rossco87

Squad is way above 25 at the moment. I doubt he is going to want to run with much lighter than 24/25 and more realistically it will be higher than 25 with the additional spaces being from the academy.

I might be wrong but think he would have been in because he was U21? The squad needs: 4 players registered that have trained at the club for 3 years before 21st birthday 4 players registered that have trained in the country for 3 years before 21st birthday (that can include at the club if for have 5/6/7/8 qualifying club players) (Edit) 2 goalkeepers Players under 21 don’t need to be registered (edit) if they have been at the club for 2 or more years

Yeah but the issue on the flip side is say Beale wants a squad of around 25 (2 players for each position a third goalie and a couple covering multiple positions) but we can only register 20 of them for Europe. You are potentially going to have 5 pretty pissed of players who didn’t make the European squad. Getting heavy Championship Manager flashbacks in this thread 😂

Can’t remember the exact number but think it’s something like they have to have been at the club (or club(s) in the country for the home grown) for at least 3 years before their 21st birthday.

While I agree there is a level of snobbery about signing players from SPFL clubs I think part of the issue is smaller teams in bigger leagues have taken notice that there are some decent young players coming through in Scotland and are willing to take a chance on signing them up on the potential and playing and developing them. Similar to what @Laudrupsleftfoot highlighted with Shankland, given the best talent is leaving Scotland at a younger age, at the stage we are able to pick them up on the cheap we aren’t going to be giving them regular game time to develop.

Saw glimpses tonight of what he used to give us, but most of the game he showed why it is time to move on (and has been for a long time if we are being honest).

I wouldn’t be surprised if we move Colak on and replace him in the backup role with Shankland. Think Colak is probably a better finisher but Shankland’s all round play is better and probably better fits how Beale wants to play. Also has the benefit of adding another for home grown player for the Euro squad as we have basically just lost 3 in Arfield, McGregor and Wright.

Frustrating match. First half felt like they were up for it and we were playing a glorified testimonial. Thought second half was much better. Pretty much summed up the season in that we have been lacking up front and giving away daft goals. However for large spells in the 2nd half we looked outstanding in defence and midfield, hopefully some additions up top and a bit more concentration at the back and we might have something.

True, but they also don’t need to be registered as they are u21

Got to admit really don’t like that lineup. The football has been far more refreshing & enjoyable the last couple of weeks with the absence of the likes of Morelos & Kent. By all means let them have a fair well at full time or whatever but don’t tell me they deserve a start for their farewell when a big reason this season has been so poor is because they quite clearly couldn’t be arsed.

Yeah would make sense. Probably wouldn’t have changed anything in terms of the league, but you have got to wonder what we could have done in the cups if we had had a forward who wasn’t just seemingly going through the motions.

Just listened back. The full quote is ”He’s the one player we inherited in 2018, everybody else has come in after that” In my view I think it is clear, but even if it has been meant by your interpretation it’s a pretty weird way of putting it as it is only Morelos and Tav that are left? Not a massive issue really, likely just a slip of the memory, I just feel there have been a couple comments in a similar vein with contradictions from previous statements / obvious inaccuracies. Probably just a relative inexperience in media training that he will get better with over time, the real surprise is given it was an in house interview nobody picked it up and edited it / reran that section.

I had the same, but with the added pain I was playing U-12s and the other team hadn’t turned up but their U-15s were there so gave us a game. Those extra years really make a difference when you get yourself in the way of a well struck strike 😂

Yeah, pretty sure early in the January he had said he wanted 3 or 4 players during the window. Given we only ended up with 2 I wonder if he had targeted a CF whose club wouldn’t sell / were asking for silly money.

Nitpicking a bit here - but a minute in says “(Morelos) is the one player we inherited when we came in who is still here”. Is he forgetting our hall of fame captain? 😂

I get the sentiment but do we not usually have this as a dinner thing and sell tickets etc? The cost / embarrassment of cancelling wouldn’t be great so just got to grin a bear it that we have one even in a shit season. As someone said earlier should defo be more low key - probably just a tweet out tomorrow announcing all the winners rather than live tweeting kind of thing.

Genuinely could see him at Newcastle in a few years if they stick on the same trajectory. Or if Ten Haag continues the rebuild at Man Utd could see them pushing for him in a year or two as the “finishing piece” so to speak. Last I had read Madrid are still pretty stung he didn’t choose them last summer and have moved on (although that could change pretty quickly). Outside those 3 and obviously Man City (and they aren’t going to get Mbappe while they have Haaland) it’s pretty sad to say but I can’t see another club able to afford him unless some other state takes over another team or Barcelona somehow how find another 20 “financial levers” to pull and mortgage more future money for cash now…

Was that tonight? There has been stuff earlier in the season. As I said don’t follow Spanish football as closely as I used to but this gives a pretty decent summary (warning it contains quotes from (un)Fare…) https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/03/15/football/vinicius-jr-racism-in-spanish-football-spt-intl/index.html

I was going to suggest that but would Mbappe really want to be part of that swap given what Vinicius has suffered? Don’t really know the ins and the outs of the Vinicius Jr story to know if there was something that has made him the target so just assuming it is he is a good player and there are some right pricks in Spanish football. If he goes there does Mbappe just become the target?

Seems to have been going on all season with the pundits and press making veiled revisit comments on top of the outright abuse he has been getting from some supports. Wonder if he ends up leaving because of it? Can’t see Madrid being too keen to let him go but if player power comes in to it and Real dress it up as him being a makeweight for them getting someone in?

If those are confirmed we need to be heavily concentrating on our forward options for the remainder of our transfer business. At present we have; Sakala - good enough to be a squad player next year but isn’t consistent enough to be a starter Colak - doesn’t seem like Beale fancies him / fits into the way Beale wants us to play Roofe - on his day arguable the best forward we have but can’t be counted on due to injuries Matondo - I’m still holding out hope there is a player there somewhere - but also willing to concede that risking that is the case is an even bigger risk than hoping Roofe is fit for an entire season… Not entirely sure if Beale wants to play 1 up top with 2 cutting in (like we did under Gerrard) or two up top with someone playing in behind (played that way a few times recently) but either way we we really only have Sakala we can count on so I’d say we need at least 4 forward players (either 2 central and 2 wide or 3 central and 1 wide - depending on how Beale has us setting up) as suspect we will look to move Colak on and surely we have now realised we can’t count on Roofe and Matondo being a big part of the first team squad.

Funnily enough Ross Wilson was given a lot of credit for how much work he had done behind the scenes driving on not only the 1st team but also youth and woman’s teams. Given what you have just highlighted it would seem him leaving may yet be the best bit of business the club does this summer!

Fuck me - if we thought Sky & BBC were bad for the men’s game this commentary duo are shocking!

I’m not even sure it is so much fighting out as being realistic the Souttar has a history of picking up injuries and Goldson is starting to show the effects of playing every game for 3(?) years. They both need to manage their game time and would be happy with either of them playing for the majority of games. Goldson is probably no. 1 but that is not necessarily a slight on Souttar.

Was just about to post this. Wasn’t even in the soft category. Pretty sure Walker started laughing at how obvious the foul was “just the two arms to block him” then they realised Hibs were moaning about it (no surprise) and realised they could make it “a thing” so the narrative changed to it being “soft” and then “controversial” during the first half 😂