weeyin

Back strain from picking the ball out the net?

They have been pretty awful, but that doesn't matter in a cup game. Can you remember any cup ties with Hearts, regardless of their form, that were easy? Or any easy league games against them in recent times?

If we were playing two leagues lower, yes.

Of course it's a risk. If you tie up a 15 year old on a 6 year (Dundee Utd special) contract you end up with a squad of Dom Thomas, Craig Moore and Bob McHugh etc.. We have streamlined our acadmey this year and are focusing on developing a smaller group of better players with targeted positions. It's all very well saying sign up half a dozen youngsters on 6 year contracts, but that is assuming all 6 will be good enough to be around for the entire 6 years. More likely half of them (or more) will be punted each year - which is the norm at most clubs - and you need to bring in another 3 or 4 on the same 6 year contracts. So over those years, you will have, conservatively, invested in over 20 players on those 6 year contracts. Suddenly not so cheap. And that's assuming youngsters would sign up for that length of time which, given the number of agents sniffing around with their advice, is extremely unlikely.

Rondon shouldn't have made it past the first half. (Not that I'm complaining - but the ref was pretty weak on yellow cards).

I miss the days when the Eastern European clubs were just a front for KGB/Stasi agents.

As per Wikipedia, Cluj were insolvent for a while, but a businessman took them over recently and is funding the club. They also upgraded their stadium about 10 years ago to hold 23,500. Also according to wikipedia, the Romanian league had a €102 million, 3 year broadcasting deal in 2008, and a new 5 year deal signed in 2014 - no figures listed for that deal, but you have to imagine it's for more. They also have a league sponsor that will be adding money. Seems that their league starts in mid July, so they have a couple of weeks start on the Scottish teams, but that shouldn't make a huge difference. Of course, countries like Romania have produced some technically gifted players over the years (especially when they were run by ruthless dictators), and that is just as important.

The big (Captain Obvious) difference between teams like Celtic and ourselves is the quality of the players. And by that I mean, when we made 4 mistakes, they were good enough to score 4 goals. When they make mistakes, we don't capitalise as often. We can dominate possession, high press, make chances etc. but the deciding factor will always be making those chances count and punishing mistakes. That edge is what Celtic's money can buy to dominate in the Premiership, but is much less of an advantage in Europe. As an aside, as much as I dislike the OF, I still think it's ridiculous that a team that wins its domestic league is asked to go through qualifying rounds while teams that finish 2nd or 3rd in other leagues are not. The Champions League already provides enough advantages for the big teams without handing them automatic qualifying on the basis of "they have plenty of money already".

Hearts have been atrocious. After Levein's comments at the weekend, however, you just know they are going to be fired up for this one. We've never had an easy cup tie against Hearts and Friday will be no exception.

No. Different league, so not rehabbing a competitor's player. Transfers, not loans. Plan to develop them and sell them for a profit, not give them back to parent club to sell for a profit.

Aye, but ones that are fit - not ones that we are expected to rehab.

Permanent signing, yes - never heard it allowed for loans. Loans are a bit strange. In the EFL, for example, they can loan players until the "fourth Thursday in November". (But I have no idea what the SPFL stand is on that issue). Regardless, I wouldn't have him back. Not because I don't like the guy, but because I don't like taking loanees from clubs in the same division.

It sounds like it should be a thing - I've just never heard of it happening, which made me think it's not.

Will need more than a month, I think. While not at the highest level, Hylton has had the advantage of 69 competitive first team games in the past 2 seasons. Seedorf only about 15 and definitely still lacking fitness. If we're talking about Ilic, I'd say he's a midfielder, not a winger. Took Gorrin 6 months to find any form last season.

Apart from the fact Main is a centre forward and Ilic is a midfielder.

Can you even do trial loans?

After our league cup efforts I imagine it's been a wake up call for our new players. It's one thing being told what to expect, but playing Livi on that pitch then hitting the best team in the league (soon to be followed by a Hearts game) will be valuable experience. As always, the guys from down south are a few weeks behind in the fitness levels required to play our high press. Not all of them will make it, but I'm not too worried yet.

I don't have any issues with Scott himself - we just need to make sure the other players are chipping in goals (like Turnbull did last season) while he learns his trade. You can definitely see the improvements since his introduction as starter at the end of last season.

Is Murphy close to fitness? I wouldn't want to be Sevco's physio team or it could be McCormack all over again.

This is the key. Hospitality at any ground usually involves both sets of fans and seats in the best stand. If they get out of hand, however, they shouldn't be given any special treament and invited to leave just like any other fan in any other part of the ground.

Lafferty said last week he gets dropped because he never trains hard enough. Not sure that would sit well with the gaffer. I'd also need convincing that he can score goals because, despite his record against us, he's only had 3 seasons out of 14 where he managed double figures - and double figures has meant 11, 11 and 12 goals. Around 5 or 6 seems to be his average return in his other eleven season.

Utd are definitely chucking cash at the team this season to try and escape from that league. It's a high risk strategy (unless the new owner has money to burn on a hobby).

He was at Aberdeen for a while, but mostly loaned out to lower league teams. Wiki has him at 17 appearances for them with no goals. For me, he is still an unknown at the top level. We've seen plenty of prolific lower league strikers over the years that, for whatever reason, can't make the step up. Similarly, we see guys like Craig Moore prosper when they move down a division. Moot anyway, as there is no way we could have afforded him.

Moult starts for PNE today - lining up against Kipré.

Shape is going to take a bit of time to tighten up. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Betfred instead of pre-season means we set up to beat lower league teams where shape is less of an issue (because we are better). There are a a number of players in the team who haven't played against a team as good as Livi, never mind Celtic, that will need to get up to speed quickly.