Dave M609

Just seen on SSN that they think McKenna has torn his hamstring, hopefully that c**t Stevie May gets cruciate ligament damage in their next game

I'm happy with the draw, as most have said couldn't have hoped for a better draw, play to our strengths, defend well and hope for a goal on the break, should see us through, I don't think we have anything to fear. I wonder if getting in to the group stages could see us getting a better standard of player, even if its a loan move.

For me Flannigan defensively seems more capable than Tav and just on that alone I would rather have Flannigan in there

37 minutes ago, DMAA said:

The DR wouldn't write an article claiming it is happening without solid information though. There will be hurdles to clear but they must be working on it.

 

I thought the same thing. At 6ft1 you'd have to think he could probably fill in. Could maybe be our 4th option at CB.

The one I always look out for on twitter is Bruce Archer, supposedly him and King are very close, usually if he is reporting on something to do with rangers there is usually a bit of substance to it.

I could see Flannigan as part of a back 3.

Happy with that, as folk have said on here, he looked strong, composed, good delivery, bit of a unit and he is on the fringes of the Croatia squad, can't really complain about that, especially with his age, if he performs well their will be decent resale value. I could see Wallace away now, probably a makeweight in the Lafferty deal if that goes ahead.

Can Barisic play as a centre half if need be, would defo give us options if he could, if we get the two of them over the line I would still be hoping for a goal scorer on top of that and if possible an attacking midfielder (10)

I really don't think Morelos will get away with it, he had a kick out, they will see it as that, even though it should probably be a yellow for both of them. The Scottish media have built wee Morelos up as some south American hothead that gets sent off 7 or 8 times a season, truth is he is just a moody lookin wee bugger that can be a bit petulant at times, he needs to be a bit more cute in situations like that, either barge him back or go down like a ton of bricks and give the ref a decision to make, wonder if the shoe was on the other foot and morelos did go down if the linesman would be so keen to bring it to the refs attention.

The May tackle on Jack was ludicrous, what an absolute coward flying in like that at the back of someone, I hope he gets done, because not only was it stupid and cowardly, it was really dangerous, I have seen some folk say it was payback, if that the case then the foul should be looked at by the review board and the necessary action taken, you can't just throw yourself in to the back of someone's head/neck like that.

1 minute ago, JFK-1 said:

I don't get what makes them think the sheep are such a challenge. The yahoos yes but not the sheep. We beat them more often than not last season and could have finished above them right up to the last day yet this guy portrays it as if we have a job on our hands to keep up with the sheep?

 

We have considerably strengthened while they're pretty much what they were last year. Anyone being realistic should be deciding that the sheep will be the ones challenged to keep up with us not the other way around. Our problem last year was dropping points to also rans not to the sheep.  

yup, we were the top scorers in the league last year and have considerably strengthened our defence, I think Aberdeen will fall away this year, they have no recognised striker that is going to get them at least 20 goals a year, actually i'd even go as far as saying if they don't strengthen they will end up floating around 5th or 6th, Hibs have made a couple of good signings and look strong, as have hearts, you would imagine Killie will be pushing this year as well, would be good if we gave them a tanking on sunday.

4 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

From the Scottish Sun:

 

 

... and that's the chap who is stick on to commentate on many of our matches this season. Alongside Walker or the like.

 

That's the chap, utter bellend, you would think sky would freshen it up a bit, the  two of them are boring, walker also struggles to hide his delight as soon as we go down as well, wee dwarf tramp.

Would be good if the SPFL could get a good deal with one provider and get away from sky.

17 hours ago, buster. said:

I've been critical of the board for certain things for a while now (see only Gersnet article I have wrote, December 2017).

 

Lately, I've seen more things that suggest to me that we are not well run as a business.

So, you are right regards negativity.............. If it's what I see, then that's what I'll say.

 

Siege mentality won't solve problems, it'll more than likely delay meaningful attempts to solve them.

 

-------------------

 

As for the footbal operation and SG&Co, in particular I've been very clear that we need patience and reasonable expectations.

He needs 18 months and 3 transfer windows before we can really expect to see the 'flowering of buds'. On the way towards that, steady improvement should suffice.

 

I agree buster, I got whipped up in the excitement of getting Stevie G appointed (and so we should). I will still go in to this season expecting us to win it but my expectations have been dampened a bit by the move for lafferty, I was expecting us to push the boat out a bit more. I believe he has done the right thing though, the defence was a priority, it really needed to be shored up and I would expect us to have a similar window the next two times for forward and midfield positions, we do have enough just now to see us finish a strong second minimum, mind you there is still 4 weeks of the transfer window left and plenty of business to be done, it will be interesting to see what happens when the English window closes on the 9th.

