Desp

How many goals/assists has Dom Thomas got to his name in the first team? There's no doubt he has talent, but I think he needs a run of 15-20 first team games. The constant 20-30 minute cameos don't seem to be doing too much for him just now. I think a loan spell until the New Year at Championship level could be the making of him.

:lol: What a guy you must be.

We're going to have several first team players sitting on the bench (or even in the stands) throughout the season. It's called having a squad. We wouldn't get too far if we only had 11 players to choose from. At this point, we're only guessing on what McGhee's plans are between now and the end of the August. We have two central midfielders in Lasley and McHugh, and of course McDonald can play there, if needed. Who knows what his plans for Allan Campbell are? Maybe he feels he's good enough already to step up. Chris Cadden is also more than capable to move in to the middle of the park. I'm sure McGhee has a couple of names in the squad he'd like out the door, but if he's unable to, then it's not the end of the world for me.

Not if he's better than the other two centre-halves he's competing against. No need to worry though. We'll be in the money after Marvin Johnson is sold for £1.6m.

thisGRAEME's "could do a job" list will be getting a few extra names added this week.

I agree it's not his best position, and not where you'd ideally want him, but who else is there to go into midfield? Ideally you'd want a bit of experience in there, so to go with a two of McHugh (playing his first game in Scottish football) and Cadden (most of his first team games have been on the right hand side of a three) would be a tad risky IMO.

I wonder if we'll see McDonald drop into midfield for this one. Midfield three of Cadden, McHugh and McDonald. While Tavernier and Wallace are good going forward, they are, to say the least, suspect defensively. So I'd be getting both Ainsworth and Johnson on the park with the instructions to run at them.

I'm pretty sure you know full well who I'm on about, but just in case you need it in black and white, then it's Keith Lasley. Look at the reactions of other team's fans towards him. Lasley does have a nasty, dirty streak in him. It's not a bad thing, every team needs one. Your constant whining and moaning of every other team being "physical" and "putting the boot in" is embarrassing. It's a big boys sport.

Of all the players with a strong physical presence you could have picked, you went for Murray fucking Davidson! :lol: Every other team is overly physical in your eyes. It's a contact sport, and our very own midfield carries one of the dirtiest bastards in the league.

Will never be the greatest of Motherwell players, but fair play to him, he never hid and he did his best. All the best Josh. Can you imagine if someone like Tom Hateley had Josh Law's attitude? What a player he'd be then.

That's an understatement... It's absolute dug shite. Hoofball is the name of the game down there. That's not a dig at the player, there's many good players to be found at the level. However, it's not a league that I can watch a lot of. Even the majority of League 1 games are really poor (considering the wages some teams pay out).

If that's what makes them sleep easier at night, let them carry on. However, I have my suspicions that the ones on social media battering on about boycotts and the like, would struggle to pick out Ibrox on a map. Still, i'm sure they buy the new top on the day it's released every year...

That's what i'm saying. Someone will be upset at a Wednesday night game. But why would, or should, the SPFL upset 400-500 Dundee fans (for example), over only an extra 75 Motherwell fans? As clearly evident by various posts on this forum (not a dig at you, personally) you can't please everyone all the time. So really the task should be to minmise that upset and disruption. For the league as a whole, sending a Motherwell/Hamilton/Partick up north on a Wednesday night doest that, IMO. Despite the small band of fans who'll travel regardless being justifibaly upset.

Make sense to who? Not really Ross County as far as i can see. The teams who are closer would therefore bring the biggest supports. So how is it fair to shift it to a Wednesday night? Even for a Saturday game, Motherwell would bring what, 150 fans? You can half that for a midweek game. So, Ross County miss out on 75 Motherwell fans. Let's say Dundee, for example (as it's a wee bit closer) take 500 fans to Dingwall for a Saturday game, but only 100 for a midweek game. Ross County then miss out on 400 away fans. Someone has to travel to these places on a Wednesday. You can't ask Ross County to move their stadium closer to the central belt to suit other team's fans. I would suggest scheduling midweek games for Ross County away is actually better for the likes of Motherwell, Partick, Hamilton & Killie. Simply because very few would travel anyway, regardless of what day it is.

I rarely buy strips, so don't know. What dates over the last 5 years have the strips went on general sale? Interesting point about missed sales for summer holidays. Do you know dinnae-punt-it?

As long as the shout is "Fuck off"

Love a wee bit of inside news. That's my favourite exclusive of pre-season, so far. Keep up the good work.

Something could have been done in advance. A simple phone call to the SPFL was all it took. "I see Rangers are back in the league. Are we getting the fixtures to fit in 3 OF home games or do they effectively take the place of Utd, as happens with every other newly promoted team?" A 10 minute phone call, if that. But no, all we get is "we were never told about it", "we assumed as that's how it's always been". For the board at a company with a multi-million pound turnover, to be gambling over £120k (a fair amount to the football club) on an assumption is unbelievably imcompentent, IMO.

The statements of Motherwell and Partick are a joke. It's nothing other than poor planning. You forecasted a third OF game because it was that way 5 years ago? If I went to my finance gaffer and gave him projections based on something like that, I'd get laughed out that building. Sheer incompetence by the board at MFC

Well, when was the last summer transfer window we didn't bring at least one loan signing in? It's not exactly an out there prediction. Recent history shows that.

The option is there for every club in the Premiership to cancel a fixure, should they wish, to make additional income from a glamour friendly.

"But that's how it's always been" doesn't cut it for me. We should be looking forward, not back. Rangers are the new team in this league. They should be having to change to suit our needs (and if that lends itself to a 18-20 split this year for them - tough shit), not everyone else jumping through hoops to make it ok for them and Celtic, because, y'know, that's how it's always been.

As opposed the previous league format of 10 teams playing each other 4 times a season...? The previous format guaranteed 4 games a season. This format does not. Of course, you could say it'll happen in all likelyhood, but it's not guaranteed. So there's that...

In what ways do you feel the fixture list has been manipulated to suit the OF clubs? Other than Celtic cancelling their 2nd game (even then, it was an avenue open to all clubs)?

No we didn't. The 'computer system' is exactly the same as last year.