edinburghhonestman

Seeing enough here to suggest we're not as bad as some folk are making out. Syla and Young seem fairly tidy on the ball and Chalmers and Murphy will create chances. Hopefully adding in Dowds will make a difference.

An aggregate score of 24-5 is just outright embarrassing. Hibs losing was always on the cards given the financial disparity but you'd have expected a bit more fight from the others.

If that's the case it's a bit of an indictment of our recruitment as we're supposed to have someone onboard who sifts all that out before we sign them.

Not sure I'm buying this fallout idea. Players fall out all the time about not being picked and managers usually say it's great that they desperately want to play. For him to fall out over Saturday and to be released as quickly as this, it would need to have been some monumental bust up. From his interviews he didn't seem the type. It also would reflect badly on Bullen as well as him if they couldn't resolve their differences.

Would seem the most plausible reason. I was watching him pinging in shots in the pre-match warm-up on Saturday and was thinking how good it was we had a midfielder who was prepared to have a go. Oh well!

To be fair to him he did have them stripped and waiting to come on before the first goal today.

Well, that was poor in so many ways. Team selection was baffling and playing Musonda in midfield when we had real midfielders on the bench probably tops it. His main contribution was getting booked but even then, it didn't look like a foul to me. There were times when we looked so disorganised I had no idea what shape we thought we were playing. Midfield really struggled. I thought Paul Smith looked like the only one comfortable in possession other than McGeady. He (McGeady) obviously has a bit of class but unfortunately Paddy Reading seems the player most able to anticipate it. Although the service was poor I don't think Rose is the answer. He might turn out to be fine alongside a target man, but leading the line there's not much between him, McKenzie and Bryden. Defensively we were OK for a while and McGinty tends to be fine when we're under that kind of pressure plus Stranger looks like a bit of a find. Stranger aside, the other positive for me was Young. He probably hardly knew everyone's names but he got stuck in, showed for the ball and was prepared to have a dig. Need to have a long think about our best line up but I think we definitely need a centre forward as we'll struggle to score otherwise.

That's a pretty decent list of players in. It's too early to judge Ahui on the basis of being thrown in the deep end but all the rest look like they'll contribute.

Forget all the panda nonsense. That's a cracking recovery. Looks like he could be a useful upgrade.

Let's hope the managers all underestimate us too.

The signs are that we won't be a one man team this season. Our 16 goals so far (including friendlies) have been scored by 8 players. It's too early to judge our new striker as he's only played 19 minutes but Jamie Murphy looks like he'll score a few to take some of the pressure off.

I think it's going to be even closer than last year between 2nd and 7th or 8th and on their day, every team can beat any of the others. However, -Dundee United should win it. Even if Goodwin struggles, they can bin him and sign enough players in January to scrape over the line. - The bottom 3 will be Arbroath as their squad is aging; Airdrie, who will shock a few but squad depth will catch up with them eventually; and Dunfermline who look to have a very young squad and few real significant signings. I'm feeling reasonably confident that Ayr won't be as bad as many people on here have predicted.

That's 8 former Academy players appeared in the League Cup with a minimum of 4 in every game. I doubt there will be many clubs can get near that - even the much hyped Queens Park. That's got to be great for the future of the club, even if some of them aren't ready yet for league action.

Plenty of good ones but Shankland's second when we beat Dundee United 5-0 sticks in the mind. Michael Rose steps out to win the ball and feeds the Moff. He makes some ground and then slips it to McDaid on the left. He makes more ground and then crosses it low in to the box. Moff has kept moving forward and moves towards the ball wrong footing the central defenders before letting it run giving Shankland an easy side foot home. It was that side at it's absolute best

Watching that Hibs performance this afternoon, it's going to be a bit of a step up for McGeady this season.

I've been on the North Terrace since 1963 and I resent that remark

As someone who lives in the capital let's hope he's doing the resident's discount. I've been to some pretty sparsely attended Fringe shows.

The season before last (which is the last with published accounts) salary costs were just over 80% of turnover. I suspect that's pretty standard, otherwise you're spending more than you can afford.

Even if they do have an identified target (or targets) there was never really a chance a replacement would be signed for today.

Of the team that started the first League Cup game last season we've only lost Houston and Akinyemi. The others are all still here, so it's not that much weaker. All depends on what business we do in the next two weeks.

Good post. Hard to disagree with most of that. I'm not convinced about Dunfermline, though. This is a team with Joe Chalmers in midfield. As for Ayr, a lot depends on how we replace Akinyemi and what, if anything we do about full back.

I don't think there's anything unique about it other than the spin. Ayr have ten or eleven players who've come through the Academy in to the first team squad and I'd guess a few other teams in the Championship have reasonably decent numbers as well

Neither is as good as mine. Bucatini with asparagus and peas.

Wonder if we'll see any movement on the Dipo situation next week? Gillingham were reportedly interested in both him and Alfie May from Cheltenham but May has just signed for Charlton Athletic. Maybe Gillingham will now meet Ayr's asking price.

He seems to have switched from left to right in recent years. I think our greatest need is on the left