weeyin

Barry Maguire will be wishing he'd gone out on loan.

I don't have any doubts about the quality of Aldred or his attitude. I just worry about the balance of our defence, and the balance of the midfield in front of it.

Don't worry - Robinson will make sure our best player in the League Cup group won't be anywhere near a starting slot. He'll be keeping the bench warm beside Bigi and Gorrin. Lucky for us Templeton got his big money move to Burton Albion, but anyone with pace on either wing is going to cause us problems I think. Tait is great going forward, but not exactly nippy when tracking back.

Although, gubbing them is always a bonus.

The transfer window falls within EU law because of the following decision in the European Court of Justice (for basketball, but applies across all sports): "it established the principle that the restriction may be justified as late season transfers could substantially alter the sporting strength of teams in the course of the championship and thus call into question the proper functioning of sporting competition. It can therefore be concluded that a proportionate restriction on when a player can be transferred is compatible with EU law." Financial regulation and reporting requirements for private companies are a different kettle of fish.

Are you trying to convince me that we didn't rely on Dunne and Kipré's pace multiple times to get us out of trouble? Because we have the same wingbacks this season. Like I said before, I thought he was an excellent stand-in for Hartley, but our lack of pace at the back was something Robinson worked hard to improve last season.

As long as we don't face strikers quicker than my old granny, that should be fine. Without Dunne and Kipré we really need some pace in that defence.

If we were looking to replace Hartley, maybe.

#MeToo

They could make anything a condition of membership, but it still doesn't make it legally enforcable.

I think the problem is that privately held companies (which most clubs are), have no obligation to disclose anything like that. Anything the SFA comes up with would not be enforcable.

Attitudes like this are one of the reasons it's difficult to give youngsters game time. (And in case people forget, Cadden is 21). Fraser Kerr was a Motherwell youth player until he joined Birmingham. I don't remember anyone giving him a pass because he was "one of our own".

We've sold 1 player who we'd barely miss if Dunne was fit. Hardly a firesale.

We know clubs have bid for Carson and we knocked them back. Time will tell if the bidders undervalued him or we overvalued him.

Better chance of a sell on % for us. Better career opportunities for the player.

On a different note, what do we think Carson's worth? I see Chelsea signing a keeper for £71 million, and Liverpool spending £65 million (or whatever it was) and think the market has become inflated. Then I see Joe Hart being sold for only £3.5 million - I know he has his dodgy moments, but he's had 266 first team starts for Man City and 75 England caps. So by these valuations Carson is either worth about £10 million, or £250k.

No deal. Send him to Villa for 2 million.

Money up front, cash, in the bank. The other issue is add-ons. What are the chances they would ever be paid by that mob?

Nah. He was terrible, but throwing him into an absolutely dire defence that had been made even more dire with injuries was never going to end well. I'd put Derek Murray ahead of him as worst ever because Murray was permanent (not a loanee) and played a lot more games. Never has a full back stood so far off his man - especially one as slow as Ruby.

Whoever it is, I'd bet 10p it's not a ball player.

Robinson spent half a season chasing Rose to sign a new contract. No way he's punting him - hes' one of his favourite players.

Aldred was a great replacement for Hartley. For Kipré we should try for someone younger and faster than Aldred (especially with Dunne out). We need someone who can run faster than 'Flo.

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.