Kmcalpin

We’re all just speculating now. The club will know the figures very well and I doubt if they’d shoot themselves in the foot needlessly. Would there be some benefit to this kind of deal to save on VAT?

Sorry, I was referring to our home game against Hibs. It would be nice to watch it on TV without having to pay Sky. Hopefully we can a pay a one off fee to some party (I'd much rather it was Ross County) for the game in Dingwall. On another tack, I assume our away game to Celtic on 29 August will be rescheduled?

Suggestion on P & B that we could come to some arrangement with Wigan over Kipre's sell onfee if thats possible. Seems a sensible suggestion.

Hopefully season ticket holders who don't or won't subscribe to Sky will get access to this game?

Absolutely. Going back to our spell in Administration, big Terry had the final say about who was transferred and who wasn't from a football perspective. However the administrators decided what fee was acceptable for any leavers. Dundee United offered "to help us out" by tabling an offer for Stuart Elliot which was about 10% of the fee we eventually received from Hull City. United were told where to go in no uncertain terms. Kipre is worth more than £1m.

This. A lot is going to depend on the formation we play. I'm no tactician, far from it, but I wouldn't class the likes of Hylton and Hastie (and Seedorf) as strikers, more wide midfielders. I believe we're still looking for another striker to complete the jigsaw. One of our attacking problems last term (yes we did finish 3rd), was that the lone striker was too isolated from the wingers and central midfielders.

Seems fairly clear now that there's more to this story than meets the eye.

You'd think that, in their position, they'd be careful about spending money.

Interesting......

I don’t know about Jake Carroll but I’m confused about the lockdown guidelines. Plenty of shops and businesses are too.

Absolutely. Many fans have expressed disquiet because we can’t compete with the wages on offer down south. Now we know one of the reasons why. I’m happy with our approach.

Its not just footballers. I'm sure most of us could produce a list, the length of your arm if not longer, of those who have broken lockdown rules.

Should it be front page news?

Well, that would certainly split opinion. Maybe I'm wrong but he seemed to be less effective before he left. Was that because his mind was elsewhere or other teams had him sussed?

Yes. Was never 100% sure he’d stay until the official announcement was made. This will give us more continuity going forward and will help our preparations for the new season.

Maybe they want to pay £22 to help the club?

Thats ok if we have these young lads, but as far as I know we don't. We're ok in central defence with David Devine and Yusuf Hussain pushing on, likewise with central midfield with Dean Cornelius and Jamie Semple but thats it I think. It would be great to see these 4 young lads break through this coming season but they need game time, and I hope they get it. We seem to be light out wide (defensively and offensively) and up front just now.

Tabloid press is reporting that we've offered Robbo an improved deal to try and persuade him to stay.

According to Alan Burrows twitter (Captain Oats P & B) we're looking for another couple of players up front. Probably no surprise to most of us.

Luc Nijholt is only a phone call away. What about Simo?

At the very worst though, the club won’t lose out of it. At best it’ll make a good few thousand. If it makes even a modest return then it’ll have been worth it. What’s not to like?

It’s also worth noting that had Tait signed the club’s most up to date offer, it promised him that, as soon as there was clarity over fans returning this would be reviewed.

Agree 100%. For too long now, decades in fact, we've had players (or their agents) making controversial statements in the press and the fans jumping up and down slagging off the club as a result. The club is quite entitled to reply to defend itself and in this case it has struck the right note. As far as the BBC is concerned, it could have waited a tad longer to publish a balanced report. The story wasn't that urgent. Sometimes journalists can ring you up, pose a complex question/query and demand a reply there and then. If you say that you'll ring them back they'll just go ahead and publish, saying that the organisation wouldn't comment. When similar situations arise in future I'd expect and hope that the club will defend itself and reply, in a reasonable tone.

Neilson won't come cheap and Hearts will have to fork out hefty compensation to United. They'll also have to pay Stendel's contract. In the current and future financial climate how can Hearts afford this?

I'd like to hear the club's take on this. Just my opinion but I think he regressed last season, losing a fair bit of pace. Grimmy ousted him from the starting 11 at right back and we had a first choice left back. A good servant, but was he worth another deal and being a year older too? Probably not in Robbo's plans, or if so, only as squad back up - speculation on my part though. From a hard footballing perspective, not a great loss, but good luck to him.