starchief

I'd be in favour of both him and Brittain. I guess Gardyne takes the Blumanshtein/Sanchez role. It wasn't so long ago that DU were looking to sign him.

It's much like I said before, makes little difference if it's a 10 or 14 league with the current financial arrangements. Can't see QoS versus Dunfermline as being nothing more than a bore to most fans. A 14 team league has a lot of meaningless games but so does the current arrangment or the top 10. If Whyte hadn't bought Rangers, then we may well have seen a better scrap at the top with Hearts and DU challenging. As it is, redistributing the money to enable challenges from the bigger teams (Hearts, Hibs, DU, Aberdeen) is the only thing that will save Scottish football (and that would trickle down to the ICT, Motherwell, Killie, Saints teams). Unfortunately, I don't believe the OF boards and especially the OF fans care enough about anything other than racking up silverware to the detriment of the excitement of competition.

A bit harsh I'd say. The trouble with Barrowman is he simply didn't have it at this level. I was one of those that thought he might have done better alongside a tough striker like Higdon or Brew himself. I changed my mind though when I saw him ducking out of challenges and just not having the wits to get himself in position. I don't think it was over/under-confidence or laziness. It was just (once again) too big a step up.

I've never been a supporter of Hibs but I really thought they had something a little while ago. A team that could go somewhere with free-flowing football. Yogi then started a bit more long-ball (an 'end product' as he put it) but Calderwood has been painful to watch. I see Liam Miller has now gone to Australia. Under Yogi, he looked a real catch, even vying for PotY. Yet, Calderwood had him sky-watching as the ball sailed over his head. Other players with a bit of passing talent, like Riordan, Rankin and de Graaf were the same. Superfluous to a team going nowhere. Calderwood has potentially put Hibs on the road to relegation. I don't much care about that. But I did think they could have made a real dig for third place, cutting a few points of the OF and making the league more exciting. It's been a disastrous reign with decent players sidelined with disastrous tactics. In fact, it reminds me of Brew at DU then back to ICT.

Apparently, he won't be signing for Inverness Caledonian Gristle.

I think it's pretty obvious we are not going down the 'experienced player' route. Young talents who have stumbled appear to be our stock-in-trade.

Without evening out the financial rewards somewhat, it's all bluster. Remember the early 80s when Aberdeen and Dundee United were European forces, St Mirren and Motherwell were winning cups, Hibs were holding on to some decent players...ah, if only we could have something like that back again. So much more interesting, that I'd go for that, whether it's 10, 14 or 18 teams. But it all depends on getting money to non-OF clubs.

I don't celebrate a win as I see Marius as part of ICT. He performed whilst he was here, wanted to stay (probably but all rumours of course) and won his first encounter in court. I'm glad neither side is hurt too badly but it was ICT v ICT. Best result would be neither too much out of pocket. Seems to have happened. I'd welcome Marius back (although far from expected) but happy both sides can move on without looking over their shoulder. It's a happy medium for both. No heroes or villains.

Love that game. I won the SPL with ICT, so am currently playing three teams (i.e. three different 'saves'). The first is the title-winning ICT team, where I've kept the majority of my players. The second team I have, I sold a number of these players for good money and am now trying to build a team of youth players. The third is the most interesting where I've bought in a number of players I had when I managed Cambridge (initially got sacked from ICT, did well at Cambridge, even better at Rostov in Russia, then back to ICT languishing in SFL1). Y'know the youth players that were coming through and the young foreigners who played for a season or two, then got snapped up by bigger clubs. Just to see how much further these players could have gone.

On that write-up, he sounds terrific!

Wow, that would be a turnaround! Did no-one tell Marius of the Highland curse? I don't think we can assume anything in this case other than 'I'm glad it's all over' and no-one really suffered too badly.

To be honest, I thought Esson would join Duncan and Munro this season and Tuffey played instead. Almost certainly cheaper wages.

I never knew Giggsy was colour blind (coz he certainly got screwed)

And do a Gretna? I'm more in favour of long-term planning a la Steve Paterson / Jim McLean but that doesn't seem to be happening.

Sutton, Rooney and Kyle? the words 'ram' and 'battering' spring to mind.

I thought the rule was 'stay out of the black and in the red' and then something about Ryan Giggs?

I agree that it must be a home game. Aside from that, I'm not too bothered. If a club postpones a game to make an extra bit of cash but ends up playing an extra match, so what? Doesn't rile me in any way.

I thought we usually signed their best players?

Nah, he was bloody awful at Dundee United. He showed no chance of turning it around and they would almost certainly have been relegated. Levein came in and showed him how to run a club. Brew should never have come back so soon when he wasn't wanted. He continued his poor managerial form apart from a brief burst. He needs to spend more time in the lower leagues or as an assistant before he tries again. I could actually see him do well as the latter (as some seem to agree) but he isn't yet manager material.

How would you feel if he scored to keep Derby in 8th place? I'm guessing pretty much zero. I'd take the disappointment if Rooney, along with the likes of Nicholson, Cowie etc stayed and made this a better league. I'm not saying I blame then for making more money but I'd prefer to see a better Scottish league than just get the odd flash that someone who spent a couple of seasons here got an assist against Doncaster. Moving to Liverpool, Manchester United etc. would impress me but not the old 2nd Division.

You're not a big enough fan of Scottish football to see the best players in Scotland stay in Scotland? I'd prefer to have a better league even if that meant a former employee was to go to a rival.

They've been offered contracts but not yet signed them. I thought Tokely had invoked the clause in his contract that let him play for another year based on appearances this season? Surprised Sutherland and Morrison were not signed up a long time ago. Really, you're thinking about the long-term with those surely, rather than if they will be a fixture next season?

We'd have to be really lucky to get players available on the free that are able to let us dominate matches. I hope we look at continuing the counter-attacking style that worked so well for us. It worked for Dundee Utd for so many years. But it does depend on who we can manage to get, rather than choosing the style first. There's maybe an argument with the sweeper style to come in. Duff and Gillet / Shinnie would be good at wing-back, Proctor as sweeper and, if it looks as though we'll only have some rookies to partner Tokely, having an extra player in there would help. Also removes the problem of the 'hole' player that we've struggled so badly with. But let's see who we can get first.

Ross Tokely. Written off every year by supporters of other teams and a few of our own, yet has managed to play regularly at the highest tier of Scottish football for a substantial period of time. And that's even taking into account that he rarely plays in his best position (IMHO) of centre-back. I'd also put in a word for Davide Xausa. Ok, perhaps he couldn't have gone any higher than he did (or when he did, it showed that he shouldn't) but, when here, he did really well for us. Even brought us in some desperately needed cash when he left. Doesn't get the credit he deserved due to not being the complete player (and I'm not trying to argue he was) but scored and created for a good return at our club.

Although I've called him a ned on other threads, I actually briefly met him once. Completely different from his football persona. Very quiet, in fact, I'd even say shy. Very softly spoken and basically seemed a nice guy. Apparently Mark Hughes was the same (a very angry young man when he was playing who admitted being chalk'n'cheese outside the ground).