wokinginashearerwonderland

No one said your issue was unimportant but this is a fitba forum after all, nobody comes on here wanting to be lectured about how they should be revolting against the energy companies. Maybe you should try getting your message across on another platform dude?

Have a Crunchie min. It's Friday.

I was hoping that they got humped last night but I really doubt whether them winning makes any difference at all to our league. Looking back to when Rangers were spending mega money, they splashed cash on Kanchelskis and the like in 1998/99 and the difference between first and third in the league that season was 20 points. The following season that gap was 36 points. That really was at the height of when the Old Firm were spending and everyone else was absolutely skint and not only were the OF spending, they were actually buying really good players, guys who were in Holland's first eleven not second rate players. In comparison, two years ago the gap between first and third was 39 points and 32 points last season which is without Champions League money. Even with Champions League money, the OF are never going to be buying dutch internationals again, they will still be shopping in the second tier so I doubt whether it will make any difference at all.

I take it the Glazers will be getting the credit for the Man U win tonight since it was their fault they lost their first two games

Barron’s role has been overemphasised by our support in my view. He is a good prospect but he has played 1197 minutes of first team football which is the equivalent of about 13 games. You cannot go hanging your hat on a 20 year old with so little experience. Got to be the aim for Lopes to play behind Miovski otherwise why spend the money on him to keep the bench warm?

Watched a fair bit of the Killie Celtic game earlier. It's a myth that you cannot play good fitba on a plastic pitch, totally psychological if you ask me. Some cracking stuff played by Celtic and the boy Jota can fairly strike a ball.

Got to laugh at Gary Neville. Seemingly the reason United are crap is due to the owners taking dividends out of the club, he overlooks the fact they have given some of the best managers in the world about £500m to spend on players yet the Glazers are to blame. Jamie Redknapp having none of it.

Man United comedy gold

Disappointing that. AZ finished 5th in Holland last year, 22 points off Ajax so it’s not like United were up against some European heavyweight. Sad reflection of where our fitba in this country is at especially after the Motherwell shit show in Europe.

Looked yesterday a wee while before kick off and there were about 6 tickets available for the main stand yet watching the highlights last night there were empty seats all over the place, presumably season ticket holders. Cannot believe folk pay over £500 for a season ticket then don't turn up, just bizarre. Even more so the fact that it was the first home game of the season.

Some funny deals been done in Englandshire at the moment. Chelsea just spent £63m on a Brighton full back!!! What is going on?

Assuming we continue to adopt a forward 4, I'm guessing the plan is for Miovski and Duk to occupy the number 9 and 10 places since we shelled out a load of cash on them with Besuijen on the right and Hayes on the left. The only further signing I would expect to see is a spare centre half, apart from that we have cover for everyone else. I could see one from Kennedy, Watkins or McLennan will be let go.

Womens Euro 2022 - just wondered, did anyone watch much of this? It is being built up exponentially as some remarkable achievement as you may expect with England having won it and just wanted to gauge other peoples thoughts. To me, it's a bit like some random league games being on tele like something from the MLS, Australia or the dutch league in that I had no real desire to watch it in the current world of saturation tv fitba. But then I see there is a massive party in Trafalgar Square and I wonder if I am in the minority in my thinking, but if Scotland would have won it, would we be all that bothered?? Don't get me wrong, whenever a Scottish athlete/team get to a final of a sport, it does make me want to see how they get on but is the women's game not still a bit of a minority sport? I mean were the tickets for the final like gold dust as they would have been for the men's England v Italy final last year or did they give a load of tickets away to guarantee a full house? A lot of talk being banded about that women's football will never be the same but my own opinion would be that I would still not really make a point of watching a women's game.

A tough introduction to Scottish fitba for these new boys, have to say I was fearing the worst after three minutes and although it was only 2-0, we never really got a kick. In fairness, as others have said, some of the new players have only been in the door a matter of days and it was asking a bit much to hit the ground running against the champions away in the first game. It's the home games against the St Johnstones, Motherwells and Ross Countys that we will get a better idea of whether this team is better than last season's shambles. Stewart looks a right good player. The only person I would criticise straight off is the one that allowed Lopes to get Duk written on the back of his shirt and they should get sacked straight away.

Getting any money for Bates considering how he has played for us has to be good business. However, I have a strange feeling that Bates is one of those who will turn good eventually and will somehow end up with about 40 Scotland caps and leave us thinking why couldn't we make a player out of that guy?

It's certainly a brave strategy BigAl. Easy to get the red tinted specs on being a Dons fan but I'd be interested to see how other clubs are viewing our business. On the face of it we have sold our two best players for £7.5M and brought in players from Benfica B, Wycombe, Notts County, Stevenage and the rest. I'm guessing if Hibs or Hearts had done that we would be laughing at them so will certainly be intriguing to see what happens this season. Not sure I am buying the "excitement" that some people are showing but happy to give Goodwin the benefit of the doubt and see how it goes. The acid test will come on Sunday.

Kind of felt we might catch up with the OF a bit with the money we took in for Cosgrove, McKenna, Ramsey and Ferguson but they have made a helluva lot from their own inflated sales of Patterson and Bassey and their UEFA cup money. Hopefully the European runs for both are short and sweet this season.

Aye Bates has made a real arse of it. It appeared that his stock had risen a bit being in Germany and getting a cap or two for Scotland. If he had played well last season he would be getting touted around for a fee of a couple of million now but he'll probably end up at Port Vale for £80,000 now.

If you look at the bare “data”, Ferguson looks a cracking buy considering his goals/games/caps/age. Hopefully another sell on clause goes in and he might make us another few mill in a couple of years time. Will be interesting to see whether he goes on to bigger and better things or fades away. Good luck to him if he heads over to Italy, great opportunity for a young player.

Interesting to know whether we are a bigger draw than united for a potential signing at the moment. Would you rather play for Goodwin or Ross?

Tottenham agree a deal to buy Richarlison from Everton for..................£60m! That's like four Alan Shearers

Wonder how long until Conor Barron starts to think he is in a foreign country when he turns up to training

You been editing wikipedia again BigAl Love the opening sentence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bojan_Miovski

Marcelo retiring got me thinking. He retired as Real Madrid's most decorated player with 25 trophies won including 5 Champions Leagues and 6 La Liga titles. I don't remember anyone mentioning his name when talking about "great players". Must be the luckiest player.

Look, every signing is a risk and of course you can buy shite players from anywhere but it's all about minimising risk when making a signing. If you buy someone that you know about, you maximise the possibility that that player will be a decent signing for your club. That was what happened in the late 80s and early 90s with the Snelders, Gillhaus type signings. These were established proven players so the chances of them being a success were higher. Finances now dictate that we are essentially taking a punt whenever we go into the foreign market so as Rico said in his post, we simply don't know how good these players are compared to the ones in our own league. Then, if they do turn out to be of the correct standard you have the headache about whether they will settle in the country, be able to cope with the freezing nights in Perth and Motherwell, deal with being hundreds of miles away from their family etc etc. It's not to say that you won't get one right eventually, but the odds of it working out, in my opinion, are far higher than signing a player from a British or Irish team.