 

 

 

 

we are a bit short on strikers as well, maybe trying to fill out the squad

I'm not sure either mate, seems a strange one to me, he did have a good season last year, a lot of our signings have been youngsters, maybe he is looking at a bit more experience.

on the lafferty thing, could Wallace go the other way, I was never a big fan of lafferty, he does work hard and he is a handful, we really need a clinical striker though

EstConsultancy on Twitter that the deal for Kean Bryan will be completed shortly, they are usually pretty spot on with transfers

is it a permanent move or a loan, does anyone know

I don't see why we should settle for a couple of million, as I said in a previous post, I know he is marmite, however, he was the 3rd top scorer in the league last year, level on 3rd with assists also, all in all according to the stats he directly contributed to 19 goals, Southampton have just supposedly paid 7 million for Stuart Armstrong who has been injured for I'm not sure how long and has no where near any stats like that (I know he plays a bit deeper than Windass now), I think we would be really underselling ourselves if we let him go for anything less than 4 million, particularly if West Ham are involved, they are infamous for paying over the top transfer fee's

I'v not seen it anywhere either, I would still be open to starting him as a striker, particularly away from home where we may have to play on the break, mind you I think that might be his plan with Sadiq, that seemed to be the way he played for NAC going by the youtube compilations of him.

On Solanke, I'm not sure if its maybe the fact he has been at Chelsea and Liverpool, I maybe had him as a better player in my head than he actually is, I expected a lot more from him, I don't think he is a natural finisher either, he does work a lot and seems like a pest.

38 minutes ago, Stevie - 4lads Blog said:

Not sure Windass’s departure will be anything to do with his ability, more the fact that his attitude is a disgrace 

 

From the nonsense online with his contract & then leaking to press yesterday he is dropped for tomorrow, the lad has serious attitude issues

 

As I said on the pod, if those bids come as expected, we won’t be difficult to deal with 

Did he leak that he had been dropped for tomorrow, I'm really surprised at that, I thought he would have been given a shot, obviously his head has been turned and it sounds like that's  the end of his rangers career, if that's the case, I hope we get a good deal for him, a decent amount of money, I think we should be aiming around the 4-5 mill mark for him, at the end of the day he was at one point a top performer for us last year, he really is a marmite player and I can see both sides of the argument, I think we could get a better player if we reinvested all that cash though.

Did anyone see the game with Liverpool and Dortmund the other night, only caught some of the way through the second half, but really wasn't impressed with Solanke at all, he had been pushed left on the front three, he might be better down the middle, he looked like a bit of a donkey tbh.

God I never realised we had to play another round after that.

Yeah happy with the draw, as a lot of folk have said, probably the best we could have got and puts us in a better position than I thought we would be, hopefully dispose of the Croatians over the next two games and get a bit of momentum going.

Yeah I was expecting a news article but there is a thread on FF about it as well supposedly, no idea where it's came from, Liverpool were supposedly after him a while ago, not sure if someone has put 2+2 together and got 8.

I'm not sure how much truth is in the Hodzic rumours, by the looks of him he would be a good signing, looks like a proper striker, would definetly suit the profile of players we should be going for.

Waghorn was frustrating, he had a manager at Ipswich that managed to get the best out of him. Maybe it was the uncertainty with us, maybe we never had good man managers, for all of Warburton's good ideas he was pretty spineless, I can't imagine many folk going against mick McCarthy.

I think it might have been about 700k/800k we sold him for.

tbh i thought he was a pretty average player, nice left foot on him, but to slow and his decision making (like a lot of our players recently) left a lot to be desired, i don't think he was mentally cut out for rangers either, again as above maybe a better man manager would have got the best out of him.

He can play as a CAM or a Shadow Striker (10) as well, if he is of better quality than what we have I'm all for it.

I think we still have a few more to come in as well, we really need a goal scorer.

I'd rather be buying players as well, however if Gerrard and Allen think they can get the best value out the loan market then I'm ok with that as well, if that's the route they are going down they really need to win the league or the Scottish Cup

Its going to be interesting because in England, the window closes on the 9th of August so if any of our players are going to England they will be gone by then, unless its a loan I think.

On the boy Kent, heard the rumours a couple of weeks ago, so done the inevitable and checked youtube to see what he was like, looks a really tricky winger, two footed and hard working, as pete says, hopefully not to the determent of Middleton.

2 minutes ago, Bill said:

Out of interest, how does a striker work on his finishing? 

 

Morelos could "finish" when he first arrived so he clearly knows what's required. Has he forgotten what to do? 

Just a confidence thing I think, if he scores a couple of games on the bounce he will get that back, all of a sudden he will be in the right position at the right time and he could go on a run.