January 2026 Transfer Window

[tom_widdows]

5 hours ago, swaddon said:

Players in the auld days used to do a 16 hour shift down the pit every day and still turn out for their team on a Saturday afternoon.

Modern footballers don't know they're born.

'You cant expect a professional, paid to do nothing but play football all day to achieve the same level of physical fitness as a man who works in a chip shop all week and only plays football on saturdays'

Edited Tuesday at 19:24 by tom_widdows

[Red Rab]

I can honestly say how dissatisfied and disappointed I have been with the signings especially those made in the summer window.

Aouchiche hast justified anything anywhere near his option to buy clause.

Bilalovic I have never seen anything either , then he has rarely had minutes on the pitch.

Karlsson isn’t ours , so no point mentioning him, we couldn’t afford him anyway.

Nisbet will get goals eventually.

Yengi…. Way of the pace and standard.

Milanovic I had high hopes for him, but again, not up to standard.

Frame ….. Who? Where ?

Lazetic, has flashes of ability, not an out and out goal scorer though

I could go on and on, Morris has been sorely missed, we are screaming out for a box to box physical midfielder.

our wingers are not supplying our strikers with any ammunition.

Basically all our signings have been a downgrade to what we had. 

We still look awful on the ball and clueless at the back.

[wester_ross_don]

Chat in the P&J today about Clarkson possibly moving on in January.

"concrete bid" over the summer from a Polish club but he didn't fancy it, usual "quotes" of things along lines of "nae staying here to freeze my nuts off on the bench" etc

Disappointing though, no use of "want-a-way midfielder", possibly because I don't think he really wants to leave.

I'd have kept/played him and binned about 4-6 midfielder ahead of him, but whadda-I-know.

[TheDonbytheDee]

7 minutes ago, wester_ross_don said:

Chat in the P&J today about Clarkson possibly moving on in January.

"concrete bid" over the summer from a Polish club but he didn't fancy it, usual "quotes" of things along lines of "nae staying here to freeze my nuts off on the bench" etc

Disappointing though, no use of "want-a-way midfielder", possibly because I don't think he really wants to leave.

I'd have kept/played him and binned about 4-6 midfielder ahead of him, but whadda-I-know.

Aye, a strange one. We are crying out for a creative player in midfield and yet we have (in my opinion) out best midfielder rotting on the bench.

 

 

[Jute2]

Clarkson is too lightweight for our league. Skilful enough player but always seemed to disappear against teams like St Mirren with a more physical approach. 

[OrlandoDon]

7 minutes ago, Jute2 said:

Clarkson is too lightweight for our league. Skilful enough player but always seemed to disappear against teams like St Mirren with a more physical approach. 

This.

we have a ton of average midfielders and I look at Killian Phillips for example who seems to be having more of an impact this season than any of our guys. Clarkson is ‘nice,’ but in my opinion, not quick or strong enough. Think we saw him as our 10 when we had him on loan, then very quickly realized that wasn’t his position, so moved him back, but he doesn’t have the attributes to do more heavy lifting. Not unlike polvara in a way, I question whether Scottish football is for him.

if we were to see sivert, Clarkson, and polvara move on in Jan freeing up space for a legit signing plus give Kjarten minutes, maybe even recall Marshall, I’m good with that.

[RicoS321]

2 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

This.

we have a ton of average midfielders and I look at Killian Phillips for example who seems to be having more of an impact this season than any of our guys. Clarkson is ‘nice,’ but in my opinion, not quick or strong enough. Think we saw him as our 10 when we had him on loan, then very quickly realized that wasn’t his position, so moved him back, but he doesn’t have the attributes to do more heavy lifting. Not unlike polvara in a way, I question whether Scottish football is for him.

if we were to see sivert, Clarkson, and polvara move on in Jan freeing up space for a legit signing plus give Kjarten minutes, maybe even recall Marshall, I’m good with that.

I disagree. It's the equivalent of saying Billy Gilmour isn't good enough. You adjust the team to get the best out of players like Clarkson, because if you do then they'll create numerous chances. They're the difference between being a sideways, laboured, slow build up team, that hopes for a mistake from the opposition, and a team that makes the incisive pass and brings the attacking players into play when they have their best chance of scoring before the opponent gets back. The fact that we didn't sign anyone to compliment Clarkson, even as an option during games, is criminal. Even Robson knew how to get the best out of him. Clarkson taking the ball from defence and immediately getting the strikers involved, with Ramadani and Shinnie pressing high was a great setup. That, with the option switch and play two defensive midfielders and a number 10 like Armstrong would be a great way to build a squad (midfield). We really only needed one additional signing to do that. There isn't a chance on earth that Marshall is close to the level of Clarkson (that's not a criticism), and the Icelandic laddy looks to me to be a replacement for Nilsen in the squad, but I doubt he'll be getting much time this season. If Polvara is open to being a utility player, then he's worth his weight in gold. Palaversa can leave with many thanks for his only good game. 

[TheDonbytheDee]

Fit Rico says.

Clarksons best spell was when Robson was caretaker and Ramadani and Shinnie were doing the heavy lifting, allowing Clarkson to do his thing.

I also don't buy into him being too lightweight for our league.

Whilst not in anyway a natural hardman, he does get stuck in, but it's just not his game.

