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Why the very different attitude to Graeme Shinnie who served the club as well and for longer and who is at least staying until the end of the season ? 1: He's isn't moving to one of our rivals. 2: He's showing a bit of ambition and testing himself at a higher level 3: He's helping the cub financially by not signing a PC. Pretty obvious don't you think! It might be obvious why some people are having a go at Graeme but that doesn't make the difference in attitude fair. 1. Of course we would all rather he didn't go to one of our rivals but there is absolutely no reason why he shouldn't. He's from Aberdeen and it is perfectly reasonable that for family reasons he should want to move to his home town. Or if it is simply because they are offering him more money, why should he not take it? 2. Who says he's not showing ambition? Do you know what his ambitions are? His ambition may be to play in European competition and to lift national titles. He has more chance of realising those ambitions at Aberdeen than he does by staying put and certainly far more chance of acheiving that than Billy will at Wigan. And how do you know he does not have ambition to test himself in the English league? He is still young and success at Aberdeen would put him in a good position for a higher profile move down South at a later date. 3. How do you know that it is Graeme's choice to sign a PC rather than go now with a transfer fee? It may be that the club is refusing to release him from his contract because it would strengthen a rival team this year, or Aberdeen may not be prepared to pay an appropriate fee. Both Graeme and Billy have been great players for the club, so why on earth can we not acknowledge their contribution to the clubs success, thank them for it and let them pursue their careers with our best wishes?

I hope McKay had an uncomfortable night 'sleeping on a decision' after being shown around the facilities at Wigan and no doubt discussing personal terms! Maybe, there's just something that he saw that is making him have second thoughts - maybe even the prospect of Wigan being relegated - anything! However, more realistically, with the medical being a formality, I do expect an announcement that he's signed. Disappointing, of course, but as with all the players who leave after serving us well, I hope he succeeds at his new club. This coming on the back of the Shinnie news is a hammer blow. I would go as far as to say that not only are the pair key components of our current set-up, but they would both be included in my all-time ICT 'dream team'. Shinnie would be my obvious choice for the left-back position ahead of the likes of other stalwarts Stuart Golabek and Richard Hastings. Although we've had some terrific strikers over the years, Craig Dargo, Dennis Wyness, Paul Ritchie, Iain Stewart, Adam Rooney etc. I'd be picking McKay for one of the 2 or 3 forward berths. That's the high regard in which I hold these guys - both are all time greats, and will be difficult to replace - certainly in the short term.

Why the very different attitude to Graeme Shinnie who served the club as well and for longer and who is at least staying until the end of the season ? 1: He's isn't moving to one of our rivals. 2: He's showing a bit of ambition and testing himself at a higher level 3: He's helping the cub financially by not signing a PC. Pretty obvious don't you think!

Really good interview. Very honest assessment of things. Not a good week but really excited for Sat now! Let's absolutely gub the manky mob and show there is life after Billy!

Another one I remember very clearly was in 72 when Rangers beat Sporting Lisbon 3-2 then lost by the same score over there. They played extra time which ended 1-1 and it went to penalties which Sporting won, 4-2 I think. Then some journalist came up with the rule book showing that away goals counted double even in extra time. So in contrast to modern times, Rangers actually benefited by following the rules rather than breaking them

I hope they have been on the lookout since long before that as it seemed somewhat inevitable a few months ago albeit we expected him to go at the end of the season not now ... The scouts should always be on the lookout for players who can enhance or improve our team .... I expect we will muddle through on Saturday but agree we would ideally need someone in place asap

Okay, I'll play 'devil's advocate' here. Perhaps it could be viewed that it's Billy who's being the mercenary here and chasing the money in going to an unfashionable club in a dreary town whose sporting significance is their rugby league team - whose football manager may also not be there in the near future - and a club who are clearly on a downward spiral after some remarkable recent success, with little-to-zero prospect of those days returning any time soon...or winning silverware. Billy could, next season, find himself back at the level he was at before he came to us....He can do better! Whereas, Shinnie has arguably shown more ambition by turning-down considerably more lucrative offers down south and moved to club who are clearly on the rise and challenging for honours. They've got their key players signed up for the next few seasons and have a shrewd manager who's got Dons fans more optimistic than they've been for 20 years. Sorry, but Aberdeen FC are a bigger club than Wigan Athletic.

I'd put Nick Ross on Draper's shoulders for corners!!

I think I'm right in saying that since Billy's arrival at the start of season 2011/12, and despite his lack of goals in that first season, nobody has scored as many goals in our top flight. A quick bit of addition suggests he has 54 in that time, whilst Commons has 43, Michael Higdon 40 and Niall McGinn 36.

We can probably get by on Saturday but, if we are going to continue our push for Europe, we will need to recruit an experienced forward for the rest of the season.

It doesn't help ICT to publicly state Brill's condition, but it might help the opposition with their gameplan.

Maybe no news is good news.

I know the focus will be on Shinnie and Mckay mainly, but I'd have liked to have heard at least something about Dean Brill and his injury. One of our main and best players was stretchered off on Saturday and we haven't heard anything about it since. I can't be the only one wondering about it.

