Kmcalpin

Adam Livingston was loaned out last season to East Fife and their supporters that I know rated him. Hopefully he'll get his chance soon, as we're no longer in a relegation scrap.

Conflicting rumours on Pie and Bovril this morning. Mitch claims that he'll sign a Pre Contract Agreement with us this week; a St Johnstone fan says he'll sign for them; and a third poster says there's several offers on his table. Without being party to inside knowledge its impossible to say which one is right. Add to that, Stephen Robinson quoted as saying PCAs aren't worth the paper they're written on, and everything is as clear as mud.

No surprise there then. Hastie's agent will be well aware of our wage structure and what we, as a club, can afford. He / she is at it and knows full well that we cannot meet their demands. Maybe a negotiating tactic maybe not. Although very promising, Hastie has yet to be tested against top six opposition and they should not be allowed to ignore that.

Like a few others I was beginning to lose faith in Robbo going into the winter shutdown. We failed to kick on after last season and the summer recruitment drive was less than successful. I didn't like the longball style of footie we played but was lesss concerned than many others about that. What concerned me most was our poor results. However Robbo has turned it around suddenly and dramatically. We're now winning gmaes albeit against bottom 6 opposition but we're also playing attractive footie with home grown talent featuring prominently. So, I take my C&A hat off to him. What he has done, unlike many others before him, such as Maurice Malpas, is acknowledge he had made mistakes and change things. Thats why I've really warmed to him in the last month or so. No manager is going to get things 100% right be it tactics or signings. He's really turned things around and deserves credit for that. I'm happy to say that my opinion of him was wrong.

Is anyone surprised? No doubt the youngster's agent has been trying to stoke up a bidding war using a friendly journalist to publicise it. We'll wait and see.

I think the Motherwell Times suggested that we received a modest/nominal fee, which would seem reasonable in the circumstances.

You have to ask what the future holds for Peter Hartley. He's 31 and not getting any younger.

Yes, during his time at Fir Park he always gave the impression of being a bit lazy. If he lost the ball he had a tendency to just shrug his shoulders.

Thats my view too.

No reason to be pessimistic tonight given our recent form but our team is fairly young and prone to inconsistency. It'll be a hard game. Wouldn't surprise me if Ariyib4gi is dropped to the bench tonight as he isn't fully fit and may struggle to play 2 games a week right now. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

I think his contract was due to end in June of this year but very recently the club awarded him an extra 12 months to get himslef fit.

I think Gorrin is certainly worth another deal as is Grimshaw. I'd like to see Aldred signed on a permanent deal. McHugh is an interesting one - what do posters think about him?

Good news. Also hints they have agreed although thats not clear.

Its not quite the same though. Craig Tanner was injured whilst carrying out his agreed duties at work. It wasn't an injury sustained whilst away from his workplace or an unrelated illness.

Piffle. What part of the ground were you sitting in?

As far as I know he had his contract extended recently by a year to take him up until summer 2020. Our club , unlike some others in Scotland, believes that a player should leave in the same medical condition in which he arrived. He was injured playing for us and we're doing the decent thing by him. Apart from anything else that will promote the club's image to players. He was sat in front of us at NDP at the back end of last year. I hope he returns to full fitness with us - good luck to him. Its good to see MFC stick by him.

Yes some good news which should help the Club and Society's finances.

For a good part of the first half...yes. You'll recall that Bigi was subbed at half time due to his inability to create anything and also for a poor defensive performance. Livvy sat deep in the first half and played the long ball. His colleagues were looking to him to create something and provide a spark but he just didn't produce the goods. He reminded me of Brian Kerr that day. Typically a defender or less gifted midfield colleague would feed him the ball only for him to stop when a defender confronted him and make a sideways pass or back to a defender who had to then lump it up the pitch. This happened ad nauseum. In the interests of accuracy we reverted to the long ball even more after the break.

Two games I was at immediately spring to mind. The 1-0 home loss to Hearts in September and the 2-0 away defeat to Livingston in December. On both occasions Bigi started and we tried to play a bit of football on the deck through him. On both occasions he failed to live up to expectations and simply did nothing. There are more examples. Probably his best game was at Dundee this season when we won 3-1 but that was an exception. The less said about his defending the better. In short if he was performing he would have started in far more games than he did. As Yorkyred says above he was a luxury player probably not suited to playing in Scotland's top flight.

Yes. When given his chance and when we tried to play it on the deck he was largely anonymous and didn't show the creativity of which he he was capable. No doubt he would have been one of the higher wage earners and perhaps that cash will be better put to securing Hastie and Maguire on new deals. From the little I've been able to glean it seems that we did receive a modest fee for him, which is only right.

Overall a very good window for us but a strange one in that more players left than arrived. Still, the highlight for me was securing David Turnbull on a 2 year deal. Ideally I'd have liked to move on Main and Sammon also but thats perhaps being greedy. Bigi may be a nice guy but he just failed to perform on the field and for once we have a number of attacking midfielders already playing like Turnbull and Hastie, or just waiting to burst through, if only to step up to the bench, ie Stuart McKinstry, Adam Kettings, Reece McAlear and Liam Brown. Hopefully all four will get some game time, even just a few minutes, between now and the end of the season. They may not all be quite ready just yet but tonight they'll be thinking "I can see a chance here, the decks have been cleared".

Dundee received £45k for Kamara, whose contract also expired in the summer. Don't see why we're different. £45k is chickfeed for Hibs. Bigi never took his chance and blocked younger prospects from progressing.

Presumably we will receive a 5 figure fee from Hibs for Bigi's services. A good bit of business by the club. It will give some younger lads some much needed room to develop.

My view too. Its a game where we should revive Alex Macdonald's tactics whilst at Tynecastle (in part only I should add). Any player crossing a ball over head height that doesn't result in a goal receives a hefty fine. It'll be crucial to get the first goal and draw them out.

Where did you see this?