NixonRFC

Buy Shankland in the summer and by October he'll be getting it stinking for being fat, lazy and slow, the whole Hearts team is built around him, he wouldn't be playing the same game here, he might be a better finisher than Dessers, but he would be expected to put the same kind of shift Dessers puts in, and he's nowhere near conditioned enough for that level of game, IMO. Armstrong is a good wee player, I like him, and in isolation could maybe do a job, although again Jordan Jones and Greg Stewart looked the business at Kilmarnock, it's a whole different ball game when you come here and play against a low block 80% of the time.

Most midfielders that we sign using this tactic won't be ready to run a midfield, it's just something we need to accept, it's the only way to generate cash, as much as I hate using them as an example, 2 year ago they signed o'riley for about a million quid, he was nowhere near the levels he is now, and they'll probably sell him in the summer for 20, if they were trying to sign him now they wouldn't be afford to buy his bad leg.

That's the exact reason we can buy him, and that's what we need to do, he's a player who has the potentiel to be our record sale, but we would already have no chance of getting him if he was further along in his development, the club do a lot of things wrong, but pushing the boat out for a guy like Diomande isn't one of them. It's just a part of the blueprint for this process we need to get on board with, because it's the only way the club will make enough money to continually reinvent the team, you need patience when you buy and acceptance when you sell, there'll probably only ever be one full season where you'll ever be particularly happy with a player, and when that happens, you know it'll be time to move him on and cash in for as much as possible.

Those three would probably cost us the guts of £10m, and outwith Miller, I'm not sure they'd genuinely improve us to be honest, although even that one would probably take time. Then whatever we've got left to play with we're going to have to find money for two good CB's, a left back and another winger, and if we sell Butland to fund this, then another goalie.

The last five and a half weeks of that season was a hard watch just by how exhausted the players were, think we played 13 games in 35 days and only won four of them outright, although that's including draws with Fiorentina and St Johnstone which we won on pens. Remember being frustrated with them in some games when you could see they just never had it in them to get over the line, Hibs and Motherwell away spring to mind, then you just needed to remind yourself that they're human and clearly exhausted, remember beating Motherwell at home, Fergie scored with about 15 minutes to go, and that was a slog too, we had a 67% win percentage in all competitions up until that 13 games in 38 days, and that win percentage dropped to 30% for that last five and a half weeks. It became an impossible task.

Livi's pitch is a shambles but it's a decent stadium and great for away tickets and you can get home in about an hour, so in that sense it's a gutter they're gone, plus they took so many points off the tims over the years I couldn't help have a wee soft spot for them, they genuinely feared going there at one point. 😂

😆😆 this was my first thought, too.

If we beat them it'll be the best and biggest win since the 2-0 in 2005, which was the first time we'd done them there in five year. Had some pretty good wins under Smith but it was Walter Smith, he knew how to do that, McLeish never and that was a big surprise that day, probably the reason we won the title that season.

If (when) we beat them next week, we'll get enough goals against Dundee and Hearts.

I'd take winning the Conference League over winning 5 league titles never mind the Europa. We'll always either be favourites or second favourites to win the League but I think seeing us win a European trophy will be a once in a lifetime experience for anyone born after Barcelona, so while I know a lot of people won't agree with that, that's fair enough but that's my own view.

I think I read a while ago that his record is actually below average, around 85% of pens are scored, while his conversion record for us is 78%

How many pens has he missed this season, 4?

To be fair, in 2022 it was 3 goal starts we were giving them, we're due a good start in one of these games.

I've got no issue with what he did, it was childish and petulant but we need a spark and if getting it right up the fans can light a fire in him then that'll be good for us.

Agreed, but we still only need to do it once.

I get what you're saying, but that was a tried and tested tactic for Walter, with players he had who were very comfortable playing it, we've probably never trained for that style under Clement, and I'm not sure we have the players who can pull it off.

We only need to beat them once.

Beale wins that game he stumbles on until Christmas and we'd be well out of the league by now, and wouldn't be nailed on to beat Aberdeen in the League Cup Final.

We're winning this game next week, I watched their game yesterday and they give up so many good chances, it's been the same all season, with no Rangers fans there (apart from the ones in their team), I think there'll be less pressure on the likes of Dessers, Silva and Cantwell. Not going to bullshit myself or anyone else and kid on we're good, we're not, but neither are they, but the fact we absolutely need to win and a draw will do them, makes me think they'll end up falling into the trap of trying to protect something while we'll need to go for it, thats my logic and it'll get me through the week. Just get the balls in the box, they don't handle crosses at all, it's chaos.

Pretty sure they leathered the tims in a pre season friendly in 1995.

Borna is just another example of how poorly run we've been, but as fans I think we need to get realistic here too, guys like him, and Morelos, Kent, Goldson and Tav should be doing no more than 2/3 years here, come here, improve then move on for 3/4/5 times what you paid for them. Now it's easy saying that now when some of those are gone and fans would gladly see the back of the others, but you don't make money off poor players, you need to strike while the iron's hot, and that means selling when they're playing well, that's when their value is at it's peak, and stops us and them from becoming stale. That's why if Butlund goes in the summer I'll be gutted, but I'll understand it as long as the money is reinvested into the team, I don't want Butland to go, same as I didn't want Morelos to go in 2020, or Borna to go in 2021, or Kent to go after the Europa final, but these are the things that need to happen for a club like ours to generate the kind of money we need to continually reinvent the squad.

I thought he was brilliant at Ibrox last season, but we pumped them 4-1, that was probably our best domestic performance under Gio, but that was the day I could see what the fuss was about Barron.

Refuse to believe anyone at clubs like Dundee would knock back the chance to jump from about 1k a week to 10k a week. Get guys like McBurnie, who's already earned a fortune refusing to sign for the tims, but I think wee guys up here, a chance to earn the biggest payday of their lives, would jump at it. No that I'm arguing for signing him, he's a good wee player but nowhere near the standard required here.

Both teams are absolutely shite, if we can be less shite than them then we can do this.

Injuries are part and parcel of the game, particularly players who are as rapid as Sima, I wouldn't be overly worried, he's still young and this is the most minutes he's ever played in a season (2594), in a far more condensed schedule. He's the exact type of player we've been crying out for and I'd be happy to get him back whatever it costs, he's a player that is only going to get better. Q1: Does he make us a better team? Q2: Will he make us a profit? If the answer to both of those questions is yes then it's a no brainer, and for me it's a no brainer.