Libero

This whole situation could have been avoided if the player was signed up on a longer contract than the usual 2 year ones which seem to be the norm at TCS. These piddly contracts leave us wide open to problems like this. I'm not saying sign everyone up to 5 year deals but with a 2 year contract, all it takes is one good season (as in Cowies case) and six months later he can talk to anyone he wants losing the club a potential transfer fee and a good player to boot. :008:

i hadnt noticed that, that is truly eye-opening and if Brewster hasn't taken note of this then we are in trouble! couldnt agree more!

whats one of those? :024: :tic01:

going by brewsters selection history from last season and lack of defensive strenghtening so far over the close season i expect our starting line-up for next season to be: Fraser Tokely McGuire Munro Hastings Cowie Black Duncan McBain Barrowman Imrie

only ?374,900 according to setanta :rolleyes02: unfortunately doesnt seem like brewster thinks defence need any strengthening

and buy a replacement striker!!

theres certainly no shortage of players available and brewster along with most other SPL managers will have agents contacting them all the time sending them DVD's of players and CV's etc however lots of players will be asking for too much money or not what we are looking for so hopefully Brewster can sift through them and pick out gems to invite on trial or offer deals, the way finances are going at the moment that looks like the way things are going with most clubs without mega-rich backers.

indeed, lucky escape i think

kalvenes has signed for a club down in englandshire IIRC Lee bullen signed for falkirk a few weeks ago steve caldwell would be outwith our wage budget as would russell anderson and chris killen. stokes would only be a viable option on loan as he will be on decent money and after playing in a couple of pre-season games at sunderland it looks like he may be considered first team material. clayton donaldson was linked a while back but looks like moving down to england IIRC. stephen dobbie is tied to a long contract and would command a fee of over ?100k which i doubt we would want to pay liam buchannon rejected us in favour of hamilton accies last season as we wanted to offer him a trial but he wanted a firm offer, cant see him being too keen on joining us now that hamilton are in the SPL andy jackson, recognise the name cant think who he is though. :024: any others?

was reaonably pleased with Essons debut, handling, coming out for the ball and shot stopping looked sound, kicking was a little erratic but still pre-season so not too worried about that. i thought hastings had a good game up until the last 10 mins, seemed to switch off and had a few wayward passes. wasnt overly impressed by McBain, i will never question his workrate or commitment as he put in a power of work but i lost track of how many times he was played into a good position and slowed the play right down with back passes. if we were playing a possession game against a stronger team then fine, back passes are useful but not every time we go forward down the left. mcguire looked rusty, first game in a while so hopefully he'll sharpen up a bit. have to say i thought barrowman did reasonably well, he is a box player and thats exactly what we need, someone to get into the right position at the right time to put them away. i think some people may think barrowman didnt play well because he didnt win many headers, fair enough he didnt win many but that doesnt suit his style of play, why the defence kept launching high balls to the strikers i will never know, we may have had some success in the past launching balls at bayne but we will have to alter our style of play if we are playing with imrie and barrowman up front. quite pleased with rorys contribution, looks like he's learnt from tokely on how to get past players in the most unconventional manner possible. good goal which could have been his second if he'd taken his earlier chance. zander and vigurs both looked lively and really hope they get some first team action this year as i think they have a real contribution to make

Barrowman looks good from what ive seen in the pre-seaons friendlies however he is not a target man, nor is dougie imrie for that matter so couldnt understand the deicsion to play the long ball like we did against st johnstone

absolutely! the fact that killie and falkirk are showing interest could mean that perhaps Lovell is willing to lower his wage demands after leaving the dons. by all accounts he was on a decent wage there so maybe he is now 'affordable' to lower league table clubs.

it would appear 3 SPL clubs are chasing him, they seem to be clubs with wage structures not too dissimilar to ours so should we be offering him a contract? story here

hear a rumour that hearts are sniffing about Niculae, player plus cash deal perhaps? :024:

Well said, :clapping03: he's never gonna improve if the fans are on his back the whole time. as for the booing of him last season i think thats an absolute disgrace.

spot on, agree with everything you said especially the bits about vigurs, very exciting prospect, get him signed upto a longer contract asap!

that completely epitomises how i feel at the moment. it would be nice to know what the boards views/plans/ambitions are for the future or are they happy enough to peak at the lower end of the SPL table.

not to mention the power supply, if you dont have that in place your screwed!

i think thats why zadi was brought in, primarily as cover for left back but also as an emergency centre half if needed. Hastings can also play centre half if needed and i'm pretty sure he plays there for the Canadian national team.

maybe we could give him a payrise but with an added role, he could be our star striker and PR Officer rolled into one :023:

sounds like Marius is meeting the club today to discuss his future, heres hoping whatever the outcome that it works out well for both parties. full story here

definitely left the club now, story here

Why are the club/board happy to sit back and rest on their laurels when clubs around us i.e. falkirk, St. Mirren have been making clear steps to grow the club? As an example St. Mirren who we have surpassed on the playing field recently look to have an excellent set-up coming into place, a new 8000 seater stadium coming along nicely funded by the council and tescos, trainingly facilities funded by aforementioned parties, ample funds avaliable for new transfers, 4 new signings with more to come and a new sports scientist being appointed. I really dont like St.Mirren partly due to their fans having a huge unjust superiority complex but i cannot help but cast an envious eye over the way things are heading for them. We have been in the SPL quite a few seasons now but seem to be happy to stagnate where we are. To date this season we have signed 2 players and replaced an outgoing fitness coach with a part-time one but made no other publicised improvements throughout the club, doesnt scream out ambition does it!

looks like a new 'defender' has appeared on the first team squad page of the main site too: Name: Andy McNulty Nationality: Rep of Ireland Date of Birth: 16/01/1989 Height: 6' 0" (183cm) Weight: 12st 2lbs (77.18kg) Position: Defender :024:

a season long loan would benefit both parties if you ask me, Dorrans is highly unlikely to dislodge ishmael miller, roman bednar, luke moore, kevin phillips, or craig beattie for a place in the starting line up so why not get first team football with us...... hopefully we keep Marius but if not how easy is it gonna be to get a proven SPL goalscorer? not very if you ask me, after all there are 11 other teams looking for the same thing! completely agree with the point about Barrowman needing someone like Marius to play beside to leave space and feed off.