weeyin

Is that a Larkhall hand you've got there?

I thought he'd signed the new contract to ensure we received a small fee when he did, inevitably, move on. However, as we got him for nothing, it wouldn't be terrible if is next move is a free.

There's a lot of random internet disclosing of undisclosed fees that are worth about as much as the paper they're printed on.

It's the "punching above our weight" patter that annoys me the most. There's a hundred good reasons a club with less resources can field a competitive team, and classifying it as "punching above our weight" is patronizing at best. As for the league, it's impossible to predict what our team will do this early in the season with a stack of new players and more to come. Far too soon to write us off or have us in the top 6. The way things are structured now, you typically don't get a feel for things until September.

We might be able to figure it out from the next set of financials. Pure speculation on my part, but I'd guess we gave up a large chunk of a future sell-on to QPR in order to bring him in cheap. With a 3 year contract, we'll sell him on (with his international caps) after year 2 and pass on most of the profit to his old club. Simple The fact that it took a "long period of negotiation" to arrange certainly made it sound like it was a bit more complex than a free or small-fee kind of transfer.

That would be the "Big Devante" that struggled last season until GA helped turn his form around.

A 20 year old with 5 first team appearances and 16 second team appearances sounds more like a prospect than a replacement.

It certainly sounded like O'Donnell's new contract was set up in way to give him the opportunity to move on, while putting a few quid in our bank account. I'm sure GA has a few targets to replace him if it does happen.

I read somewhere that GA was expecting one more signing this week.

2 ‐ 1 to the good guys. Van Veen and Lamie.

Should certainly give him a chance to get a run of games and see where it takes him - St Mirren, probably...

Partick Thistle looking to take Jake Hastie on loan. That could be a good move for him.

Sounds like it. The announcement on the official site says that they expect season ticket holders to be in their usual stand, but not their usual seat.

Career-wise he's slightly better than 1 in 3 (126 in 373 in all games). I haven't seen that much of him recently, so have no opinion on his likely value to us. It does look like he's had spells of goals including 23 in 43 at Coventry. If we could get that out of him it would be a result. If we got his Dundee Utd form, not so much. As we've seen, a change of scenery can sometimes be the catalyst for a player, and maybe GA has a plan on how to get the best out of him.

I think Premier Sports are controlling the rights for that.

I think Maguire has been our most consistent performer in this group stage, but I gave Lamie the nod today because as well as winning every aerial contest, I thought his distribution was much better today.

It's certainly possible - he was decent last season, which is why I surprised his form had dipped so much the last couple of games. I'd have been tempted to keep Carroll at left back, but if it is only fitness lacking, maybe GA thought game time is what was required.

Don't see a MoTM thread yet, but on the other end of the scale I thought McGinley was poor in the Airdrie game and poor again today. He's been easy to beat defensively and his passing when he comes forward has been even worse. I don't expect players to be on top form at this point of the season, but was surprised at his lack of form so far.

Also, the window is open until the end of next month. I'd rather wait two or three weeks to get the right players for the season than panic buy bodies for the Hibs game.

Unknown to you doesn't mean the people inside the game don't know him. Come to that, the Southampton fans know him too.

Fair dos!

"I'm really sorry, dear - I'd have loved it if you were sitting beside me, but the ticketing system MADE me put you up in the back row of the South Stand. Give us a wee wave to let us know you arrived safely."

If I was the club, I wouldn't sell any away tickets unless every 'Well that wants to attend gets one.

If anybody thinks we will actually be signing "brilliant" players then maybe we're not the team for them. What he actually said, of course, was that they'd be "brilliant additions to the squad" - which is an important distinction. A decent midfielder that can pass a ball could be a brilliant addition to the squad without being a brilliant player. Plus, of course, it's just a figure of speech - but I think we all knew that really.