In consideration of our failing season, thought an update to our contract situation might be worthwhile. Apologies for the length.

GK

2023

• Woods (31) - Is he Injured? noticed the boy Ritchie was on the bench Sunday.

2024

• Lewis (34) - Been off form but capable of getting that back made some good saves yesterday. 

No real issues here. Lewis has been out of form, but not really a problem for January or even next summer. 

Defence

January 2022

• Devlin (28) - Injured needs to be released.

Summer 2022

• Considine (34) - Injured and aging but should be given another year extension.
• Gurr (26) - not of the required standard.

2023

• MacKenzie (21) - Injured will be fine once he recovers from injury.
• Gallagher (30) - Injured looked off form when he has been fit.

2024

• Hernandez (24) - Loaned out hopefully Atlanta repay us for the fee paid out on their behalf and the whole sorry mess can be put to bed. 
• McCrorie (23) - arguably a midfielder been OK at the back and we have had little option. 
• Ramsay (18)- Injured could end up receiving offers for him, maybe his current injury will delay them till next summer. 
• Bates (25) - improving. 

I'd hope we are looking to start next season with MacKenzie, Gallagher, McCrorie (is he a midfielder), Ramsay (unless the right offer comes in) Bates & Considine (depending on his recovery). In January, Devlin must be off the payroll, attempts made to get Gurr off too, and fingers crossed Atlanta buy Hernandez (for everyone's sake). Should be planning on 4-6 of the current lot being here next season. Assuming recovery from injuries and no more occurring;

MacKenzie, Gallagher, McCrorie, Ramsay and Bates till end of the season, that are good enough, scope for additions.

Midfield

Summer 2022

• Hayes (34) - can see him signing an extension if offered but is he as effective as first time around? Can we get better and younger for the wage?
• Hedges (26) - will be off, decision is balancing any money offered and what player(s) can we bring in against what little Hedges playing within himself brings for the remainder of the season.
• McGeouch (28) - Injured? (again) imagine he's looking to see what offers he gets and will be trying to minimize injuries to his fragile body in the meantime.
• Ojo (30) - Also seems to be looking to see what offers he gets and we should be able to do better. 
• McGinn (34) - Past it.

End of Loan Summer 2022(If possible cancel them all in January)

• Jenks (19)  - Not good enough
• Samuels (21)  - Not good enough
• Longstaff (21) - Not good enough

2023

• Campbell (20) - Doesn't appear as if Glass rates him that highly.
• Kennedy (27) - Injured (allegedly) tried to get rid of in the summer depending on how true the back injury is, will likely try again.
• McLennan (22) - Injured he's got strength, pace, skill all let down by decision making and consistency. Should be at a higher level if he's going to make it at his club. 
• Brown (36) - Injured? Will give his all and probably been our best player, but he's 36. 

2024

• Ferguson (22) - doesn't want to be here will push for a move to england again in January. 

Next season would be planning on Hayes (to sign a new contract), Campbell, Brown, McLennan maybe Hanratty. Potentially for remainder of the season we have;

Campbell, Brown & Hayes who will give their all all, albeit Brown is 36 and probably will need a rest at some point some & Hayes who is 34 and has 6 months left on his contract. Hedges, McGeouch and Ojo who will be playing with one eye on a signing on fee elsewhere, won't care where we finish and play accordingly. Jenks, Longstaff and Samuels none of whom are good enough and none have a vested interest in our success.  Kennedy and McLennan who are not good enough and Ferguson who is trying to get a move elsewhere. 

Forwards

2023

• Watkins (31) - Hopefully stays injury free for the remainder of the season.
• Ramirez (30) - Possibly Glass's singular piece of good recruitment
• JET (30) - wrong type of player for battling at the wrong end of the table

An aging strike-force. Can't see any of them being here after summer 2023. JET too much of a luxury but can't see anyone taking him off our hands in January. Ngwenya to join them next season?

Youth on loan

• Ngwenya (18) - contract till 2024
• Ruth (19) - contract till 2022
• Barron (19) - contract till 2022
• Ritchie (18) - contract till 2022
• Duncan (17) - contract till 2022
• Hanratty (18) - contract till 2024
• Mykyta (19) - contract till 2022
• McIver (18) - contract till 2022
• Gallagher (20) - contract till 2022
• Milne (18) - contract till 2022

As far as I can find only Ngwenya and Hanratty signed for longer than the end of the season?

Following Sunday it appears we may only have 15 fit outfield players fit. 3 defenders (1 is Gurr and McRorie will be banned for hibs), 9 midfielders (Longstaff might as well not be here, Jenks and Samuels aren't good enough, McGinn has made 2 starts from 7 appearances ), 3 forwards (1 is JET).

7 games till the break and opening of the window. 

Recruitment has been a shambles for a while now, nothing we saw in the summer points to improvements and this must be the most unbalanced & incoherent (almost as bad as this post), uncommitted and aging squad we've had in a long time. Hopefully our DoF has been making several plans based on any number of scenario's.

