Juan Sheet

I think the only thing stopping Morrison signing an extension is the inevitable interest from elsewhere. Realistically he’ll be away if the likes of Salford are truly interested, but my heart hopes he’s waiting to make sure we’re promoted to sign as I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to play in league 1 again. Finn is a must imo, he’s grown into a man this season and is consistently good every week. The only player who’s more consistent imo and out of contract is McCann, and I’d say if we’ve been offering deals to players already I’d genuinely hope Yeats and McCann aren’t far behind big Hendo

Miller has been far superior to Nesbitt imo, especially in the last couple of games playing on the left hand side. With Morrison on the right playing in his natural position we’ve been far more threatening which is reflected in the goals we’ve scored. Nesbitt is a decent player but I don’t think he’ll be anywhere near as effective as Miller.

I noticed that too, Morrison looks far more lively down the right and both he and Miller had some nice deliveries from wide. I like Alfie but I think he’s more suited to be playing more central as his crossing isn’t the best and as you say his physicality in the middle is a big plus.

He was a bit raw, but what more could you expect from someone so young. He certainly looked a prospect

Didn’t you read the rest of my post?? The signings and re-signings of the likes of Oliver, Allan, Nesbitt and Mackie along with the inability to jettison McKay are why the squad is so imbalanced. The damage was done last season, add that to McGinn struggling already for fitness and it’s clear that if we’re to be successful this season we’ll be doing it by making things more difficult than it could be.

If said quality rb becomes available this coming Saturday morning there isn’t any budget to sign him!! There’s no budget to sign anyone apparently. I personally don’t disagree with any of this summers’ signings, it’s more the likes of Oliver, Mackie and Allan(due to him not really suiting the managers tactics) I’d rather have a right back instead of. Add McKay from the non Mcglynn signings too.

That’s why I think he’d be even more effective playing up front through the middle. I think him up top with a strike partner would be a good move. Would rather see him getting in behind defences and having a shot as opposed to being wide and crossing

McGinn is a victim of Mcglynn not signing enough cover in that area last season, he was head and shoulders above any player in league 1 and possibly the championship but by November his performances fell off a cliff due to him being overplayed and overstretched. Not sure if that’s when he picked up his knee injury but the fact he’s taking injections now is worrying for his long term health.

Can we get Davie Nicholls to partner Brad Spencer?

Regardless of fan ownership, or whatever ownership the club are running at -400k a year. Cup runs can’t be assumed and neither can be transfer fees, but here’s a question, when was the last transfer fee we received? Off the top of my head it’d be Tony Gallacher and that was 6 years ago! Before that probably Will Vaulks. It shows how terribly we’ve performed in terms of managers and recruitment that we’ve not commanded a transfer fee since. At one point we were doing pretty well signing and selling the likes of Lyle Taylor and Higginbotham on top of the academy players who commanded decent fees going down south and obviously helping the club compete well above where we find ourselves now.

We run with a playing budget that most championship clubs would envy, yet folk are happy to give Mcglynn more time because he’s underachieved less than the underachievers that have gone before him since Houston. We’re only full time because of the government scheme and cup run, so basically if we don’t get the same money again one way or another it’s conceivable we’ll be part time even if we get promotion because the 400k deficit is the same regardless according to the board.

I haven’t seen anyone say that they think Mcglynn didn’t try to sign a right back, the issue as it stands is he’s blown his budget so would need to rely on a cheap or free loan or moving a player or two on. All the while we have squad with four players who can play left back and 5 players that can play up front when his tactics require 1 of each.

I’d go with that, as the only player that has any of the tools to play as lone striker is Agyemang imo. The only problem with 2 up top under Mcglynn is then you’d sacrifice someone in midfield and we don’t have the energy or physicality to do that. Playing 3-5-2 would be my suggestion against most teams especially at home where the opposition tend to sit in. It’d also reduce the glaring need for a right back

It’s a real possibility if the manager is to be believed and that the budget has been used. The only other realistic options are a very cheap or free loan, or by moving on a player or two to free up some wages. I don’t know about anyone else but personally speaking I take no pleasure in voicing my concerns about how imbalanced the squad is right now, I’d much rather we were preparing for this season in the championship instead of worrying that if we don’t get promotion from league one at the umpteenth attempt this season we could be in a horrible mess financially. Mcglynn signed 18 players last season and another 7 this summer, to have positions where you have little to no players to play in positions in a formation you’ve almost always stuck with has be concerning surely?

And my response to that is why does it matter? I don’t think anyone could say we don’t need a right back, and now the budget is spent and we don’t have one!! Regardless if JM identified 1 or 101 right backs and they’ve all turned us down it’s pretty inexcusable to then spend the budget on a 5th centre back and a 5th player who can play as a striker don’t you think? Especially whilst sticking to a 4-2-3-1 formation that requires full backs.

