Moutinho

Most loan deals for players that are any good require the club to pay a large part of the wages. Very few loans are free.

I’d be surprised if Leitch and Laverty don’t go out on loan.

Sammon will certainly contribute something next season- he scored 10 last season and we really didn’t play to his strengths at all. I think he could definitely get more next season with someone like Dowds in the team.

We didnt have loads of pace in Houstons teams either. like you say, move the fucking ball and that does the trick. Move the fucking ball is surely in the top shouts at TFS in the last few years.... We have this long running theme of being ponderous as f**k in possession. I mention Houstons team because in his last full season we had the rage inducing habit of doing f**k all until after half time at which point we seemed to begin to shift the ball quicker and actually got somewhere. Houston had lots of pace throughout the team and signed loads of fast players- Hippolyte, Smith, Cooper, Austin, McHugh and Aird just off the top of my head. He also often played players with pace already at the club like Leahy, Shepherd and O’Hara.

David and Lee were clear in their interview last week that they see Miller as a defensive midfielder. I think we’ll make 5 more signings- a back up goalkeeper, a right back, a centre back, a winger and a striker. The lack of pace in the midfield is what’s worrying me.

For me it’s got to be Gomis or Miller in centre midfield beside someone more attacking. Gomis seems like a waste of a wage- we could have brought in a cheaper backup to Miller and used the funds elsewhere.

We’d be lucky to make the playoffs with a Nelson- Dowds partnership. We need a proven goal scorer alongside Dowds, not a guy who scored 4 goals last season.

We don’t have the money or time in a 27-game season to sign and bed in a whole new squad again, so I’m quite happy to stick with the core of last season’s team. I wouldn’t have kept Telfer personally, but he clearly has ability so he needs to show it much more often in matches.

I’m not sure that asking fans to put in significant sums to buy the club will work in the middle of a huge recession where many will have lost their jobs and many more are about to. Will buying shares in Falkirk Football Club really be top of people’s priority list? The previous ownership proposal never got to the stage of anyone giving any money so it’s far from clear whether there was ever sufficient interest in fan ownership, never mind with what’s happening now.

Why should they?

The Board of Directors and MSG have no obligation to put any more of their money into the club than they already have in the same way fans have no obligation to contribute to a crowdfunder.

I’m concerned about the quality of players to come in if Kevin O’Hara was our main striker target. He’s nowhere near good enough. We should be looking to bring in 4 or 5 quality players imo, not jersey fillers like O’Hara.

We don’t need 3 strikers who don’t score goals.

Sammon scored 10 in all competitions last season. If we play to his strengths rather than treating him like a target man, he could easily get more imo.

Durnan was absolutely fine last year after David and Lee came in. Certainly not a position we need to be busting the budget to being in better imo. Telfer clearly has ability but was absolutely invisible last season. We’ll have a small squad this season with possibly only 15 or 16 first team players so I definitely wouldn’t be extending his contract as we can’t afford passengers.

I don’t see any reason why we can’t win the league this season. Our budget will be reduced, but given that we have many more season ticket holders than both Partick and Cove, I’d still expect us to have the biggest budget. The key imo will be adding 3 or 4 pieces of quality to what is already a good squad. Replacing McManus’s goals will be a challenge but if we can get someone alongside Sammon who will play to his strengths, we’ll get more out of him.

Next season will be all about controlling costs carefully and keeping outgoings to a minimum as we are down 25% to begin with before we even get to reduced season ticket sales, lower hospitality figures and probably no events etc. Lee and David will need to work hard to find players that will be able to improve us for the very limited wages I suspect we’ll be able to offer. They will need to sell us as a stepping stone for players.

That isn’t the strategy we’ve followed the last 3 seasons- we’ve replaced virtually the entire team every summer (and January). We don’t have time in a 27 game season to be settling in a whole new team. We need to go mostly with what we’ve got while adding some quality.

Realistically I don’t see us being able to sign 7 players who are both better than what we have in the first 11 and willing to come to us for the money we can offer. We’d be far better imo identifying and bringing in 3 or 4 players of real quality perhaps on a bit more money than trying to replace the whole team.

Tbh we’re just not in a position to be bringing in 18 new players again. Even if we were, we need to hit the ground running with less games this season so it would be a non starter. Dixon was excellent for the majority of last season, Hall and Todd we didn’t see enough of to judge and Sammon is certainly capable of doing well at this level so it’s all about getting him to perform.

3-5-2 doesn’t work in this league. We don’t need 3 centre backs not contributing in an attacking sense against teams who will just sit in. We looked much better with 4 at the back last season.

I think we have the basis of a good squad already at the club. If we can add a few pieces of quality, we’ll be good to go imo. A pacy winger and a striker would be my priorities. Mutch New RB Durnan Hall Dixon New RW Todd Miller Connolly Sammon New ST Subs: Leitch, Laverty, Gomis, Dowds

And that attitude worked out great with Paul Hartley didn’t it?

Tbh I don’t think the club will really be in a position to make signings until they see how season ticket sales go. They would be totally irresponsible to offer big bucks to players and then find that sales are way down like Dundee.

To be honest the club can’t win with season tickets. It looks like the league will be starting in October probably without fans, so they need to sell season tickets in order to sign players. It is a lot to expect people to pay £45 (2 adults and an under 18) a match effectively for a Falkirk TV subscription, but again the club need people to pay what they normally would to be to put a decent team on the park. I would definitely expect a much better product than what Falkirk TV currently offers though for £45 a game.