Trialists

[Council Juice]

Going by the team lines from Clach, we have JJ Hooper on trial as well as Roberts. 

 

Some well taken goals but it has to be said that the standard of defending at that level looked very poor and he would need to sharpen up for the Scottish Premiership.

A contract until January initially ?

As mentioned before, make a show reel of a player banging in goals and he'll look great. But if you consistently see goals being scored then you'll see a fair bit of bad defending.
Conference football. Probably on a par with the Scottish Championship?

[Kingsmills]

Going by the team lines from Clach, we have JJ Hooper on trial as well as Roberts. 

 

Some well taken goals but it has to be said that the standard of defending at that level looked very poor and he would need to sharpen up for the Scottish Premiership.

A contract until January initially ?

As mentioned before, make a show reel of a player banging in goals and he'll look great. But if you consistently see goals being scored then you'll see a fair bit of bad defending.
Conference football. Probably on a par with the Scottish Championship?

Talk about talking the game in this country down. To suggest that our Premiership on a par with the conference is just about as ludicrous as your previously expressed view that the Highland League was and is amateurish pub football....

[Huisdean]

Not sure that is what he is saying as appears to be comparing Scottish Championship (ie  1st Division) with Conference league. On a slight related topic, I think loaoning out some of our younger players to Highland league clubs would be of benefit as would certainly toughen them up and give them better competitive experience thasn reserve/under 20 league or whatever it is called now.

[Caley Mad In Berks]

Going by the team lines from Clach, we have JJ Hooper on trial as well as Roberts. 

 

Some well taken goals but it has to be said that the standard of defending at that level looked very poor and he would need to sharpen up for the Scottish Premiership.

A contract until January initially ?

As mentioned before, make a show reel of a player banging in goals and he'll look great. But if you consistently see goals being scored then you'll see a fair bit of bad defending.
Conference football. Probably on a par with the Scottish Championship?

Talk about talking the game in this country down. To suggest that our Premiership on a par with the conference is just about as ludicrous as your previously expressed view that the Highland League was and is amateurish pub football....

I think 'iamthecaptain' was surmising that Conference level teams might be on a par with Scottish Championship sides, not Scottish Premiership.

He could have a point in my opinion.  Certainly I think top conference sides would give lower Scottish Championship sides a run for their money.

[CaleyD]

Not sure that is what he is saying as appears to be comparing Scottish Championship (ie  1st Division) with Conference league. On a slight related topic, I think loaoning out some of our younger players to Highland league clubs would be of benefit as would certainly toughen them up and give them better competitive experience thasn reserve/under 20 league or whatever it is called now.

Not entirely sure of the ins and outs of it, but there's some rule that allows players to go out on loan to lower league clubs and be recalled if needed....but we can't loan them out to Highland League and recall them if needed!!!

Given how small a squad we operate with, not being able to recall a player is a bit risky as you never know when you may need to call on them.

[ICTRoughi]

Jordan Roberts expected to sign later today (Press and Journal) 

[Sneckboy]

We've got a player called Mark Lamont training with us. I assume he'll be given a run-out in one of the U20 pre-season games. His contract at Petershill is up - he was the Fans' Player of the Season, just past.

[RossP]

We had a CM and LB trialist tonight v Deveronvale. The LB was horrible and the CM pretty decent. 

[Guest]

Ollie Norburn is on trial according the other thread. He was on Soccer AM once.

 

[Scarlet Pimple]

So, would you say that Yogi has ben  very active of late or is it the fact that our cup  success may be attracting a slightly better set of footballers from the South?

[ICTPaisley]

So, would you say that Yogi has ben  very active of late or is it the fact that our cup  success may be attracting a slightly better set of footballers from the South?

I think it's hard to tell given the level of opposition we are playing against. They could be brilliant, but could also be duds. I guess it's what yogi see's in training that will really count when committing to these guys.

[CaleyD]

Many of these trialists are guys that Yogi has been aware of for some time. Said in interview recently that he had been aware of Roberts from his (Yogi's) time at Hartlepool....and it appears to be a similar scenario with others as well.

[Guest]

Here's the obligatory video of Dani Lopez. He reminds me a bit of Marius Niculae build-wise.

 

[Harry Chibber]

Get's my vote.

[Council Juice]

 

As mentioned before, make a show reel of a player banging in goals and he'll look great. But if you consistently see goals being scored then you'll see a fair bit of bad defending.
Conference football. Probably on a par with the Scottish Championship?

Talk about talking the game in this country down. To suggest that our Premiership on a par with the conference is just about as ludicrous as your previously expressed view that the Highland League was and is amateurish pub football....

Goes to show how little you bother reading (again). I clearly, as pointed out by several other who took the time to read and not jump the gun and be offended, said Scottish Championship. This is the 2nd tier in Scottish football. It was previously known as the 1st division. I think back in the 70s it was the 2nd division but that is many many years ago.

I'm not saying that every conference team is as good as the Championship. Nor am I saying that the best teams in the Championship (Hibs, Falkirk, QotS et al) are of, without being deliberately demeaning, as low a standard as the Conference.

But roughly, yeah. The Championship is probably on a par with the top Conference/League 2 teams.

How do I figure this you might ask? Well, several of our players (a team who won a cup and finished 3rd in the TOP league - this being the Scottish Premiership) come from being released by league 1, 2 and conference teams. (Albeit some leave to try elsewhere on their own terms). 

