Right in the Stanchion Posted May 26, 2023 Share Posted May 26, 2023 On 25/05/2023 at 12:59, CumbyDiamond said: Aye right enough that free kick to nobody our home game & similar pass to nobody in the 1-5 drubbing really made me think oh I wish he was still with us Well you can cherry-pick isolated incidents easily. This is what I'm talking about him being under-rated/appreciated (in my opinion). Could probably go round in circles singling out moments probably every player in the present squad has cost us a goal or a goal scoring opportunity. Still, always going to be a controversial take so I totally understand how some people think I'm talking shite. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond8 Posted May 26, 2023 Share Posted May 26, 2023 Seen that Tom Lang has been released from Raith. He's always looked solid enough anytime I've seen him and has a bit of experience at championship level. Wonder if it's someone we'd be interested in? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr November Posted May 26, 2023 Share Posted May 26, 2023 1 hour ago, Diamond8 said: Seen that Tom Lang has been released from Raith. He's always looked solid enough anytime I've seen him and has a bit of experience at championship level. Wonder if it's someone we'd be interested in? I’d happily take him but I reckon he’ll get a move up the way and that it’s his choice to leave rather than Raith punting him. I think he’s been linked with Dunfermline but can see a top end Championship team going for him. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted May 26, 2023 Share Posted May 26, 2023 8 hours ago, Diamonds are Forever said: I'd agree generally but definitely this season I've seen nothing to suggest that Rhys struggles to maintain that kind of professional distance from the players and he's certainly not afraid to make tougher decisions. I remember early in the season he subbed Lewis Jamieson 2 minutes before half-time at Dunfermline as he wasn't happy with how he was following instructions. He could have waited 2 minutes until HT but I assume wanted to make a point to him and the players. Even last week after the Hamilton game he came out and publicly criticised Craig Watson for getting sent-off (when most fans were saying how harsh it was), a player who he played with last year and is mates with. He's done that a few other times too. The caveats would be that we have a very young squad and we don't really have anyone who has had a better career than McCabe. So there is that respect and they look up to him, plus he's one of the better players. We also have a small squad so there's not really any tough decisions to be made, the team kind of picked itself, so there's not really any players who are going to cause disruption. Next season will be really interesting. We'll presumably have a few higher quality signings and 'bigger names' who may challenge McCabe a bit more. We'll be losing more often which affects morale. And it will be much more debatable whether the management team are worth their place in the team. It may well force his hand into deciding whether he wants to keep playing or whether he wants to give his full focus to management. Given he doesn't have any pace to lose and his technical ability he could easily have played League 1 for another 2 or 3 years, it would be a shame if he retired early but it's a choice I think he'll be forced to make pretty soon, particularly if we manage to stay up next year. McCabe has also been pretty ruthless in terms of dropping players he doesn’t think are up to scratch. Ben Wylie, Henderson, Riley and Lyness were all out the team and either released or loaned out as quickly as possible. He tried the same with Salim who would have presumably stayed at Stranraer had he made any sort of impression. There was the aforementioned Jamieson incident and I don’t think he ever really fully trusted him afterwards. And other players like ATS, Deveney, Devenny, Watson, Telfer and even himself were out the team, rightly or wrongly, after either a poor run or when he felt he had to change things. Other than the moral of the story being ‘don’t sign players from Northern Ireland’ he has shown he’s not afraid to drop his team mates, get rid of players or make changes to the team if things aren’t up to his standards or not getting results. That should hopefully stand him in good stead this summer with retention and recruitment as he’ll likely need to be more ruthless than we think. And he’ll need to nail his recruitment. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 (edited) Now that the dust has settled a bit I’ve started to wonder a bit more about who should be retained for next season and who we should be looking to improve on. Definitely Keep Rae, Fordyce, Ballantyne, McCabe, Frizzell, Devenny, Smith, Gallagher, McGill Debatable (keep or improve upon?) Watson, ATS, Telfer Prospects Deveney, Byrd, McMaster, McGregor, Bright, Dixon, Riley The Definitely Keep section is self-explanatory. I think we should be trying to have every one of those players in our squad for next season. That’s one goalkeeper, two defenders, three midfielders and three forwards. Definitely shows that the most important part of recruitment will be in defence, but we absolutely need to strengthen in midfield and up front too, and it might be that some in that category end up further down the pecking order if recruitment is good. Of that list