Ajja

Rather than seeing this as excuses or lack of ambition why can't it be under promise and over deliver ? I think he is just trying to lower expectations to take some pressure off his squad which is currently under the spotlight due to the media circling around our financial difficulties. There is a time to talk up your performance and opportunity and there is a time to keep a lid on expectation. Any decent manager of people knows this. Now is certainly not the time for McGhee to be blowing trumpets. McGhee is being crucified because he is coming out and being up front and honest about the circumstances he finds himself in, I find it quite refreshing.

Correct. I think we all agree that we could laugh for weeks if irresponsible teams like Hearts went to the wall but at the end of the day it does nothing to support the game in Scotland and there are ordinary people doing ordinary jobs at HMFC who deserve to have their future guarded by legislative controls.

Was that the year our turnover would have been inflated unrealistically by a European run and some cash coming in for players though ?

Indeed, we will never be able to compete with bigger clubs, that is clear but there are clubs in England who have smaller turnovers than us who can outstrip us in wages by some distance. This ruling would restrict that somewhat were it to be applied across other footballing authorities.

I think prudence to ensure survival is the primary objective here. I would expect that notions of quality improvement may be someway down the line. His point appears to me to be 'lets make sure that the clubs are there tomorrow and then we can concentrate on them being better'. None of it is earth shatteringly brilliant but it is a sensible business approach to a difficult time. The problem is (as you correctly point out) retaining quality and if the rest of the footballing world is going to continue being out of line with this philosophy then it will reduce the product on display in Scotland. As long as Championship/League 1 teams in England who have similar or smaller turnovers to ours can pay 3x the wages then we are going to get bent even further and harder over the desk. If Smith puts this into practice then we have to hope Platini does the same and then the playing field will be levelled significantly. That can only be good for Scottish football.

If there is one difficulty I have with our transfer dealings in the last few months its this. I suspect McGhee has just been shopping too high up the ladder. I fully agree with his sentiment that he is not going to bring in low level players form England/France/Holland etc just to build numbers and the club are to be applauded for saying that they would rather make way for youth players to develop experience. However, the reason he was not able to get those few extra signings in is that he has shopped in the wrong places. Calderwood was given the slack to make these deals but McGhee will not so we have to hope he can do something with the young players that Calderwood couldn't. I'm still reasonably confident this will happen and I am almost glad the transfer window is closed so he can get on with delivering without distraction.

Listening to McGhee today he was clearly frustrated by two things: 1. He cannot get the players in he would like to due to financial constraints 2. Fans/media/all other critics are not getting the message that there is no money to spend Its a simple message. Granted it gets clouded by press speculation and some inconsistent commentary from the club. However, with only a modicum of brain space you should be able to work it out for yourself. It makes perfect sense to me that we tried to sign a host of players but at the end of the day if they are not going to ADD VALUE to our squad I am delighted we are not signing them. Its comical to hear our support react to the varying phases of our transfer dealings at times. 1. Club announces a player we are looking at - flurry of comments ripping his stats to bits, endless expert opinions about how he is not the type of player we need, claiming he is no better than the shite we already have etc etc etc. 2. Club announce we missed out on a player - suddenly he was the greatest thing to grace a football field in the French 3rd tier and we were incompetent fools to have lost out on him. 3. Club announce the player is signing - flurry of excitement because we signed a player, endless comments building him up to levels of unrealistic expectation.

Not on a 5pm deadline, no.

I'd say thats about the toughest draw we could have got. SPL wannabees looking to prove themselves. At least we are unlikely to take them for granted and will take a big support. What does Dens take in the away end ?

Tommy Wright is the answer.......to giving him a kick up his hole at least

Surely a pair of concrete slippers and a river would sort that out. No need for delicate contracts negotiations.

Sloppy journalism. Saying on BBC radio Scotland tonight that its only a matter of time and he cannot possibly work in those conditions. Lets keep our fingers crossed for a revolt/meltdown against St J on Sunday Its been too long since we could really laugh at a crisis down Grozny way I see they have also started the conveyor belt of talent from Kaunas again.

With Romanov coming out with that statement I would say it is ineviatble that he will jack it in. He has been making these comments in the media to try and get Romanov to repsond. Just not in that way. If they lose this weekend then expect him gone by Monday

So Laszlo comes out after a good European performance (albeit too late) and says I am still not content with the support from above in getting a striker. The best manager Hearts have had in a good number of years is hanging by a thread as his patience with Romanov appears to be at breaking point and what does Romanov do ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/8226301.stm He blames him. The straw that broke the camels back me thinks :wave:

Lets hope he is happy not sad.

More likely an endurance trial to see how long a human can sit in the stands at Pittodrie without wanting to hammer bamboo shards under their finger nails.

Good stuff, thats midfield sorted. I'd still have a serious look at leaving Miller out and trying Paton up top with Maguire as he will be buzzing after hi sstrike last week. I know McGhee has hinted that Paton needs to work harder in training but he shows a lot of natural ability when played.

I hadn't suggested that but I suppose playing all of Kerr, MacDonald and Fyvie might unbalance the midfield ?

MacDonald and Fyvie with Foster dropping back to replace Crawford ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgLRqfeYeuc&NR=1

That was my fault Sharpie. I didn't see the previous post and so my one got merged into this one.

So its ONLY in the SPL games, after the Hamilton game: Mulgrew 1 Considine 1 Maguire 1 Aluko 1 Total 4 Striker contribution 25% Feel free to update whenever as I won't remember each week.