Well, figure it’s close enough to start the thread and may get some more enthusiasm than the current season. So what do we need?

manager - Alex Neill

formation - 4-2-3-1/4-3-3

I’m going with the belief that we currently have 7 starters - Devlin, ruby (or gartenmann), Jensen, Mackenzie, shinnie, clarkson or McGrath, and sokler. 4 legit starter signings needed, plus more. I’d argue McGrath has been better than clarkson this year, but I dont think both together are our midfield solution.

goalkeeper - NEEDED to replace Roos, doohan is back up

right back - devlin, Richardson, SiGN gartenmann

left back - think Mackenzie deserves to be our left back, one of our few successes this year, mcgarry as back up, jenson cover too as gartenmann does right back.

central defense - ruby, gartenmann, Jensen, Macdonald - think that’s good enough, just need a legit and consistent keeper and midfield to protect and support them

Right mid - TWO needed, starter and back up, vinnie as back up? sell morris

left mid - ONE needed, possibly hoilett and mcgarry as back up, vinnie?? Don’t think Duncan is good enough, squad filler.

center mid - sign TWO. ONE starter needed, plus assuming Barron leaves. Free agent Baccus? Shinnie clarkson or McGrath,  and one other, mcgrath/clarkson and polvara as back up, sign another ONE physical/athletic worker so that shinnie and new signing aren’t run into the ground.

Forward - assuming Miovski and duk are sold, I want sokler given a chance. SIGN one to compete with him to start, bavidge the third option and given minutes. Sell GUEYE.

I’m assuming miovski, duk, morris, gueye, and Barron are gone, and we sign gartenmann and hoilett. Hayes retires. Mcgarry gets a summer to get fit and prove what he can do next year, been unfortunate to date. A bench from Richardson, mcgarry, Duncan, clarkson/mcgrath, hoilett, bavidge, doohan, Milne, polvara, vinnie, plus a new back up right mid and an enforcing center mid.

Obviously Mikey Johnson is one of our new signings.

Edited February 18, 20242 yr by OrlandoDon

Think today showed we are 3 players short in the squad.

keepers are sorted.

Thought Milne looked decent when he came on today that he (and Richardson?) hopefully push devlin. Mackenzie is our left back, Mcgarry backs him up, plus Jensen.

central defense its two from ruby, malloy, McDonald, and jensen.

center mid I love having two grafters, shinnie and Nilson could be a good pair. But with age, physicality, bookings/suspensions, plus sheer volume of games, I’d want one more here. Allan campbell please. Polvara is injured and while he found form, I’m still not convinced he’s an spl player. I’m also not sure what type of player he is? He’s not graft, he’s not flair, he’s not an enforcer???

We need a right mid, Morris can back him up. we need a legit left mid to compete with McGrath. I still see McGrath as a 10 and not wide. Duncan can play wide too, sell Vinny.

10 is free roaming clarkson, McGrath in there as back up too, plus Boyd.

up top it’s sokler, Ambrose, and bavidge. Sell miovski and duk.

 

 

I am not as convinced about the squad strength. I think Devlin is a bottom 6 type player would rather we brought in a better right back and moved Devlin to the back up role. Richardson needs  moved on as not the required standard. McKenzie is fine at left back and happy with Jensen as back up but McGarry needs moved on as not good enough. Agree we are fine at centre back as looks like we will be playing a 4. Agree with comments on Shinnie and Nilsen. Would be great to play them week in week out but asking players their age to play every ga d is a stretch so would like to see one more defensive mid coming in although Jack Milne did play that type of role when on loan at Kelty. If we do sign someone might be a loan player as they won’t be playing every week. Wide positions still worry me. Saw nothing today to suggest Morris is good enough to play in SPL Think we need to get in at least one if not two wide right players and move Morris on. Besuijen probably needs moved on as well. Don’t think McGrath is as effective wide as he is in the middle behind the striker.  Think we need a starting wide left player as well. Think Sokler will be fine replacement for Bojan if/when he is sold but not convinced that any of others would be good enough to step in if Sokler got injured. 

Zirkzee to Man Utd from Bologna is now a done deal for £36.5m

Sure that Bologna are due Bayern a fairly chunky sell on fee, but are still a fair few quid up on the deal.

Is this the week, they make their move for Bojan ?

I think we'll sign another centre half and Angus MacDonald will leave.

I like MacDonald, but don't think he's quick enough for the way Thelin wants to play.

Anything north of £10M I'd take it. In normal circumstances we would miss a player of Bojan's quality. But seriously I think we have his equivalent in Sokler. Sell Duk for £1 and a packet of sweets, I couldn't care less with his attitude 

2 hours ago, Reekie_Red said:

In normal circumstances we would miss a player of Bojan's quality. But seriously I think we have his equivalent in Sokler.

