The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours

[AsimButtHitsASix]

7 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

I still think it would have been useful to have two natural holding midfielders at the club though as we have no alternative to Gillespie, unless King is capable of stepping into the role. We already saw last season that Lyon and Blues as the deepest two doesn't work defensively. With Jacobs, Lyon, King and McGrattan already under contract the budget should have been used more wisely in the summer so we didn't find ourselves having to spend some of our budget paying someone to play for Edinburgh.

Didn't Gus say Hynes has played CM for the reserves/development squad before? If not him then I can see someone else from defence being punted into midfield to cover a gap for a few weeks.

[Dunning1874]

3 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Didn't Gus say

Stopped reading here.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

2 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Stopped reading here.

Then the joke's on you when the Hynes/Blues central midfield partnership runs the show like Deschamps/Zidane '98

ETA: Easdale is Guivarch in this fever dream

Edited July 30, 2022 by AsimButtHitsASix

[Dunning1874]

23 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Then the joke's on you when the Hynes/Blues central midfield partnership runs the show like Deschamps/Zidane '98

ETA: Easdale is Guivarch in this fever dream

Jack 'Desailly' Baird.

[forfarton]

On 28/07/2022 at 18:31, AsimButtHitsASix said:

We're currently banning U12s from coming into the ground unless accompanied by an adult. 

Perfectly reasonable to expect U12s to have some form of adult supervision. 

[The Ghost of B A R P]

Rumours circulating about Griffiths might very well be bollocks, but it’s a sign of how desperate we are for something in that position.

Serious question: if not an unfit, unreliable 32-yr-old with his reputation in tatters and a media circus in tow, then who?

Poplatnik? Cameron on loan? The return of Ugwu? None of these options tick all the boxes, but we might have to settle for ‘credible’… or, as above, ‘wild gamble that might turn out incredible… or kill us dead’.

(See also that Robbie Crawford is training with Dunfermline, so it looks as if our budget f**k-up has put paid to that; Alex King looks to have a lot of potential, but he’ll be as surprised as anyone to be a ‘first-team player’ this early in his career…).

Incredibly frustrating because, despite the obvious difficulties, we’re two players away from being genuinely competitive.

[1320Lichtie]

6 minutes ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

Rumours circulating about Griffiths might very well be bollocks, but it’s a sign of how desperate we are for something in that position.

Serious question: if not an unfit, unreliable 32-yr-old with his reputation in tatters and a media circus in tow, then who?

Poplatnik? Cameron on loan? The return of Ugwu? None of these options tick all the boxes, but we might have to settle for ‘credible’… or, as above, ‘wild gamble that might turn out incredible… or kill us dead’.

(See also that Robbie Crawford is training with Dunfermline, so it looks as if our budget f**k-up has put paid to that; Alex King looks to have a lot of potential, but he’ll be as surprised as anyone to be a ‘first-team player’ this early in his career…).

Incredibly frustrating because, despite the obvious difficulties, we’re two players away from being genuinely competitive.

I’m 99 percent sure Innes Cameron is coming to us on loan. I’m not overly excited about it or convinced he will do well but after scrolling through each Premiership squad there seems to be a real dearth of decent strikers, so someone who’s got plenty of experience and is a known quantity is actually probably quite a good thing. 
 

On Griffiths, yes he’s been pish the last 18 months but I still think he could be a good player for someone especially in this division. 

Edited August 2, 2022 by 1320Lichtie

[The Ghost of B A R P]

Just now, 1320Lichtie said:

I’m 99 percent sure Innes Cameron is coming to us on loan. I’m not overly excited about it or convinced he will do well but after scrolling through each Premiership squad there seems to be a real dearth of decent strikers, so someone who’s got plenty of experience and is a known quantity is actually probably quite a good thing. 
 

On Griffiths, yes he’s been pish the last 18 months but I still think he could be a good player for someone especially in this division. 

What makes you so sure Cameron is heading up there?

[1320Lichtie]

1 minute ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

What makes you so sure Cameron is heading up there?

It’s been talked about for weeks. I’ve heard it’s happening from a source as reliable as you could get and I even noticed a pretty popular Killie fan account tweet it a few weeks back. About a week after I was told.  

[Ian Mcleod]

2 hours ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

 

 The return of Ugwu? 

 

Ugwu is Set for Us (Hamilton) from what I've heard. 

[AsimButtHitsASix]

2 hours ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

Rumours circulating about Griffiths might very well be bollocks, but it’s a sign of how desperate we are for something in that position.

Serious question: if not an unfit, unreliable 32-yr-old with his reputation in tatters and a media circus in tow, then who?

Ye know it's not the lack of goals which is my main issue with Griffiths (although he's not scored double figures in the last five seasons.) As backwards as it is to say it I don't think goals are the main barometer to judge strikers anymore. They're more a focal point to engineer attacks around and if they can score a few themselves that's almost a bonus.
 
If we're gonna be playing with a mix of Quitongo/Muirhead/Kabia/Blues/Lyon and even Strapp breaking into the box I want a striker who is either mobile enough to drag defenders away to give them space and/or someone physical enough to body defenders and give us a target to aim for. Or at least someone who can win us freekicks in dangerous positions. An unfit, unmotivated Griffiths is none of the above. 

