CallumPar

Not being funny, but I don’t think that was because we had Breen, Todd, McCann and Mehmet. Think anyone tipping us for promotion was looking at us having players like Thomas, Dow, Dorrans, Watson and Kai Kennedy. Everyone expected us to get a lot more out of those players. Obviously Todd has progressed a lot in the last couple of years. But the players we have now were not thought of as championship title contenders. Comrie, Edwards and Wighton are probably the only ones that would have been part of the team that was being touted for promotion.

Can’t agree with this. McPake did not inherit a squad that could win the championship. That just isn’t true at all. Very few of the players left got regular game time the season before, when we were relegated from the championship. Even looking at what we have, now that he has signed Hamilton, Benedictus and KRH, I don’t think we have a potential championship winning team. So he certainly didn’t inherit one. I think we are 4/5 quality signings away from having a squad that will compete in the top half of the championship. No point getting carried away and setting up false hope/expectations.

Yep. The nice one was TFG in 2004. The Adidas European kit was the black one, reverse of the home top from that season. Wore it for the cup final in 2007 and the home game v Hacken.

Yeah, that was awful. Don’t think there was ever any need to wear it. But we wore it 4 times. Think we only wore the away kit 5 times and I’d much rather we saw more of that.

I’d imagine the Joma deal is up at the end of May or something. So wouldn’t be surprised if the club release/announce something on Thursday/Friday.

Fairly sure they’ve qualified for Europe, unless Inverness win the cup next week.

By the way, just realised that the St Pauli game is 4 weeks today. Not long until Pars are back.

I find it incredible that these guys are too thick to see how stupid the statement was. I also think the board’s admission that they need to win more games makes the decision to keep McGlynn even more confusing.

Agree with this. Will be hard to forget the board appointing Grant because they liked his style of play when we beat his Alloa team 4-1… or Hughes talking about possession and praising our backwards/sideways passing when we’re in a relegation battle and failed to score in 5 of his last 8 games. Having said that, if Grant/Hughes just turned the vast majority of their defeats into wins, we’d have been challenging at the top. If we want to use Falkirk’s logic and pretend it’s not idiotic…

You say that you need consistency. But the board statement listed your points total per quarter. 17, 13, 24, 13. Across 3 quarters of the season, you were consistently poor. Quarter 3 was the anomaly. That’s the quarter that was inconsistent with the rest of the season. If you had got 17 points in that quarter, would that not have shown consistency? If you had repeated that form at other points, or just had one poor quarter, I’d be inclined to agree that consistency was the issue. But it wasn’t, that inconsistent quarter is the reason we ‘only’ finished 14 ahead of you and not 20+. It’s not consistency that was the issue, it was a lack of quality and a poor manager. As for the ‘only a matter of turning a handful of losses into wins’ - I still think that’s a massive ask and it’s spoken about as if it’s really simple. You lost 7 games and would need to turn 71% of your defeats into wins (not just draws) to get to 80 points. Surely you see how mental it is to say it’s ‘only a matter of turning a handful of losses into wins’? Turning draws into wins and narrow defeats into draws is the logical/sensible ‘PR talk’. Talk of turning the majority of your defeats into wins is just stupid. You’ll have had narrow defeats that could have been turned into draws and you’ll have drawn games you should have won.

Just seen Falkirk’s board statement from yesterday. They really are deluded… ”In the end we fell short but the difference between finishing second with 67 points and reaching the 80 points needed to (probably) guarantee winning the league, is only a matter of converting a handful of losses into wins.” Turning losses into wins is spoken about as if it’s easy. How out of touch with reality are these guys?

Agreed, I honestly think best outcome for all parties is that Dundee get a development fee/sell on clause and Fisher gets a regular game with us, which would aid his development and improve our defensive options. As you say, he’s not going to be involved for you guys in the top flight, so seems like the sensible outcome.

I think everyone’s aware that a fee might be due. But we’ve paid a few development fees in recent years. If McPake wants him and Fisher wants to come, it’ll happen. I think people sometimes overestimate these development fees. If Fisher is happy to sign a 3 year deal, the club will be comfortable paying a small fee and agree a sell on % with Dundee.

Anyone else watch the review thing with McPake and Steven Mill on youtube. When they look at pictures of celebrations, he mentions Sam Fisher and comments along the lines of “he was still a Dundee player at the time” then has to backtrack and say “of course, he still is”… certainly came across as if that’s a done deal. Expect that to be announced early June, once his Dundee contract expires.

PST looking for fans’ opinion on the conference league.

Still got Mochrie and Mahon as well. Contracts usually don’t expire until 31st May, so most websites will include players who have left until then.

Just listened to McPake’s interview - interesting to hear that it was agreed as part of the loan deal that we’d have an option to buy/make it a permanent deal. Another example of some good planning/negotiations from those in charge.

Out of interest, why do you think we have no chance of getting Fisher? General consensus around Dunfermline is that he is a ‘done deal’.

Now that the dust has settled and we’ve had time to calm down… how bloody good is that signing? It’s a real sign of intent. I know he’s unproven at championship level, but he was far too good for league 1. Really looking forward to seeing him at East End for the next few years. I’ve commented a couple of times on this, but Dunfermline feels like somewhere that players want to be right now. McPake, the coaching staff and the board deserve immense credit for that. We now have the manager/assistant, Todd, Hamilton and KRH on long term deals. Quite a few players recently signed 2 year deals as well. In the last 4/5 years, very few first team players have signed extensions to their initial contracts. It’s great to see that changing. I also don’t think we can underestimate the influence of the section NW guys. They’ve created an atmosphere home and away and get behind the team. The connection between fans and players is very strong right now and I hope that continues for a long time yet!

Yeah, I think so. Doesn’t exactly say “I want out” but he doesn’t even attempt to say that he wants to stay. Openly talks about hoping that Hibs get a return on their investment in him.

He did an interview today, where he said tomorrow could be his last game at Easter Road for Hibs…

Honestly, I hope plenty players I’ve never heard of - McPake (and/or someone in the scouting team) clearly has an eye for a player. Majority of the loan guys last year, I’d never heard of. But they were all good footballers, that added something to the team. McPake also repeatedly said last season that he was struggling to recruit the desired quality of player, due to the level we were playing at. So I’m looking forward to seeing who we bring in this year.

Would like to say I was ‘in the know’ but this was pure speculation. Absolutely delighted to be right (for once)!

Probably on his way to Falkirk

3 year deal, undisclosed fee. Fantastic from the club.