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Is Conroy the guy that used to play for Raith? He'd easily be our best player, if so.


Not sure how he’s playing these days, but if he’s on form he’s a good player. I haven’t seen him play for 4 years, but he’s only 32 and I assume he can still take a free kick. Maybe not.
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20 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

There's a rumour on the 'Confirmed Transfers' thread that Grant Dickie, son of Gary, is about to sign for Montrose.  Earlier on this thread he was rumoured to be linked with us, so I'm assuming he might have had a blether with Cammy Ballantyne :whistle

Aye, I know Grant personally he’s just back from playing a couple of seasons in Australia. He knows Jim Duffy from their Clyde days and I believe he is joining your next pre season session. 

No idea the quality of player he is now to be truthful. All the best to him. 

 

 

Edited by DeanMck
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It's funny that not one Dumbarton fan is hearing any rumours at all yet just about every Clyde fan knows who we've got in for preseason. 

They could be right given the standard of player we're seeing so far, but I sense some bait in the water.

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12 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

It's funny that not one Dumbarton fan is hearing any rumours at all yet just about every Clyde fan knows who we've got in for preseason. 

They could be right given the standard of player we're seeing so far, but I sense some bait in the water.

Colin Mcglashen is having a trial with Sons.Knows Duffy from way back and is 60 years old.But you know what...he played for Clyde so its on the cards.

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23 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

It's funny that not one Dumbarton fan is hearing any rumours at all yet just about every Clyde fan knows who we've got in for preseason. 

They could be right given the standard of player we're seeing so far, but I sense some bait in the water.

We’re probably hearing nothing this year because Aitken isn’t around to shout his mouth off to all his pals in the press.

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There doesn't seem to be any positivity or optimism from any of us. I think that says it all really. Usually there is some sort of disagreement with regards to signings/rumours but looks to me like we are all in agreement here. We look proper fucked!

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4 minutes ago, pleslie99 said:

There doesn't seem to be any positivity or optimism from any of us. I think that says it all really. Usually there is some sort of disagreement with regards to signings/rumours but looks to me like we are all in agreement here. We look proper fucked!

Not even seen any Armand Oné comments. A sure sign everyone is depressed. 

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2 hours ago, Scary Bear said:

 


Not sure how he’s playing these days, but if he’s on form he’s a good player. I haven’t seen him play for 4 years, but he’s only 32 and I assume he can still take a free kick. Maybe not.

 

Well, Conroy absolutely loves to take every set piece going but if that was a skill he once did possess he certainly doesn't anymore. It's all immaterial anyway as there's no suggestion he'll be signing for Dumbarton and he's still under contract with ourselves at the moment (and was pictured taking part in the first day of pre-season training) although he is on the transfer list. 

In terms of available players from Airdrie, you could genuinely do a lot worse than Kyle Wilkie and Darryl Duffy.  

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30 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

We’re probably hearing nothing this year because Aitken isn’t around to shout his mouth off to all his pals in the press.

I'm not sure Duffy is any better in that respect tbh, if anything Duffy is more connected to the media than Aitken (I still think Duffy was daft as hell doing his negotiating over budgets in the public during the summer). I think where they differ is that Aitken probably cared more about the perception of his signings, so would put out teasers to appease fans that he knew what he was doing (see; Porteous, Ryan and Penrice, James), whereas I really don't think Duffy gives a toss how his signings are perceived. There's a lot that Duffy appears, at least to the outside observer, that he doesn't give too much of a toss about.

On my earlier point about Duffy doing his negotiating with budgets in the public eye, it's partly (or perhaps solely) to blame for the disillusionment you see in Sons fans on here. Before it was confirmed Duffy was staying, John Steele said he wanted top 4. Duffy said he'd only stay if he had a budget that could challenge. At that point, everyone's on the same page - manager wants top 4, chairman wants top 4, fans happy to challenge for top 4. Duffy agrees to stay, all but Hutton and Brennan leave almost immediately. East Stirlingshire outbid us for one of our players, two leave to similar sized clubs in our league, our best defender drops a league to play for well known financial strugglers in Cowdenbeath. The chat in the summer doesn't tie in with what we've seen so far and that leads to folk asking questions. I pray Duffy has something up his sleeve, but I do feel perhaps an interview with him or John Steele could clarify what our current position is and if our aim remains the top 4 (I suspect we're aiming lower now).

