Watching on Saturday and couldn't help wondering what if. He looks really decent.

Not sure what happened when he was training with us. Anyone got any info?

Would hate to think that it was just that we didn't think he was good enough.

Watching on Saturday and couldn't help wondering what if. He looks really decent.

Not sure what happened when he was training with us. Anyone got any info?

Would hate to think that it was just that we didn't think he was good enough.

IIRC he was offered a pay as you play deal given his previous serious injury problems, he turned the offer down and went to Airdrie after they offered him a more permanent deal all be it on 1 year contract i think. dundee United then began sniffing about and offered him a trial which ended in him being offered a two year deal

certainly think we missed the boat on that one

Gary Mackay-Steven. Owain Tudur-Jones. Can't say we should never have signed one player with a history of injury problems but real talent then criticise when we sign a player with a history of injury problems but real talent. Can't blame Butcher for this one. It was the right deal at the time - both for ICT and GMS. It's worked out for him but he took a real risk.

On our budget I wouldn't think we should be taking the risk on either.

If we had a team of players we nearly signed we'd be top of the league.

I saw Mackay Steven against Clach last summer and thought he looked the part but if i recall he was going to be out for about 3 months if we signed him so it didnt really make sense at the time.

However if memory serves me right we offered the pay as you pay deal afterwards but he knocked it back and spent 6 months on the dole before ending up at Airdrie.

Dissapointed we never took the chance but i suppose at the time it seemed the more sensible thing to do.

Gary Mackay-Steven. Owain Tudur-Jones. Can't say we should never have signed one player with a history of injury problems but real talent then criticise when we sign a player with a history of injury problems but real talent. Can't blame Butcher for this one. It was the right deal at the time - both for ICT and GMS. It's worked out for him but he took a real risk.

Suggest you take a look at the wages that are required to fund a move for OTJ and one for GMS.

GMS was a free, no accomodation required and the competition came from Airdrie. OTJ comes with a considerably greater burden that GMS would ever have.

Risk and reward is what it's all about. The risks with OTJ were huge and the reward (to date) ............? The risk taked by Dundee Utd on GMS was much less and the reward (to date)......?

As I understand it GMS was desperate to sign on at ICT. Perhaps some of our north based posters know more?

There's always an added risk with signing a player with a history of injuries. For ICT the risk worked out brilliantly with Dargo, and even Niculae came good after a slow and unfit start.

I agree it's all about risk and reward, but the assessment has to be made at the time, without hindsight, and your comparisons seem a bit unfair to me.

It's easy to see why OTJ was signed on a good wage - experience of playing at a decent level over many years, and an international to boot. A risk worth taking? I don't recall anyone saying anything to the contrary at the time.

GMS on the other hand had never played a competitive game of football in his entire life. ICT took him for a test drive and he broke down. He was clearly talented but very high risk. I'm pretty sure he would have been touted round every pro club in Scotland that summer, but nobody signed him, not just ICT, nobody thought he was worth the risk on the terms he was looking for at the time.

Dundee Utd only signed GMS the following season, after he had eventually proven his ability and fitness with Airdrie. Should we have looked at him again at that point? He was certainly worth the risk by then but we are pretty strong in that position and had other signing priorities.

There's always a degree of luck with these things, but it's perfectly understandable why all parties did what they did and didn't what they didn't. It's also perhaps a bit early to be concluding or implying who was the better signing - there's a long way to go, and Saturday was GMS's first 90 minutes this season - OTJ has at least managed two full games!

Accept the 'wise after the event' point about GMS.

As for OTJ........what has happened was not predictable but to be expected. You didn't have to be Mystic Meg to see this situation coming. Don't accept there is any luck involved at all in this situation, good or bad. It was a certainty. Only our management team could not see this

And this is why a full Welsh international player who was once transfered for over

At the risk of being a pedant...............

Nobody's ever denied his talent and it certainly looks like Utd are onto a good thing.

But last night he completely failed to get the better of a pretty inexperienced teenage defender.

