RicoS321

Zola, Parker, Monakana I think the point is that a foreigner usually means a player signed from a foreign club - so Mulumbu would be well within our existing signing policy.

It pays for the dons. It may not if you're St Johnstone or someone who's crowds might not mitigate travel costs. It was the difference in us finishing second every year and not as we were able to outspend everyone else in wages. It will be the difference between us and the huns finishing second for the foreseeable future (they'll get €3.26M if they reach the group stages in prize money alone). From UEFA for 2018:

Absolutely. I'm just giving my early opinions on both based on our previous style of play, likely style this season and what is required of SPL players. I'm not one to get on folks' backs and will admit I'm wrong when/if things start to change. I think it's good to put your neck on the line early doors and take the flak when you're shown to be completely wrong (Taylor wasn't as bad as I first accused him for example, Tansey, Storey, Maynard all proved me right). I'd say I'm right more often than not based on early predictions. I'm going on Gleeson's visible attributes to date, and I don't see how they fit into an SPL team at our level playing the way we are likely to. I see a place for Forrester in attacking midfield if he can get up to speed. I agree with LA Don in that we'll see more of the two up front being used this season perhaps May and Wilson), but I don't see that Gleeson will manage that 1 of a 2 in the SPL midfield - I think we'll get overrun. If we're going back 3, I think that Forrester, Shinnie and Ferguson would be far more complimentary of one another. If we're going 4-1-4-1 then it's Ball all day long. I think Gleeson will be a sub after a period of starts. What I'm trying to say is, I fucking hate Gleeson.

I think that not having had much game time is more of a worry. He's had the entire pre-season like anyone else. The reason he's not had much game time is that he's seen as being either not good enough, or we didn't require him for a particular game. I could understand us not needing him in the Burnley games, and perhaps even the hun game and I suppose we were trying out a front 2 to, logically, his detriment at the weekend so maybe there's some strength in that argument. My first impressions were that he was a lightweight fanny who didn't track back enough to make him worthwhile - a shite Ryan Christie. As for Gleeson, I'm not even sure what he's supposed to do? He can't perform the sitting role that Ball/Hoban did effectively against Burnley and in the "bigger" games. He doesn't have the passing range and coverage of Ferguson to provide even part of the McLean role. He doesn't have the engine and drive of Shinnie. He doesn't seem to be a number 10. He seems to have a serious case of chrisclarkitis or, at best, robmilsomsyndrome. Again, he got a decent (if slightly hampered with injury) pre-season, so I don't know what we're waiting for. He needs to get his finger out his hoop, because it's the basics of "running about" that he's not doing.

Aye, the only problem is that he has a nose bleed crossing the half way line. He's turned into an excellent midfielder again (he was playing well in the last 6 months with us), but he forgot how to take the ball forward in the process. He has the ability, but he'd need to re-learn it. Playing alongside guys like Flood meant that he had to curtail his movement for the betterment of the team. With the hun being able to splash out on 853 midfielders, I expect he'll have the opportunity to be more box-to-box than previously. It remains to be seen whether he can do that, he's always struggled with shooting. It's the same with his long range passing and his crossing, he canna kick the ball hard enough or whip it round. I think that prevents him from being an all round decent right back, and I expect Scotland will play a back 3 where he wouldn't fit in (he'd be shite as a wing back).

I think that there is good argument to say that Ryan Jack deserves a call up. McGregor obviously. I'm not sure who else could play? McRorie? Murphy? I think the argument is moot as they're riddled with foreigners.

Yep, I'm not convinced that "getting his players to work for him" is the best term either. Rather that he gets his players to remain loyal to him. And not in a Jimmy C "best mates" way either, there seems to be a distinct professionalism about the relationships within the club. Again we see another transfer go smoothly without gossip or leak. In terms of his management - in an administrative and directorial capacity - I think we've not seen anything as good since Ferguson. There is a very obvious loyalty and a strong discipline that can only come from respect for the man; I think it'd be very difficult to argue otherwise. However, he's missing the ability to turn that into big game motivation and being held back by his own fear of losing/lack of risk taking. I think that would need an entirely different person. There is a strong team mentality, but with that we seem to be losing individual thought and creativity (although GMS seems to have been given licence to try shit this season and so far that is paying off). This has led to hard-work and safe-play being given precedent over taking chances. It's a balance that McInnes has never managed to get right and it only really becomes obvious in the big games. It's clearly quite a delicate balance though as we see the gung-ho Lennon fuck it up again at the weekend against a team we would undoubtedly have beaten whilst at full strength. Our victory with a weakened team against Dundee is testament to McInnes' approach, but so is our draw against ten men the week before. His approach got us second in the league that nearly every other manager in the division would have struggled to match, but his reliance on loyalty lost us a semi final against Motherwell that several other managers would have got us through on the day. However this guy turns out, it'll be hard work for the team first, individual performance second. If he can't do the former then we'll never see the latter. For the former to work we need to see how he'll fit into our style and how he'll link up. We'll also have to address the massive issues in our central midfield or else he'll be hit with punts all day long. Until we sort out the midfield, I don't think we'll see anything from him and he'll be part of another 65th minute substitution but with May - unfortunately - replacing Anderson as the go-to (the most obvious area in which McInnes - and a lot of other managers - lacks).

