weeyin

If they park the bus, it's never easy to bang in the goals. If we score early though, our fitness levels should help during the last 30 minutes. (Although it was interesting to hear McGhee's thoughts on how these games interfere with pre-season fitness levels).

Summer fitba', eh?

If we don't let players develop, we might as well give up. We bought him when he was 22, so were presumably aware he wasn't the finished article - especially as we had previously had him on loan.

I think you'll find that's because McGhee, like McCall before him, is shitting everyone about his transfer targets and budget. And rightly so.

Traffic Light, mjc and CMWellfan.

As long as the 5 yard passes are to our players, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

But, but.... that would mean McGhee was telling porkies when he said no new players and we had exceeded our budget. That would mean he wasn't being truthful about signings. Say it ain't so.

The manager is on record as saying he thinks Laing is "a footballer" that he thinks has the ability to make it as a midfielder. He also rated him at right back last season. Apparantly carrying an injury in pre-season. Not sure where the 'not rated' comes from.

I certainly have some sympathy with that argument. It's tempered a little by the fact that players expect a club to offer them a contract for security and then to honour that contract. Expecting to be able to just walk away from that smacks a little of cake-and-eat-it syndrome.

I'm still not getting the "option to sign with us". Is there such a thing as an employment contract where an employee has an option to force an employer to hire them? If there is, I'd like to be CEO of Apple, please.

Is there a Godwin's Law for transfer threads?

a) McGhee is a clueless idiot with no strategy. b) McGhee is a shrewd operator who knows exactly what he is doing based on working with the players every day and access to the budget details. Choose one, it seems.

The "wheeling and dealing" begins.

I love it when our fans clamour for young players to be brought through, but complain when they don't have an instant impact. He doesn't need an "excuse" - he needs development and game time (and, perish the thought, maybe a little support).

Except he doesn't spend most of his time injured.

I think the moderators depend on self-policing and other posters to take care of offensive posts by calling them out in replies. I think it works pretty well for the most part.

Staying up should be the starting point of every season. As we showed recently, it's a fine line between top 6 and relegation play-off.

TBF, we aren't averse to acquiring youth players from other teams. Ben Hall being a recent example (although he was a little older). While it used to happen in the past, the interested clubs would often let the player develop in his local club and bring him in later. Money speaks now, even at that age, and clubs don't want to miss out on the next big thing.

Early season. 2 teams with new faces. Impossible to predict.

Regarding the playing budget, if we have a surplus of cash from income that doesn't mean we can spend it all on players. We have debt we need to service too. So a balance needs to be struck between paying that off and keeping the squad successful. Having said that, I fully expect at least one more new face in the team over the next few weeks.

No need to add headlines to your contributions.

To be fair, it was McGhee that made a much bigger deal than necessary with his German Contact patter. He was still in motor mouth mode at that time bigging himself up for the Celtic and/or Scotland and/or Hearts job. Thankfully, he's put his ego in check a bit more this time around. Not that I didn't enjoy his stories, it's just annoying when they give reporters a chance to write more about the OF than they did Motherwell. His press conferences are usually entertaining. You can't believe a word he says about new signings or team selections, but that is par for the course for most managers. No need to tip his hand when we are already at a financial disadvantege, but I'd be amazed if we don't see at least one new face before the window closes (or a free agent after it closes). Quite likely a loan if it's not a free agent.

McGhee also said a few days ago it would take some "wheeling and dealing" to bring in someone new. And that we were looking for another midfielder. Which, while consistent with his "no new players until someone leaves" line doesn't rule out more new faces.

The money in English football is mental. Conference teams are outpsending half the SPFL. But it seems our clubs are still happy enough with the half-arsed efforts our league makes to generate revenue, and then let the OF take the lions' share of the pitiful income.

Malpas was a disaster all round, not just pre-season. There are many types of fitness though from basic cardio, to core strength, to endurance, to sprint training to speed. And then there is sharpness on the ball. I expect cardio, core strength and some endurance at this stage, but I doubt we'll see speed and match sharpness for a few weeks yet. It's a rare season when we have hit the ground running. Even when McGhee was here the first time his tactics involved us playing hard for 60 minutes or so and then hanging on in the last third of a game.