Well, figure it’s close enough to start the thread and may get some more enthusiasm than the current season. So what do we need?

manager - Alex Neill

formation - 4-2-3-1/4-3-3

I’m going with the belief that we currently have 7 starters - Devlin, ruby (or gartenmann), Jensen, Mackenzie, shinnie, clarkson or McGrath, and sokler. 4 legit starter signings needed, plus more. I’d argue McGrath has been better than clarkson this year, but I dont think both together are our midfield solution.

goalkeeper - NEEDED to replace Roos, doohan is back up

right back - devlin, Richardson, SiGN gartenmann

left back - think Mackenzie deserves to be our left back, one of our few successes this year, mcgarry as back up, jenson cover too as gartenmann does right back.

central defense - ruby, gartenmann, Jensen, Macdonald - think that’s good enough, just need a legit and consistent keeper and midfield to protect and support them

Right mid - TWO needed, starter and back up, vinnie as back up? sell morris

left mid - ONE needed, possibly hoilett and mcgarry as back up, vinnie?? Don’t think Duncan is good enough, squad filler.

center mid - sign TWO. ONE starter needed, plus assuming Barron leaves. Free agent Baccus? Shinnie clarkson or McGrath,  and one other, mcgrath/clarkson and polvara as back up, sign another ONE physical/athletic worker so that shinnie and new signing aren’t run into the ground.

Forward - assuming Miovski and duk are sold, I want sokler given a chance. SIGN one to compete with him to start, bavidge the third option and given minutes. Sell GUEYE.

I’m assuming miovski, duk, morris, gueye, and Barron are gone, and we sign gartenmann and hoilett. Hayes retires. Mcgarry gets a summer to get fit and prove what he can do next year, been unfortunate to date. A bench from Richardson, mcgarry, Duncan, clarkson/mcgrath, hoilett, bavidge, doohan, Milne, polvara, vinnie, plus a new back up right mid and an enforcing center mid.

Obviously Mikey Johnson is one of our new signings.

Edited February 18, 20242 yr by OrlandoDon

8 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

Anyone got anything positive to say about this?

No!

There a lot of potential negatives with him, with the positive being that he might be a temporarily good striker for us. If he is, then he'll go somewhere else most likely! It's pragmatic though, he's been good in this league before, and we need a striker in, but probably don't want to commit to anyone long term with so many in the current squad, fighting for one position essentially. 

Again, though, we need to see players going out the door. There is no need to have four strikers and potentially five when Duk returns with tail between legs after the window closes. If there are any minor attitude problems with Nisbet, we don't need another two or three guys making things difficult behind the scenes because they're not playing. We certainly don't need to be juggling minutes on the park for them either. As Jute mentions, Ambrose on loan would be good, he's very clearly not ready for the SPFL. He doesn't really look ready for playing football if I'm honest. Maybe we could send him offshore?

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

No!

There a lot of potential negatives with him, with the positive being that he might be a temporarily good striker for us. If he is, then he'll go somewhere else most likely! It's pragmatic though, he's been good in this league before, and we need a striker in, but probably don't want to commit to anyone long term with so many in the current squad, fighting for one position essentially. 

Again, though, we need to see players going out the door. There is no need to have four strikers and potentially five when Duk returns with tail between legs after the window closes. If there are any minor attitude problems with Nisbet, we don't need another two or three guys making things difficult behind the scenes because they're not playing. We certainly don't need to be juggling minutes on the park for them either. As Jute mentions, Ambrose on loan would be good, he's very clearly not ready for the SPFL. He doesn't really look ready for playing football if I'm honest. Maybe we could send him offshore?

Ambrose on loan, we agree on that. And I doubt duk will play for us ever again. But I don’t see anywhere that Nisbet is an attitude problem/issue other than Millwall. Is this getting blown out of proportion? Is it a coach/player personality clash, what’s the issue? Maybe I’ve missed it where he has ongoing attitude issues from club to club.

im disappointed we don’t have a loan to buy option if the report I saw is correct, that bothers me and is the pisser on this deal.

I will give credit where it's due, that's a very solid interview from Nisbet on RTV.  He genuinely seems like he really wants to be here and actually seems a bit brighter than I had previously given him credit for.  He also said he's had a good pre season and ready to play so I'm interested to see what kind of physical condition he is in tomorrow.  

Given all the chat about professionalism I did raise an eyebrow at this comment from Thelin 

“He also has all the personal attributes we look for in a player and we believe his energy will have an instant impact with our supporters.”

I know it's early days with Thelin but to me he does seem very in tune with these sorts of things.  I certainly don't have any doubts that Thelin has done his due diligence on Nisbet and will be more than aware of his past.  Nor do I doubt that Thelin made the final decision on this, he was very much in a sellers market when cormack came calling so I doubt having to accept players he's not approved will be part of his contract.  This does give me a bit more confidence that this may be a good move after all. 

If there was an option to buy I think it probably would have been mentioned by now.   I had a look on social media at what Millwall fans were saying and they are fairly bitter and sneering of him.  2 mill is a significant outlay for them though 2bf and I'm not sure all is well behind the scenes there.  An option to buy could have been looked into but I suspect Millwall would have wanted that fee to be high 6/low 7 figures which would likely kill that idea dead. 

 

9 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

Ambrose on loan, we agree on that. And I doubt duk will play for us ever again. But I don’t see anywhere that Nisbet is an attitude problem/issue other than Millwall. Is this getting blown out of proportion? Is it a coach/player personality clash, what’s the issue? Maybe I’ve missed it where he has ongoing attitude issues from club to club.

im disappointed we don’t have a loan to buy option if the report I saw is correct, that bothers me and is the pisser on this deal.

