RicoS321

I guess it's easier to write off players who you see every week. The risk in signing a foreign player is that they might turn out to be crap, whereas the risk in getting rid of the two young lads is that they might turn out to be very good. I think that risk is fairly low. For me it would be the equivalent of offering Sokler a three year deal, or McGarry or someone. You get a serviceable squad replacement player, but not likely to turn into something else. It's not just that though, the best thing for young lads, and their careers, is to get regular professional game time to see if they can carve a decade of wages out of it. Both have some really good attributes that could happily see them making a career. Good luck to them.

Not surprised. Didn't think Marshall or Emslie would have been ready for first team for at least a couple of years, if ever. Probably not worth taking the risk on.

Condolences to the family of @JessianK

I would class Clarkson, Palaversa and Polvara as relative youth at 23, 25 and 25 (the latter two having long spells of injury). In the last six months, Clarkson has finally reached the stage where he can do the miles, and for ninety minutes. Age isn't the issue at all though. I'm suggesting that it's unlikely that an 18 year old will have developed physically to the extent that they can cover the 10-13km in the top flight that were looking for. Not once or twice, but every week. That's what Ferguson is now doing in Italy, but wasn't with us, as an example. It's telling that he's described as a holding midfielder, and that's absolutely fine, and an area in which he can get minutes probably. It just means that we still need another midfielder in the door for the first eleven, which is a box to box midfielder. That's also fine, I know that we're not going to get all our signings in order of priority.

Like the sound of the lad. However, we do need to be looking at someone who can run up and down all day, and it's very unlikely to be an 18 year old.

No

Why's that?

He was better than Nisbet in the semi. Probably the best player on the park that day. I think he's looking for a payday somewhere. I'm guessing that the Huns are in a similar situation to us, and might try and pick him up for a relatively average wage for them.

Does he agree that hearts are the league's third biggest dicks?

Not surprised. I didn't think Emslie looked anywhere near to getting in our first team. Neither Bavidge or Marshall. Lobban stood out, but in a position we're well covered in. Boyd will likely go on loan this season too. It's difficult to see a good development pathway for our youngsters, and it doesn't seem like the club has figured it out yet. That's not a criticism either, we're in that middle ground as a club, where there's huge pressure to finish third, and we're not good enough as a team to carry young players. Any player who might be good enough to get straight in at a young age (17-19), will have probably moved down south already. Players that need the bit of extra development either go on loan or spend a year on our bench. That gap between u19s and first team is big, and so is the gap between the lower leagues and the SPFL. We basically need to hope that all our youngsters grew up in the area and are massive dandies, like Milne and Barron, in order for us to get them to sign deals and do the time required to develop. Maybe once the automatic euro league pish goes away, we'll have less pressure and we can begin to try something. It needs to be done in visible quotas, with the fans brought onside if we're to do it properly (just like everyone was primed in advance of Thelin's "project"). Targets of X minutes of youth player involvement per season, with players ineligible for inclusion in that total beyond their first full season. That'd force the hand of the manager, and also temper the recruitment in certain areas where we thought a youngster showed promise (for example, if we'd felt that Lobban was going to be good, we might not have signed Jensen, or whatever).

I think they've received a big cash injection from the lads at Reform UK.

Where are their gloves?

I don't think locksmiths deal with online banking, it's mainly if you're locked out of a physical door.

That's a lot of crack being smoked at boardroom level

American Golf discount shop?