Bobby Peru

min, the link's duff. any more info?

defensive collapses cost us on saturday rather than soutar doing much wrong, although i think he went down too early for hibs' first goal. so far, though, i'd say he gives the defence a little more confidence than the bombscare jamie langfield. his distribution is certainly far better. i've so far resisted the comments about the loss of russell anderson costing us points, but it's becoming apparent that we need a calming influence in there. we really did go all to pot once zander went off on saturday.

do we actually have any evidence that this is the loon jc is looking at, or are we just assuming it's the case because he was at this one game? anyone else in the frame for a big-money move to the home of football - todders?

is that him? loves playing football without training? and tipping cows? just the man we need, then.

min, i've been shouting for a new keeper for over a year, so i suspect that's nae going to happen. i'm not that bothered about us signing a big lump of a striker, but i do think we need someone. it's a damning indictment of the ability and application of our two supposed star forwards lovell and miller that they can't get into the team ahead of a 40 year old (albeit, far more talented) man. if they're not cutting it (and neither is maguire - yet) then we'll be significantly weakened if, as looks likely, brew goes. anyone know anything about this dungannon chap the jimmies were supposedly looking at? is he the new ritchie byrne?

...do you think there's ANY chance we'll get someone else in sharpish to replace him? clearly, time is at something of a premium. do you think jc has a back-up plan if we lose our form striker to Caley? i'd hope so. but i'm guessing he and wm have kinda taken their eye off the market after conducting all our business at the start of the summer. if there's a hope we could get someone else, who would you like? realistically, of course.

that's true to a certain extent, but financial constraints haven't stopped falkirk (who i suspect have even fewer farthings rattling around the biscuit tin than we do) luring quality keepers like kasper schmeichel and tim krull north. these may well be loans, but they're better than we've got. and i'd take a year of someone good than an indefinite stretch of donkeys between the sticks.

have to say, he's done nothing wrong yet. which is a better record than clangers had by the same stage last season, so i'd say we're actually ahead of the game. hopefully he'll get better the more games he gets. proof will be in the pudding this weekend - suspect he'll have a little more to do....

based on the weekend's form, you'd have to say mackie and brewster. there's still far too much blind faith placed in steve lovell, when he's done the square root of fcuk all this season to justify it.

you need to decide what you want here, chief. jackie mac clearly tries to play a bit of fitba, hence the passing the ball about in midfield. if you want a degree more urgency, you get this lumping the ball up the park to the strikers business, which hasn't worked in the last two games (and is horrible to watch anyway). me, i'd take jackie's more thoughtful reading of the game any day of the week, even if it doesn't produce immediate fireworks. regarding the negativity of the game after we scored, i'm not sure this is all jc's fault. he's not going to try to sit on a one-nil lead for 75 minutes, irrespective of how deserved that lead was. i get the feeling the players aren't exactly doing what he's asking them. and the fact that we had three strikers on the bench says quite a lot about jc's attitude to attack. he's not exactly gung ho these days, a fact we should all be thankful for. we'll get better. sellic will get turned over on wednesday and will be knackered by the time we take 'em to the cleaners on sunday. you mark my words.

not that concerned yet. having watched sellic the past two games, they're hardly strolling games either (scoring four against falkirk notwithstanding - even the most blinkered idiotic sellic fans will admit they were outplayed for about an hour on saturday). we ALWAYS start seasons slowly. it's nothing to be proud of, and is hardly an excuse, but it's a fact. takes weeks for us to start playing decent stuff. we'll take something against sellic, we'll draw with hibs and will beat killie. THEN we'll start playing and europe is assured again. no foolin'.

anyone hear mark mcghee talking about the standard of fitba in the spl before the game on setanta yesterday? good to hear - he admitted he was surprised by how good the football was up here and how the general perception in england is that spl teams would struggle to survive even in league one (old second division) down south. he reckoned even the crap spl teams that motherwell have played (caley and st mirren) would be mid-table championship and that the better spl teams would be top half and challenging to get into the premiership. clearly, he said all this before yesterday's rather lacklustre encounter between two of the spl's supposed better teams, but it's good to hear someone like that, who's experienced fitba down south over many years, talk up our game up here. just a shame we don't get the dosh these teams in the championship get...

