Kmcalpin

The fact that he was given a fair wedge of cash from his transfer certainly helped to keep him onside.

Thats yet another very valid consideration. United are one of our competitors for a top 6 slot so why help them? Why give a sucker an even break? From what I hear they're desperate to land a striker. If they've struck a "lucrative" deal with Watt thats a chunk out of their budget. If we hold onto Watt they'll have to move for someone else in this window, paying out again from their current budget.

Saw a curious thing just before Van Veen took his scoring free kick. The ref sprayed a mark on the turf to indicate to the Livingston defenders how close they should stand to the kick taker (10 yards) - common practice. However he also sprayed a mark next to the Livingston defender to indicate to our attacker how close he should stand to the wall. Never seen that before.

Odd that United are being coy now. Keen to speak to the press when it suits them then they clam up when it doesn't. IF a deal is struck, we should insert a clause to prevent him from playing against us this season. That shouldn't be a deal breaker.

The club will know what their selling price is. Reports suggest that we are looking for a 6 figure fee, which could mean almost anything. I'd be looking for £200k at the very very least, but given he's the Premiership's top scorer would try for a fair bit more. Conclude the deal at 11pm on last day of window. Two sides can be awkward. If United won't meet our figure there's no deal.

A good win which we deserved but it was far harder than it needed to be. I'll go against the grain here and say we missed Watt's general skill up front. That said Van Veen did very well. Not our best performance by a long way but we did the job to end 2021 on a high. .

2-1 and it was on the cards when we sit back.

Brilliant cross and goal

We've scored a cracking goal but done little else. Giving Livingston too much time and space around our box. Feel sorry for our strikers having to feed off airborne scraps.

Midfield has been anonymous.

I assume all 500 fans didn't come on the same train/bus?

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Agree about Watt, but Slattery is suspended for this one game.

I see that David Martindale is at the windup, in the Rancid. This is taken from the BBC website as I don't read that publication. "Livingston manager David Martindale reluctantly let goalkeeper Liam Kelly go two years ago and believes Motherwell will face a similar issue, suggesting Celtic and Rangers may be interested in the stopper. (Record)" Who is it we play again today? Good for a laugh if nothing else. Shades of the Tom Wright/Declan Gallagher scenario here?

That is exactly what United are hoping for and why they probably leaked the news.

I wouldn't be too harsh on the club over the announcement or rather lack of one. We may have known he was moving on but no more. Its possible that Messrs Burrows and Alexander found out secondhand via the media. Our issue should be with Dundee United, Watt's agent or Watt himself. This announcement wasn't down to loose talk in the pub it was quite deliberate.

The club will hopefully know more than we do and I trust Graham Alexander & Alan Burrows to handle this situation well. I don't think GA will be bullied by anyone, as we saw last season. Its important that the club stands firm on this move, again, if confirmed. Pre contract agreements aside, the club will have put a value on Tony Watt if he moves on this month. They should stick rigidly to that. As it stands, each league place is worth about £80K to us, and of course there's the possibility of a cup run. These factors set a financial benchmark for us. The club should make crystal clear to any club that wants to sign Tony Watt that if they want him this month then they have to meet 2 criteria. Firstly, the fee should meet our valuation and secondly, the deal should be done by a set date i.e. not 31 January at midnight, to allow us to source a replacement. The only exception to that is if the bid offers silly money in a good way. As far as Dundee United is concerned, they are heavily in debt but are a bigger club, but not massively so. I'd guess their fanbase is about 1,500 more than ours. They have previous for being ruthless in their transfer dealings and so if true, this tabloid story doesn't surprise me. Can they afford this? Probably not but what has that got to do with it. If they want him this month they'll probably offer a modest 5 figure sum, which should be assertively rejected. As far as Tony Watt is concerned, I've never bought into the badge kissing, after the Simo Valakari days. For many players, though not all, money is the only thing that matters. I've no problem with him signing a pre contract agreement with United or anyone else and moving on for family reasons or more money at the end of the season. What I do have a massive problem with is the way this has been leaked to attempt to bully our club into letting him go early. As I've said, if I had my way he'd stay at Fir Park until the summer unless our criteria are met. If not the ball is in his court as to whether he plays or not. If he shows the right attitude then he plays if not then he sits in the stand.

That would depend on his attitude. If he continues to give his all, and I think he would, then I'd keep him in the team. If not I'd park him in the stand. I wouldn't be selling him to United or any other team this window unless they met our valuation. No leaving on the cheap.

This story has yet to be confirmed. However, if true the leak by whoever may well be designed to pressure us into letting him go now for a paltry fee. Given that I'd be inclined to hold onto him until the end of the season to demonstrate that we won't be bullied. Again if true, United may come up with a reasonable offer but that's unlikely given their perilous finances.

If he's not going to remain with us I couldn't care less where he goes. I think players can discuss pre contracts from 1 December but am not 100% sure. Its not professional though to divulge these things early.

If true that's good news. He was never going to re-sign and that allows us to move on and plan for a replacement. I would however question the leak unless it's his agent trying to attract a better deal from elsewhere.

That puts a different complexion on matters. Not putting my name in the ballot I'll buy a PPV instead.

I see that Aberdeen has requested that the 500 crowd restriction be delayed until after the Boxing Day games have been completed. I know they're doing this for selfish reasons but why should the 6 home teams, including us, be disadvantaged financially?

I don't understand why the SPFL board is taking so long to "rubber stamp" the vote of Premiership clubs which was due to be concluded at 1700hrs. If administrative homework was done beforehand by the SPFL officials it should be straightforward. But then again none of these SPFL processes are ever straightforward.

Thats pretty much it Iain. If Watt wants to chase the big money then he'll head south, however its just possible that he may have other considerations. If he did want to stay in Scotland then surely a club like Hearts, Hibs or Aberdeen might want him. I don't doubt that Dundee are interested in him, as they are in Declan Gallagher, but I don't take that paper talk too seriously. They have a history of shelling out the odd big wage, and don't forget they tried to land Faddy (!!!) years ago. My guess is that they have been trying desperately to offload Cummings for some time and that would free up £2.5- £4 grand a week.