And that for me is a pretty sad state of affairs before a competitive game has been played. When nothing but promotion will do we’re having to rely on favours from other teams to fill out unaddressed positions of need, whilst we’ve got four players that can play left back, five that can play centre back, and five that can play centre forward(although none can play as a lone striker and that’s how we play ) I think that Mcglynn’s only way out other than loans is to move players on, I wouldn’t want to see McCann shifted but he and McKay are the only non Mcglynn defenders left. If mcginn’s needing injections to get through games maybe a serious consideration to his long term health needs to be made? Yesterday’s results will hopefully help us progress in the cup for extra cash but once again having to rely on that to fill positions of glaring need isn’t a great situation to be in.

I’m in pretty much total agreement, although it was Mcglynn that signed all the defenders bar McKay. Its easy to blame the defence for goals we conceded and they should shoulder a fair portion of the blame but I can’t help but think a better midfield would screen the defence from a lot of the threats they faced. Quite simply Henderson and McGinn after October last year aren’t mobile enough to do the job effectively. Now we have Spencer who looks to be doing the exact same job as McGinn albeit hopefully with more in the tank each game. We’re running with a smaller squad and that’s ok, but when you have two or three positions with little to no options whilst others positions that have several options I can’t see how that isn’t concerning. Especially when it’s public knowledge our budget has been used up.

Well that’s pretty much nonsense, regardless of targets and what’s transpired the necessity is for a right back and we haven’t signed one! All the while spending the budget on players that are supposedly better quality than we already have in positions where we’re already much better endowed. Fair enough if Zlatan decided he really wants to play for us and would play for next to nothing, you’d make allowances as he’s got undoubted quality, but you really have to question the signing of MacIver especially when you’ve no right back and no energy or physicality in the defensive side of midfield! All the while playing 1 up front and several players already vying for that spot.

No matter what JM says it obviously wasn’t a priority if he’s spent his budget on players in positions that weren’t as much of a necessity. He says he wants quality over quantity, so he’s now left with the option of getting a cheap loan in or nothing, hardly quality in an area of need. Unless he’s planning on moving a player on to free up some funds. No doubt he knows we need a right back, but he’s signed a centre back when we already had 4. He signed two centre forwards when we already had 2 and as you say only plays one up front. His signings even suggest we’d change formation to something like 3-5-2 but he’s stuck to his 4-2-3-1. As I said previously if we are going to be successful this season it already seems like we’ll be doing it whilst making things harder than they need to be.

Maybe just maybe the board are concerned at this time too? It has to be alarming that we have 5 centre backs and no right back, we have 8 attacking players to fill 4 positions whilst having only Brad Spencer and McGinn who’s taking painkilling injections to fill the two holding positions. With no budget left I’m concerned how imbalanced the squad is. The excuse for last season was Mcglynn still had Holt players even though he signed 18 players! Whilst I hope we run away with the league and have some good runs in the cup I already feel we’ll be doing so by making things harder for ourselves than it should be.

It seems to have stemmed from Mcglynn’s interview on Saturday that said that his budget was spent and we haven’t signed a right back. Although there’s the loan market to hopefully get someone in it doesn’t seem to be sitting well with some. My thoughts on this is it’s quite concerning to be entering the season with only Yeats that can realistically play right back. I’ll give credit where it’s due and say that in the majority Mcglynn’s signings have been of better quality than the managers before back to the Houston era, but his tactics and ability to adapt in games especially bigger games Dunfermline/cup semi/playoffs are still a huge concern for me.

I’m pretty sure that was the case, after Jeffries mugged hearts by basically swapping Colin Cramb for Mo Johnston, he went to Hearts and reversed the process. We lost Weir and Fulton and got Berry, Nelson, Hamilton and I want to say maybe George Wright who only played a couple of times.

Swapped away Stevie Fulton and let Chipper go and replaced them with our record signing the seldom fit Derek Ferguson. I can’t remember if was Lambie or Bannon that we ended up signing a load of dead wood from hearts and hibs, Graham Mitchell, Neil Berry, Brian Hamilton and I still shudder at Joe Tortolano. Add in Walter Kidd, Stuart Munro and Wayne Foster and it’s no wonder we were plummeting from mid table premier to the bottom of the 2nd tier. As for Hartley he’s equal 1st, a guy that in his first question of his press conference said nothing appealed to him in regards to Falkirk, “they came in for me” and unbelievably it got much worse. First look at Scott Harrison and Tom Owen Evans made me think that the guy was actually ripping the piss right out of us.

Doug Henderson and his “war chest” was to blame for the Houston era. Keeping money back whilst waiting for the so called bigger teams to get back to the premiership. All the while we kept out performing them on a comparable shoe string. I don’t blame Houston for saying it was his last season, I’d have been fed up too.

We’ve needed a Davie Nicholls type player since Davie Nicholls left! Especially in his first spell, his all round play was excellent, his aggression, leadership and goals return were outstanding.