tlg1903

Aye saw a few rumours myself. Hope they are untrue but he's not getting any younger.

Nail Head Nicely hit, I'm glad I read to the end because I was about to type words to this effect out. A win in Cyprus and we are defo going. I don't take the result for granted but it's not unreasonable to fancy our chances of getting said win. In that case I think the Spain game will define the group. A point there and I would be amazed if we don't win the group. Clarke will be going there to win though and so he fucking should be, they ain't the team they once were and I don't think many teams look forward to playing us now.

Starting to get well nervous about this one. I watched a fair bit of Napoli last season and kvaratskhelia was well worth the hype he got from the global press. Add to that Georgia being on good form with 1 defeat in 15 and I don't think there's any banana skin about this game 2bh, this would be a tough match for most international teams. It does feel really fucking weird that I'm feeling positive anyway though and looking forward to seeing how Scotland deal with the challenge.

I need to see it in the flesh to be sure but I quite like it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65956639 Ridiculous.

Roberts signs for scunthorpe on a two year deal for an undisclosed fee. https://www.scunthorpe-united.co.uk/news/2023/june/callum-roberts-signs-from-aberdeen/?fbclid=IwAR1INGj-qMp_OkwyTr4U3mfiSjewP1Jlmd5KAQt4VE1EFHqxICj-ySo9ksk It's great we got something resembling cash for him i suppose though i never felt we saw him play enough to define if he was any good or not. We can only assume Robson didn't fancy him or he just wanted away himself. I wonder how many of Goodwins signings will still be here come the opening game of the season

Och, same shite, it's just on the other shoe Al. Maybe they will both have meltdown seasons

Fascinating to see how this one turns out imo. I've come up with a theory about Rogers and why he can't seem to last longer than 3 seasons at a club. Basically, I think he's a bullshit merchant. Eg. I mind him saying last time round he met Danny mcgrain on the training ground when he started. Mcgrain said he didn't know if he was still to have a role at the club. He told Danny he should put his training gear on and he would always have a place at the club whilst he was in charge. After Rogers left Mcgrain went on record saying it never happened (well according to tam Cowan anyway). I do wonder if after a few years people just get wise to his disingenuinity and that's why performances dip. It's hard to be motivated by someone you don't respect after all. Regardless though I can't help but feel this is a bad move for Rogers. I honestly don't see what's in it for him. There's plenty of talk of him being promised a budget that will make them CL competitive. To my eye the only way they are going to do that is by doubling their wage bill and however well run they are they cannot afford to do that. Even if they did I wouldn't trust Rogers to build such a team, one of his biggest problems at Leicester was they spent a rake of money on diddies (according to the hilariously named Leicester fan Rick flair on sportsound yesterday). My prediction with this one is some reasonable early success and then a spectacular wheels coming off car crash.

Agreed on both counts. I totally lost it when it went in

Still buzzing after that one. Must have watched the winning goal about 30 times now

I've not seen a smash and grab like this for a long, long time

I thought we got away with one the first one but I concede it wasn't a stonewaller. Ironically that's the one time he didn't want to go down

Hard to say for sure as no replay was conclusive but it's soft as hell best I can tell. They should have had one earlier though and are well worth the lead

Really struggled haven't we. Just seem to be without the zip to passes we have grown accustomed too in recent times. At least we are not losing

I'll get back to you on that one Al

Italian media linking Duk with being close to a move to Torino. I would be sad to see him go but I recognise this window is really the only one we have if we want to cash in on him. With 50% of any fee going to be benfica we won't get too much with anything less than 2 years left on his deal. I mean, what would we even take as a win? 5 million nets us 2.5 which I suppose I can live with

Sokler signed on a 3 year deal https://www.afc.co.uk/2023/06/16/dons-bolster-attacking-options-with-sokler-signature/

That's the best bit of business we have done in a very, very long time. Last comparable, all things considered, be Nicholas or Gillhaus i would say?

Chomp chomp Rico

Will they defo get one now?