The attitude issue isn't just because of his Millwall stint. He was also a young player at Hibs. That does things to a man.

Pictures emerge from the gruelling and rigorous Aberdeen medical

A good butterys hard to find these days but those^^ are nae bad..

After watching today I think we’re one or two players short. I think Milne and Macdonald are good enough cover at the back, but if Macdonald goes it’s one more there. 

I hope we get the Aussie wide player in, would really rather see another wide player come in so we don’t rely on Morris. another game where Morris could have and should have created a scoring chance, but his decision making yet again fails him.

so 1-2 more players. Think we have a decent squad and that would be the perfect final week. 

Was hopeful but it doesn't look likely. This is the latest chat in Oz:
 

 

@OrlandoDon bad news Allan Campbell’s not coming. 

 

Regarding Nisbet and the lack of goals at Millwall, Millwall only scored 45 last season, the second-lowest in the Championship last season. Their defence pretty much kept them from a relegation battle by only conceding 55 goals which is the 5th lowest in the Championship. They sound like a team that parks the bus rather than one that likes getting forward. 

On 25/08/2024 at 22:28, manc_don said:

Was hopeful but it doesn't look likely. This is the latest chat in Oz:
 

 

That poster's Twitter history reads like an attention-seeking 14yr old. Wouldn't put too much weight on it.

Everything has gone very quiet considering the window closes by the end of the week.

Thelin saying Aberdeen are working on some things before the window closes.

1 hour ago, DantheDon said:

Everything has gone very quiet considering the window closes by the end of the week.

I'd be fairly comfortable with where we are. We don't have a European schedule, and we've got a couple of midfielders to return from injury. I'd like Thelin to take a bit more time to suss out the squad, including his new signings, and then shift some folk on before any further activity. There are still a lot of guys in that squad that are average, and I wouldn't want to bulk that up with more averageness.

6 minutes ago, Panda said:

Thelin saying Aberdeen are working on some things before the window closes.

What the fuck would he know about it? I wish guys like him would stop sticking their oar in where it's not wanted.

Sincerely,

D Cormack 

21 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

I'd be fairly comfortable with where we are. We don't have a European schedule, and we've got a couple of midfielders to return from injury. I'd like Thelin to take a bit more time to suss out the squad, including his new signings, and then shift some folk on before any further activity. There are still a lot of guys in that squad that are average, and I wouldn't want to bulk that up with more averageness.

I’m thinking we bring in a winger which allows us to loan out Morris, and a (left) central defender then Macdonald moves on. I think Vinny has bought himself a second chance. I don’t think we’ll pad out the squad further but it may be the case of a couple in and a few out before the end of the month.

Would like at least one more wide player in this window and hopefully some the dross like Richardson moved on permanently. With Nisbet’s arrival think both Bavidage and Ambrose need to go out on loan to get game time.

Agreed. We have too many strikers now, and only half of them are gonna get any first team action TBH. Farm Bavidge out, I read ICT were keen on a loan. That'd be a really good option for all parties. 

Bavidge has already had a season in League 1, needs to go up a level. Plus ICT are a bit of a basket case at the moment.

Seeing a lot of shouts for Ambrose to go out on loan but I'd be surprised at that.

If he goes out on loan it'll be January, and only if he isn't getting game time.

Right now not only is he getting some minutes, he's only just arrived. How can the guy settle in the city and at the club if he's shipped out on loan five minutes after arriving?

25 minutes ago, Panda said:

Seeing a lot of shouts for Ambrose to go out on loan but I'd be surprised at that.

If he goes out on loan it'll be January, and only if he isn't getting game time.

Right now not only is he getting some minutes, he's only just arrived. How can the guy settle in the city and at the club if he's shipped out on loan five minutes after arriving?

He's pish. That's the main issue. 

2 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

He's pish. That's the main issue. 
 

Gie the boy a chance min. The most he's played in any game this season is 29 minutes.

Remember the last guy you wrote off..

 

On 23/07/2024 at 22:30, RicoS321 said:

The idea behind Nilsen is a sound one, it's tactically great, but I don't think he's going to be good enough for the SPFL. Too slow and because of that, too many slack passes and being caught out of position. 

By this point Nilsen had played two full games, which is around 50 minutes more than Ambrose has had.

 

40 minutes ago, Panda said:

Gie the boy a chance min. The most he's played in any game this season is 29 minutes.

Remember the last guy you wrote off..

 

By this point Nilsen had played two full games, which is around 50 minutes more than Ambrose has had.

 

Yep, I like to get my thoughts in early, it's good to look back on mistakes, it's fine. I've correctly written off many players, and predicted many would be good too, far more than I've got wrong. I was fairly tentative in my language when discussing Nilsen, as there was a lot to like about him. I've not seen anything to like about Ambrose so far. I've never understood why people on forums say things like "gie the boy a chance", it's just an opinion. I have no actual ability to affect his playing time. I don't think he'll get jeered off the park by the red shed because of my opinion, and I certainly wouldn't be shouting abuse at the guy. On the brief showings, I don't think he'll be good enough, and we signed another player for the same position despite already being covered (in terms of numbers, definitely not quality), suggesting Thelin knows this. 

@OrlandoDon more bad news Mikey Johnston is not coming. 
 

 

18 hours ago, Panda said:

Seeing a lot of shouts for Ambrose to go out on loan but I'd be surprised at that.

If he goes out on loan it'll be January, and only if he isn't getting game time.

Right now not only is he getting some minutes, he's only just arrived. How can the guy settle in the city and at the club if he's shipped out on loan five minutes after arriving?

With Nisbet, Sokler and probably Gueye all ahead of him I think Ambrose at 22 would benefit from going on loan to give him game time and get him used to the game here.