Your right Yngwie, last night wasn't one of his better games. Friends with a couple of Arabs who go to every game. They cannot believe what they have picked up for nothing and wind me up constantly about him not being at his 'local' club (geography, like the women, leaves a lot to be desired in Dundee ) .

Point I am trying to make (badly!) is that surely we should be concerned that our coaching staff didn't think he was worth the risk, certainly when compared to other risks they have taken? Had also hoped that someone may be able to to correct me if I'm wrong in believing that he was prepared to play for a low wage and appearance money but was still rejected.

Always like to see Highland boys at our club.

He was on £60 a week at Airdrie! Still never mind we got to enjoy the skills of Gil Blumstein

GMS had a decent game against Clach, but it was against Clach. Saying that, anyone could see he could be a big talent. That Clach game also was his first game in a very long time after an injury plagued two years at Liverpool. His body did not respond to that Clach game very well, and although he didnt get injured in the game, having not played for so long he was not able to play again for us. He was then offered a pay/play deal but wanted a full deal, so he turned it down in the hope he could get another club, and he did 5 months later. Dont blame Terry after the guy couldnt even train after one game.

Thanks Bauhaus. I understood that he was willing to accept a pay/play deal but wasn't offered one. This puts a slightly different slant on things.

That said, I would still taken a punt on GMS before OTJ but football is a matter of opinion! Cheers.

Is he one of those being chased by clubs down south?

If so good luck to him he has done it the hard way.

Either way the gamble has appeared to have turned out well for United.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...otball/18027438

Edited May 11, 201214 yr by Tichy_Blacks_Back

According to the Sun Swansea are very interested and it is claimed they are talking of 1 million while DU want double that!!!!!

His agent will be as delirious with that offer as denegrating he was at the ICT offer !!

I never saw the game, but apparently he was incredible against Dynamo Moscow. I made a statement after the Clach game and I stand by it today - he's the best up and coming Scottish player I've ever seen.

So what's the real story here? Did ICT really offer him a pay-as-you-play deal deal? Or did ICT really decide not to offer him a deal?

Did he not get injured while he was on trial?

It's one of those things. We had him on trial, it didn't work out and he dropped down a level. He did well there, stayed fit and got another chance. We've done it for plenty of players in the past.

He came off at half time against Clach (whether he was injured or not I don't know), but he did get injured in the warm up a few days later against Forres IIRC.

There was talk of him still coming in around December 2010 as well I think but we never heard about it again and he signed for Airdrie not long after.

Pointless going over this all again as no one on here knows what actually happened.

Dundee United will be quids in if he continues producing the goods though

Pointless going over this all again as no one on here knows what actually happened.

Dundee United will be quids in if he continues producing the goods though

Totally agree...there is not one club in the country that has rejected a player only for him to go on to big and better things. I was reading an interview with Shay Given before the Euros and he was on Celtic's books as a youngster and they let him go.

No point on dwelling on what might have been and as they say hindsight is a great thing.

Why is a player who was on trial with us two years ago still being discussed? We start the new season tomorrow with a new team and we are still dwelling on one player who appeared for us a couple of times as a trialist two seasons ago?? Baffles me. No one here will ever know the reasons why Gary never signed for us. There seems to be this sense of injustice that because he is from Thurso that he should have signed for us, just because he is a lad from the Highlands does not mean he is duty bound to want to live and work up here.

LETS ALL BE 'CALEY JAGS TOGETHER' AND LOOK FORWARD TO WHAT THE FUTURE BRINGS AND NOT BACK TO WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. BRING ON THE NEW SEASON!!

Even if he had signed, if he showed half the form he did last season he'd be away by now anyway!!

I was told that it was his agent who made the final decision.

As my old mate WC Fields once whispered to me - Never cry over spilt milk as it may have been poisoned.

I was impressed with Draper's lay off for MacKay's goal but surprised nobody has posted this.  Who say's there is no skill in Scottish football to admire!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/21114412