Reply With QuoteGoing to Hearts no doubt.Originally Posted by Glasberdeen
Lee Wallace on a Bosman!?
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Lee Wallace on a Bosman!?
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Going to Hearts no doubt.Lee Wallace on a Bosman!?
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I actually thought we might struggle in the league this season. Granted, the quality of play hasn't been great but aside from the poor results against the h*ns/time we've actually fared better than I thought we might. There's a bigger issue here which is that we probably need a few seasons to sustainably rebuild the team and I doubt that fans will have the patience for McInnes to try to do this. Fans would give a new manager more time - it's just the psychology of football.
There will be lots of bedwetting in the summer regarding our ability to replace key players and lack of trust in McInnes to get it right. There was lots of bedwetting in the summer when we thought that McInnes would go to Sunderland and would need to appoint a new manager and buy a new team. Fans are precious souls and things are rarely as bad as they seem.
I think the squad is actually in better shape than it was going into last summer. Fans are too quick to write off players. As others have pointed out, Barry Nich and Hayes are examples of players who struggled in their first seasons.
I think Stewart should be re-signed but only if McInnes has a clear role for him to which he is suited and not simply because he is available and was good at Dundee.
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Pretty sure that however long the list of replacements is - the recruitment of two solid central midfielders is paramount. Pretty sure we are going to continue to struggle to source and recruit what’s needed within the budget.
Do hope they’ve managed to compile a decent list of affordable targets. Chuck the budget at getting the right two in and get the manager to change his stance at giving the youth a chance to flesh out squad.
Sadly - think Mulumbu and McGeouch are out of reach but hopefully the management team have seen enough this season to recognise the need to get the recruitment of these two bang on. Our rivals seem adept at bringing in the likes of two afore mentioned, Djoum, Barton etc on budget. No excuses - just get it done.
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Memo for Russ Richardson...
Right Russ, get the Reliant Regal loaded up for a fortnight trapsing round some of your favourite haunts darn south. Got a list of lads for you to take a look at - all out of contract at end of season. See if any of them are the answer and interested in playing for the famous.
Alex Woodyard (Lincoln) - may have signed an extension - so possibly small fee involved.
Jason Lowe (Birmingham)
Hiram Boateng (Exeter)
Jordan Tillson (Exeter)
Ousmane Fane (Oldham)
Tom Naylor (Burton)
Timothee Dieng (Bradford)
Victor Nirennold (Fleetwood)
Ben Godfrey (Norwich - on loan at Shrewsbury)
That’s a quick scan on terrier/beast realistic out of contract defensive midfielders. I’ve a hunch that any of them would be an improvement on O’Connor/allow Shinnie to return to lwb. Get in fast before we get gazumped by Murderwell or Thistle.
Boateng, Fanè and Dieng in particular look like they would go into a 50-50 with Scott Broon with little trepidation. Come on Russ - we’re surely due a couple of belters this summer.
Last edited by vinnydesalvo; 17-04-2018 at 04:55 AM.
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The only one he’ll sign on that list is Fane of Oldham.
He loves signing Fane’s from the English lower leagues.
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I’m interested to hear you say “the squad is in better shape this year”.
Why do you think that out of interest?
There are likely to be a minimum of 10 players leaving.
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If previous summer windows are anything to go by, McInnes will already have identified a handful of key signings to which most available resources will have been allocated and remaining signings will be a mixture of hopeful loan signings and journeymen.
I agree that we need at least two midfielders - someone to replace McLean and someone to replace Jack. Maybe keep O'Connor as backup at CH assuming Arnason and Reynolds both leave. I remember Ali Crawford being spoken about a few seasons ago and the h*ns were sniffing around not too long ago. He's been injured most of this season but I think he's out of contract in the summer. Not very imaginative which means it has McInnes signing written all over it. There aren't many realistic targets that jump out at me.
I know that some will insist that we should avoid buying Scottish players but without adequate scouting this is a speculative approach. If it was so easy to find better value overseas everyone would be doing it. Scottish clubs spent years signing foreign players in the late 90s/early 00s and they were mostly sh*te.
McInnes approach towards youth players has taken some flak but McKenna has shown that if you're the real deal you can break into the team. It's maybe a bit harsh given some of the dross he has signed as filler but at the same time it's not as though we have allowed any top youngsters to slip through our fingers.
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Last year we were facing the loss of Jack, McGinn and then Hayes when Celtic signed him. I would say that those three are harder to replace than any of the players who will be leaving this season with the exception of McLean and perhaps Christie (but he isn't our player anyway). If McInnes wants to keep Stewart then I don't imagine it would be too difficult to deal with Birmingham. If we don't sign him permanently it means that McInnes thinks he is replaceable which invalidates the 'we can't replace those leaving with similar quality' argument.
McLean and Christie are essentially the only two players we would definitely want to keep. If any of the others are irreplaceable we could surely just offer them new contracts?
Last edited by ragnarok; 17-04-2018 at 06:25 AM.
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Pardon me for askin ... but ... is Tansey still wi' us? ... Jist askin, cos he wis shyte ... but carryin an injury. Ah gather he's had another op ... is he finished? .. or (if he's still a red) .. is there a chunce, wi plenty recovery time, and a pre season, he might be the player we thought we paid for?
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