RicoS321

Shouldn't have said anything

We seem to be talking about different things. I thought we were speaking about strikers. I don't disagree that we have been poor in our transitioning of youth to first team. Personally, I think the club should go with quotas, and make it public so that fans can't complain when a youngster who possibly isn't up to it is getting minutes.

I was responding in context to Bavidge. When he signed his three year deal with us, Lewis Pirie (the striker with more potential) signed for Leeds. What happens when they go down there and languish on their B team bench, I guess is irrelevant. Again, we're specifically speaking about strikers, and there aren't many who came through the youth teams playing in the SPFL (our very own Bruce Anderson of course). If they show any potential in that position, they get snapped up. Even Wilson at Hearts, which is a strange one. Bowie went to Fulham from Raith. The Huns and Tims have both lost strikers in recent times. A bit like goalkeepers, it's a difficult position to break through in.

They're pretty thin on the ground in this country. Any young striker showing enough promise will now likely get snapped up down south. Pirie for example.

No surprise really. Never looked like he had the attributes to make it in the premier. Hopefully he'll go on to make a decent try of it elsewhere, as he seemed to have a decent attitude.

Fairly straightforward win for them to be honest. We looked a bit like a team of new players. Not many positive points for us. Would need to see more of the midfield two to judge, but neither looked better than those let go today. I think the shape is problematic, and has been consistently under Leven. It's a lopsided 4-2-3-1, where the right hand side is very narrow and the winger (Olusanya or Bilalovic) is told to drift inside, even off the ball. It leaves us completely exposed, whether it's Jensen, Devlin or Lobban. I don't think it's particularly necessary either. Not sure about that back two. Need's must I guess, but it doesn't look good.

We've got a lot of very stupid players, who seem to have zero game sense at all, constantly giving away stupid free kicks or getting drawn in unnecessarily (see that goal just now). Lazetic has been the stupidest today though.

Geiger knackered? Probably shouldn't have been playing ninety. He didn't look like he had it in him.

Saving the proper subs for Wednesday?

Nisbet been good today, although he should probably steer clear of the defending. Midfield looks okay, although I think Geiger can do more going back the way. He doesn't seem to have the workrate of Aouchiche so far. Cameron been okay, as has Keskinen, but nothing brilliant from either of them. Jensen fine, Frame struggling defensively. McIntyre looks good positionally, but looks very slow on the turn, which could be a big issue. Not sure about Morrison at all. The right side is an issue. I'm not going to blame Olusanya entirely for that though. When we've played Bilalovic recently, the problems have been exactly the same. I was blaming Bilalovic for not tracking his man and being very narrow, but perhaps it's actually a tactic. It means giving one of their best players, Longelo, complete freedom to drive forward, which I think is a mistake. The up-side to this approach is that we should be able to exploit the area left behind to get Olusanya driving at pace. Unfortunately his touch is fucking awful, and there are greater problems than his lack of marking! I'd hook him at halftime. I thought Milanovic did well tracking back the other week and might be worth just chucking in. He's pish in attack of course, but as long as he remains disciplined, it'd be an improvement. Which is not a compliment.

Agreed. I just wonder if doing it from the start might mean us missing out on the chance to bring him on and do it later when others are knackered. The classic Morris issue!

He wasn't particularly good at that with St Mirren, his best work was balls over the top and harassing defenders, so hopefully we've spent two weeks training him to cut the ball back. The biggest problem will be his lack of defensive abilities. Not convinced he has the temperament to track his man.

Oops. Chubby fingers. 4-2-3-1.

Fairly straightforward 4-2-3-2 I'm guessing. Be interesting to see how the two new midfielders get on. I suspect the defence might be a touch weak, but nothing new there. Not convinced that Olusanya is a wide player, but not many other options.

New goalie starts. Wild.

Aye, investment basically. It's also not really a London thing.

Surely his loon's loon?

Fuck off

Why, has Dave MacPherson died?

Being brought in to help the Hun settle in his six month loan period IMO. Welcome back Doc

Fyvie was never the same after his injury at Alloa. He played a decent number of games for us, and I don't think anyone was disappointed with him when he left, especially as he got a very surprising punt at it down South with a decent Wigan side. They obviously had only watched the clips when he first came through and not the stuff in between under Brown. He seemed to play well any time I saw him for Cove. He talks well when on Red TV, and obviously has a lot of love for the club. Hope he has a good retirement.

I don't want our director of football having that much sway, and would rather we had an actual process in place to replace managers that doesn't prejudice the appointment. If I have someone in mind, let's say Stephen Glass as an example, I'd more than likely have already made up my mind about the current manager and either not be giving him the support he required, or even going as far as to actively sabotage his chances by only allowing the signing of three incredibly shite loanees in a transfer window, causing even further damage going forward for the inevitable replacement. It also doesn't allow for unexpected applications etc. I'm not sure that clubs with a sporting director do always have replacements lined up (often it can just be a case of good timing, or that they are a big club with a lot of sway who can go out and purchase a replacement immediately), I'm sure we could find plenty of examples of clubs that take their time and also have a sporting director (possibly even in our own league...). I see no real issue with not having a replacement ready.

It is with great regret that we announce today that there is a fifty percent chance that we're going to miss out on our number one target. We will not name names, but he was a manager who had previously had success in Norway, and recently managed in France. We are considering upping our salary offer by a multiple of three with the hope of changing his mind. Otherwise, we'll be forced to proceed with targets currently managing in the SPFL top flight, who are the least shite options that remain after two other better guys turned us down too. We would ask anyone reading this on AFC social media to keep this sensitive information on a need-to-know basis, so as not to jeopardise the prawcess.

You can have an opinion that is based on jumping to conclusions though. It did seem like you'd drawn a conclusion with your comment. One based on guesswork with sparse evidence either way. I'm not sure if it involved jumping though. Perhaps just a stride.