kaj

Bisconti is not a bad shout, but like you I am unsure if we trialled him or just signed him. He'd played top flight football in Belgium and Italy by that stage so he may have just been snapped up. I seem to remember we once had Hermann Hreidarsson, Icelandic centre half of respectable ten-year Premiership career fame, on trial, and didn't sign him. Think that was Roy Aitken. And this may be a false memory or something i've dreamt, but did we not once give a trial to a past-it David Rocastle?

Absolutely agree. As far as I recall, he has that beguiling combination of dodgy pedigree, dubious ability and crippling injury proneness that has marked out a number of Calderwood signings. Caps under Vogts mean nothing. Even I got one.

No idea about this guy. Worth looking at I suppose, in the sense that he's available now and has some experience of professional football at a good level. Anyway, on the wider subject of triallists - have we ever, ever, ever, had a player on trial who we subsequently signed and who was then good? Or at least reasonable? Because if we have, I can't think of one. We sign our good players on reputations. You give a player a trial, he's not got a reputation and if he's over a certain age (ie 21ish) he's probably gash. Ingolfsson, anyone?

I wonder what kind of role Derek Young is playing? Winger, midfielder, striker? He was used in such a variety of ways in his previous incarnation at the club, I was never really sure what he was - save for being an uppity weedgie nyaff who flattered to decieve. Now, after his years away, he's so much more than that - he's also a traitor, a failure, a lower division reject, not to mention a signing who probably symbolises a wider downturn in our club's fortunes. For all that, if he builds on this, gets into the first team, scores the winner on Saturday, starts to play brilliantly week-in-week-out, scores shedloads of goals, gets into the Scotland squad, wins us the league, wins the European golden boot, builds an orphanage for tsunami orphans (with his bare hands), swims the Atlantic ocean, gets a multi-million pound transfer to a non-old firm club, solves global warming and invents warm snow, i'll accept him as a Dons player. Maybe.

Strolling as in: ...no player on the park is able to cope with his quietly efficient presence, marking him out as the masterful lynchpin of his team as he serenely and effortlessly controls the tempo of proceedings, creating chance after chance through his incisive yet delicate promptings; Or, strolling as in: 'canna be ersed to run'?

That, to me, is ludicrous. We're not Chelsea, who can keep a squad big enough to have different types of player for tactical reasons. Either Touzani's capable of being a week-in-week-out first team player or he's no use to a club of our size. I personally think he is, and should be regarded as our senior centre-back now Russell's gone. As for targets, I would love to see the club show a bit of ambition and try to tempt Falkirk with a competitive bid for Darren Barr...but it'll obviously never happen. And Bamba? If I could take a Dunfermline defender, it'd be Mr McGuire, regardless of how backward looking that may seem.

Trying to name our best player takes a bit of thinking - not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Could be good, as it shows we are a team with a degree of quality throughout, rather than a one-man band. Could be bad, as it means none of our players regularly stand out as excellent individuals. I imagine people from opposing football clubs, as opposed to fans, must hate Clark. He is quick, strong, determined - can't be a lot of fun to play against. I am still surprised by their view though. There are plenty of players with similar gifts. There's maybe 4/5 potential candidates in my view: Hart, Severin, Nicholson, Smith (in terms of his innate technique/ability - i know he's not been very productive for a long time) and Clark, if this is the view of his fellow professionals. Only one of which is a defender, which worries me.

Been impressed with Soutar's kicking - much better than Langfield's, although ideally the long punts would be interspersed with some more varied distribution. Re. youth goalies - anyone know how the younger keepers, kelly and stewart have been doing? I remember they were rated as good prospects a year or two ago. And are there any others coming through?