Shadwell Dog Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 15 minutes ago, Bainsfordbairn said: Tommy Tackle is the only midfielder we have with bite; had we released him we'd have been looking for an enforcer-type player in the centre of the park. As for Kerr, it's probably no coincidence that a couple of his best games this season came when was playing with McKee in the same midfield. I think he'll be better next year with a willing runner alongside him, just as he was with Vaulks. So how do we fit at least 4 centre mids into a 2 man centre mid? Craigen has been excellent there so do you drop him? Kerr and Taiwo certainly cant play in the same midfield. Thats been blatantly obvious this season and I would doubt that McKee and Craigen could play together in centre mid as they both like to get forward. And all this is before we know whats happening with Sibbald. If he signs for a year will that mean he's stuck out on the left again where he strugglesto dictate games? And if that happens where do we play Hippo? The whole thing smells of having too many players for the same positions which was one of the main issues last season. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bainsfordbairn Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 6 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said: So how do we fit at least 4 centre mids into a 2 man centre mid? Craigen has been excellent there so do you drop him? Kerr and Taiwo certainly cant play in the same midfield. Thats been blatantly obvious this season and I would doubt that McKee and Craigen could play together in centre mid as they both like to get forward. And all this is before we know whats happening with Sibbald. If he signs for a year will that mean he's stuck out on the left again where he strugglesto dictate games? And if that happens where do we play Hippo? The whole thing smells of having too many players for the same positions which was one of the main issues last season. Sibbs will be gone if he gets an offer. Hippo should always be a starter - if he's on form. Assuming he is, that leaves three places between four of Craigen, McKee, Taiwo and Kerr. One goes on the bench as we regularly change our midfield combinations in the second half anyway. It's possible we might bring in another midfielder (winger?) to replace Aird, though personally I'd be happy with Blues as backup for injuries. Henderson could do a job if he could find consistency but for the U20s last year he would have one brilliant game followed by three rotten ones. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegrass Bairn Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 18 minutes ago, Believe The Hype said: Maybe, just maybe, the fact that we finished above every team that's still in the league last season ?? You may say the league table doesn't lie, but come on; to say we laboured our way to second place would be a bit of an understatement. Being honest it was more by default. So the table was mis-leading at least. Realistically, had Morton not totally collapsed - 0 wins from last 11; DU 4 wins Jan - May; QoS turning to mush mid-season - we'd have been scraping for 4th/5th. The team wasn't good enough last season. We saw a meagre handful of great team performances as opposed to a depressingly ample pile of utter dross - e.g. 2-4 v RR, 0-2 at Cappielow, or the nadir that was EEP on Boxing Day. Shadwell's point is pretty pertinent - there's a big improvement required on recruitment. And on performances. And flair. And tempo. Etc etc... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadwell Dog Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 (edited) 23 minutes ago, Bainsfordbairn said: Sibbs will be gone if he gets an offer. Hippo should always be a starter - if he's on form. Assuming he is, that leaves three places between four of Craigen, McKee, Taiwo and Kerr. One goes on the bench as we regularly change our midfield combinations in the second half anyway. It's possible we might bring in another midfielder (winger?) to replace Aird, though personally I'd be happy with Blues as backup for injuries. Henderson could do a job if he could find consistency but for the U20s last year he would have one brilliant game followed by three rotten ones. Whose going to play right midfield if we dont sign anyone? We should be signing players to play in their best position and not Houstons usual of shoehorning players into positions where they are far less effective. Craigen is a centre mid yet gets played wide right for 80 percent of the season. Sibbald isnt a left winger and yet he gets stuck there for long periods of the season. Taiwo is again a centre mid but gets played at right mid by Houston on a number of occasions where he's hopeless. Will McKee be the next one to get shunted out there even though his preferred position is clearly centre mid? If Houston wants to have all these players fighting it out for 2 slots then I'm fine with that as long as we're bringing in players to play in the other positions where we clearly need more quality. As I said a new right back, a new left back, a right mid with pace and a quality striker to play up front with Austin. Otherwise we shouldn't be wasting our budget on central midfielders. And due to our bod's policy of selling the family silver before we get much use of it the boys in our development squad are nowhere near ready for first team action apart from Gallacher,O'hara and Shepherd and to be frank there's question marks over whether the latter two even are. Edited May 31, 2017 by Shadwell Dog 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigbrbairn Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 The only signing I want is a player that gets the fans excited. Farid did for a season, Will Vaulks did and Latapy certainly did. Our team of reasonably good journeymen was so boring last season I thought twice about going if it was slightly cold or wet 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichieBairn Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 ThomsonNew RB Muirhead/Watson Grant GallagherNew RM Taiwo McKee/Craigen Sibbald Austin New StrikerI think Houston has McKee pencilled in for RM or interchanging with Craigen as we saw in the play offs. I think he is happy with our strikers. I think he is also happy with Muirhead at RB with Watson/Luca and Grant at CB. I maybe totally wrong but I think he is fairly happy with the makeup of the squad for next season which is very depressing considering we stumbled to 2nd due to the failings of others not anything outstanding we did! I don't think our current squad is good enough but I'm almost convinced Houston sees it otherwise and thinks we only need a backup keeper and a few squad additions, no major surgery!