AUFC 1910 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 1 minute ago, Thumper said: As nice as it is to have a permanent keeper with some talent for the first time in approaching a decade, nobody looked at last season's squad and went "the top priority is a whole new back line and the rest can be left for later" except seemingly the manager. Four days left. Were we not something like 5 goals away from finishing 4th? (5 goals in 5 of the draws we had - changing them to wins - extra 10 points? I know it’s never as simple as that) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mps02 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 If Morton only have 15 players is that not because we have the rest of them? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSDR 88 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Getting on a bit... For info he was a Trialist for us (Rovers) against Stranraer (2 weeks ago), big laddy, could ping a good pass, but other than that a bit sh!t. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazka6 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 34 minutes ago, Thumper said: As nice as it is to have a permanent keeper with some talent for the first time in approaching a decade, nobody looked at last season's squad and went "the top priority is a whole new back line and the rest can be left for later" except seemingly the manager. Four days left. Agreed, relatively easy deals I guess though. Trying to be positive I’d counter your 4 days with the 30th. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honestly united Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 13 hours ago, Superhursy7 said: Can see us lining up a bit like this at least for the first few weeks, obviously McAlister still to come in and hopefully a proper midfield hardman/destroyer and creative number 10. I'd expect Muirhead to be in at CH rather than maybe Baird, and Chalmers in the middle - still doesnt look much better though. Am i correct in thinking Houston has played centre mid at some point - would he be an option there with McAlister at RWB? Not that it makes for a better team mind... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diegomarahenry Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Seems strange that there is such a drought of available talent, Maybe Brexit has closed the market to foreign talent, making UK national players more in demand, or Covid means that clubs that can afford to are carrying bigger squads in case they have to quarantine 5-6 at a time. there hasn’t been an influx of foreign players at our level for a while in Scottish football so the players must be going somewhere. maybe ambitious pyramid teams joining the party ? Tommy Sloan is the top junior manager and someone said he is the most prepared manager that have ever seen. He would know now who was going to be in his squad next season, if he lost a keeper today he’d know who he would sign tonight. I don’t get that feeling with Hopkin, he took over in plenty of time before the end of the season, he knew from 10pm on the 30th April what league we were in but I wouldn’t describe us as having a core squad assembled. Still to many gaps and still the same apparent problems as last year. No outfield trialists in the squad last night in the last friendly, not being able to play trialists in the cup means any player we sign has to be ready made. We can’t rely on youth loans with the exception of Kelly, we may actually have to pay a fee for someone…. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Jaffo Posted July 7, 2021 Author Share Posted July 7, 2021 Seems strange that there is such a drought of available talent, Maybe Brexit has closed the market to foreign talent, making UK national players more in demand, or Covid means that clubs that can afford to are carrying bigger squads in case they have to quarantine 5-6 at a time. there hasn’t been an influx of foreign players at our level for a while in Scottish football so the players must be going somewhere. maybe ambitious pyramid teams joining the party ? Tommy Sloan is the top junior manager and someone said he is the most prepared manager that have ever seen. He would know now who was going to be in his squad next season, if he lost a keeper today he’d know who he would sign tonight. I don’t get that feeling with Hopkin, he took over in plenty of time before the end of the season, he knew from 10pm on the 30th April what league we were in but I wouldn’t describe us as having a core squad assembled. Still to many gaps and still the same apparent problems as last year. No outfield trialists in the squad last night in the last friendly, not being able to play trialists in the cup means any player we sign has to be ready made. We can’t rely on youth loans with the exception of Kelly, we may actually have to pay a fee for someone….I take your point about being prepared but even with all the preparation in the world there is still a long process to go through when it comes to signing a player. Hopkin will be waiting to see if he gets his first choice option and the players will be waiting to hear back from other clubs before making their decision. It’s not as easy as identifying the player and signing them the next day. I think it’s far more likely that Hopkin has missed out on several players (not just Todorov) and has been forced to look elsewhere. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dauntless Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 17 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said: No outfield trialists in the squad last night in the last friendly, not being able to play trialists in the cup means any player we sign has to be ready made. We can’t rely on youth loans with the exception of Kelly, we may actually have to pay a fee for someone…. I was just thinking much the same . Wouldn't be against putting a small amount out on a younger player from the lower leagues . However if its a six foot four centre forward we are after then the chances are they'll be coming up from England and will have to be paid the rate . We have 25 days until the Killie game so there is still plenty of time . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUFC 1910 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 30 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said: Seems strange that there is such a drought of available talent, Maybe Brexit has closed the market to foreign talent, making UK national players more in demand, or Covid means that clubs that can afford to are carrying bigger squads in case they have to quarantine 5-6 at a time. there hasn’t been an influx of foreign players at our level for a while in Scottish football so the players must be going somewhere. maybe ambitious pyramid teams joining the party ? Tommy Sloan is the top junior manager and someone said he is the most prepared manager that have ever seen. He would know now who was going to be in his squad next season, if he lost a keeper today he’d know who he would sign tonight. I don’t get that feeling with Hopkin, he took over in plenty of time before the end of the season, he knew from 10pm on the 30th April what league we were in but I wouldn’t describe us as having a core squad assembled. Still to many gaps and still the same apparent problems as last year. No outfield trialists in the squad last night in the last friendly, not being able to play trialists in the cup means any player we sign has to be ready made. We can’t rely on youth loans with the exception of Kelly, we may actually have to pay a fee for someone…. I know what you are saying about Tommy Sloan - I know him personally and is a brilliant manager - but who would turn down the Talbot in the junior scene? Not many. I don’t think we have that same draw in the Championship scene 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 1 hour ago, AUFC 1910 said: Were we not something like 5 goals away from finishing 4th? (5 goals in 5 of the draws we had - changing them to wins - extra 10 points? I know it’s never as simple as that) How does letting half of the players who scored last season go, not replacing them, and signing an entire new defense help with that? The players currently on the books scored 12 senior goals between them last season. The entire team. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUFC 1910 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Just now, Thumper said: How does letting half of the players who scored last season go, not replacing them, and signing an entire new defense help with that? The players currently on the books scored 12 senior goals between them last season. The entire team. I was agreeing with you - in that if we had got it right up front last season, things could have looked very different - and that is why we need to get it right from the start this season - so we are nearer to 4th than bottom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk89 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Are there quarantine restrictions for trialists this season? Or can they go straight into the training bubble with teams? There is a feel of a sellers market this season with so many teams still looking short 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honestly united Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 As well as the players being available for loans at bigger clubs not usually confirmed until August, there is usually more free's at the end of August to look at also. These are usually players that were signed on longer contracts that are told they dont have much chance of getting a game and would be better looking elsewhere - like what happened with Smith when he signed for us. But agreed there doesn't seem to be as many players knocking about looking for clubs - i wonder if thats the players just taking the deals clubs have offered rather than look elsewhere, or clubs offering more deals to current squads? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 It's all about the haves and have nots nowadays I'm afraid, take Motherwell as an example, they currently have a first team squad of 24 players which includes 4 very competent goalkeepers, you've then got the old firm and English championship clubs with even bigger squads and huge youth setups and then the next step up in English Premiership, where our own Burnley friends currently have 24 first team, 26 U23's and 21 U18's, multiply these sort of figures across the board and it's little wonder that there's nobody left for the rest of us !!! For those of us a little older, many will recall that Dundee Utd won the league in 83 using a grand total of 14 first team players plus a further 6 youth team players who all made between 1 and 5 appearances each and the excellent Liverpool side of around the same time did it with 16 players so basically if all these clubs are carrying huge squads of both first team and youths, then it's little wonder that the lack of available talent is all coming home to roost. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazbart Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 1 hour ago, Thumper said: How does letting half of the players who scored last season go, not replacing them, and signing an entire new defense help with that? The players currently on the books scored 12 senior goals between them last season. The entire team. To be fair we have signed a striker who has 2 in 3 games so far. It’s not that we “let the players go” they chose to leave and go elsewhere. I actually think that what’s happened this year with signings is fewer younger players have been released from the top flight as the clubs there are planning on running smaller senior squads and using youth to bulk it out . I will add this is purely a theory, haven’t done any research to back this up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 48 minutes ago, WATTOO said: It's all about the haves and have nots nowadays I'm afraid, take Motherwell as an example, they currently have a first team squad of 24 players which includes 4 very competent goalkeepers, you've then got the old firm and English championship clubs with even bigger squads and huge youth setups and then the next step up in English Premiership, where our own Burnley friends currently have 24 first team, 26 U23's and 21 U18's, multiply these sort of figures across the board and it's little wonder that there's nobody left for the rest of us !!! For those of us a little older, many will recall that Dundee Utd won the league in 83 using a grand total of 14 first team players plus a further 6 youth team players who all made between 1 and 5 appearances each and the excellent Liverpool side of around the same time did it with 16 players so basically if all these clubs are carrying huge squads of both first team and youths, then it's little wonder that the lack of available talent is all coming home to roost. Obviously some don't agree with my "factual" post. Strange. Come on children, play the post and not the poster....... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No_Problemo Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 More than likely get a lower end Premiership side, or higher championship - but Graham Dorrans has returned to Scotland and looking for a club. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanayr1987 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 17 minutes ago, No_Problemo said: More than likely get a lower end Premiership side, or higher championship - but Graham Dorrans has returned to Scotland and looking for a club. Is he not completely done? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUFC 1910 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 It’s a shame there is such a huge gap in wages from top flight down, as you would see in the past players taking a step down and shine in a lower league, but so many are making sideways moves to keep the money rolling in. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No_Problemo Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Just now, ryanayr1987 said: Is he not completely done? I wouldn’t have said so, but not exactly been following his career in Australia. Flattered to deceive for Dundee, but that has been pretty regular for Dundee over past seasons. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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