wee toon red

God and Michael Stewart just said on sportsound that Ramirez didn’t ask to go back to the states last season but that the club actually sent him away. Maybe that’s old news and I’ve just found out but something major would surely have to have happened to spark that.

I’m pleased we didn’t go down the route of signing any old player to fill the squad and didn’t take “any” number 10 if the one we wanted wasn’t available. If we get short of centre backs and it means Milne and/or Mackenzie get a run of games then it’ll do their development no harm or, worst case, prove they’re not up to it. Far rather see our young players used as back up than stacking the squad with fillers. The same goes for Ryan Duncan, if Vinny is playing 10 then it moves Duncan up the queue for the left wing spot.

He said something like “there’s two sides to every story” but has since deleted it.

Ramirez tweeting some cryptic pish

Jack Ross is a turnip and it's better to recognise a mistake and fix it quickly rather than let it drag on. Parker is a complete chocolate who kept slagging the players and by association the people who signed them so the owner had enough and binned him.

This is where having been able to keep Consi would've been handy and it's a shame it didn't happen. A left sided centre back who can cover left back is exactly the player we're missing from the squad.

That'll be Charles Dunne incoming then...

Rules: 1. One name per points tally for the season, first come first served! 2. Only allowed to change prediction until closure of January transfer window as along as it is to an empty tally. 114 100 90 80 79 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 TLG 70 69 Madbadteacher 68 67 66 65 - manc 64 63 62 61 60 - BigAl 59 58 57 56 - Wee Toon Red 55 54 53 - Tom_Widdows 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20

GK: Lewis, Roos. Won't be signing anyone else here. RB: Richardson. Could do with one, even allowing for McCrorie as back up for RB. LB: MacKenzie, Ngwenya. Can't see us signing one with Hayes also there but would love a first pick LB to be brought in. CB: Stewart, Bates, Scales. Think we need another one here unless one of the youngsters is deemed ready. CM: Barron, Polvara, Ramadani, McCrorie. Definitely a couple needed here and apparently being pursued. Wing: Vicente, Kennedy, Hayes, Duncan, McLennan. Think we need at least one more here as well but don't know if it'll be a priority. CF: Bojan, Watkins, Harvey. Think we'll need at least one here. That's a 20 man squad as it stands - 21 if a young CB is being brought into the first team - assuming Ferguson and Ramirez go. Still work to do and you can see why Goodwin might want four more.

Or a discount in Charles dune… I see from Twitter we’re apparently going to give Gallagher a pay off to to up whatever St Mirren can offer him. Goodwin clearly agrees with the majority fan opinion on him.

BBC gossip column is reporting one of the tabloids saying Gallagher has been given permission to discuss a move to St Mirren. No mention of a fee but I presume we’d be happy to let him go to get as much of his wage off the books as possible.

Stewart from Wycombe confirmed. Two year deal.

At the expense of our own? If we had any good ones we wouldn't need to loan Scales. I totally get that in an ideal world we'd be signing players permanently and developing our own but sadly that world ended a long time ago, not just for us but for football as a whole. It's the club's job to put the best team on the park they can, both short and long term, and if a one-season loan improves the defence (short term) while allowing budget to be used to improve the team elsewhere (medium-long term) then that's a judgement only the club can make. Supporters getting their knickers in a knot about loaning players from "them" or "them" doesn't really achieve anything.

If he makes our absolutely shambolic team better for 34/35 league games then I couldn’t give a fuck whether that “development” is good for Celtic or not as we’re light years away from being on the same planet as them anyway.

Clarke's 3-5-2 has generally done well for us since the Euros but two things killed it last night: missing Tierney and a right-sided right back, and Ukraine having weeks to prepare specifically for it. The gap between the two teams narrowed significantly when we went to four at the back.

Rooney signed for Fleetwood so that’s someone we aren’t signing.

Shaun Rooney out of contract at St Johnstone. Surely worth a look?

The guy’s (twin?) brother was on the bench, he has every right to be there. As already said, if he was decked out in the Union Jack and orange away top then that would certainly be unprofessional but I don’t think there’s any evidence of that?

17 contracted players left in the first team squad going by the names on the club website. Assuming Ferguson and Ramsay go, that only leaves 15, including guys like McLennan, Campbell, Kennedy and Woods. Even allowing for one or two youths being promoted, that’s some amount of spaces to fill.

Couple of items of interest rather than excitement: 1. Good to see Considine captain and hopefully he gets subbed off early to allow a suitable ovation. 2. I hope the boy Harvey gets the second half. Was he recalled from the Scotland u17 euros squad for this? If so anything other than a decent runout would be weird.

It's the greatest day in the club's history - and is highly likely to remain so - and well within living memory for lots of people so there's absolutely no reason not to bring it up at every reasonable opportunity in my opinion.

Dunno, he maybe just got papped over to NI to get him out of the way early and there was never any intention of monitoring his progress. Can't be many 19yos in the NI league that are good enough for a regular game in Scotland's top division with a club aiming to be 3rd, and it also seems that Forest want him for their development team. If we loaned a player from the same setup I don't think anyone would have particularly high hopes.

There must be loads of folk at the club who think they know enough about Turner to have made a sound judgement. A trial at Forest off the back of a good season in Northern Ireland doesn't mean he should've got a new contract here. Now if he gets a contract at Forest off the back of it that's a different story but there could be all kinds of explanations for this rumoured trial, only one of which being that the Dons have screwed up and should have kept him.

If right back isn't the solution for him, it sounds like he could maybe be the replacement for Ferguson?

I’d still prefer to see considine in there but otherwise that’s about as good as we’re able to put together from this squad.