Get all your transfer rumours in here for this summer's window 

So far in terms of incoming the talk has been about goalkeepers with Alnick seeming to have replaced Clark as most likely target.

Supposed exclusive this morning that we are after Conor Ronan either on loan or as permanent signing in the summer. Hearts also linked. Wonder when the Hibs stories surface as well.

So Ramirez is back then, at least for now 😉

3 hours ago, BigAl said:

So Ramirez is back then, at least for now 😉

Genuinely shocked by that 

37 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

Genuinely shocked by that 

American transfer window isn't open yet though 😉

1 hour ago, BigAl said:

American transfer window isn't open yet though 😉

Fair but you misunderstand, I didn't think he would come back to Scotland at all. 

18 hours ago, OxfordDon said:

Odd player for us to target.

 

He was in Cormack Park yesterday afternoon.

So it really seems like we're waiting for Liverpool deal for Ramsey to go through before we put pen to paper for anyone else....the silence deafening!!
3 players have been into C-Park during the off season so far and we've signed a guy that hasn't (Ramadani), looking for to the 16th when window official opens. 

9 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

Fair but you misunderstand, I didn't think he would come back to Scotland at all. 

In all honesty neither did I mate 😉

On 14/06/2022 at 12:24, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

I take your point BigAl, I just don't think foreigners generally work for us at all and we need a core of British/Irish players.  The last few signings from abroad have been a mysterious right back costing a fortune, a yank who has hardly kicked a ball yet, Ramirez who looked great for six months then disappeared and the dutch winger who the jury is still out on.  Even the few foreigners that have been successful over the years never seem to stick around for much longer than a season. So many of these guys either cannot adapt to our style of play in this country or climate, language or whatever.

Last season we signed Scott Brown, David Bates, Declan Gallagher, JET, Matty Longstaff, Teddy Jenks, Adam Montgomery, Gary Woods, Austin Samuels and Markey Watkins. All of them failed to adapt to our style of play in this country, the climate, and the language.

Maybe we shouldn't sign anyone, too much of a risk.

32 minutes ago, Panda said:

Last season we signed Scott Brown, David Bates, Declan Gallagher, JET, Matty Longstaff, Teddy Jenks, Adam Montgomery, Gary Woods, Austin Samuels and Markey Watkins. All of them failed to adapt to our style of play in this country, the climate, and the language.

Maybe we shouldn't sign anyone, too much of a risk.

So which foreign players have we signed in the last 30 years that you would class as a success, Panda?

I wonder if they have these debates in other countries - e.g. are fans in Bulgaria saying their team should only sign Bulgarian players because the Bulgarian league is so unique that foreigners wouldn't be able to adapt to it?

There's nothing unique about Scottish football in reality beyond the prevalence of slightly outdated tactics and coaching. We seem to want to champion negative traits like teams frantically hoofing the ball up the park constantly as some kind of unique style of football when they're actually just a symptom of us being bad at it.

Watched a few videos of lauritsen, he's probably about 6'3 but looks reasonably light on his feet. He's got that kinda gangly run that Peter crouch had.  Hard to say too much about his ability though he showed pretty decent technique here. 

 

Another thing I noted is that he seems very popular with his team mates.  He gets a hatrick in another reel and you could tell they were delighted for him. That suggests he puts a shift in potentially. Defo different to what we have 

39 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

So which foreign players have we signed in the last 30 years that you would class as a success, Panda?

Not panda but these guys spring to mind

 

Bisconti

Heikenen 

Stavrum

Zerouali 

Kjaer

Kiriakov (didn't set the heather alight but he was a solid rb I thought) 

 

 

47 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

So which foreign players have we signed in the last 30 years that you would class as a success, Panda?

30 years? Are you trying to suggest since 1992 we haven't signed any good foreign players?

Come on now...

Anyway, I don't need to go back 30 years. Ramirez was clearly a good signing. Would a Scottish striker have brought us the same return in goals?

Others like Beni Baningime (Hearts) and Benjamin Siegrist (Dundee United) did well last season.

 

Snelders

Guintveit Arnason Solberg Kiriakov

Di Rocco Bisconti Heikennen Zeroauli

Paatelainen Ramirez 

Slight concern over the imbalance of the team and a couple of players out of position slightly, but solid enough and deadly in the opposition box. 

 

Kjaer and Stavrum could replace Snelders and Paatelainen if you want to be picky about when they signed rather than when they played.

Notable mentions too for Ten Caat, Belabed and Cerny.

Techincally, Sone Aluko & Michael Hector were capped for foreign teams but I've left them out, as well as all the Irish even though they're foreign too.

Seeing as we have had 2 local loons jump ship to Mordor in recent years, with none of our foreign signings lowering themselves to such an act since Theo Snelders (and even then he was more or less forced out) I think it’s fair to say we’re better off having players from the Balkans than Balmedie.

4 minutes ago, Slim said:

Seeing as we have had 2 local loons jump ship to Mordor in recent years, with none of our foreign signings lowering themselves to such an act since Theo Snelders (and even then he was more or less forced out) I think it’s fair to say we’re better off having players from the Balkans than Balmedie.

Tbf it did take Jack and Wright a while to adjust to the climate and language.

45 minutes ago, Panda said:

30 years? Are you trying to suggest since 1992 we haven't signed any good foreign players?

Come on now...

Anyway, I don't need to go back 30 years. Ramirez was clearly a good signing. Would a Scottish striker have brought us the same return in goals?

Others like Beni Baningime (Hearts) and Benjamin Siegrist (Dundee United) did well last season.

