What positions do we need to look at now?

[Harry Chibber]

Some of the suggestions in this thread are comedy gold.

In that vein I think we should re sign Ian Black, John Rankin, Don Cowie and Paul Cherry.

Can't offer this sort of criticism without naming your own potential targets... money where your mouth is RIG????

[RiG]

I don't know about naming players but we need a creative midfielder and the obvious "strength and depth" of the team that we used to have.

Signing Gardyne :P

[+Tree]

Rose-tinted glasses when people seem to talk about Tokely. Is he that great? No. Granted, he's performed well this season - most notably our recent victory away to Partick where he was a literal rock. Can he perform in the SPL next season? I'm not sure.

I would agree that Tokely the full back is questionable. He has lost too much pace to play right back in the SPL against fast wide players and from a defensive perspective Proctor has made a massive difference since being dropped back in this roll.

If he is re-signed I would expect him to be in the centre with Grant as our initial pairing.

[Harry Chibber]

I don't know about naming players but we need a creative midfielder and the obvious "strength and depth" of the team that we used to have.

Signing Gardyne :P

Is he one of the few that have signed contract extensions at C*unty??

I think everyone just realises that Odi & Sanchez wont cut it in the SPL and with C*unty soon to be established as our feeder club then Gardyne is a good fit...

[RiG]

Couunty have got all their players signed up for the next couple of seasons at least. Unless Butcher gets some serious financial backing then we can rule out signing players like Gardyne.

[Harry Chibber]

Couunty have got all their players signed up for the next couple of seasons at least. Unless Butcher gets some serious financial backing then we can rule out signing players like Gardyne.

fair enough, not so laughable though

If we are going to stay with this formation for next season we really need a player similar to Gardyne or find another Bingham from somewhere

[Jay_7]

Left Back:

Not Bob Harris. He is f**king s**t and we don't need a one trick, free-kick pony on the team in our first season back. Don't have a clue who we should be looking at but it'd better not be Harris.

Where do you get that opinion from?

Watched him on 4 occasions now and every game he's been one of, if not, the best player on the park. I also like the fact that you can use that he scores freekicks on a regular basis as a bad thing.. if anything that's something we're severly lacking at the moment. He's a perfect fit for ICT but can't see us signing him ahead of Dundee

Let the inevitable flaming commence...

You only say that because you're posting for a reaction.

Not posting for a reaction at all. In fact the only controversial thing in my post is not wanting Harris, simply because he is a one trick pony. He can't defend, and we saw how much a s**t left back can affect your chances of staying up last season.

The get rid list:

Jay 7

Let the inevitable flaming commence...

Sorted it for you.

Must have been tough coming up with that. Did you get help?

Here's something to put the flames out: all the pish you're talking, which doesn't deserve a detailed rebuttal.

Won't come up with a rebuttal, or can't because you know that I'm right?... :huh:

[Harry Chibber]

if it wasn't party time I'd be more than happy to point out how much p!sh you talk :P

[Jay_7]

if it wasn't party time I'd be more than happy to point out how much p!sh you talk :P

Aye very good Chibber.

IMO, Harris offers us nothing new. Point out the pish in that statement?

I also went on to say that we have all ready seen what effects a terrible left back has on a teams chances of survival. Djebi-Zadi was at fault for the vast majority of the goals we shipped during our relegation run in. Again, care to point out the pish in that statement?

[Alex MacLeod]

People, could you please refrain from getting personal.

Personally I would hope the management already know where the shortfalls are and have ideas in place to address them.

[Div1309]

goalkeeper - possibly the likes of tuffey or gallacher or fleming would provide decent competition for esson. would anyone take ike back?

left back - harris (off to dundee most likely, plus hayes destroyed him everytime we played them), morrison, try get the boy carey on loan from celtic (looked decent at midden)

centre back - pavel in a heart beat would allow roscoe to go back to right back

def mid - could always see if anyone wants to come back, ie kerr, vigurs (not got a new contract yet). stuart duff (did alright on loan, good squad player).

winger - gibson from pars, burns from qots?

striker - buchanan from partick, bring back rory??

really just depends who is available under freedom of contract and who is willing to come up north. think butcher will have a good pull on players. the likes of hayes, eagle, cox, stratford have obviously moved because of the manager im guessing.

