Read in the Daily Ranger today that ourselves and Ross County are interested in signing Gary(?) Twigg from Hamilton. Now I'm confused because why would we need another striker after signing Stewart Kean? Lets be honest it cant be incase our 1st two strikers dont perform, in Dobbs and Oconnor we have one of, if not the best strikeforce in those two, in the league.

The more that I think about it I think Dobbie could be departing! In my heart I dont think he'll go because the European games, but with a new striker possibly on the way my head says he could be gone!

sell dobbie and sell your chances of challenging for the title.

Yes! Sell Dobbie

Last season,after Christmas,we had 2 main strikers plus Stewart to replace one of them after 60 mins and John O'Niell as a back up for a midfielder or forward.Now we've lost those 2 and only have Kean so surely we need at least one more striker.We're going to have a minimum of 2 extra games at the start of the season so we need as big a squad as is financially possible.Adding strikers in my opinion is a neccessity,not a sign that Dobbie is leaving.

Exactly. Dobbie is not leaving. No need to panic.

I'm going to have to disagree with you I'm afraid.

In Dobbie and O'Connor we do have one of, if not the best strike partnership at this level, as the OP mentioned. Only a forward in very specific circumstances would want to join us knowing that without even getting a chance to impress he is going to be third choice right away. Due to this I was extremely surprised when we signed Kean because he does have a decent reputation at this level, and I'm sure had other options. Obviously he will be pushing for a start but at the moment he is third choice. This would leave any further signing fourth choice. Who is going to want to join knowing that, other than perhaps a young SPL loanee?

I am also a bit concerned by the part you have highlighted in bold. You think we need at least one more striker. That takes our total number of strikers to 4, but suggests you think we need more than that! IMO with a squad of 20 players that is more than excessive.

You also state that signing more strikers is a neccessity. At present we have 3 very capable strikers, at this level, signed up, and no goalkeepers. I think my take on the word neccessity is slightly different to yours!

Unfortunately I would tend to agree with the OP that if we were to sign another established striker it would suggest Dobbs is on the way out rather than us building a super-dooper strikerforce that is going to win us the league. It's only paper talk at the moment, and at least we can console ourselves knowing we will at least get a fee should he leave.

I wonder if our new catering contract has something to do with this?

Sorry,I didn't think I was going to upset someone so much with my bad language so I'll tone it down a bit.
I've no idea how the fixture list is going to pan out but we will have CIS cup,Challenge cup and UEFA cup games all at the start of the season.I'm hoping we do well in all of these competitions, as I'm sure Chisolm is,and if he feels he has enough cover with one striker for a very demanding period of games then I trust him 100%.I,personally(and it really is just an opinion) think we need a bit more strength in depth to cope with these games and the season ahead.

I'm hoping that one of the benefits of a Cup run will be a slightly bigger squad for the coming campaign. Injuries meant we had a poor start to the season last time around and with the UEFA Cup we will need a stronger squad before the transfer window IMO.

Dobbie is under contract and it will take a realistic offer £70K + to tempt us to sell IMO. I also think that more competition for a striking place will make the Dobbmeister 'uo his game.'

I agree, a figure that would make the Bank of England wince should be offered before we even think about letting Dobbie go.

He may try to do too much by himself and not pass when he should but he's a proven goalscorer and that's what we'll need for the forthcoming season.

Agreed. My only concerns with Dobbie are fitness and weight issues. He could work a wee bit harder too. He looked average against Aberdeen before going off injured and had a poorish game against Rangers. There's not a better finisher in the division though.

I very much doubt Dobbie is heading anywhere imminently. We had four strikers PLUS John O'Neill who also covered the position from time to time for the whole of last season. We also had Brian Gilmour an attacking creative player. Dobbie and O'Connor were around all season. They were backed up by Bingham and Mole before Xmas and Stewart and Campbell afterward. Stewart and Campbell have gone, as has O'Neill and Gilmour for good measure and we've brought in Kean. I don't think there's any doubt we'll be looking for another attacking option, most likely a couple though more likely players who can play out wide or play attacking midfielder a la O'Neill than an out and out striker.

