the_bully_wee
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Posts posted by the_bully_wee
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What a club, honestly.
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Rapid, which is half the battle for a forward at this level. Plenty of League 1 experience and another great option to have - if that's us done though then we're still a couple shy of where I'd want us to be. Night and day from how we were looking in mid-December though.
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There's yer Alex King back. Pity we couldn't get him in a bit sooner but I reckon Morton just wanted the extra cover for as long as they could have it. Give us one more please!
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Same line-up for me, given McGinn still won't have had a training session with the team by the time the match comes around. If, as looks likely, we do not sign a right-back then we should be going with Lyon there over Dunachie going forward, and if we were to sign a central midfielder then we could play Cuddihy there instead. 3 points this week would be plenty in the event that it meant we'd beaten Elgin, to be honest.
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Aside from when Spartans faced off against Stenhousemuir a few weeks back, this re-arranged fixture is probably the most important clash in this season's League Two to date; it's definitely the biggest for both of the sides involved, anyway. A win for Elgin would provide them with a healthy seven point gap over the visitors, and their bizarrely imperious home form to date must make them slight favourites, but Clyde will draw hope from their own recent revival allied to their hosts' defeat at the hands of Dumbarton on Saturday.
Even at just beyond the halfway point of the campaign, this match looks like a must-not-lose for Ian McCall's boys. They'll undoubtedly draw confidence from their past half a dozen league games, in which - with the exception of the Stenhousemuir and Dumbarton games - they have generally been the side in control of proceedings. Elgin have enjoyed a renaissance of their own under new boss Allan Hale, however, and both teams look rather different from those that contested a supremely edgy and low-quality affair at Hamilton back in September, from which Clyde managed one of their paltry two wins up to now. This game should have a lot more quality in general, but I'm sure it will be a similarly cagey affair.
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Can't complain about a draw, but given the territory we had we really should've won that game. Really disappointing how infrequently we tested Carswell after Allan's early flurry of chances. Still, a draw away to the second best team in the league on recent form isn't to be sniffed at. Tuesday's game remains a real six-pointer.
ETA: Lee Hamilton is absolutely terrific. I didn't rate him massively based on what I saw of him against Clyde in the past, but he and Howie have been brilliant signings. Hopefully we can add a touch more quality before the deadline closes.
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He's not Ross Lyon, and in that sense it is a positive move. Disappointed we couldn't get McGinley though, that looked a sure thing based on various factors.
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Wonder what the story is there, whether Thistle want him going somewhere he'll be a starter or we've terminated it to free up another loan slot. Despite his age he always got stuck in, so fair play, but he isn't a very elegant footballer by any stretch and will need to improve on a lot of things in the next few years. Hard to really pin down what his best role would be now and going forward, but there's definitely a bit of something there.
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The boy just loves being relegated from League One.
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McCall apparently said he's got a player coming in from Motherwell on the radio at the weekend and they've just released Nathan McGinley. 2+2=?
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This is either going to be the most box office transfer window finale ever, or the biggest disappointment of all time. Can't wait!
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14 minutes ago, Replays said:
Heard some talk on Friday night that has made me feel a bit better about things (some of which aligns nicely with the_bully_wee’s). Here’s hoping we can throw a JAmboree to celebrate our new arrivals we’ll SURELY see soon!
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Just now, haufdaft said:
What has King shown in his loan period with us that makes us think we should extend the loan?
Other than the fantastic goals at the book ends of his initial loan he's been pretty anonymous in most games.
Perhaps he does things for the team I don't see or are we gambling that he plays better in a better team (which can be said for most players).
He's a complete standout at this level technically and just needs to sharpen up on the mental/tactical side of the game to make good on his potential. If you asked me prior to the Bonnyrigg game then I wouldn't have been bothered either way, but he was terrific that day given a bit of freedom further up the park. We'll get a lot more out of King playing advanced with the likes of Grant, Cuddihy and Leitch supplying him than we did when we were asking him to be our main central midfielder in a team that was universally desperately poor in possession.
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My Morton-supporting chum has just informed me that King is on his way back to us. Finally some good news!
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McCall saying post-match he's looking to sign four now. I'd say that's the absolute bare minimum that we need to have a balanced first XI and some decent cover. Surely they've got secondary targets for those we've missed out on, surely?