 

As I said in my first point, the foreign guys are either not good enough or do not settle.  Ramirez is a fine example, most of us never thought he would come back at all this season.  He was great for a few months and barely made an impact after the turn of the year.

We've hardly had a proper foreign player since the dutch guys in the Alex Smith era.  Out of the players you have listed none had much longevity about them apart from Heikenen and Paatelainen, both of which were already with British clubs before we took them so we knew what we were signing.  

The rest of those players I would guess played no more than about 50 games for us, so a season or so and I cannot remember us making money from them when they left either.  The Hernandez signing was sold to us as being an investment that we would sell on for millions and he couldn't settle.

Nothing against signing Irish players as I said in my first post, we have had a few crackers in the last few years.  It's not the same as signing someone from the continent.

45 minutes ago, Panda said:

Belabed

Really?

19 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

As I said in my first point, the foreign guys are either not good enough or do not settle.  Ramirez is a fine example, most of us never thought he would come back at all this season.  He was great for a few months and barely made an impact after the turn of the year.

We've hardly had a proper foreign player since the dutch guys in the Alex Smith era.  Out of the players you have listed none had much longevity about them apart from Heikenen and Paatelainen, both of which were already with British clubs before we took them so we knew what we were signing.  

The rest of those players I would guess played no more than about 50 games for us, so a season or so and I cannot remember us making money from them when they left either.  The Hernandez signing was sold to us as being an investment that we would sell on for millions and he couldn't settle.

Nothing against signing Irish players as I said in my first post, we have had a few crackers in the last few years.  It's not the same as signing someone from the continent.

But all the things you've said there could be applied to guys we've signed from the rest of the U.K.

Only recently - Cosgrove probably - have we actually thought about a sell on value for players. We've always been thinking short term.

Us not (in your view) signing good foreign players is more down to the management and recruitment rather than them being foreign. I struggle to think of one example of us signing a guy from abroad who was proven to be a good player before he arrived, and him failing to settle in Scotland.

14 minutes ago, tom_widdows said:

Really?

Sorry, forgot about Cobian.

1 hour ago, Panda said:

Snelders

Guintveit Arnason Solberg Kiriakov

Di Rocco Bisconti Heikennen Zeroauli

Paatelainen Ramirez 

Slight concern over the imbalance of the team and a couple of players out of position slightly, but solid enough and deadly in the opposition box. 

 

Kjaer and Stavrum could replace Snelders and Paatelainen if you want to be picky about when they signed rather than when they played.

Notable mentions too for Ten Caat, Belabed and Cerny.

Techincally, Sone Aluko & Michael Hector were capped for foreign teams but I've left them out, as well as all the Irish even though they're foreign too.

There's a few I've got to contest there.  Di rocco was nothing more than average at best, snelders was signed pre 92 so doesn't fit the criteria as with ten caat but mixu is fine. He signed in 92.

 

Solberg though?  

Oh panda, I think you need to go and think about what you have done 😉

 

 

22 minutes ago, Panda said:

I struggle to think of one example of us signing a guy from abroad who was proven to be a good player before he arrived, and him failing to settle in Scotland.

Totally agree and it is because of the market we are shopping in nowadays.  When we signed Snelders and Gillhaus we were buying top notch players with proper pedigree and there was little risk.  If it didn't work out we could have sold them on.  I think I am right in saying Gillhaus played in the European Cup final so probably the equivalent of us signing someone like Origi or Miramino from Liverpool in today's world who cost them £10M and £7.25M which shows how much the world has changed in the last 30 years.

We are just in a completely different market now because of finances so anyone brought in from abroad is an unknown quantity as we cannot afford the proven ones.

43 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

There's a few I've got to contest there.  Di rocco was nothing more than average at best, snelders was signed pre 92 so doesn't fit the criteria as with ten caat but mixu is fine. He signed in 92.

 

Solberg though?  

Oh panda, I think you need to go and think about what you have done 😉

 

 

Think you're confusing Di Rocco with D'Jaffo, who may have been his replacement.

Di Rocco I think was a late season loan signing, only played 10 games (scored 3 times though) but I don't think we could get a permanent deal done.

Was quick, strong and good in the air. Well worth his place in the side.

Di Rocco was good. Kiriakov was mince. Probably wasn't even the best Bulgarian we signed that year. 

I'm guessing that we've never signed good foreign players because we've never had the scouting in those areas. It's likely quite expensive and finding a comparable league(s) would likely take a few years of trial and error. Unless we have scouts in country, it seems likely that we're going by stats, videos and then perhaps a follow up viewing in person. That seems a shakey foundation to build scouting on, and I can imagine it's often difficult to know what you're looking at. The teams we played in Europe give you an idea about how unknown the level in different leagues is and how they'll perform in Scotland. I went into our first couple of European ties last season thinking we were in for a real battle, when in reality they were fairly pap. Apply that to a player, and it seems a little higher risk. We actually seem to be recruiting from several new (to our scouting networks) European countries at once this season, which seems to suggest a different strategy completely (i.e. one that relies heavily on data).

2 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

Totally agree and it is because of the market we are shopping in nowadays.

Does that not conflict with your argument then?

You're saying the foreign signings don't work out because they can't adapt to Scotland, then say it's because they probably weren't good enough in the first place. 

For every foreign player you say wasn't good enough, I could probably name 20 from the U.K. we signed who weren't good enough either.

Our current recruitment and scouting model is essentially less than a year old, so comparing it to previous seasons is probably useless anyway.