Stevie May .......... Derek ...... over to you

[BigDan]

It seemed like a great signing - We'd seen him bursting clear for St Johnstone and firing in to the net. That seems a long time ago. It is clear that for whatever reason he hasn't got it any more and it's fast becoming calamitous having a passenger in that position. Derek paid £400K (a lot of course for Aberdeen). Derek new the player he used to be - he now knows the player he is now. Honest mistake by Derek which can be forgiven. What cannot be forgiven is not putting your hand up and admitting the mistake. It's reached the stage that (no matter how difficult for Derek) he has to put his hand up. Fortunately, there are a couple of young players in the wings that could do the job at least in the short term. It's difficult, all the fans (including me) wanted Stevie to do well. Most of the sensible fans can see it simply isn't gong to happen for Stevie at Pittodrie (basically not good enough in any position). Derek .............. over to you.

[Jute]

It seemed like a great signing - We'd seen him bursting clear for St Johnstone and firing in to the net. That seems a long time ago. It is clear that for whatever reason he hasn't got it any more and it's fast becoming calamitous having a passenger in that position. Derek paid £400K (a lot of course for Aberdeen). Derek new the player he used to be - he now knows the player he is now. Honest mistake by Derek which can be forgiven. What cannot be forgiven is not putting your hand up and admitting the mistake. It's reached the stage that (no matter how difficult for Derek) he has to put his hand up. Fortunately, there are a couple of young players in the wings that could do the job at least in the short term. It's difficult, all the fans (including me) wanted Stevie to do well. Most of the sensible fans can see it simply isn't gong to happen for Stevie at Pittodrie (basically not good enough in any position). Derek .............. over to you.

 

I think biggest problem with May is we do not play a system that suits his style of play. His best stuff at Saints came when he played as part of a front 2 with Steven MacLean. We have rarely played him up front with anyone beside him and definitely not long enough for a partnership to develop. He has never looked good in the lone striker role. He was never a back to the goal type of striker and that you could knock the ball upto but that is what we have asked him to do.

 

That said I do think the injury at Preston has caused him to lose some of his pace which was also part of his game and thought at the time a 4 year deal was a major gamble to take on a player with his type of injury.

[Ten Caat]

Sad fact is we are stuck with him for at least another half season though with his injury record and lack of effectiveness (and comparatively high wages for Scotland) it is difficult to envisage any other team wanting to take a gamble on him

 

Jute is definitely correct that he would be far more effective as part of a front 2 but McInnes seems dead set on playing his 4-2-3-1 system which we know just doesn't suit May's game. Earlier in the season our injuries forced a 3-5-2 system and it looked decent but injuries to Hoban and McKenna coupled with the signing of Lowe pushed us back to the old system. I think we will improve a bit but the league is already a write off, we will be doing well to finish 4th given the lead we have allowed Hearts to gain and Hibs' summer recruitment just looks to be a bit better than ours was.

[KennyFuckinPowers]

The guy has had plenty of opportunities now. Think his return is 5 goals in 30+ games, and 2 of them came in the same game I think.

 

I was fairly happy when he signed, I remember how good and useful he was for St Johnstone, but pretty sure that was beside Steven MacLean, so perhaps he can still be useful, but the fact we don't play 2 up front means he can't be our main Striker, I certainly don't buy into the whole " He's not getting the service " tripe, because we're still putting plenty of balls into the box from GMS & McGinn as well as set pieces, he's just too slow to react, polar opposite from Rooney in that regard, and does not look like a Striker who believes in himself when presented with a chance to shoot etc...

 

Our season quite simply now rides on James Wilson, if he's as useless as May in the lone Striker role, then we're in for a turgid season, if he's good, we might scrape a 4th place finish with a bit of luck.

 

I think when everyone is fully fit, we have a solid defence & good enough midfield, May is not the answer up front though, over to you....James Wilson.

[LA-Don]

I suppose it’s really paper talk but it does sound like there’s a fair amount of interest in Stevie May. While a loan means we could potentially help others in the league but he can’t play against us. I just don’t see him ever given the minutes to come good for us so I say we cash in and sell him to the highest bidder, whether in our league or any other. I wouldn’t be too worried to see him line up against us this season. Realistically though, can see us getting any more than 100k for him.

[Ten Caat]

I suppose it’s really paper talk but it does sound like there’s a fair amount of interest in Stevie May. While a loan means we could potentially help others in the league but he can’t play against us. I just don’t see him ever given the minutes to come good for us so I say we cash in and sell him to the highest bidder, whether in our league or any other. I wouldn’t be too worried to see him line up against us this season. Realistically though, can see us getting any more than 100k for him.