I have no idea if it's true we're talking to Twigg but as a player who plays midfield as well he would certainly meet the obvious criteria for a replacement for O'Neill. Twigg certainly isn't an out and out striker come what may so there's no way it would indicate Dobbie heading out.

Disagree.

In regards to Twigg, I thought he was a decent striker at Airdrie and thought he would make an impression at Accies.

Who would you say has a better front two?

Dundee/St Johnstone.

Jog on sunshine with your fishing line somewhere else.

As for the speculation and rumour have Queens not been listed with two others in the Daily Rangers in the past week? Craig Nelson, Garry Twigg, and someone else who's name escapes me just now. I really can't see Dobbs going anywhere this season, with European football on the horizon it would daft in my opinion for any player to leave just now. I'm sure that Chis is bringing in cover for our front two, Sean was only training twice a week last season cos of his knee and in the First that level of training is a limiting factor, as SD said we had 4 strikers last season, so think this is him getting that cover back again.

I'm with Palmy_Cammy that a goalkeeper would be the best option to be looking at just now, maybe that's who Chis was looking at in Belguim last week?

More or less the point I was trying to make but put better than me.There's no way you can expect Dobbie and Sean to lead the line for the whole season.It just takes one of them to get injured and you're down to the bare bones with no options to change things during a game.You then end up with someone like Scott Robertson coming on as a centre forward because there's no direct replacement.I'm not saying fill the bench with strikers but lets at least have a squad where you can replace a player like for like,or at least a forward with an attacking midfielder/winger like Ewan says.

He could do a job for us i thnk, wot we need is a couple more left sided players and maybe another bak up RM and obviously another goalkeeper but i wud take him!

Agreed,but maybe the Jamie McDonald deal isn't dead yet.

If only.

St Johnstone play with a front three.

You can disagree about the quality if you like but it's a matter of fact that they were the highest scoring pairing in the division last season despite not being in a top three side and not exactly a free scoring one over the piece either.

I wouldn't swap Dobbie & O'Connor for any other pairing in the division. Although I'd accept St Johnstone have excellent options up top too, especially if Andy Jackson continues to develop as he has in the past year.


Chisholm was at a coaching course in Belgium was he not? That is what I was told. I don't think he was looking at players.

Quite obviously we need a goalkeeper, potentially two if Grindlay doesn't re-sign, but it's not like you can only look at one position at a time. It's a matter of fact we have only 13 signed players at this moment (McLaughlin isn't actually signed yet) and it's a matter of fact we need at least 20 and potentially maybe even 22 given the early season demands and UEFA Cup commitments (7 subs isn't it?). There are a lot of players to come in. At this point we need two keepers, a right back, probably another centre half (plus McLaughlin), some attacking width, especially left sided, another striker and possibly an attack minded midfielder a la O'Neill.

You think? I'd like to think there was a slight possibility he could return but i sincerely doubt it.

I heard he left Palmerston today...




... For the Chippie near Buccleuch Street

St Johnstone is just about plausible, but Dundee

The original poster said, one of the best pairings in the division. As you could only name two who are better then you obviously do agree

See a lot of first division football last season did you?

As SD points out there is factual evidence they were the best pairing in the division last year. Will they be this coming season, well your guess is as good as mine, but my original point stands.

Not going to bother quoting everyone else because we all seem to have reached the same conclusion, which seems to be what Conan was saying in the first place I just misunderstood. We do need attacking options in midfield to replace Jonjo and I suppose to an extent Bingham who without doing much did at least create a goal or two, and who surely can't be described as a striker anyway despite that being the position he was signed as? I still think the addition of Kean to the strikeforce leaves us in a better position, despite having less options, than when we had one or more of; Mole, Bingham, Campbell and Stewart at the club as they did the sum total of bugger all. A squad is important but not if you are just filling in gaps for the sake of it.

If Twigg can play "attacking mid" or "behind the strikers" then that signing (which is only a rumour in the Record FFS ) makes a lot more sense to me. If we keep a twenty man squad, I just can't see us being able to attract a striker of any great calibre to be fourth choice. As previously we could offer a youngster from the SPL a short term deal, or loan, but that goes back to my point of filling gaps with average players, for the sake of it. I'd rather the wage went on an offensive-minded midfielder which is a position we need cover for, plus the nature of a four-man midfield means there is more room for rotation.

