RicoS321

Christ, we've been complaining about Short-staff all window then when we finally address that.... I think the loan system is good, I'm just not sure of our strategy, or if there is one at all. Longstaff is probably exactly the type of player we should be considering. Someone that we can't afford but can improve our first eleven. Jenks is a squad filler, like Edmondson and the various others before him. They only serve to compete with our young players for game time, devaluing them (Campbell versus Jenks). It should be the same when we loan our players too. They should be going for 90 regular 70-90 minutes of football. Accordingly we should be sending them to places where they're good enough to get those minutes.

Don't remember bates being any better than McRorie, although he is more physical I think. It was clear last night that McRorie struggled on his wrong side, and I've no reason to assume that bates would be any better in that regard. It's a little bit like the McInnes style of signing players because they're good and available rather than trying to fit into our team. We needed a left sided centre half.

At least we've heard of this one. I agree though, it's not ideal and not what we were expecting, or told, under Glass/Cormack. Weirdly, he's in his last year too. Didn't play at all last season. Straight in the team ahead of Jenks? Fuck knows to be honest, I'm struggling to see what we're doing with the team, including Watkins who doesn't quite fit either. It's like when we signed McGeouch because Ojo wasn't good enough. I feel sorry for Campbell who played well against hearts and had a bit of urgency about him last night again. I was hoping Glass would try and get the best out of him.

Just back, that was pish. Very reminiscent of the last Rijeka game, with it being over before a ball was kicked. Ramsay the only positive again tonight. Ojo and Ramirez worked hard. Jet improved us, Jenks not good enough. McRorie had a poor game, really struggled under pressure on his wrong foot, felt a bit sorry for him. Not sure about Gallagher. As many have mentioned, we lack that link between midfield and forward, with Jet the only real option there. I'm not convinced that Watkins really offers that either, and don't know how he'll do alongside Ramirez. I still don't know what our best eleven is. I'm interested to see where we go from here. There's a gap between us and the group stages and it's going to take money to get us there. We've spent seven years under McInnes relying on the luck of the draw to get us there and it doesn't work. In many ways it's good to know that it doesn't work under Glass either. He's not some genius who's going to get us miles further through small tactical wins. Hopefully we can be a bit more realistic about that.

Watkins returns? Strange one if true. He was good for us last season, but why wouldn't we have moved for him last week? He'd have been extremely useful tonight. Happy if he signs, but strikes me as the type of business that should be done ahead of European fixtures. Edit: I don't mean ahead of all the fixtures as he's not long been released, but just one we should have been ready to snap up if we were interested.

2012 I think. Broke his leg during the Brown era. We should never had another Brown as part of our management team.

Out until Christmas. Could ruin his chances of top 3 dons of all time. Shame, was playing well, fit and solid. Hopefully he'll be back.

Riddled with covaids. Conspiracy. Everyone's against us etc.

Nice one. Very short up front, so it'll be good to have someone to take off the bench at least.

An interesting hypothetical conundrum that raises: If we sold the Huns Ferguson for £7M and they subsequently sold him for £130M, with us getting 40% (£59M total) and them getting £78M, would be happy or disgusted?

Well done Ferguson, he's going to be a great player. Good of Clarke to throw him and up his value for us after - he was clearly embarrassed by the Ramsay decision for the u21s. I'd take £7M plus a 40% sell on for Ferguson.

^^^this. I'd love to know the strategy behind these moves. It's a very distinct category of player: u21 loanee (as opposed to guys like Leigh, Logan or Wilson). I wonder how our success compares there with, say, u21 dons youth or normal signing of any age? The only thing I can think of is budget. If we're paying the same amount for the loan signing as we are one of our own youth who we think isn't ready yet, then it's quite a good method for providing squad depth. However, if they're on a similar wage to Kennedy or someone then I don't see why we wouldn't be better getting an actual signed asset. As I say, we can exclude loan deals made with a purchase option, which are more obvious.

I'm hoping that the recruitment director isn't actually scouting individual players, rather getting a system in place that allows us to pinpoint players that suit our style of play and players that will make us a return. I wouldn't expect him to have an immediate impact in this window unless he's picking the dregs from his previous club for now. Regardless of how good this youngster is, I hope we see more of the loan deals happening with a purchase option. I don't think we've seen enough from Jenks to suggest he's a worthwhile loanee in terms of a value adding asset. By that, I mean that he'd be quite easy to replace with an actual signed player. That seems to be the deal with all our loanees, who've generally not been terrible, but no better than our average squad players.

Well, to be fair, that's exactly what happened at loirston. AFC were effectively used as a stalking horse to open up the surrounding land for hooses. It was impressive.

New striker incoming from wolves. Austin Samuels on loan with an option to buy. Quick apparently. One senior goal ever, which fits the profile.

Yep. Wouldn't be surprised to see that site planning suspiciously converted to planning for hooses. The beach site would be ace, but I'm guessing that if there's common good land involved it will face a lot of objection, more so if the council are to put funding forward. It could take years, which is fine. Then there'll be the ground works that close to the sea. By the time we start, sea level will have risen into the away end, drowning several Huns.

Quite right, bunch of fannies. They should have just requested that the fans in that stand, or the whole ground, be removed before continuing. It's great to see it being filmed though, the boring BBC would have panned to the sky or some nonsense.

Why would they go for a poor man's Calvin Ramsay? Someone needs to sort out their recruitment.

I thought the same as you first half, apart from maybe the last ten minutes. I wouldn't say that the Ramirez chance was easy, he struck it first time and hit it well, but Gordon was well positioned as you'd expect. It's not even one I'd have expected Rooney to score, and I think that has to be the benchmark for Ramirez. The jury is very much out still. I think he'll do okay but if he's not scoring then he offers little else. We were desperately needing a replacement after 70 minutes and in that regard it reminds me exactly of the McInnes years with Rooney past his peak. Brown was very good today, but I think the change in Ojo is down to workrate and concentration, he never really had an issue getting stuck in. He had several bookings and a red for us previously. He was just always late and rash in the tackle, but now he's not giving away the stupid freekicks.

As soon as I said this, Jenks started to improve. Had a good finish to the game. A good battle, decent performance. That's the McRorie we signed.

Yasss. Brilliant cross from Campbell. Ojo didn't get the chance to miss. Well played.

Thought Brown has been decent, Jenks poor. Gallagher poor defending for the pen, bit very soft. Ramsay been excellent.

I didn't even notice I'd done the latter. Full of the puns me.

Aye, should be a good one. No idea how good they are, or us for that matter. First proper test of the season, in terms of seeing where we are (although tempered by the fact we've probably got some Jet* lag). Anything less than a four goal victory should see Glass oot the door. *Pun intended

Gemmill said he thought that he might not start, so while he was still eligible for the u19s he was better off there. Seems reasonable, it's not like he's had 6 minutes on the pitch for the Huns or anything.