I remember Kpedekpo deein audit for KPMG in the early century. He was a decent laugh. Gave up fitba entirely, didn't even play juniors or such like to keep his heed in. Played against him at fives from memory. Doesn't really count as someone who gave up playing early, more that he didn't make it. Gary MacDonald stopped playing in 2008 aged 26 after a spell at Oldham. Don't know if it was injury or whatever, but he just disappeared.

It's a very good point. At some point - and I'd have thought it is around the time you're considering spanking £300K on Eoin Doyle - you have to take stock and decide whether you're just signing a player because you absolutely need to rather than if they're any good or not. Hopefully more become available in January.

Not sure about this one. Specifically the loan element. We've done this quite a few times over the years and many times it hasn't worked. I suspect this is happening due to the various other targets not being available for whatever reason, so it's understandable. This is a massive position for us, and this guy needs to be good - and consistently good. Even players like Maddison dipped in form for us in the time that they were here and still had a lot to learn about the game. At 22, he should be reasonably well up to speed with the professional game though, so it's not completely like we're fattening up someone else's product at the expense of our own. A little bit more experience than Cosgrove and Anderson. Hopefully he'll do the business, although only 2 appearances since January is a little bit worrying for such an important signing. I think that we still need another midfielder. I'd hold off on getting a defender in and take the risk that we can cope until Hoban and McKenna are back. I think that with Logan only being out for another game will hopefully be something that we can cope with. No sense in wasting our time getting someone for a couple of appearances. Although if a good left back comes out of nowhere then maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing.

I think that they will have paid the loan back already. I expect that the Europa league will be closer to £10M in revenue given the size of Ibrox and dependent on the draw of course. I think it'll see them through to the end of the season. Either way, it saves them facing a huge problem quickly.

Not really. They had loans to last until season end. They make a huge chunk of money off season tickets (£10-15M). Historically they've spent that up front and then gone hunting for expensive loans come January. This season they've speculated enough to get them Europa League (you would assume) and so they'll be - for the first time - on a very good footing for the remainder of the season and into next. Over the next few years they'll have traded themselves into a position by which they can qualify for the Europa league every year without too much difficulty (very difficult draw aside).

Ha ha, I assume it's just a joke. It was certainly the most ridiculous person I could think of. Although when you wrote "phuq" spelled like that, I thought it reminded me of "plug" so it was subliminal. For what it's worth, I think he'd be the worst possible signing anyone could have ever thought of.

Is it just me that's concerned that we're going into the season with Ball as a starter every week in midfield (perhaps Hoban will replace him I suppose)? He's been okay in midfield (especially in the Burnley games) but he is lacking in the "comfortable on the ball" department. Gauld would be a good replacement for Christie, but I don't see him replacing the need for Ball in midfield. Edit: Is it Diamond? That'd be interesting....

I don't think it is view fortunately. I think his view is that it "can" take a player from another league setup longer to settle and that there are more similarities between our game and the english game that makes this less of a roulette. He'd have no problem with signing a foreigner who has been in the British leagues for example. I think that he'd be more likely to take a loanee from a foreign league if offered (like Hibs did with Kamberi) than make a full time signing due to the risk involved. It's all about risk, obviously. The important thing to note is that we'd be talking individuals that are offered to us on recommendation rather than us taking up scouting in country. As no-one as managed to come up with an example of a Scottish team that has/had a succesful scouting network outside of the UK, regularly returning players, then we have to assume that this is the correct approach. In terms of Snoyle, we're ignoring the silent evidence here. Snoyle came to us as a result of a tip off. As we drifted into what can be described as a more permanent Dutch network (jimmy's brither) we uncovered Touzani (decent), Daal, De Visscher, Bus as well as various other trialists. Apart from the fact that Snoyle was blatantly average (and for some reason gets held in high regard), he was also an anomoly in our largely unsuccesful foray into the Dutch market where we found that targets were basically amateurs. There's nothing one-dimensional to McInnes' approach, it's rational and fact-based. He has never ruled out foreigners, its just that the main target of our scouting network is the one where we have the most succesful return throughout the history of our football club outwith Scotland. Anyone outwith that scouting network, logically, will be based on a recommendation or a punt with little to lose (Uchechi, Chalali). There is probably an argument to say that we could go a little more international with our punts, but I think that the better approach would be not to bother at all.