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As good as you could expect from this Clyde team really, would've been really interesting to see how it panned out if Young's excellent effort had crept in. No injuries to any of our key guys and up the road now please!
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I'd rather have Leslie than not, so it's positive news in that regard I suppose and we should get more from him in the second half of the campaign. If I hear him described as a new player in the vein of Cuddihy and Grant, though, then it could well serve as my joker moment.
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Missing out on virtually all of your targets is absolutely fine if you haven't led up to the window and started it with cocksure statements about the numbers you will bring in. At no point was it "we will try to", "we will do our best", "if we're lucky". If expectations were tempered whatsoever by Maitland or McCall then what's currently happening would be nothing more than unfortunate, but their strategy has clearly been sub-optimal to say the least. As I said before, we'll just have to hope they had plenty of contingency options beneath the misplaced confidence.
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I'm not sure what's causing me more distress here between people continuing to give "Jimmy Choo" oxygen in the year 2024 and the very real prospect of Ross Lyon starting every game between now and the end of the season.
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Appears to be local to Dundee as well so that'll almost certainly be another one down the drain. Sad!
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We are obviously aiming very high with our recruitment this month, given some of the names mentioned. Maitland, McCall and our league status will live or die by how sensible that decision proves to be with hindsight. We're in a position with the squad now where it's possible that we could avoid tenth spot, but it would require serious good fortune with injuries given the paucity of cover, competition or general quality in some areas. I would hope that there are plenty of contingencies for key targets missed but, in a window notoriously difficult to do business in, that may not necessarily be the case. What we were told by Maitland at the fans' meeting was that, at that time, he expected around eight total arrivals and roughly four of those to be in place early on in the window - we saw three in for the first of January, so that wasn't far off. The longer we go by without any further business being conducted, the more worrisome the situation becomes though; rumours are swirling about targets who may have rejected us and why they've done so, and the messaging from those involved in recruitment is descending from bullish, robust and convincing to something rather more fraught, frustrated and hopeful.
I don't doubt that Maitland and McCall are working their bollocks off in trying to improve the squad; they have both, evidently, been acutely aware of just what a state the squad was in since they respectively arrived at the club. They've obviously got a hefty chunk of change to enact change if we've been able to pay up/terminate a handful of contracts and then target the likes of Jordan Allan and Dario Zanatta on loan, both of whom will be on a wage that is a high-ticket one at part-time level. If they are two of between five and seven total targets, then there's obviously a lot to play with there. It is refreshing that the message continues to be about getting the right guys in and ensuring they are players of genuine quality, but the more January marches on, the more susceptible we are becoming to a late-window scramble for warm bodies and gambles.
With three (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) available loan slots to use up, it could well be that there are some deals in the pipeline which haven't been formalised yet because higher-up clubs want to add to their own squads first. With us largely targeting players who are good enough to play in League One, it could be as OTIG says, that the players themselves - quite rightly, too - want to see if a club in less of a clusterfuck would be willing to match or better whatever offer we've tabled. The three we have signed so far, despite fitting into that League One quality category, were unattached and therefore there was probably a keener sense of urgency on their parts to secure themselves a contract ASAP.
I wouldn't think that signings were being held back purely to protect the feelings of jobbers who are probably acutely aware by now that McCall will be chucking them right on the bench as soon as he can sign someone better. Maybe if it was another Jeanfield type tie where we could harbour reasonable expectations of progressing to the next round, but not when we're up against an Aberdeen side that'll be desperate to avoid a repeat of their shitemare last year.
On Liam Brown - he'd be a terrific signing, provided his heart was in it. Given his loan spell at Stenhousemuir and his drop down to EK, though, I'm not entirely convinced it would be. Undoubtedly a smashing player though and one that I'd be horrified to learn we hadn't at least had a conversation with.
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Flynn Duffy or Kieran Freeman would be my guess there
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If being well outplayed at home for over an hour by the side adrift at the bottom of the league doesn't make a team terrible, I'm not sure what does!
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Elgin City vs The Hamilton Globetrotters (Tuesday, 30th Jan)
in Scottish League 2 General Chatter
Posted
Looks like we are taking a bit of a doing now. Probably the only team I've ever known that doesn't build on taking the lead!