 

 

[tlg1903]

I actully think Clarkson is remarkably resilient for his slight figure.  I've seen him take some sore one's and bounce back up. 

[Jormungandr]

Clarkson is arguably our most talented plaar; that JT hisna got a tune oot o him is a pretty major failure on his part. That lame performance against Motherwell is the same issue extrapolated: our midfield set-up is a disaster. Naebody up the pitch. Surely the idea of having 3 centre-backs is to give your midfield better chances to get up the pitch?

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, Jormungandr said:

Clarkson is arguably our most talented plaar; that JT hisna got a tune oot o him is a pretty major failure on his part. That lame performance against Motherwell is the same issue extrapolated: our midfield set-up is a disaster. Naebody up the pitch. Surely the idea of having 3 centre-backs is to give your midfield better chances to get up the pitch?

The idea of us having three centre backs is because we kept losing stupid goals with only two in there! 

I've mentioned before, if we played a 3-4-1-2, then you can have Armstrong in number 10, who'd be perfect there. We do the weird 3-4-3 thing, where either him or Aouchiche play wide, and reek the place out. Largely to accommodate Karlsson I expect. Works okay when we're trying to stay solid I guess, but blunt as fuck going forward for the reason you state - the midfield then don't get forward (centrally). The back three does allow Devlin and Knoester to go for a run without too much concern back the way, which I think is important with the way JT asks his defenders to play.

[Kowalski]

Clarkson is our Pedri. 

[OrlandoDon]

4 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I disagree. It's the equivalent of saying Billy Gilmour isn't good enough. You adjust the team to get the best out of players like Clarkson, because if you do then they'll create numerous chances. They're the difference between being a sideways, laboured, slow build up team, that hopes for a mistake from the opposition, and a team that makes the incisive pass and brings the attacking players into play when they have their best chance of scoring before the opponent gets back. The fact that we didn't sign anyone to compliment Clarkson, even as an option during games, is criminal. Even Robson knew how to get the best out of him. Clarkson taking the ball from defence and immediately getting the strikers involved, with Ramadani and Shinnie pressing high was a great setup. That, with the option switch and play two defensive midfielders and a number 10 like Armstrong would be a great way to build a squad (midfield). We really only needed one additional signing to do that. There isn't a chance on earth that Marshall is close to the level of Clarkson (that's not a criticism), and the Icelandic laddy looks to me to be a replacement for Nilsen in the squad, but I doubt he'll be getting much time this season. If Polvara is open to being a utility player, then he's worth his weight in gold. Palaversa can leave with many thanks for his only good game. 

Maybe you can blame jimmy, but he’s had clarkson for around 18 months. If he was a standout in training and in games he’d get a team built around him. That hasn’t happened. There have been plenty of games where clarkson hasn’t done enough. You can blame the players around him, but you also have to look directly at him.

like or dislike jimmy, he has a system and the type of players he wants, and I don’t see clarkson being his guy. Maybe he doesn’t play him the right way, like playing nisbet as one of two, playing milanovic on the left, playing wingers that hit the line. Like benching devlin for the second half of last season. As long as jimmy is the manager, clarkson doesn’t fit his system.

not sure who posted it or where, but the newer signings haven’t improved us. Clarkson had a legit player in Rama, plus a younger shinnie, there aren’t the pieces around him to perhaps highlight his talents. We have too many midfielders, we have to shed a few and clarkson may bring in some funds to add a more productive and influential player. None of our guys are showing anything to suggest we must keep them, and we need better players.

no clue what kjarten offers but I’d like to see him given some minutes. Maybe Marshall is the new McKenna who comes back from a loan and adds to the first team. Unlikely, but what we currently have isn’t good enough.

Edited 11 hours ago by OrlandoDon

[OneBrianIrvine.]

3 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

I actully think Clarkson is remarkably resilient for his slight figure.  I've seen him take some sore one's and bounce back up. 

And was the only one apparently to have a right go at TWatt after Ruby’s red. Put him on his arse and told him to stay down.

I’d be disappointed to see him leave but he’s obviously out of favour. Can’t grudge him a move but it’s a black mark against Thelin IMO.

I thought when JT was still playing the 2 at back end of last season that him and Palaversa were the best of a bad bunch pairing wise and I don’t rate Palaversa in the slightest. 

[Panda]

The sad thing is Clarkson would excel in another team's midfield.

Hibs play a three-man midfield; usually Barlaser who sits between Grant Hanley and the other two midfielders, McGrath and Mulligan. I don't think any of those players are particularly more talented than Clarkson.

Barlaser does the simple things. Collects the ball from defence and passes forward. McGrath and Mulligan collect and have three to four passing options -their front two and the two wing backs who get forward at pace. They repeatedly cut us open with just two-three passes a few weeks ago, not helped by our front three doing little pressing on Barlaser, and Palaversa having a nightmare, but that's another debate.

For us, when Clarkson plays, often he turns and his options are a long ball forward (not necessarily a bad thing because he can pick players out from distance, one of his strengths) or a side ways pass to the wing back. He could be used so much more effectively in a three-man midfield.

Technically, he's a better player than Hearts' Cammy Devlin, but even though they also play two midfielders, Devlin has two wingers and two strikers to aim passes at. 

Wait for him to sign for Hibs in January and start opening up chances for Boyle, Bowie and the two Caddens, while we're still scratching our heads.

Edited 7 hours ago by Panda