We have to;

• Mitigate the effect losing Ferguson and/or Ramsay would have
• Take into account the lack of commitment from the 8 midfielders with no contractual obligation beyond the end of the season.
• The imbalance inexperience and decimation through injury of our defence. 
• The age of our attack. 
• And the lack of players in their "prime years" throughout the squad.

And this has to be balanced against;

• how shit January is as a transfer window
• that we have enough to ensure we don't get dragged into relegation worries
• not make rash decisions that fuck up future season with more aging or not good enough players all playing the same positions on high wages. 

I never really felt we saw enough of Samuels to make a judgement either way 2bh,  he only made 6 appearances and 3 of those were off the bench.  The few times he did appear I didn't think he was completely useless and his pace looked to be causing teams some problems at times.  It didn't help that those games were when our defence was leaking a lot of cheap goals and the team was under way more pressure. Regardless though he had become deadwood and its good to see us shedding some of that.  

 

Re Clark and Lewis aye that did raise my eyebrow a wee bit as goalie is not a problem position at the moment.  I wonder if Joe is considering his options after essentially having the captaincy taken from him.  Or maybe just wants to be closer to family down south blah blah blah. If he is off Clark is a more than adequate replacement I would say.  

Just hope this transfer window is our best in years.

 

Would it be that hard?

It's been years since we got anyone decent on loan. Maddison is the last one I can think of. Would be better just giving time to our own youngsters. 

48 minutes ago, DantheDon said:

It's been years since we got anyone decent on loan. Maddison is the last one I can think of. Would be better just giving time to our own youngsters. 

Christie? Always enjoyed watching how unseriously he took the game,like he was having a kick about with his mates.And his guile/craftiness while playing.Seemed to turn affa serious looking when he returned to Timmy

  Re Lewis -  Only problem I think he suffers from now and again is confidence.Have the apparent poor spells not occured when the various defence combos have been at their shakiest? Hopeful Gallacher can bed in if we allow him time,maybe another young one in for cover if nothing in the reserves

21 minutes ago, Elgindon said:

Christie? Always enjoyed watching how unseriously he took the game,like he was having a kick about with his mates.And his guile/craftiness while playing.Seemed to turn affa serious looking when he returned to Timmy

  Re Lewis -  Only problem I think he suffers from now and again is confidence.Have the apparent poor spells not occured when the various defence combos have been at their shakiest? Hopeful Gallacher can bed in if we allow him time,maybe another young one in for cover if nothing in the reserves

Good point, Christie was with us for a couple of years so you almost forget he was a loan. Still a good few years since we got anyone decent in. If we had given the time we gave to the likes of James Wilson to one of youth prospects maybe some more of them would have kicked on. Got to credit Glass, he seems more likely to give our own young players a chance than McInnes. 

In terms of technical ability and guile Christie was probably the best signing Mcinnes made if you ask me. 

 

 

😂 better hope he doesn’t go in the end then

Ouch

Dave's nae a happy loon 😵

2 hours ago, manc_don said:

😂 better hope he doesn’t go in the end then

Jesus, Dave getting drawn in by bloke on twitter. Mental.

I don't mind Jenks, but I wouldn't care if he left either. He's one of these players that isn't good enough to consistently play in our first team and by the time he's up to speed we'll be sending him back with little to show for it. 

25 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Jesus, Dave getting drawn in by bloke on twitter. Mental.

Ex dons player I believe.

Blackburn have made a new bid for Hedges according to sky

17 hours ago, tom_widdows said:

Ex dons player I believe.

Indeed Tom

Spent time on loan with us.

Only played a handful of games for us during the Aitken era.

Despite being an Icelandic international he was shite

3 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

Blackburn have made a new bid for Hedges according to sky

Any news on McGrath?

37 minutes ago, manc_don said:

Any news on McGrath?

None that I have heard mate

3 hours ago, manc_don said:

Any news on McGrath?

Read today we are close to a precontract. Hoping we can punt Kennedy or the likes in their direction and get McGrath now.

9 hours ago, LA-Don said:

Read today we are close to a precontract. Hoping we can punt Kennedy or the likes in their direction and get McGrath now.

St Mirren fans on P&B resigned to him leaving but certainly don't want Kennedy or one of our "cast offs" in return.

1 hour ago, BigAl said:

St Mirren fans on P&B resigned to him leaving but certainly don't want Kennedy or one of our "cast offs" in return.

Fussy bastards!!

Ryan Brown from Peterborough the talk of the town.

Midfielder.

15 minutes ago, HaarDon said:

Ryan Brown from Peterborough the talk of the town.

Midfielder.

Think it's Ryan Broom

25yo lower league journeyman. Not exactly inspiring.

28 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Think it's Ryan Broom

Ahh predictive text.🤔

55 minutes ago, HaarDon said:

Ahh predictive text.🤔

At least Rico was there to sweep up your auto corrects mess

Well when the dust settles it'll all be forgotten.

2 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Think it's Ryan Broom

Winger apparently, we need that!!

I've already brushed it off