That's mental. Sokler is nowhere near the player Miovski is. He's basically a slight improvement on Darren Mackie. He's got good movement, is fast and not afraid to put himself into a header, but his first touch is poor and doesn't offer much in the way of link up play. Mackie was a serviceable SPFL player, Sokler is probably slightly above that because he has a better eye for goal (I think). He's not Miovski though. That said, he may turn out to be good enough for what we need him to do, it'll be interesting. I have a feeling we might be chopping and changing between him and Ambrose until we settle on one. 

48 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

That's mental. Sokler is nowhere near the player Miovski is. He's basically a slight improvement on Darren Mackie. He's got good movement, is fast and not afraid to put himself into a header, but his first touch is poor and doesn't offer much in the way of link up play. Mackie was a serviceable SPFL player, Sokler is probably slightly above that because he has a better eye for goal (I think). He's not Miovski though. That said, he may turn out to be good enough for what we need him to do, it'll be interesting. I have a feeling we might be chopping and changing between him and Ambrose until we settle on one. 

Not saying he’s miovski level, but maybe he is, there’s a player there and time will tell. Touch, pace, movement, good in the air, and a goal scorer. Miovski is class but ester has a lot to offer. We saw glimpses last year but due to miovski’s form we rarely saw him, and rightly so. Plus , when he did get his chances, it was limited minutes mostly on a pish team.
To compare to Darren Jackie is mental. I’d compare shayden Morris to mackie. Sokler has good skill, while perhaps not at the shinnie goal yesterday, but you look at his second midweek for example, lovely touch and finesse finish. After seeing Ambrose yesterday I think sokler leads the line this season and I’m good with that.

Edited July 14, 20242 yr by OrlandoDon

9 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

Not saying he’s miovski level, but maybe he is, there’s a player there and time will tell. Touch, pace, movement, good in the air, and a goal scorer. Miovski is class but ester has a lot to offer. We saw glimpses last year but due to miovski’s form we rarely saw him, and rightly so. Plus , when he did get his chances, it was limited minutes mostly on a pish team.
To compare to Darren Jackie is mental. I’d compare shayden Morris to mackie. Sokler has good skill, while perhaps not at the shinnie goal yesterday, but you look at his second midweek for example, lovely touch and finesse finish. After seeing Ambrose yesterday I think sokler leads the line this season and I’m good with that.

Morris is a fanny. For all his downsides, Mackie wasn't afraid of a tackle or an aerial challenge. When played through the middle, Mackie was a very serviceable player, he wasn't as bad as many make out, so I'm not comparing Sokler to him by way of criticism. What Sokler does best is movement for himself and for others, something that Mackie did well too (he was never really credited for the runs he'd make to make space for others - perhaps cause he didn't want the ball! - which showed a decent understanding of the role). He understands what to do as a striker, which is a useful asset. Duk, for example, doesn't have this, and many others too who play for themselves first rather than team first. The problem that Sokler has is that his first touch under pressure isn't generally great, and his link up play isn't there. Those are difficult to teach, and are certainly limiting factors. It's why Sokler played better alongside Miovski, and will probably always be better in a two rather than a lone striker. Like Mackie, he's not great with his back to goal (other than flicking it on), it's not his comfortable area. He likes to be on the run, on the shoulder of the defender, or pressing, with the ball always in front of him. Whilst he may or may not be better than Mackie (I'd say very likely), the point is that he's that type of player, with similar attributes. The second goal was indeed excellent movement, and it's an area in which he instinctively knows what to do. If we can get players in and around him this season to crete those opportunities, then he'll score plenty. I think that a large proportion of our passes into him (high or low) will return in short order though, and so we'll have to adapt as a team to accomodate that.

I second the Darren Mackie was alright statement.

Eugene Dadi is viewed as a cult hero. Mackie was better than him. 

 

58 minutes ago, Panda said:

I second the Darren Mackie was alright statement.

Eugene Dadi is viewed as a cult hero. Mackie was better than him. 

 

I’m not saying Darren mackie was shite, but I’d say he’s more shayden morris than ester sokler. In my lifetime as a dons fan we’ve had some pretty excellent forwards, then we’ve had Leon mike. I’d say mackie’s one of the weaker ones, whereas I’m more optimistic about sokler. Mackie played a stunning 300 plus games for us so he couldn’t have been awful, but he played at a time in which we had poor players and poor teams, and us dons fans regularly suffered, finishing seasons 7th, 8th, 9th twice, 10th, and 11th.

different topic. We all know where duk is, what’s the deal with habib pape gueye? Think he’s still on loan, wouldn’t we have had him back for preseason if we thought he was in our plans??

Gueye loan to Norwegian team was always due to run until the end of July 😉

16 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

I’m not saying Darren mackie was shite, but I’d say he’s more shayden morris than ester sokler.

If you're comparing him to Morris, you're labelling him shite.

Apologise.