[TheKnowledge]

Must have been tough coming up with that. Did you get help?

Look man, you can't just go about sarc-ing people. Victims can become depressed and quickly lose all confidence, it's known as Barrow-syndrome, a nasty, nasty affliction. Luckily, i've witnessed us quickly bounce back from division 1 so I'm immune, for now, but be careful please.

[AJS]

sub goalie: Scott Fox at Queens? Greg Fleming?

left back: Harris will join Dundee, Ryan Conroy at Celtic would be ok.

Centre half: Get Pavels back.

Midfielders: Would love to get Harkins, Brittain, Gibson but we could never afford them.

Strikers: Tade, Keigan Parker, Stephen Dobbie??

[ictchris]

Here are the players we signed after winning promotion in 2004

Liam Fox

Paul McMullan

Darren Dods

Graham Bayne

Juanjo

Richard Hastings

Ian Black

Bryan Prunty

Prunty and McMullan were pretty much bit part players (last minute levellers at Ibrox excepted) - the rest of those players were all brilliant signings, some of whom were rocks (not literal rocks though) for the rest of our time in the SPL. We will do well to get players like this in again.

One question about next season is what formation are we going to play? The 4-2-3-1 has done us well in our run in but can it sustain the more serious pressure of an SPL campaign? If we did play like that I think we'd need to seriously reshape our back four - I'm not sure Proctor is an SPL class right back, Golly is perhaps a bit long in the tooth for another season in the top flight and is everyone confident about Bulvitis playing at centre half in the SPL?

Further up the park, could we justify having four attacking players on the pitch in the higher league? Previous experience tells us that the SPL requires more scrapping, a more dogged and defensive mindset - do we have that with Rooney, Hayes, Forna and Eric on the pitch? I'd love to see us keep Foran and Hayes next season and perhaps try to continue the way we're playing but with a bit more solidity about us, maybe more of a 4-3-3 in the John Robertson style than the current system. Would anyone complain if we line up next season with a forward line of Foran----Rooney-----Hayes?

Also, Butcher showed last close season that he's prepared to take a risk on young lads from England - it paid off with Cox and Hayes, less so for Eagle. What gems can we dredge up in the close season, providing we get a point on Saturday?

[fraser]

Sub Goalie: Johnny Tuffey? Joe Malin?

Centre back: Pavels would be brill to get back. Maybe give stuart mccaffrey another try?

Left back: Bob Harris would be good. If not maybe steven smith on loan from rangers?

Forwards: Gregory Tade but if not i would go for derek holmes.

Line up if we got them:

Esson

Tokely Pavels Munro Harris/smith

Cox Duncan

Hayes Tade Foran

Rooney

[Renegade]

Here are the players we signed after winning promotion in 2004

Liam Fox

Paul McMullan

Darren Dods

Graham Bayne

Juanjo

Richard Hastings

Ian Black

Bryan Prunty

Prunty and McMullan were pretty much bit part players (last minute levellers at Ibrox excepted) - the rest of those players were all brilliant signings, some of whom were rocks (not literal rocks though) for the rest of our time in the SPL. We will do well to get players like this in again.

One question about next season is what formation are we going to play? The 4-2-3-1 has done us well in our run in but can it sustain the more serious pressure of an SPL campaign? If we did play like that I think we'd need to seriously reshape our back four - I'm not sure Proctor is an SPL class right back, Golly is perhaps a bit long in the tooth for another season in the top flight and is everyone confident about Bulvitis playing at centre half in the SPL?

Further up the park, could we justify having four attacking players on the pitch in the higher league? Previous experience tells us that the SPL requires more scrapping, a more dogged and defensive mindset - do we have that with Rooney, Hayes, Forna and Eric on the pitch? I'd love to see us keep Foran and Hayes next season and perhaps try to continue the way we're playing but with a bit more solidity about us, maybe more of a 4-3-3 in the John Robertson style than the current system. Would anyone complain if we line up next season with a forward line of Foran----Rooney-----Hayes?