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Believe The Hype Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 41 minutes ago, Dennistoun Bairn said: You may say the league table doesn't lie, but come on; to say we laboured our way to second place would be a bit of an understatement. Being honest it was more by default. So the table was mis-leading at least. Realistically, had Morton not totally collapsed - 0 wins from last 11; DU 4 wins Jan - May; QoS turning to mush mid-season - we'd have been scraping for 4th/5th. The team wasn't good enough last season. We saw a meagre handful of great team performances as opposed to a depressingly ample pile of utter dross - e.g. 2-4 v RR, 0-2 at Cappielow, or the nadir that was EEP on Boxing Day. Shadwell's point is pretty pertinent - there's a big improvement required on recruitment. And on performances. And flair. And tempo. Etc etc... ^^^^if my uncle had a John McVeigh is a tit Fact of the matter is, we finished above all of the teams still in this league......all of them. This may be a factor for Houston thinking we don't need to change much which was the point I was making.......but you knew that anyway eh ? we can all see we need to freshen up and bring quality in but we do not make the decisions and we all know what Houston is like with decision making and stubbornness. I'm just preparing myself with a low expectation on the signing front in the hope I am proved wrong. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Fitzgerald Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 ThomsonNew RB Muirhead/Watson Grant GallagherNew RM Taiwo McKee/Craigen Sibbald Austin New StrikerI think Houston has McKee pencilled in for RM or interchanging with Craigen as we saw in the play offs. I think he is happy with our strikers. I think he is also happy with Muirhead at RB with Watson/Luca and Grant at CB. I maybe totally wrong but I think he is fairly happy with the makeup of the squad for next season which is very depressing considering we stumbled to 2nd due to the failings of others not anything outstanding we did! I don't think our current squad is good enough but I'm almost convinced Houston sees it otherwise and thinks we only need a backup keeper and a few squad additions, no major surgery!! Sibbald on the left (who won't be here) and no Hippolyte. Looooool. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichieBairn Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 Straight swap Hippo for Sibbald then!! Where is ur team Trump, need a laugh!!!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichieBairn Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 Hippo was honking in the play offs. Needs to have a word with himself!! Hippo could go straight up front with Austin as another option but needs to be more consistent!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadwell Dog Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 5 minutes ago, Trump said: Sibbald on the left (who won't be here) and no Hippolyte. Looooool. I'm still not convinced that someone will pay a decent fee for Sibbald when they can get him for hee haw next season. I wouldnt be surprised if he ended up doing a Leahy and finally signing a new one year deal. Houston needs to start playing hardball with him though. We cant spend all close season wating to find out what he's doing. Give him a deadline and then if hes not signed we move on. If he's left in limbo for a season then its his own fault. We've got plenty of centre mids anyway. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Fitzgerald Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 I'm still not convinced that someone will pay a decent fee for Sibbald when they can get him for hee haw next season. I wouldnt be surprised if he ended up doing a Leahy and finally signing a new one year deal. Houston needs to start playing hardball with him though. We cant spend all close season wating to find out what he's doing. Give him a deadline and then if hes not signed we move on. If he's left in limbo for a season then its his own fault. We've got plenty of centre mids anyway. Sibbald won't be here next season, so you have one less worry. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 My guess there will be a signing before the end of the week as the ST's will be on sale. I would think it will be Sibbald signing for another year. It will make the Happy Clappers moist 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Believe The Hype Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 8 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said: My guess there will be a signing before the end of the week as the ST's will be on sale. I would think it will be Sibbald signing for another year. It will make the Happy Clappers mosit Automated answer machine message with sibbs and houstie dueting 'stay' by the Shakespeare Sisters inbound. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugster Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 3 minutes ago, Believe The Hype said: Automated answer machine message with sibbs and houstie dueting 'stay' by the Shakespeare Sisters inbound. Or a picture of him texting Housty (but really himself) "Aye gaffer I'm going nowhere". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 31 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said: I'm still not convinced that someone will pay a decent fee for Sibbald when they can get him for hee haw next season. I wouldnt be surprised if he ended up doing a Leahy and finally signing a new one year deal. Houston needs to start playing hardball with him though. We cant spend all close season wating to find out what he's doing. Give him a deadline and then if hes not signed we move on. If he's left in limbo for a season then its his own fault. We've got plenty of centre mids anyway. Harsh. Why would we as a club walk away from a minimum 200k compensation? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 3 minutes ago, Rugster said: Or a picture of him texting Housty (but really himself) "Aye gaffer I'm going nowhere". All joking aside would you be surprised if we came up with some sort of gimmick like this before the end of the week? I saw a tweet from the Business Bairns twitter hinting at something about to drop. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugster Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 4 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said: All joking aside would you be surprised if we came up with some sort of gimmick like this before the end of the week? Not in the slightest. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadwell Dog Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 7 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said: Harsh. Why would we as a club walk away from a minimum 200k compensation? We're not walking away from anything. We've offered him a deal he's not signed it. If someone comes in for him then it more than likely goes to compensation. We get our 200k. If no one comes in we cant fanny about all summer whilst he waits for a better option elsewhere. We need to plan for next season now and not in 3 months time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelocalcat Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 22 minutes ago, Believe The Hype said: Automated answer machine message with sibbs and houstie dueting 'stay' by the Shakespeare Sisters inbound. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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