there's a decent amount of budget left if as Dougie suggested, the budget is similar to last season.

Schwake- replaced by Mullen

Green

Strapp

Carlo

Ambrose- replaced by Broadfoot

Grimshaw

Roy.

Miller- replaced by Boyd

A.Crawford

 

 Obviously we have signed Waters so covering his full wage and gave Baird a new deal which presumably was some sort of increase but I doubt Mullen and Broadfoot are on high wages and Boyd is probably average for the squad.

 

I don't think that Roy was costing us a massive amount (I don't have any inside info but this has been said). I'm not sure if Ali Crawford is someone we're necessarily going to be able to replace at this stage - after all, we only had him for 2 or 3 months (which obviously isn't the same money as signing a player for the season). 

Realistically, I think we need to replace Grimshaw, Carlo (in some way), and a sub 'keeper and then save any remaining budget for what might happen during the season (e.g. like when we were forced to bring in Waters for Strapp or when we brought in Ali Crawford to try to strengthen the squad for the run-in). 

This would leave us with:

Goalkepeers: Mullen, New

Defence: Baird, O'Conner, Broadfoot, Waters, New

Midfield: Gillespie, Blues, Crawford, McGrattan, King

Forwards: Muirhead, Oakley, Boyd, Quitongo, Garrity

With one more player who could add competition/cover in midfield/defence. This would leave us with a squad of 18. Ideally, we'd replace Garrity with a player who would be a bit more useful for us (that's where a signing like Deane would have made sense). We're going to running with a thin squad, we always do, and we'll need space to adjust things as the season goes on. 

[madton]

11 hours ago, SpoonTon said:

I don't think that Roy was costing us a massive amount (I don't have any inside info but this has been said). I'm not sure if Ali Crawford is someone we're necessarily going to be able to replace at this stage - after all, we only had him for 2 or 3 months (which obviously isn't the same money as signing a player for the season). 

Realistically, I think we need to replace Grimshaw, Carlo (in some way), and a sub 'keeper and then save any remaining budget for what might happen during the season (e.g. like when we were forced to bring in Waters for Strapp or when we brought in Ali Crawford to try to strengthen the squad for the run-in). 

This would leave us with:

Goalkepeers: Mullen, New

Defence: Baird, O'Conner, Broadfoot, Waters, New

Midfield: Gillespie, Blues, Crawford, McGrattan, King

Forwards: Muirhead, Oakley, Boyd, Quitongo, Garrity

With one more player who could add competition/cover in midfield/defence. This would leave us with a squad of 18. Ideally, we'd replace Garrity with a player who would be a bit more useful for us (that's where a signing like Deane would have made sense). We're going to running with a thin squad, we always do, and we'll need space to adjust things as the season goes on. 

Aye dont think we will replace all of them but I'm hoping its closer to 20 than 18. Keeper, RB, defensive cover and a quality midfielder to compete with Blues, Gillespie and King are musts for me. The fact he was looking at Deane suggests he does want to add in that area. 

If he adds another attacking option then great,  rumour that the Liverpool boy has all but signed.

[Dunning1874]

If we can only add another three, even four, signing Bearne would make no sense. A winger is the last thing this squad needs. A first choice right back, cover at goalkeeper and full back are all essential. Another central midfielder isn't as important as those but is something that we really should have.

We already have Quitongo, Boyd, McGrattan and Garrity to play out wide, King or Crawford are also able to go there if we're totally stuck, and if as seems likely Imrie's preference is to have both Muirhead and Oakley in the starting XI, then Muirhead will be first choice on the wing ahead of all of them. That's where we have the most depth in the squad by a mile.

[SpoonTon]

55 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

If we can only add another three, even four, signing Bearne would make no sense. A winger is the last thing this squad needs. A first choice right back, cover at goalkeeper and full back are all essential. Another central midfielder isn't as important as those but is something that we really should have.

We already have Quitongo, Boyd, McGrattan and Garrity to play out wide, King or Crawford are also able to go there if we're totally stuck, and if as seems likely Imrie's preference is to have both Muirhead and Oakley in the starting XI, then Muirhead will be first choice on the wing ahead of all of them. That's where we have the most depth in the squad by a mile.

I tend to think Garrity will leave if we can move him on and if there would be funds to replace him I think that would be ideal. A creative attacking midfielder with a bit of guile to play either inside or wide is probably the option we're lacking there at the moment.

9 hours ago, madton said:

Aye dont think we will replace all of them but I'm hoping its closer to 20 than 18. Keeper, RB, defensive cover and a quality midfielder to compete with Blues, Gillespie and King are musts for me. The fact he was looking at Deane suggests he does want to add in that area. 

If he adds another attacking option then great,  rumour that the Liverpool boy has all but signed.

It's just such a pity about losing Grimshaw. Having a player like that who can play in midfield as well as at right back was a great asset. I agree that 20 would be better, and we'll probably end up there, but maybe not immediately. I think we will need defensive midfield cover at some point, but that might have to be something which develops later. 

[MORleyTON]