A little harsh, particularly on Stewart who had an enormous hand in winning the semi final, making Burns goal, scoring the winner and generally terrorising Aberdeen's back line in the second half.

Mole and Campbell did the sum total of bugger all I'd agree. Bingham disappointed though he did make the odd telling contribution (forced the own goal equaliser v Accies, made a goal for Sean v Stirling, got fouled for a penalty up at Stirling).

I thought Stewart did okay over the piece. Even apart from the semi final he put in a shift in many a game and scored a couple of important goals. I won't lose any sleep if he's never seen in a Queens shirt again but I wouldn't mind at all if he returned either. Certainly not the figure of fun Falkirk and St Johnstone fans were widely predicting we'd signed when he arrived.

I knew someone was going to pull me up about Stewart!

His contribution was clearly much greater than the others, he will go down in Queens folklore for his winning goal and the way he terrorised the Aberdeen defence with his pace. I felt my last post was lengthy enough as it was so didn't state those obvious facts. Of course his two big performances came in the Cup though, and his league form was pretty poor.

You thought wrong - lazy and unmotivated for a large part of the 2 seasons he was with us

edit - you dont spell lazy with an x

Twigg was Airdries best player when we cuffed them in the playoffs but his debut for Hamilton was against us and he was honking that day.

my barber has one of the killie directors in sometimes, and told me when i was in for my chop the other day that killie are looking to get dobbie in before pre season training. dont shoot the messenger.

All that John Stewart did was get us into our first Scottish cup final.

I admit I was pretty depressed when Dobbster hirpled off and Stewart came on.

It was the single most important point in the game.

The guy is a QoS LEGEND - whether he wants to be, or not!

Why do people cite European football as an attraction for anybody staying or signing? Is it not more than likely that our run in Europe will amount to 2 games or 4 at most?
Is it not possible that Dobbie could play in all (ie both) our European games and be away before the end of the window? Can't remember the dates.
If he does stay, it will be for the simple reason that he could go for nothing at the end of the season. This means he could sign a pre-contract in January and possibly engineer his way out then. So, anybody coming in with a bid now is basically paying to have him for 5 months.
Even if Chisholm (or whoever is the manager in January) does a "Paton" with him and keeps him after January, there is little point in anybody shelling out now, when they could get him for nothing later, unless they are desperate for a striker now, of course.

Or alternately:

- it could be for the simple reason that he didn't want to go?

or

- for the simple reason that despite website speculation (and I think it was in one of the papers couple of months back) there actually hasn't been any offer?


People said it was a certainty he was leaving or signing a pre-contract in the last window (our fans and others) and instead he signed an extended contract.

Yes, it could be that too.
I ruled that out this time because signing for Kilmarnock and signing for Thistle are quite different things. At the time, I'd imagine that Thistle wouldn't pay him any more than he is was earning and, at the time, they were in the same division as us. Killie are in the SPL and, presumably, would pay him more. I assumed he would want to play in the SPL and earn more.
But you could be right, maybe he doesn't.
If there hasn't been, and there isn't likely to be, any offer then obviously that considerably reduces the chances of him leaving.

I take it Dobbie is still under contract? Im not sure if he is SPL standard therefore another year at QOTS would be best for him

Right, ok, I've twigged who you are now!

I was just struggling with remembering user names last night!

That's alcohol for you.Sometimes I struggle to remember my own name never mind anyone elses!!

i'd be more worried as a Queens fan if O'Connor was leaving, he looked a right handful in the Cup Final

O'Connor's not going anywhere don't worry.

it is likely Livi may come in for him if we sadly get rid of Snodgrass

Would he really want to come to us though?

That made my night, that did.

Paid Dorado yet

Apparently Not...

Comedy genius.

Which one of our forwards did you actually think will be unable to contain their excitement just waiting for the chance to join Livi by the way? You didn't make it clear, Dobbie or O'Connor? Whichever it is it'll not be happening.