Reading are fucked, I doubt they have deeper pockets than us at the moment

So this is the squad as it stands. I had hoped after such a busy window this time last year this summers would be more along the lines of no more than 4 or 5 coming in. With a squad of twenty that is defo going to be shedding a few more it’s going to be into double figures. Lets go through them by position. GK Roos and Lewis. First order of business for me would probably be to get Roos on a new deal. I’m not sure what to do with Lewis 2bh. He’s a very good backup but he’s also going to be on a sizeable wedge. Ifehe’s amenable to be moving on I would be at peace with that but, equally, there are going to be enough changes as there is and maybe it would be better just to keep him for his final year. Regardless though we need at least 1 gk Right back. Devlin, Richardson. Richardson is an interesting one. I did wonder if Robson was trying to reintroduce him into the fold a wee bit towards the end of the season. The only thing that gives me pause for thought is how quick he is, if that could be effectively harnessed he could yet be an asset. I would certainly not be disappointed to him moving on though. Defo need one rb anyway. cb. Stewart, McDonald, Milne. Mackenzie capable of playing the position. We obviously expect Stewart to be moving on though it did cross my mind he would be far better suited to playing in robsonss team than goodwins. No instruction to play out from the back, no responsibility of captaincy would allow him to just fucking defend and I always felt he had a decent knack of getting in the way of the ball. Again probably on a big wage though and that could defo be better utilised to say the least. We need at least 3 if Milne is capable of stepping up, 4 if not. Big season for Milne, if he doesn’t breakthrough now he’s not going to. Lb Hayes, ngwenya and McKenzie. Hayes is clearly the starter of those 3 and that worries me. Much like Milne this needs to be a breakthrough season for ngwenya but I think that’s less likely than Milne. Mackenzie is a tough one, I like him in general terms but he kind of seems to have stalled a bit and maybe its would be best if he moved on. I think we need a new starting lb to be honest. For ease im going to group all the wide players together. Hayes, Duncan, roberts, morris, besuijen big question marks over the last 3, we don’t know how vinny is feeling and how robson feels about him but he’s defo good enough to be in our squad. Morris does look a busted flush though there were small small signs of improvement toward the tail end of the season and it was interesting in itself robson gave him game time at all. Roberts we haven’t seen enough of and the jury is still out for me. A question mark over duncan as well, he has had his moments but we need more of those and less of the casper impressions. We probably need at least 2, one of them a starting left sider. CM Rama, barron, Polvara Barron is a really tough one. There is strong argument to say we put a contract under his nose and if he doesn’t sign it move him on. With the turnover of squad though it may be worth biting the bullet and keeping him on for continuity. On his game there’s no doubt he’s an asset. Polvara is probably not going to work out which is a shame as i thought he looked like could pass a ball and had potential. I just dont think hes played enough senior football 2bh. We obviously hope that we get shinnie and clarkson back but I would want another one o top of that, 2 if barron is going. Cf duk, miovski bavidge and probably sokler. This is the hardest category to say what we need in because it’s the one most likely to have personnel leaving. I obviously don’t want to see the wee man leave but I recognise this summer will likely be the only real opportunity to get good money for him unless he’s prepared to sign a year extension. With Benfica taking 50% of any transfer we wont get much for him if he only has a year left and, 2bh, I would rather keep him for the duration of his contract and let him leave on a free than take a pittance a year prior. Short version. The minimum we need is 11 players but potentially we will need 14 or 15. This is a very big test for the club with group stage football on the horizon. At least the team is getting a proper pre season for once and we dont have to start playing competitive football at the end of june.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/tonio-teklic/profil/spieler/510241 Obviously sites like this can be taken with a pinch of salt but he's valued at 1.5 mill here. On the same site Duk and Miovski are valued at 1.

Perhaps but not necessarily. He looks a very different type of player.

I would genuinely be devastated if we don't get Shinnie back. I would also add to jutes point about Rama that I think Rama is a far better player when he's alongside Shinnie.