Maybe our best bet now is asking the Dunoon Capello (Warnock) to get into his contacts to find us some cheap options from down south on loan.

24 minutes ago, Ian Mcleod said:

Ugwu is Set for Us (Hamilton) from what I've heard. 

Fitness, caused by wee niggling injuries, was a bit of an issue for Ugwu last season. If he's getting flung in without a proper pre-season that might be an even bigger issue for him this year (maybe the rest will be the best thing for him but I doubt it)

[The Ghost of B A R P]

46 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Ye know it's not the lack of goals which is my main issue with Griffiths (although he's not scored double figures in the last five seasons.) As backwards as it is to say it I don't think goals are the main barometer to judge strikers anymore. They're more a focal point to engineer attacks around and if they can score a few themselves that's almost a bonus.
 
If we're gonna be playing with a mix of Quitongo/Muirhead/Kabia/Blues/Lyon and even Strapp breaking into the box I want a striker who is either mobile enough to drag defenders away to give them space and/or someone physical enough to body defenders and give us a target to aim for. Or at least someone who can win us freekicks in dangerous positions. An unfit, unmotivated Griffiths is none of the above. 

Maybe our best bet now is asking the Dunoon Capello (Warnock) to get into his contacts to find us some cheap options from down south on loan.

Agree, but I don't think Imrie would go near him if he wasn't 100% (ok, 99%) sure on that front (and you'd want the deal to be structured in a way that protects us if he downs tools).

Besides fitness, my main concern about Griffiths is the potential for nonsense off the field (I'm assuming no criminal proceedings are outstanding, but his track record suggests he'll never be far from a scandal or two).

In purely footballing terms, though, I'd have no doubts that (a fit, motivated) Griffiths would both link the play and score goals in this league; and you can see how playing between Kabia and Quitongo might suit him.

If Cameron is set for Arbroath and Ugwu goes to Hamilton, that's two of the teams we should be trying to finish above adding, at the very least, a focal point for their attack. Whether it's one of the players named or something out of left field, we badly need to get something done, and quick.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Well the good news is we're not signing Griffiths.

I expect us to muddle through til the end of the month then get someone in on loan. 

[DreamOakTree1]

20 hours ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Well the good news is we're not signing Griffiths.

I expect us to muddle through til the end of the month then get someone in on loan. 

I take it Poplatnik is out of our reach as he’s a free agent then?

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Not a scoob. I expect other clubs in this division, and below, would be able to offer a better deal

[Toby]

Is asked one of the directors about the prospect of Poplatnik coming in at the MCT EGM in June and was told that the sort of money he was after was so far out of our price range it’s frightening.

Things may well have changed a couple of months down the line with no club having signed him, but I’d imagine we can forget it.

[The Ghost of B A R P]

16 hours ago, Toby said:

Is asked one of the directors about the prospect of Poplatnik coming in at the MCT EGM in June and was told that the sort of money he was after was so far out of our price range it’s frightening.

Things may well have changed a couple of months down the line with no club having signed him, but I’d imagine we can forget it.

What Poplatnik’s agent is asking for in June and what he eventually signs for might end up being some distance apart, but I agree we might not be the best offer he has in hand.

He’d be a welcome addition, given our current resources up front, but I’m not too invested in the idea that it somehow has to be him… unless he winds up at Ayr or Raith for the sake of a couple of hundred quid a week.

The chances of Ugwu coming back for what he was originally offered must be increasing by the week (especially since Hamilton appear to have gone for a different option); that wouldn’t be wildly exciting, but it’s way preferable to bringing in a Jimmy Knowles figure on 31 August…

My hunch is that Imrie, after the budget debacle, is now trying to get two in more or less for the price of one (plus whatever he got back for Jacobs); that means either accepting lesser quality or holding your nerve until the death, but I trust him to play that game better than his predecessor.

[Morton Supporter]

My educated guess is that we’ll get Euan Henderson on loan from Hearts.

Will leave others to comment on how educated that guess is, but it’s based on: us clearly needing a forward; that he scored goals at Alloa last year; that he was recalled by Hearts in January but didn’t feature much; that Hearts were one of two teams we’ve loaned players from since DI came in; and that Livi seemingly have no one left to offer us.

[CoveRangers1922]

23 minutes ago, Morton Supporter said:

My educated guess is that we’ll get Euan Henderson on loan from Hearts.

Will leave others to comment on how educated that guess is, but it’s based on: us clearly needing a forward; that he scored goals at Alloa last year; that he was recalled by Hearts in January but didn’t feature much; that Hearts were one of two teams we’ve loaned players from since DI came in; and that Livi seemingly have no one left to offer us.

I was hoping we'd be in for him too but Robbie Neilson was quote in one of the Edinburgh papers a few weeks back saying Euan Henderson wont be loaned out at all this season.

That was before Shankland signed granted. With Shankland and Boyce, Henderson will be third choice as it stands. They might strengthen further in that position to cope with European football and this could lead to him coming out in January?

Edited August 11, 2022 by CoveRangers1922

[Morton Supporter]

Thank you - the hole in my theory is certainly that I don’t know anything about his situation or Hearts plans this season.