Also, Butcher showed last close season that he's prepared to take a risk on young lads from England - it paid off with Cox and Hayes, less so for Eagle. What gems can we dredge up in the close season, providing we get a point on Saturday?

Agreed, 4-3-3 is the way to go.

[Joe DiMaggio]

Sub Goalie: Johnny Tuffey? Joe Malin?

Centre back: Pavels would be brill to get back. Maybe give stuart mccaffrey another try?

Left back: Bob Harris would be good. If not maybe steven smith on loan from rangers?

Forwards: Gregory Tade but if not i would go for derek holmes.

Line up if we got them:

Esson

Tokely Pavels Munro Harris/smith

Cox Duncan

Hayes Tade Foran

Rooney

Sub goalie, Tuffey?? :(

Someone else mentioned him before aswell but come on we need to be a bit realistic there is no way he would come to us as a sub keeper. He is a top young keeper and other bigger clubs have been looking at him and he has also broken into the N.Ireland squad, there is not a hope that he would come to us as a backup

[Pele_Is_God]

Rangers or ICT as a back-up... oh he's going to find that a toughie.

[dan_ict]

Sub Goalie: Johnny Tuffey? Joe Malin?

Centre back: Pavels would be brill to get back. Maybe give stuart mccaffrey another try?

Left back: Bob Harris would be good. If not maybe steven smith on loan from rangers?

Forwards: Gregory Tade but if not i would go for derek holmes.

Line up if we got them:

Esson

Tokely Pavels Munro Harris/smith

Cox Duncan

Hayes Tade Foran

Rooney

Sub goalie, Tuffey?? :(

Someone else mentioned him before aswell but come on we need to be a bit realistic there is no way he would come to us as a sub keeper. He is a top young keeper and other bigger clubs have been looking at him and he has also broken into the N.Ireland squad, there is not a hope that he would come to us as a backup

Agreed. why would an SPL qaulity keeper come to us if he wasn't promised first team football??

[fraser]

Sub Goalie: Johnny Tuffey? Joe Malin?

Centre back: Pavels would be brill to get back. Maybe give stuart mccaffrey another try?

Left back: Bob Harris would be good. If not maybe steven smith on loan from rangers?

Forwards: Gregory Tade but if not i would go for derek holmes.

Line up if we got them:

Esson

Tokely Pavels Munro Harris/smith

Cox Duncan

Hayes Tade Foran

Rooney

Sub goalie, Tuffey?? :(

Someone else mentioned him before aswell but come on we need to be a bit realistic there is no way he would come to us as a sub keeper. He is a top young keeper and other bigger clubs have been looking at him and he has also broken into the N.Ireland squad, there is not a hope that he would come to us as a backup

Worth a shot

[Joe DiMaggio]

Tuffey is 7 years younger than Esson who is only 30 so for a keeper Esson still has a good few years left in him. Tuffey is arguably a better goalie especially with age on his side but Esson has been faultless for us and deserves to stay as our first choice keeper.

[starchief]

def mid - could always see if anyone wants to come back, ie kerr, vigurs (not got a new contract yet). stuart duff (did alright on loan, good squad player).

Don't think we've much need for that position. For me, get in Pavels (whose been right-back at Dundee Utd) and let Tokely play in the centre. Swap about if it's not working. Proctor, Duncan and Cox (assuming all three are there) are good enough for def mid. If Falkirk go down, I'd like to see us enquire about Burton O'Brien for that central attacking mid.

[Alex MacLeod]

First of whats up with our current sub keeper?

I reckon a couple of loan signings from the championship will appear next season

And someone from a top League of Ireland team

[Renegade]

First of whats up with our current sub keeper?

I reckon a couple of loan signings from the championship will appear next season

And someone from a top League of Ireland team

I've seen him play a few times..............he's not very good.

[Guest Mahonio]

What about Don Cowie if Watford go down to Coca-Cola League 1? :D :(