aye, it was crap. but we're overplaying this tactical thing. granted, mair's no left back and there's no doubt we miss severin in midfield. but other than that, it was pretty much a standard 4-4-2, which is what everyone has been shouting for. for what it's worth, i thought smith had an excellent first half before doing nowt in the second - much more like it from the wee fella. diamond went a long way towards repairing his reputation and jackie mac was by some stretch the best player on the park. however - clark remains a one-trick pony (how much of a joy must he be to play against?) and lovell was truly terrible. if anyone here was one of the plonkers booing when he was substituted, you need to take a right good look at yourselves - he was dreadful. mackie still doesn't look up to speed, but at least he looked willing. could've stood brewster's quality about 10 minutes earlier (maguire didn't add a terrific amount when he came on - brew would've been a much better option at the time). still, going by the first hour of the sellic game against the bairns, not much to fear. calm doon chaps.

yes. sammy davis jnr would be better than clangers.

you got forty grand a week burning a hole in yer pocket min?

i've got nae idea why he'd be anywhere near the team at all, to be honest. considering we've got diamond, considine, mair, touzani and jackie mac who can all play there (and that's nae even counting severin), byrne shouldn't even be anywhere near the bench, never mind given a starting slot. i shuddered when i read that jc's comments the day too.

watched about an hour of this. ando played the whole game (i think) and looked okay, but then it's not as if cork put him (or the entire defence) under a great deal of pressure. i did notice him being out of position a couple of times. however, it strikes me that he's probably used to playing with better players (i'm being serious). sunderland were pretty chronic.

yep, according to the Record, we've taken former West Brom keeper John Bateman on trial. delighted we're at least looking for another keeper, but has anyone heard about this fella? ony use?

gotcha. well, to be honest, i suspect clangfield's move to the huns was never going to happen once they signed smith fae killie. i'm sure there'll be plenty of other clubs who'll take clangers off our hands (lord knows why, like) - what about some o these championship jokers like cardiff and norwich that were mentioned before?

i don't really follow, min. are suggesting that roy carroll was the only goalkeeper in european football that was available for transfer this summer? as far as i'm aware, carroll was never even an option for afc, so i don't see why his signing for the currant buns makes any difference to our goalkeeping situation. if jc really is sticking to his word and is bombing out clangfield, we'll simply HAVE to get another keeper in. we can't go the whole season with just one viable number one choice (look at hibs last year - they went through three and even then didn't have enough o them). instead of dodgy amateur strikers, surely caldo jr could dig us up a half decent stopper in holland or somewhere?

another striker isn't exactly where our priorities should be. why aren't we concentrating on sorting out the shambles between the sticks?

calm down, dears. it's just a poxy rumour on a barely-moderated mongboard. there's no substance to this. jc has said it's inevitable other teams will start looking at our players after a reasonably successful season. it's only the fact we've been rubbish for years that has meant there's been precious little speculation in seasons gone by. and i'll restate a point i made on the ando thread - we've got tons of defenders at the mo. jackie mac's a better right back than hart anyway. that last point about tying people up on five year contracts is fairly laughable too. what happens if they get injured / turn to sh1te after three months? has it really come to this that we're advocating a return to the jim mclean school of management?

well, a million quid is a million quid. don't think our problems lie in defence - jackie mac and lee mair have been signed, zander looks like he's on the way back and a fit touzani is like scoring a new player. we need to spend some dosh to source a new goalkeeper tho. we'll do nothing next season with that puddin' langfield or soapy between the sticks.

my suspicion all along in this saga has been that ando wants to stay - but the club is skinto. if it means landing 1 million or 1.5 million, that becomes the most we've received for a player, well, ever, i think. and goes a long way to balancing the books. bottom line is, if the club wanted to keep him, he'd stay.

i'd suggest it's nonsense. the boy certainly doesn't want to leave. if he does go, it's because the club are desperate for cash, which is a very poor reason indeed.