I'm fine with us taking a punt on a couple of junior players - for 3 years now folk have been moaning about not having someone like Garry Fleming in the squad but the same folk are on that facebook page moaning that we're signing folk from the same level Garry was at before he came to us (if anything McCluskey has had a better SPFL career than Fleming). Where it will be an issue is if we have too many young players from a lower level and we need them to hit the ground running. Playing the "this might not be as bad as it seems" card, Brennan looked fine in his brief appearances for us and if anything has a bit of experience at this level and higher. Morgyn Neill has played a good number of games at this level and is still young/could improve, McCluskey has had a similar career path to a former Sons hero and has experience at this level and higher, Kyle Hutton we know what we're getting and if Carswell signs up we at least know we what we have in midfield (even though most of us know we need more than those two in there). I won't exhaust the Jim Lister cliche again, but f**k knows, Layne might be okay.

I understand how desperate that last paragraph reads, and I do have the same fears as others, but I'm refraining from writing anyone off until we've seen them together as a team. We won promotion from this league with James Creaney and Martin McNiff in defence, next to a 16 year old Ryan Finnie. Strange things can happen. 

 

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9 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

Before it was confirmed Duffy was staying, John Steele said he wanted top 4. Duffy said he'd only stay if he had a budget that could challenge. At that point, everyone's on the same page - manager wants top 4, chairman wants top 4, fans happy to challenge for top 4. Duffy agrees to stay, all but Hutton and Brennan leave almost immediately. East Stirlingshire outbid us for one of our players, two leave to similar sized clubs in our league, our best defender drops a league to play for well known financial strugglers in Cowdenbeath. The chat in the summer doesn't tie in with what we've seen so far and that leads to folk asking questions. I pray Duffy has something up his sleeve, but I do feel perhaps an interview with him or John Steele could clarify what our current position is and if our aim remains the top 4 (I suspect we're aiming lower now).

 

I'd agree with this. If we're going to have a shite team because that's all the budget can stretch to, that's fine. I think what most fans take issue with is being spun aspirations of top 4, when that's complete fantasy. And for those who say 'they're hardly going to come out and tell us publicly that there's no money', that's fine, but there's certainly no need to come out and paint a completely false narrative. That just causes further disillusionment and frustration.

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There doesn't seem to be any positivity or optimism from any of us. I think that says it all really. Usually there is some sort of disagreement with regards to signings/rumours but looks to me like we are all in agreement here. We look proper fucked!
I think the problem we have now is that even survival is looking like it will require at least 4 or 5 solid League 1 standard additions to the squad plus a couple of good loan signings. That may well happen but with each passing day the chances decrease as we watch guys we hoped to sign head elsewhere. I'm not talking about unrealistic targets heading for full-time football or the Championship, I'm talking about what appears to be realistic targets for a club of our size with top 4 ambitions (lol). As it stands I'm looking at a few of the League 2 squads and struggling to see where any of our current signed players would make it into their starting 11s, if we're looking at League 1 squads I'd have us clear bottom of the pile although Stranraer SHOULD be in touching distance if we can add at least 2 or 3 good additions. That doesn't mean I'll be remotely happy with 9th place but it's the only hope I'm clinging to at the minute. We can all go on about how our squad of recognised players underperformed last season but if we're being realistic we need a mix to have any hope of comfortably staying in the division.

If you add the above to the lack of credible rumours, the lack of communication from the club and the annoyance of everything pointing towards a top 4 push prior to our uninspiring close season business then it's a recipe for doom and gloom.

I'm crossing everything I've got that Duffy manages to cobble something together but at the minute I'm absolutely fucking dreading the season starting.
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2 minutes ago, FifeSons said:

I'd agree with this. If we're going to have a shite team because that's all the budget can stretch to, that's fine. I think what most fans take issue with is being spun aspirations of top 4, when that's complete fantasy. And for those who say 'they're hardly going to come out and tell us publicly that there's no money', that's fine, but there's certainly no need to come out and paint a completely false narrative. That just causes further disillusionment and frustration.

I tend to agree, aye, but I understand it's a hard balancing act. I think a lot of Sons fans have been bored of the "we have no money" chat and especially in previous years where we've heard that and still gone on to make good signings (and I fully understand this is down to the hard work of the board finding sponsors etc.). I think the board and John Steele maybe had reservations about beginning another summer with that message, there must have been fears that it would put folk off and I understand that (without agreeing with it).

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