nvager 498 Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 This season will be so very important to all Bears and decidedly so to Walter Smith, Ally, Kenny and the management team. Everyone is a bit nervous. Celtic and WGS have now won three in a row. Walter has now had one and a half seasons to bed himself in and to gather a team of his choosing. No more excuses. PLG is well gone. After reaching a UEFA Cup Final we should be well on our way. If we could do that then surely we must have/be quite a strong team? Spirits should be high and expectations too. Just a few tweaks and we should be off and running. For many Bears however that is being far too optimistic. The SPL being lost, some say we threw it away, and the almighty struggle to win two cups never left a feeling of deep satisfaction with anyone. The football on display was at times dire to watch. The defensive nature of our set up in so many games and the dreadful lack of creativity, flair and width in the team inspired no-one. As long as we somehow scraped a good result everyone kept calm. Once things kind of fell apart at the end due to many unfortunate circumstances and a horrific schedule, the feeling was one of a bit of a let down. Even in the UEFA Final we never really threatened the opposition goal. Rightly or wrongly we stuck to our defensive game plan. Thus we ended a season that could have been truly magnificent on a rather disappointing note. All of us believe we can see where the gaps in the team lie. Walter promised us quality. The gaps would now be filled. Deadwood would leave. Well lets be fair it is still far too early to tell as the transfer window does not close until August 31 and it is only July 7. Nevertheless Walter has spent 6m+ on three strikers. He has taken a huge gamble on Kenny Miller, and paid a small fortune of 3m+ on Lafferty and brought in Velicka ex Hearts for 1m pounds. Not quite what everyone was expecting. Is this the quality he talked about? The big point though is that we sold A Hutton and never adequately replaced him. We re-signed a 38 and a 36 year old in Weir and Daily and gave a 3 year deal to A Webster who was so injury prone last season he managed a total of ONE game. We need a quality full back and centre half. Furthermore the part of our team that was terrible was our midfield. Not so much defensively, but in attack. We lost DMB, Burke and Naismith to long term injuries. DMB thankfully is back, but we desperately need another quality winger. Our attacking midfield players were so poor last season. Adam, McCulloch and Whittaker just did not cut it. Davis started out well but faded badly when needed. He to date has not been re-signed and at 4m pounds I hope he is not. Barry Ferguson, due to injury maybe, had a very poor season. We badly need an injection of talent here. Perhaps Furman, Fleck, Shinnie, Effram can help? We need two real quality players and fast. We need flair, ingenuity, pace and goals from midfield. Strikers we now have in abundance. The problem is however Boyd and maybe Velicka are the only real consistent goal scorers. Ally has more or less stated K Miller will always start. Lafferty is a big question mark. Velicka is no better than Boyd so why spend so much of our budget on all three strikers when we have Boyd, Novo, Cousin and JCD already here. The fans are puzzled and many really taken aback by the signing of Miller. So rather than all being gung-ho after a European Final and really looking forward to this season with great enthusiasm, the support is split into the optimists and the apprehensive ones. The signing of K Miller, the price of season tickets and the new strips, the RST debacle etc. all seem to add up to a level of uneasiness. The lack of any mid field and defensive signings just add to that feeling. The signing of Miller in particular and the money spent on a youngster in Lafferty has tended to make a lot of people question the direction Walter is taking the team. Add to that the praise for Lee McCulloch who along with Adam and Whittaker struggled mightily in mid field last season. Some fans are anticipating more anti football next season already. This is unfair for obvious reasons, but until Walter brings in some real quality that will be their view. So we await in wonder what will happen next. Very soon the preseason games will begin and before we know it the CL qualifiers. We must be ready quickly and we must qualify for the group stages of the CL. Walter knows this. So I expect some quality arriving fairly soon. I just hope then all the fans will get together in real hope of a great season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saudibear 0 Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 The problem is that although the transfer window is open until late August we already have a must win CL tie in 3 weeks time and a very tough start to the league season. If we want a reasonably settled side for what will be a difficult start to the season then we should be signing the players we need now and not panic buying the scraps that are left on 31st August. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvager 498 Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 The problem is that although the transfer window is open until late August we already have a must win CL tie in 3 weeks time and a very tough start to the league season. If we want a reasonably settled side for what will be a difficult start to the season then we should be signing the players we need now and not panic buying the scraps that are left on 31st August. Makes sense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaffbear 4,096 Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 The problem is that although the transfer window is open until late August we already have a must win CL tie in 3 weeks time and a very tough start to the league season. If we want a reasonably settled side for what will be a difficult start to the season then we should be signing the players we need now and not panic buying the scraps that are left on 31st August. Totally SB Yes it was great getting to the UEFA cup final but we failed to take our chance and losing the league was our own fault.We continued with Adam,Broadfoot and McCulloch when they are a hinderance to the side not a help...We need new blood either in the shape of our talented youngsters or with quality signings cos if we go with Weir and Broadfoot at the back with Adam and McCulloch in the middle then they may as well start carving the beggars into the league trophy again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfc_no1fan 13 Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 There will be no more signings before the 2nd round of qualifcation.IMO if we get through that, maybe 1 or 2 will come in Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvager 498 Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 There will be no more signings before the 2nd round of qualifcation.IMO if we get through that, maybe 1 or 2 will come in Then we will have made a big mistake in my opinion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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