Slim

They’d be mental not to go for Tommy Wright. Guaranteed mid-table finishes for at least 5 years, for Dundee United that’s like having a free lifetime supply of Calor Gas.

I think we are well staffed to utilise a 352 with Hernandez and Hayes as wing backs. I assume Hayes coming means we won't be signing Leigh permanently. Lewis Taylor (or Logan may be suited to go a bit more central as he loses his pace) McKenna Considine Hernandez Ferguson Ojo Kennedy Hayes McGinn Cosgrove I don't think we can see another season of McGinn out wide, Kennedy also looks better through the middle than out wide, Hernandez doesn't look like he can be trusted to defend properly and it'll be a stretch to expect Considine to spend another season galloping up the left flank.

No, that record lasted about a week, Kairat played Bordeaux in the next round.

Gillhaus and Brewster

Shades of Calderwood's last season. Played awful football, seemed to be dropping points all over the place, but still end up in the European spot at the end.

Prince in this one:

All this talk of league re-construction on-the-fly and "all promotion, no relegation" doesn't sit well with me. Looks like a cowardly attempt at avoiding a legal battle more than anything. No point running scared, Hearts will need to sell half their first team just to pay the lawyer fees.

I think the "least worst" scenario would be to complete the pre-split games and finish it there, if no improvement in the situation by end of April, play the games behind closed doors. Avoids issues with contracts and transfer windows and at least gives everyone closure for a couple of months. I don't envy the people that need to make the decision.

If the season can't be completed, not fair to leave the league table as it stands because not all teams have played the same amount of games. Best void all results and revert the league table back to how it was before any games were played

Take the opportunity to build something mental. 4 distinct two-tier stands, bottom tier bigger than top tier, each with a roof that jacks up and down to hide the top tier if not in use. Standard configuration (14,000 seats - 4.5k along the pitch, 2.5k at each end), single tier all the way round, then can lift the roof on each individual stand as required. Maximum capacity 22,000 (top tier along the pitch 2.5k, at each end 1.5k). Recycle the parts off old decommissioned jack-up rigs, have ourselves a sustainable, dynamic stadium with a bit of character.

Bring back the auld site Jeff, ye radge!

McGeough played well, hopefully that's not just because he wanted to prove a point to Jack Ross. Kennedy excellent too, an almost Hayes-esque performance with all the defensive dirty work he was doing.

I'd be more open to keeping faith in McInnes if he showed that he had any kind of long-term plan, strategy or philosophy. Instead, we just seem to be going from transfer window to transfer window desperately trying to plug leaks, primarily with players that he's heard of rather than their ability to perform a specific role in a system. Plenty of stuff going on off the pitch, but we seem to be completely lacking direction when it comes to first team football matters.

I think we're going to see some "let's throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" tactics for this match. In that spirit, I'd have us line up in a 352: Lewis Devlin McKenna Considine Hernandez Ojo Kennedy Ferguson Campbell Anderson McLennan I get the feeling Hernandez will be better suited to the wing back role than the traditional full back role we usually go with. I'd give Kennedy a go as the attacking central midfielder because it's a position we need to fill and his crossing has been piss poor so far. I don't think Anderson is particularly suited to being the lone striker, Cosgrove needs a rest, Main needs thrown into the sea. McLennan may be useful in that position as he seems to have quite good instincts but not much of a football brain, so best put him closer to the goal when he gets the ball so he has less to think about.

What I don't understand is that if we are signing him in some kind of collaboration with Atlanta, why wouldn't they just sign him directly themselves right now? I mean, they just signed Mulraney from Hearts who is absolute toilet, so they can't be so flush with top class players that they need to see this guy making the step up from Norwegian league to Scottish league before taking a risk in signing him.

That's twice Gallagher has looked good against the Huns in a central position, but not sure he'll get as much space to exploit against other teams who are more likely to sit in with a deeper back line.

Ooooh exotic! Any ideas if he has an EU passport or if the move will be subject to work permit?

This guy: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/51181591 Highly rated in Germany, had little chance to make an impact on Huddersfield who were already a lost cause when he took over. Sure we may be accused of copying Hearts hiring a German manager with a similar background but at least this guy doesn't go about everywhere with his tongue hanging out like a fucking labrador. We need someone who will have a strategy on how he wants us to play, targeting players who have the specific attributes to play in his system. We had that at one point with McInnes but laziness seemed to kick in and now we're trying to play a system around the players he signs with the hope that something sticks.

I have no idea how much Devlin gets paid but it can't be that much if St Johnstone think he's within their budget. Unless his wages are not within their budget which means we'd still be on the hook for the difference between his current salary and what they can afford to pay him for the next 18 months. Which would be even more foolish. If he goes there on loan, he's either shite and that gives us the justification to get rid of him in the summer or he does well and he comes back and resumes his place as an asset in our squad. As it stands, I'd be surprised if he leaves at all, we still need to hedge against a possible bid for McKenna during this transfer window.

I assumed Devlin would only go there on loan, which would be a good idea. As poor as he’s been these last couple of months, swapping a Scotland international defender for a player we can get for free in a couple of months would seem a little foolish.

His wages/value have nothing to do with it. He’s on the fringes of the Chelsea first team squad and in dire need of first team football. Chelsea have seen first hand the benefits of this for their current starting 11 (Mount and Abraham) and while the English Championship would probably be their preferred destination, we have a lot of goodwill from our role in developing James Maddison and Frank Lampard has first hand feedback on how well we treated Max Lowe who is now a regular starter for Derby. It’s nowhere near comparable with signing one of the highest paid players in the world. He plays in the same Scotland U21 team as Connor McLennan.

McLennan wasn't great, but the Ghost of Gregg Wylde who came on to replace him managed to be even worse. I think we need to throw a bit more money at St Johnstone to get Kennedy in quicker. And get a proper advanced central midfielder in on loan (that Gilmour lad at Chelsea maybe?).

Scott Arfield while doing that fucking salute.

Glad I didn't bother driving through for it, saw the live coverage on Facebook and it looked dreadful.

Hopefully it is a 6 month loan deal and we don’t do something stupid like give him a 3.5 year contract. That would be the prudent thing to do for someone troubled by injury and when fit can’t keep his place in a team that has Chris Maguire as it’s primary creative outlet.