Hopefully, like the Butcher, Billy will be having second thoughts. His international and effective playing career could be badly damaged in a team being substantially rebuilt mid-season by their latest manager, Malky Mackay,to prevent it heading into Division 1. It is an enormous challenge and in my view Billy deserves far, far better. It is the complete opposite of what he has in Inverness. Malky and his Chairman have both been subject to controversy in the recent past. I do not begrudge him a really good move because he absolutely deserves it. Blackpool are virtually certain to be relegated and Wigan do look vulnerable to join them.Even Don Cowie is on the way down! Malky is not Roberto Martinez and with a dramatic clear out since he arrived he now has to rapidly build a new team with the risk of an FA sanction still possible. The environment does not look good even on much higher wages for Billy. If another bid does not come in during the window, Billy is likely to score a lot more goals before the end of the season and then pick a far better option for next season. Meantime he would cement his Northern Ireland place. Don't do it Billy.

If this was the first time it has come to this, could the beneficiaries be described as Guinea pigs?

I totally agree PerthICT but the annoying thing is that we never seem to be part of the handouts

....I stil don't really get how fees are arrived at. Were West Ham due to pay a fee for development of Hendrie, even if he went on a pre-contract at the end of the season? If so, presumably it would be the same in Shinnie's case. Or was the fee just to sweeten the deal....a gift from West Ham to the paupers? Hendrie for a million on a pre-contract and BMck for £150k now - how does all this work? What about the £3M offer for Efe Ambrose the other day????? Would you swap him for Warren or Meekings (I wouldn't!), but what would we get for them? Buttons. It is certainly a market that works like no other!

I would love to see Mckay doing very well with Wigan & score goals and enhance his international chances ! Somehow I`m not bothered how well Shinnie gets on with Aberdeen. (Only saying)

Opinions, opinions, opinions. All I can say is that I respect the opinion of others but nothing has been said so far to change mine.

Why the very different attitude to Graeme Shinnie who served the club as well and for longer and who is at least staying until the end of the season ?

REMEMBER

Brill (if fit) Raven Meekings Warren Tremarco Draper Tansey Doran Christie Shinnie Watkins

Hooper, Griffiths and Stokes also all over 40 in that timeframe - but nobody even comes close to Billy's 54 league goals.

I've been getting all misty eyed watching Billy's goals from 2012/13 and 2013/14. If I were a Wigan fan watching those, I'd be absolutely wetting myself with excitement.

We do have a very (comparatively) young/inexperienced "development" squad (over half of them having just made the step up) and this season is being viewed as being thrown in at the deep end and results aren't the be all. The numbers, in terms of squad size, are also not as high as they have been in the past (14 players if my count is right). I believe most of the development squad are local...and whilst he is technically a local, Ferg is the only non-Scottish player in there (as per FIFA Eligibility rules he's currently Canadian)...so that's a good thing. As I understand it, there's progression planning in place in regards to how the Development Squad are set up/train etc and how the first team do things (I think they also train together sometimes as well). Yogi attends all the home Dev League matches (as do other coaches and a good few of the first team squad) and provides "feedback" from the stand during games, so in that regard he's hands on.

Dear oh dear, someone's in a bad mood and you can tell someone's really raging when they right in capital letters! Of course, not everyone brought in by Butcher/Marsella was a success. Claude Gnakpa, Curtis Allen, Tom Aldred, Philip Roberts, Jordon Gibbons, Andre Blackman to name just a few. Sekajja and Horner were brought into be squad cover and that's all. It's unfair to slate Hughes on his signings just yet, when under his reign, we haven't really needed anyone who'd be a first team starter. Let's see where we are next season before we really cast judgement over that part of his management. Marsella's at Grimsby now by the way...

Given that we were going to lose Mckay for nowt in the summer anyway, £150,000 seems about fair - it's the equivalent of finishing one position lower in the league than we are now. We only got £50,000 for Don Cowie in a similar situation 5 years ago. The chairman's comments seem to imply that we'll be bringing in a replacement, possibly with some of the money. Let's face it, Wigan are a much bigger club than us; given that it isn't a derisory sum, it'd be unfair to deny him this opportunity to prove himself at Championship level. There's no question he's a huge loss though. Anyone who thinks he was 'over-rated' or 'not that good' is deluding themselves. Like all but the most elite strikers, he had lean spells in front of goal, but his movement off the ball was always terrific and his link-up play is excellent. His poorest spells for us - his first season, and the second half of last season - came because we weren't getting the ball to him at all. I'd claim that Mckay is currently the best striker in Scottish football not employed by Celtic (maybe with the exception of Adam Rooney). Is he good enough for the English Championship? The jury's out - defenders will be quicker and stronger than in Scotland. But he deserves to have a crack at it. Good luck to him.

Sure thing. Here's a few for starters: Jaeger Bombing 16 Dancing 7 Pulling Birds 12 Chat Up Lines 3 Not Spewing After A Lads Night Out 18

Good luck to Billy, he's been a fantastic player for the club. Bit of a strange one I always thought. While his goalscoring record has been excellent, he missed as many sitters in his time here, and he was terrible in one on ones. For every fantastic volley against County there was an incredible miss against Hearts in extra time in the semi two years ago. Overall though, a great player. His work rate was phenomenal and his ability to hold the ball up and play the lone striker role was exceptional. Sad to see him leave but all the best to the wee man and I hope it works out well for him down south.