16 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

In my lifetime as a dons fan we’ve had some pretty excellent forwards, then we’ve had Leon mike. I’d say mackie’s one of the weaker ones, whereas I’m more optimistic about sokler. Mackie played a stunning 300 plus games for us so he couldn’t have been awful, but he played at a time in which we had poor players and poor teams, and us dons fans regularly suffered, finishing seasons 7th, 8th, 9th twice, 10th, and 11th.

We had Miovski last season and finished 7th.

 

On Sokler, the jury is still out. Clearly seems to be good in the air, but my recollection of him was his general finishing was poor. Hopefully working under Miovski's tutelage has improved him and we'll see more of him this season.

41 minutes ago, Panda said:

We had Miovski last season and finished 7th.

We had Nicky Maynard and finished 2nd.  Life is a mystery sometimes.

Edited July 16, 20242 yr by OxfordDon

18 hours ago, Panda said:

I second the Darren Mackie was alright statement.

Eugene Dadi is viewed as a cult hero. Mackie was better than him. 

 

Being a  great player isn't required to be a club cult hero, just an affinity with the support 🤔

I'll give you Dean Windass as an example.

55 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Being a  great player isn't required to be a club cult hero, just an affinity with the support 🤔

I agree with that. But never got where the hype for Dadi came from besides a funny song. And yet poor Mackie years after he has earned a quiet retirement is being compared to genuine pish like Morris.

And since we're talking about Mackie, let's again enjoy the wild scenes that greeted his arrival in America.

 

11 minutes ago, Panda said:

I agree with that. But never got where the hype for Dadi came from besides a funny song. And yet poor Mackie years after he has earned a quiet retirement is being compared to genuine pish like Morris.

And since we're talking about Mackie, let's again enjoy the wild scenes that greeted his arrival in America.

 

In fairness Panda, totally get the points you're making.

Well articulated 👍

3 hours ago, Panda said:

If you're comparing him to Morris, you're labelling him shite

Agreed. Thing is, he's nothing like Morris as a player, but he shares a lot of the same attributes as Sokler. Basically, he's neither as shite as Morris, nor does he play anything like him. There's some fairly major differences in terms of looks too. 

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

Agreed. Thing is, he's nothing like Morris as a player, but he shares a lot of the same attributes as Sokler. Basically, he's neither as shite as Morris, nor does he play anything like him. There's some fairly major differences in terms of looks too. 

Heavily reliant on pace but limited in all other areas. Pace is such a huge advantage but they don’t have other qualities to truly take advantage. I think that’s a fair comparison/comment. 

32 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Heavily reliant on pace but limited in all other areas. Pace is such a huge advantage but they don’t have other qualities to truly take advantage. I think that’s a fair comparison/comment. 

Nah, very unfair. Mackie had far more than pace. He worked hard, harassed defenders, worked the channels, won headers, made space for others. Very much like, say, Sokler! His limitation was his touch and general technical ability - he just wasn't that great at football. Morris has none of those things, he's got a decent touch and can take a player on, he just has absolutely no heart and no belief. He doesn't back himself. He doesn't drive at players, he plays it past them, hesitates, then runs. He's just a bit of a coward. That could never be said about Mackie. 

15 hours ago, BigAl said:

Being a  great player isn't required to be a club cult hero, just an affinity with the support 🤔

I'll give you Dean Windass as an example.

Deano was brilliant. Knew where the back of the net was, and there was a period where he and Shearer were our supersubs who were almost guaranteed to roll on and score with minutes left. 

Dadi however lived off the back of one showboat against Bobo Balde. Quite rightly got ripped a new one by the Red Army when he played for Livi. 

Tom Ritchie on season long loan to Bonnyrigg Rose and played last night in their penalty shoot out at Annan.

Pretty impressive debut by the sounds of it, apparently he saved three penalties.

Could have done with him on the bench to be subbed on against the Victims in the Scottish Cup semi.

Beat me to it Al. 
 

His contract is up in the summer so assume he will be away next year.

7 hours ago, Reekie_Red said:

Deano was brilliant. Knew where the back of the net was, and there was a period where he and Shearer were our supersubs who were almost guaranteed to roll on and score with minutes left. 

Dadi however lived off the back of one showboat against Bobo Balde. Quite rightly got ripped a new one by the Red Army when he played for Livi. 

He also led the centipede after the sna ba game... 

6 hours ago, BigAl said:

Tom Ritchie on season long loan to Bonnyrigg Rose and played last night in their penalty shoot out at Annan.

Pretty impressive debut by the sounds of it, apparently he saved three penalties.

Could have done with him on the bench to be subbed on against the Victims in the Scottish Cup semi.

Robbie Winters would have been a better option than Roos in the penalty shoot-out.

Edited July 17, 20242 yr by dons8321

https://www.calcioline.com/news/330595995142/calciomercato-genoa-miovski-subito-per-l-attacco

 

Genoa linked with Bojan.

Figure quoted of £6.7m,

Can't speak for the accuracy of this article