Maribor and Apollon were our two chances to get to the group stages and we fucked it (or at least the ref did vs Maribor). I don't think folk realise just how much of a disaster it will be for the dons and the rest of Scottish fitba if the hun qualify for the group stages (which they will). That's a massive pot that will open a gap. We're heading directly towards the 2000-14 years again of helicopter Sundays and sideshows.

Good interview though. I hadn't realised that Clancy (I think it was Clancy) won't be reffing this weekend. I came away from the game thinking that the ref did well, got most decisions correct and kept up with play etc. Stubbs gets everything spot on in that interview, especially where he asks for some clarification. The lack of transparency is shocking. As a famous man once said: "who are these people?"

I thought MacLaren looked pap against us, and Kamberi was decent. Aussie caps are not widely relevant in my books. I call it the Zdrilic effect. We have £1M of DNA scam money to spend. We're about even in that regard. Although you're right about midfielders being more widely available. I think we'll struggle to get a striker better than Kamberi for £500K.

Okay, so Kamberi for Devlin then. Both equally as important and equally as likely to have an impact. Ferguson cancels out Mallan and Ball cancels out MacLaren (both average returning players). So we're left with: Bogdan, Hyndman an Agyepong versus Hoban, Gleeson, Forrester and Cerny. I've no idea who's best from that bunch (although Bogdan clearly strengthens them whereas Cerny was only ever a backup). I'd say it's about even and I expect neither team is finished. They desperately need a centre mid and we desperately need a striker. It'll certainly be an interesting match up when we face them. I also see your point to an extent because they've signed a striker and a decent forward player whereas we've not managed to land a striker. We should at least give McInnes until the end of the window before being too harsh though. A hell of a lot riding on our striker signing I'd say, and I expect McInnes is well aware of that.

Who have they actually signed that wasn't already there? Mallan*? Has Mallan had more of an impact than Ferguson? Devlin**? Arguable. What about the rest of their signings? We've had two successful signings, one who looks an upgrade on O'Connor (Hoban) and two questionable in Gleeson and Forrester. Above 50% is decent for us I'd say. *I think Mallan is a good player who I'd be surprised if we weren't in for. That said, he probably wasn't in a priority area for us and not an area where we'd have wanted to spend a large part of our budget which we seem to be saving for the elusive striker. **I'm including Devlin as one of this seasons signings as it was clear he was going to be out for last season.

The risks are that we lose the game, or the youngster isn't ready and it effects his confidence for a while if he has a poor game. We need to go with our best available team as we really need to win to get off to the best start this season. We can't afford to lose a single game against a bottom 6 team if we are to finish second. Being "early in the season" makes no difference when losing three points. The problem is that we're not nearly at full strength. I like youngsters getting an opportunity, but that opportuntity - for me - should happen when we're playing confidently with our best team to give the youngster the best possible support and the best possible chance of success. Wright coming on for McGinn or GMS in far more games would be an obvious one. I think that our half arsed midfield from Sunday - worse so if Shinnie is at left back - would offer zero support for Anderson and I'm not sure that'd be beneficial to him in anyway. There were so many players (in midfield) in that team on Sunday who were still finding their own feet, it'd be harsh to bring a youngster into that. That said, I think that if we get a decent left back in before the weekend there would be good reason to play them both. Playing Harrington would allow Ball into midfield and thus Shinnie and Ferguson a lot more freedom to get up and down the park and support the striker(s). If we have Ball at right back and Gleeson in midfield then I think we should forget Anderson too. Gleeson is very much still finding his feet and he clearly doesn't have the coverage to allow others in midfield to support the striker without leaving gaping holes (very evident on Sunday and against Burnley). In that regard, we'd probably be better with Cosgrove to allow the game to be played higher up the park. If we don't get a left back in and Shinnie has to play there, then we might as well not bother with a midfield and play Cosgrove, May and Anderson.

He's 31. Played for Man City, Sunderland and QPR and is the current co-uk-record-holder for triple jump at under 15 level. He's out of contract, so is probably akin to Swansea stalwart Alan Tate.

Hemmin, nae cunt in the world kens fa the fuck Nedum Onouah is, and nor should they. Nor would they know whether or not his wage demands would be out of our bracket because naebody has heard of him. But don't worry, I'll look up the internet and let everyone ken that he plays for QPR, who are in the Championship. He's a centre half, that can play left or right back. Fuckin basic forum ettiquette. Cunts.

Why would it be grainy?

Surely it's about grassroots and kids and such like? In which case, plugging it to 40 year olds on Facebook is probably nae the best route.