I think we only know for a fact that Ballantyne is signed up, although I think we can safely assume both McCabe and Fordyce will still be at the club, and it has been hinted that Rae will be too. The next two categories are a bit more difficult to define, and I’ve decided to separate these players by age. The Debatable section includes only three players, and I think all three are players we should be looking to improve upon. That doesn’t mean we should necessarily get rid of these players, but if all three stayed, along with a few from the next list, you might wonder how much room there is in the squad for improvements. I don’t think any of the Prospects section would be good enough to play regularly in the Championship, but of those players I personally like McGregor (who made a great impact in the playoff final and has the potential to be a good impact player for us) and McMaster (very tidy DM but might not be ready for the Championship). I know McMaster is a loan but it has been rumoured he’s signed up with us now, so I’ve included him here anyway despite leaving out Stanway for obvious reasons. Deveney played a lot as well, but I don’t think he’s good enough at the moment to be as involved this coming season, and the rest have hardly played at all. Worth mentioning as well that Justin Devenny is of an age with these guys and is also a prospect, but Is far more deserving of his place in the squad. I think of these last two sections we can only afford to keep a few around the first team squad in order to leave room for better players to come in. I don’t know if we can afford to (or if it would even be in our interest to) send a couple of guys out on loan or set up a reserve team again. I personally think we should only be keeping two or three from these last two lists in order to leave room for better players to come in, especially considering we have Aiken and O’Connor joining as well. Edited May 27, 2023 by ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr November Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 A fair summary @ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds. I’d definitely keep Watson, I’m not as big on him as some fans but think he’s a good option to have in the squad. I don’t think he’s good enough to start every week but he’s a great option to cover/challenge Ballantyne and ideally a new full back. I’d guess Telfer is one of our higher earners, has he done enough to justify sticking around? Possibly not, I’d rather that wage went to a Scott Martin type player, but would also be fine with him sticking around. ATS is a tricky one. He clearly brings a calmness and experience that we don’t really have elsewhere in the squad but does he have the legs to play a level above? I’d keep him as backup but can we afford to use a wage on someone who might barely play? Some tough decisions for McCabe. I expect we’ll hear some news next week. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WL Diamond Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 Would agree with the above, would definitely hang on to Watson as a squad player at least. Lewis McGregor is another one to keep especially if he can add an end product to his pace. We obviously need to strengthen the defence and midfield and wouldn’t be surprised if Telfer and ATS move on. The other one that concerns me is Gallagher - I really like him and wouldn’t want to lose him but he didn’t really get a sniff against Hamilton, can he be a first choice striker in the Championship? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr November Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 29 minutes ago, WL Diamond said: Would agree with the above, would definitely hang on to Watson as a squad player at least. Lewis McGregor is another one to keep especially if he can add an end product to his pace. We obviously need to strengthen the defence and midfield and wouldn’t be surprised if Telfer and ATS move on. The other one that concerns me is Gallagher - I really like him and wouldn’t want to lose him but he didn’t really get a sniff against Hamilton, can he be a first choice striker in the Championship? I think he can. I thought he just looked knackered against Hamilton more than anything. He was excellent against three big centre backs in the cup game at Dundee, so I do think he has it in him to step up a level. There will definitely be games where a more physical option might be needed but I’m fully expecting him to be our main striker next season. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhys McCabe Hype Train Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 Hoping an ITK can let us know if the kits are coming on time this season. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLDiamond Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 3 hours ago, WL Diamond said: Would agree with the above, would definitely hang on to Watson as a squad player at least. Lewis McGregor is another one to keep especially if he can add an end product to his pace. We obviously need to strengthen the defence and midfield and wouldn’t be surprised if Telfer and ATS move on. The other one that concerns me is Gallagher - I really like him and wouldn’t want to lose him but he didn’t really get a sniff against Hamilton, can he be a first choice striker in the Championship? I guess we’ll have to see how things play out with signings but could see Gal starting on a regular basis. Most defenses will not fancy playing against him and I’m sure over the course of the season he’ll earn us several points with some late equalizers/winners. But I do fancy a bigger striker who can bully defenses… someone like Robbie Muirhead at Morton who made a mess of our playoffs a couple of years back. Well over 6 feet and knows the Championship. Someone like that would be very useful 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond1924 Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 Would gladly eat my own words (again) regarding Gallagher but I can’t see him being as effective in the championship. Defences will have him sussed out i.e smother him and he’ll struggle to create much. Albeit, the only time gal wasn’t marked against Hamilton was when he crossed the ball in for the equaliser so he can sure take his chances when they come. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamonds_Are_Forever Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 1 hour ago, FLDiamond said: I guess we’ll have to see how things play out with signings but could see Gal starting on a regular basis. Most defenses will not fancy playing against him and I’m sure over the course of the season he’ll earn us several points with some late equalizers/winners. But I do fancy a bigger striker who can bully defenses… someone like Robbie Muirhead at Morton who made a mess of our playoffs a couple of years back. Well over 6 feet and knows the Championship. Someone like that would be very useful Todorov could be a handy asset he’s done well in the championship before with inverness feels like it would be a no brainer but the worry is does he suit our playstyle 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rossm25 Posted May 27, 2023 Share Posted May 27, 2023 5 minutes ago, Diamonds_Are_Forever said: Todorov could be a handy asset he’s done well in the championship before with inverness feels like it would be a no brainer but the worry is does he suit our playstyle Think this is a good point, there will no doubt be some good players available but I'd hate to go down the route of signing players and trying to shoehorn them into our system. I don't think we will and im sure McCabe will have players in mind that will fit his system but how many times have players came to us with a good track record and turned out appallingly bad. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 More of the same next season please. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLDiamond Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 1 hour ago, airdrieman said: More of the same next season please. Super Cooper… Ahh… the memories. I’m sure we’ll come up with at least 4 or 5 away wins next season. Who will it be against? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Reed Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 22 hours ago, FLDiamond said: I guess we’ll have to see how things play out with signings but could see Gal starting on a regular basis. Most defenses will not fancy playing against him and I’m sure over the course of the season he’ll earn us several points with some late equalizers/winners. But I do fancy a bigger striker who can bully defenses… someone like Robbie Muirhead at Morton who made a mess of our playoffs a couple of years back. Well over 6 feet and knows the Championship. Someone like that would be very useful Would think Gal deserves his starting place . although we know scoring doesn't always follow in a move up in leagues , 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Fens Foster Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 So what is yer genuine expectations next season chaps ? Is it all about survival or can you kick on again maybe even a cheeky playoff push ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 33 minutes ago, D-Fens Foster said: So what is yer genuine expectations next season chaps ? Is it all about survival or can you kick on again maybe even a cheeky playoff push ? I think looking at Queen’s Park, Partick Thistle and Arbroath all having promotion pushes shortly after promotion from League One does show that it’s not impossible for us to do similar, but I’d be happy with a season where I’m not worried about relegation. Hard to gauge genuine expectations before we know what squad we’ll have. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ77 Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 40 minutes ago, D-Fens Foster said: So what is yer genuine expectations next season chaps ? Is it all about survival or can you kick on again maybe even a cheeky playoff push ? Would happily take an 8th place finish just now, first season in championship should be purely focused on staying in the league then try and build on that. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moses1924 Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 24 minutes ago, D-Fens Foster said: So what is yer genuine expectations next season chaps ? Is it all about survival or can you kick on again maybe even a cheeky playoff push ? I'd take 8th next season, need to try and stabalise as a championship club in the same way that Arbroath have managed to do, looks like a strong league next season so every point will be hard fought and no doubt a learning curve agaon for the management team 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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