weeyin

And fans who have more than Football Manager on their ZX Spectrum to fall back on realise that there is some middle ground to analyse. But the social media mob has everything pegged as world beaters or shite. No room for nuance.

Were you not complaining about Dunne last August? How did that work out? Good to see the usual experts have everything worked out after one league game. You'll make more money than a taxi driver at the bookies this season. Did you not want Frear to start today, or is he still your favourite boo boy target?

The challenge with Sammon is he prefers ball to feet. That means we need someone who will play balls to his feet.

Then this place will be in meltdown from posters who think losing your first two games means automatic relegation, obviously.

If he starts, maybe. If his role is to chase lost causes, not so much.

All will be (half) forgiven if we beat Accies next week.

Every striker we play is going to struggle if we don't play people who can create chances.

We have attacking midfielders who can create, but it seems we'll need to wait on Tanner being fit before any of them are allowed to start.

I agree with 95% of this, but "match fit" is definitely a thing - and a thing that can only be remedied by playing matches against good teams. Case in point - look what happened to Nicky Law's career when he dropped down divisions and played against part timers every week.

I'm not worried about the result today - was always going to be a big ask given the state of available players. I should know better by now, but it annoys the crap out of me that Frear didn't start. He was consistently our most creative player in the League Cup group. All this earning right to play football is just BS. Can you imagine Tommy McLean leaving Davie Cooper and Bobby Russell on the bench until we were 2 or 3 goals down because we hadn't earned the right to play them yet? Doubly annoying against a team like Hibs who give you the space to play some football. Playing football and getting 2 or 3 (or even 1) goal ahead earns you the right to shut the game down. Not the other way around.

Telt ye...

Campbell and Dunne big misses today. Frear not starting because he showed far too much creativity in pre-season and we don't want any of that nonsense when we haven't "earned the right to play football". Much smarter to to wait until we are chasing the game.

Sell them!

Also, Robinson is not an idiot. First of all, he's quoted yesterday as saying he has a replacement for Kipre lined up and hopes to do a deal soon (which implies the Board released some of the transfer fee) Secondly, he'd be the biggest eejit on the planet if he flapped his gums to the media saying "we've got a ton of spare cash to spend on a new player - who can you sell us?" Even under the new business model, we've always tried to replace players we sell. But just as our starting point for selling players should be "we don't need to sell, so you need to meet our valuation", our starting point for negotiation when buying players should be "we're skint". Pretty standard stuff whether you are wheeling and dealing in the transfer market or buying a car.

Tait is certainly comfortable at full back, and Taylor-Sinclair might be. For the purposes of tomorrow, a defensive sweeper would be fine - no need to try and create a libero for one game. But I agree - never something Robinson is going to attempt.

Wonder if we have a "first team appearances" clause in either of their contracts.

With Dunne out short term, and Cedric gone, I'd like to see someone with a bit of pace brought in. As excellent as Aldred was, I see him as a more natural replacement for Hartley. I'd also be happy to see Maguire get some more game time after his suspension.

Nice gesture by the club to exchange fans' new 2018 Kipré printed shirts, and have the big man sign the old one for them.

FWIW, Wikipedia says he was released by Leicester.

But he left us to go and play for ICT while Ainsworth was still playing at Fir Park.

If anyone reads my posts from last season, it's obvious I'm in the "want to play more football camp". I'm also a realist, however, and understand it takes a few seasons to build a team. When Robinson took over, he had a mandate that included: - do not get relegated - get rid of the high earners - fix a defence that was leaking like Donald Trump's Whitehouse There's no doubt that he achieved all 3 of those. He also said he wanted to add pace and bulk to the defence. Again, something he achieved. The 2 Cup Finals were a bonus, and it was a smart piece of business to bring in transfer fee for Moult when he was available on a pre-contract for zilch. On top of all that, Alan Campbell became a first team regular, as did Kipré (who went on to make us a small wad of cash), and Cadden picked up a couple of international caps. The pitch contines to be the best in the league, and we have even replaced the old scoreboard. All of this being achieved while the club transitioned to full ownership by the Well Society. We definitely lacked depth last season. (I was at the Accies and Dundee games in December, so had first hand experience of how dire we were). For a club our size, that lack of depth could just as easily have put us in relegation trouble as miss out on a top 6 spot. Fortunately, it was the latter. So I completely understand the desire to add numbers. None of this prevents us from blooding youngsters this season - although, it's easy to forget just how young our squad is already. For me, it's far too soon to be making a final judegement on the quality of the players we have brought in. As I endlessly point out to the moaners, Dunne was a target of the experts this time last season and now they are all miserable because he is out for a few weeks. Johnson might be the natural finisher we need, and Rodriguez-Gorrin might be the first step towards having someone who can put their foot on the ball. I'm certainly prepared to wait and see. I still want us to be moving towards playing a more attractive style of football. That isn't an overnight process, though. When Wee Tommy was in charge we spent a few seasons parking the bus to make sure we avoioded relegation, before he was able to start bringing in better footballers and create a style that was winning us a Cup (and bulidng a team that wasn't too far away from a league title). Thistle and Dundee were the poster boys for bottom 6 "footballing" sides last season. One was relegated and one was nearly relegated. It's a difficult balance. And Dundee Utd were the poster boys for a recruitment model that many said we should follow. So I'm quite prepared to see how the first half of the season unfolds and re-assess the team and their progress after that. It's easy to forget that if Les hadn't stepped in and, not only provided a loan, but implemented a complete restructuring of the club, we might be talking about how we manage to avoid League One this season, and where we should play games after Fir Park was sold off. Are we where I'd like us to be? No. Are we better off than when Robinson took over? Undoubtedly. Are we heading in the right direction this season? Bring it on, and let's find out.

Aye, scored and set up. Maybe just coincidence, but I was watching some highlights and Vigurs always seemed to be the guy being skinned by Ainsworth or Humphrey. I remember at the time he joined us thinking it was mainly to avoid having to play against Lionel again.

I wasn't joking about playing a sweeper. That's one way to help address a lack of pace.

I see the full replay of the game is being shown on Alba at 6pm.

It does, actually - according to the Board. It doesn't, however, have a contingency for failing to pay our debts and lose money by overpaying salaries and win bonuses (like we did the season we were finishing best of the rest). We could follow the Dundee Utd model people kept suggesting we adopt - that's working out well. Or maybe just get a rich investor like Ross County, and hope they keep pumping in money - that worked out well for us with Boyle. Or we could spend within our means while we pay off our debt and see where that takes us over the next couple of seasons. And again, I'd still be interested to hear who all these players are that are an upgrade on what we have and would play for the wages we can afford.