Kmcalpin

We've just finished the group stages of the Friendlies League Cup and played one league game, just the one. Quite a few of new lads are still gaing fitness. Lets wait until January at the earliest and preferably May next year until we make that judgement.

Granted, it does seem a lot, but Dunne will be out for almost half the season. McHugh is probably seen more as a central midfielder and so that leaves us for the time being with 5, including one raw youngster (hopefully he'll get some game time) to play a 3-5-2 formation.

And he'd be quite right. If we aren't up for a battle, Accies certainly will be. As Martin Canning knows only too well its hard to play good flowing football if you're not in possession, or being hassled and closed down. We have to have players on the pitch who can bite, scratch and claw in a battle of a game. But... I hope we'll also have a few better footballers out there too. Its about balance. By way of comparison, all of last season's top six are quite capable of biting, scratching and clawing when they need to. If we ignore the dirty, nasty stuff and try to play good open football with the limited resources we have at our disposal then Accies will win it. But, as I say, its about balance and I'd like to see a place in some role for the likes of Frear, Johnson and Bigi/Gorrin.

A big lad, at 6-3, with pace. Where have we seen that before? He'll be tested in the reserves first obviously.

Like you pleased that Aldred is coming back for season long loan. That'll add to our defensive capabilities and cover. However, maybe its a bit premature to close this thread. Robbo talked about 2 more signings, of which Aldred will be one no doubt. I don't see him as being a like for like for Kipre though. Assuming that the other signing, if there is one, won't be a goalie, midfielder or striker then he would be a defender. Yes, keep this thread open for now.

By way of an aside Aston Villa has signed John McGinn from Hibs for...................an undisclosed fee. So its not just our Directors who are trying to hoodwink and deceive the fans.

Yes but their transfer income went everywhere except the club itself.

If we have, then we can expect the redtops screaming blue (sorry) murder that we're being selfish and are denying the player a chance of a lifetime.

Its exactly that... a vaguely worded rumour printed in the Sun.

Generally agree but what happens when Hartley is match fit and Dunne returns? The new guy, assuming there is going to be one, needs to be different to the other guys in the heart of the defence. Only Dunne possesses pace at the back. Neither Hartley nor McHugh are particulary big guys so wer'e a bit short of pace and physique at the back. At our level you don't generally get guys with pace and physique - usually one or the other. Kipre was an exception. It'll be interesting to see what kind of defender(s) we sign. Like Yassin I assume that Aldred, for whatever reason is simply not coming back not now not ever.

Just watched the highlights. Hibs deserved the 3 points but not by a 3-0 margin. The first goal resulted from a refereeing error. There's no way that a handball should have been given against Hartley. He also received an undeserved yellow card which will count against him and us later on in the season. Danny Johnson's "goal" was chalked off for Conor Sammon being in an offside position and presumably distracting the Hibs keeper, although the latter took no part in the move. Some refs give them some don't but on this occasion Hibs got the rub of the green. Hibs 3rd goal was typical of the way we used to lose goals - no midfield protection for the defence. Although Madden didn't influence the result he did influence the scoreline. But at the end of the day we were poor and thats why we lost. Some posters on here remarked that we played narrowly. So whats new? We habitually play like that, irrespective of how many midfielders we play, and have done so for years. Hibs' second could have been straight out of the Stevie Hammell era. I suspect quite a few players, like Cadden and Main are carrying knocks and therefore not physically fit whilst others like Taylor-Sinclair and Hartley are not match fit. I suppose you could argue that Main and Cadden should have been rested and there's some truth in that. We should judge the players at the end of next month maybe and cut them some slack.

Not sure about that. Robbo said that Bigi isn't looking to get back south so I don't think there's any evidence of us persuading him to stay or of us using him more. Interesting that Robbo said that we only had 2 fit defenders today ie Donnelly and McHugh.

We need to calm down folks. A poor result yes but we had quite a few players out injured or suspended and others are not match fit. Had we tried to match Hibs and go toe to toe we'd have been on the wrong end of a real hiding. This is no time to panic. Our season was always going to start next weekend against Accies. Yes it seemed a defensive line up and no doubt our aim was to go for a draw but we simply didn't play well enough or possibly work hard enough.

According to the good Captain on Pie & Bovril, Alan Burrows has tweeted that Cedric's down payment fee is the 3rd largest in the club's history. So, on that basis it must be roughly between £800k and £1.25m. Also, we hope to sign more than one player shortly. Hope I've read that correctly. The English window closes on Thursday (very sensibly) so the next few days should be interesting.

No idea but as you say likely to be like for like. We need someone different to what we have to achieve abalance. Maybe a young guy with height and physique and possibly pace? Dunne apart we lack pace at the back and although Hartley and McHugh are decent defenders they aren't a dominant centre back in the way Cedric was.

I'm not Kmac but yes, you're right. We cannot rely on the youth stepping up. They can be encouraged but there's no guarantee. Some will succeed, some won't. Its not all about talent its also about character and as SR said thats why youngsters are loaned out - to put them in competitive and pressure situations and test them. SR, KL and SC see these lads day in day out and we don't. In a way its a similar situation to Bigi - SR & KL have their reasons for not playing him and they know him far better than we do.

As far as I know, and I stand to be corrected on this, Les will only match monies raised by the fans, and not the club. As for team building, we have improved depth of cover and not the calibre of our first pick 11. That should prove imporant during spells of injuries and suspensions, like now. Time will tell on that and the new boys should be given time. Ordinarily though I'd like to see us target our weakest position every year and strengthen it, thereby raising the overal standard of the team.

Apologies Wellowell if I seem a tad impatient. We've been over this issue time and time again ad nauseum. Its quite normal these days for transfer fees to be classed as undisclosed. Usually, but not always, its at the request of the buying club. There can be a number of reasons for it including not publicising to rivals how much cash you have to spare. Deals, these days, are far more complex than they used to be and can be hard to quantify. On a separate note we do need to replace Cedric's physicality and pace. I'm sure the club has already plans afoot as they would have been expecting this bit of business months ago.

Absolutely. We have no need to sell right now and should only do so if the right bid i.e initial payment of £1 million comes in. Personally I'd be looking for a down payment of between £1 million and £1.5million. A few hundred thousand is chickfeed to a club like Wigan. Add ons after that.

Overall agree but presumably Dylan McGeoch won't be taking much part in the proceedings. Hibs will be up for a real fight and we'll have to match their aggressiveness. Hopefully the referee will be even handed.

Agreed. As a minimum I'd be looking for a down payment of £1m plus add ons.

If Kipre goes then he will need to be replaced long term with a similar style of central defender with physique and pace. He'll be a big loss. As for Sunday ????? Dunne out; Kipre "unavailable"; McHugh struggling with injury; and Maguire suspended.

Oddly enough thats not quite how it happened. At the time he left, the financial powers that be running the club wanted to retain our best players including him in order to keep the club as a going concern and thereby remain competitive and attract a buyer. It was big Terry who wanted to sell him for playing reasons. His previous boss at Glentoran (I think) told TB that he was very talented but inconsistent playing exceptionally well in perhaps 1 game out of 4 and then being anonymous in the other 3. Terry said the same of his stint at Fir Park and classed him as a luxury player we didn't need. Thats exactly how I saw him at Fir Park. He would be an absolute stand out in one game but then disappear in the next 3. Hull obviously brought consistency to his game. A nice guy by all accounts.

Given our injury situation I'm more concerned about who McGinn is going to mark.