 

You seriously think we will get a fee for him? Supposedly he was down at Dundee yesterday afternoon holding talks. Of the 5 clubs purportedly interested in him ( the 2 "saints", Dundee, Dundee Utd and Ross Co) they are the only club with a serious interest in signing him on a permanent transfer. Given that there's no way any of them would pay his full wage of £4k/wk (I suspect we will need to cover somewhere between 40-60% no matter where he ends up) Dundee as it stands represent the best chance of getting him off the books quickly and permanently. I doubt we will ask for a fee on that basis.

 

EDIT.....Apparently Killie have also been granted permission to talk to him but he surely wouldn't consider going anywhere with a plastic pitch given the state of his knees??

[ayrshire_don74]

off to st j , no fee but termination agreement done.. pound for pound probably one of the worst signings in recent history

[manc_don]

What a fucking waste of money. Was never the striker I wanted, certainly not that summer, but I really hoped he'd prove me wrong. 

[BigAl]

Just watch him net fifteen plus for St Johnstone this season 

 

Don't wish him any ill, simply a case of wrong player, wrong time for us and that isn't really his fault

[Barcosente]

I wish the guy well and hope he discovers his mojo, except against us obviously.

He had something, lost it, and I hope he finds it again.

If he does, then it would be an indictment of McInnes's wrong useage of the player and tactics.

[RicoS321]

I wish the guy well and hope he discovers his mojo, except against us obviously.

He had something, lost it, and I hope he finds it again.

If he does, then it would be an indictment of McInnes's wrong useage of the player and tactics.

 

For me, it's a case of bad recruitment rather than wrong useage or tactics. I don't think we should have had to adapt our system completely in order to accomodate May, but I think we'd have probably had to in order to force it to work and I don't think he'd have been worth it. St Johnstone might want to adapt their system to get May scoring, perhaps alongside a bigger partner in a two up front. That may make the difference between them finishing bottom 6, top 6 or being in the play-offs. We've reached a ceiling that May returning 15 goals would be of little use to us as he simply isn't good enough to take us beyond the levels that we reached with Rooney there - no amount of tactics would have helped us in that regard I don't think - where we had a striker that was good versus the bottom 9 clubs but not good enough against the Tim and in Europe. We've seen that replacing him with Cosgrove can get us back to that 20+ goal a season that Rooney had us at. I don't believe Wilson will take us beyond that either and I'd like to have seen us sign a good striker that could take us further than Cosgrove. Good luck to May like, a hard worker and good professional.

[Guest kiriakovisthenewstrachan]

Like most of us, really disappointed this one did not work out. Cannot remember the fans really getting behind a player in this way before, desperate for him to come good. Don't think I ever heard anyone at a match giving him stick which is testament to how hard he worked.

 

Much made of the lasting affect that his injury had but I really wonder whether he was ever as good as we all thought before he signed, maybe he just had a couple of good seasons.

 

Good luck to the guy. Some signings work, some don't. It looked a good move at the time.

[tlg1903]

The boy put a shift in, no two ways about it and certainly contributed.  He turned the game for us in the league cup semi when he came on and won the corner that we scored from.  Gutted it didn't work out for him here, you just know he's going to score against us first time we play them.

[Elgindon]

You just know he'll rediscover that spark he had when he came on v Killie? or was it Dundee? . Gutted it didnt work out.

 

  Interested to know why this was the only post fae the boy that started the topic 

[RicoS321]

off to st j , no fee but termination agreement done.. pound for pound probably one of the worst signings in recent history

 

Nae announcement yet, ye certain?

[BigAl]

Nae announcement yet, ye certain?

 

Stv reporting that May is not part of the squad travelling and anticipate an announcement on May today

[RicoS321]

I wonder who will get the number 83 shirt?

[BigAl]

I wonder who will get the number 83 shirt?

 

[Ten Caat]

I wonder who will get the number 83 shirt?

 

GWT in recognition of the average amount of quines he pulls in a calendar year

[Ten Caat]

Hang fire on shirt 83

 

 

Some fermers on P and B are saying he's failed his medical.

[BigAl]

Hang fire on shirt 83

 

 

Some fermers on P and B are saying he's failed his medical.

 

Others saying he is off at Dens just now.

 

In other words, they have no more idea than the rest of us

[BigAl]

The Fermers have apparently tried to fuck over May and get him on a reduced deal to that originally offered and he has told them to do one. As such May remains a Don.

[manc_don]

The Fermers have apparently tried to fuck over May and get him on a reduced deal to that originally offered and he has told them to do one. As such May remains a Don.

 

Moving costs apparently. Fucking stupid bastards.

[Reidzer 1314]

#KeepStevie

[Chris Frae Killie]

As long as the club have a budget for him, I'm happy for him to stay. I know he hasn't scored goals but he has created goals and works his socks off for the team. #keepstevie