So if our players are around, lets say, an approximate average league 1 side then it stands to reason that the Championship is possibly of a lower standard. Possibly. It's not an exact science. There are several variables.

My point was simply to state that comparatively speaking the Scottish Premiership probably isn't so much of a leap up in defensive standards. Certainly not to the lofty heights some might dream it is.

All that being said I'm not saying that players signed from the lower levels of the English game can't progress to being higher level players with the right training, competitive level and most importantly game time. This is pretty much why we sign young hungry players eager to prove a point. However they will be coming up against some players who have played at that level also. So it's a mixed bag.

[+DoofersDad]

A very crude comparison would suggest that as England has 10 times the population of Scotland it should have 10 football clubs for every 1 in Scotland.  Top tier in Scotland has 12 clubs so it seems reasonable that the 2nd tier could be seen as broadly comparable with the level below the 92 clubs in the football league.  I think what we see of Conference (now the "National" league) football and the players who emerge from there bear this out as a reasonable comparison.

[Council Juice]

All this changing of the league names. Jeez I can't keep up. Ha ha!

I'm not saying there's a "spot on" measure of comparison. Just as a rough guide relating to the source of a lot of the Scottish Premierships outside talent which generally comes from below the top 2 leagues in England. Because most of the teams can't come close to affording the wages of English Championship or Premier league players, so they have to look beyond that.

Now if the clubs in the top flight can't afford much in the way of wages then it's even more drastic in the case of the majority of the league below.

Therefore if outside talent comes from lower down in the English leagues. The defenders. And they step up a level to the SPL then I would imagine JJ Hooper, if deemed good enough, maybe has the potential, at 21, to be able to bridge the quality gap pretty quickly. I don't think he'd be coming up against a whole new level of defender. Though one never really knows.

[The Mantis]

Yea he looks great in the videos....then so did Dean McDonald from a youtube compilation I was excited about when he signed for the first time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLZBOeouQXc 

that's never Dean McDonald is it? Only looks half the player who came to us  

[Sneckboy]

I don't think I've seen that show-reel of Dean McDonald before - the technique and strike at around 34 seconds was quite brilliant! Shows how misleading these videos can be - as he was really quite poor. I won't use the word 'rubbish'!

Anyway, I read that Yogi is keen to have another look at Lopez tomorrow against St Mirren. I may be wrong but I think today (Friday 10th) is the cut-off for registering players in time for the Europa Q2 round. (probably for both legs). Not sure if JJ Hooper will also be given one final outing to show what he can do. The 'U20s' have a game tomorrow too, so I'd imagine every fit player in our whole squad will see some action 2moro.

But, perhaps we shouldn't be using this game too much to look at trialists but rather set-up with effectively our strongest available team, as this is the last friendly before the Astra game.

[ICTRoughi]

 I may be wrong but I think today (Friday 10th) is the cut-off for registering players in time for the Europa Q2 round. (probably for both legs). 

 

I am pretty sure the initial squad has to be registered today however and I could be entirely wrong, I think you can add an additional registration a couple days before the first leg.  

[Sneckboy]

You're quite right, ICTRoughi. Today, is the deadline for registering the squad, but there is provision to add one more player up to 24hrs before the first leg.
Below is the relevant section in UEFA's 'handbook' for this season's competition. 'List A' apparently refers to the squad which must comprise a maximum of 25 players, 2 of whom must be goalkeepers. Doubt we've even got 25 players at this time!

42.07 List A has to be submitted by the following fixed deadlines:
a. 22 June 2015 (24.00CET) for all matches in the first qualifying round;
b. 10 July 2015 (24.00CET) for all matches in the second qualifying round;
c. 24 July 2015 (24.00CET) for all matches in the third qualifying round;
d. 10 August 2015 (24.00CET) for all matches in the play-offs;
e. 1 September 2015 (24.00CET) for all further matches from the first match in the group stage up to and including the final.

42.08 For the three qualifying rounds and the play-offs, a club may register a maximum of one new eligible player on List A after the above-mentioned deadlines. Such registration must be completed by 24.00CET on the day before the relevant first-leg match and the club’s association must confirm in writing that the new player is eligible to play at domestic level at this time.

[Libero]

So we need to register our squad for Europe today and we don't have 25 players to fill it, we don't have a recognised senior striker at the club, we have no assistant manager, have 1 senior fit goalkeeper available and no-one seems to know what strips we will be playing in when the season starts. Certainly not hitting the panic button yet but I don't think anyone can deny that we are quite a bit behind schedule. Very surprised that we are leaving things so late considering our season starts in less than a week!

[caley100]

Its the ICT way eh...     frustrating!

[Guest Shaun]

So, what are your thoughts on the guys still on trial (Lamont; Norburn; Hooper and Lopez)?

 

I haven't really seen any comments on Lamont or even know his position so can't comment on him.

Norburn: Seen a few positive comments about him so I would offer him a deal.

Lopez: Has only played one match but from comments on here and in P and J on Wed, he was a standout so definitely deserves a contract.

Hooper: Has scored in every one of his pre season games but there have been mixed comments about this lad but I would offer  him a contract.

So we really only need a left back and then we would be sorted :ictscarf:.

[Renegade]

Lopez - Probably, need another look though.

Norburn - Maybe, need another look.

Lamont - Don't know, haven't seen him play.

Unknown number 20 - Nah.

JJ Hooper - Headless chicken I'm afraid.  He might have scored against Highland League teams, but he's got no touch whatsoever.  Won't cut in the Premiership IMO, so no deal from me.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Renegade