Kmcalpin

I'm happy that we've got our summer signing spree underway. Fisher has Premiership experience and has a good physique but has a chequered past record. I see him more as a replacement for Bowman to be honest although he seems to have more in his armoury. Apparently we beat off other top flight competition from other teams so that must say something. Bigi...I know nothing about but going by reactions on here he seems a real capture. No question that our midfield needs strengthening. Both lads have my full support as they'll play in C & A. We need more cover in central midfield, another striker, and defenders, defenders, defenders oh and a goalie or two.

Football wise a good draw.

Could you explain the meaning of that in English please for the benefit of more mature posters? Thanks in advance.

I noticed this too. That suggests that we'll make signings this month as opposed to waiting until the new season starts for once. Time will tell. Not sure about Fisher formerly of Inverness. Quite a few of their fans don't rate him.

There's 20 goal strikers and 20 goal strikers. In any event its just a rumour. As far as O'Halloran is concerned like some others I'm not overly fussed.

Lets hope you're right. I'm worried now.

Like many I have mixed feelings on Ainsworth's departure. On his day a real matchwinner but his inconsistency matched that of Stuart Elliott. He gave us pace and a bit of a spark in crucial games. I didn't fall for his comments before he announced he was leaving and that was better left unsaid until after his departure. Still good luck to him. .

As a follow up I noticed on Pie & Bovril that Dundee and Killie fans had picked up on Accies pitch watering activities. They referred to Rule H9.8 (SPFL) "H9.8 the Home Club may water the pitch at half time provided that it gives reasonable notice to the referee and the other Club that it intends to do so and that any such watering is carried out evenly over the entire length and width of the pitch...". This certainly wasn't the case in our game.

I wish players wouldn't say these things it just misleads the fans.

Although we don't know team line ups, including ours for next season yet, they'll be tough opponents. I'd rather be drawn with easier second seeds.

Not everyone in life is totally money driven.

Presumably Hearts and Hibs will be in the same geographical area? Lets hope they're both in the North area as we don't want to be drawn in the same group as Hibs.

Pretty much the situation. I think they were about £6.5m in debt and things were getting a bit uncomfortable. The east coast media then reported that wealthy benefactors then turned up out of the blue and invested several millions in the club. Details however were very sketchy and vague. The word on the streets of Dundee however was that several wealthy philanthropists had gifted the club these millions with few or no strings attached. The less gullible few however questioned this account. It then transpired that these wealthy philanthropists had not simply gifted money to the Arabs but had lent the club large sums of money in the form of soft loans to be repaid from the proceeds of impending transfers. When the likes of Armstrong, GMS and Shifty left the vast bulk, if not entirety, of the proceeds was split between these investors and others such as Jacky McNamara. The club received very little as far as I know. Cue very very unhappy punters in the likes of of Fintry, Menzieshill and Ardler who felt they had been duped as you all know. The recently announced loss was indeed £1.5 million.

Yes its fair to say reaction was mixed Dave. However I don't think that it did replace pre season friendlies as we still played 5 of those. All the revised format has done is to shorten the close season.

No huge surprise Weeyin. Dundee United are not as good as their fans and many media pundits would have us believe. Theres also a misconception amongst many too that the better Championship clubs are better than lower end Premiership clubs. In one off games maybe but not in two legged ties or over the course of a season. Big decision time now at Tannadice, the home of good football. Fortunately nothing to do with us.

I was always sceptical of this statement. As discussed in another thread, running a club, and especially conducting transfer negotiations is far more complicated than many of us realise. No doubt players of their agents can change their demands as other expressions of interest are received or discussions are prolonged over unexpected detailed clauses and so on.

I know what you mean but this isn't an expression I've ever heard before - I've visions of Well fans being dropped from Typhoons or fired from missile silos. Seriously...I've always found Alan Burrows very approachable and enthusiastic and good at his job (both in his previous role and his current one). Running a football club is much more complicated than many fans would have you believe. For those who don't back him I'd say they they must have short memories or be fairly young. I was impressed by Leeann Dempster but before that??????? We either had someone who was abrasive in charge or for most of the time no one at all. I can recall fans complaining for years that there was no-one in charge; no-one to complain to. If you wanted to make a complaint about cold tea at the recent Falkirk game you had to write to the Chairman. Changed days be thankful for who or what we've got. Two good interviews.

Quite right. He was under contract, why should we have let him go for nought. He could always have offered to buy his contract out I suppose. When he left to go to Celtic he also took the huff until we paid him a hefty sweetener to stay on for a few months longer. All that said he's done a job for us over the years and given of his best. As regards Pearo he was never fit after his return from India and I'm convinced thats a key reason why he didn't perform. It was obvious he was far from ftr in our 7-2 thrashing at Pittodrie.

A bit being shelled out by Ross County, Dundee and St Johnstone.

He's already signed a deal with Accies. Sorry just beaten to it by Dezz.

Undoubtedly Iain. We discussed this issue last year with many thinking that friendlies would be redundant because of the then new League Cup format. There's no way clubs will go into the first competitive games of the season cold. Many lower league clubs will have been training over the summer; hence their fitness advantage early on. The new League Cup format has reduced the length of the close season.

I'll reserve judgement until I find out if he signs or not.

A rumour on Pie and Bovril that we've approached Stefan Scougall as have St Johnstone. That seems to have rankled them a little.

More often than not you're on the ball, so why do you say no thanks? FWIW I'd say we should talk to Lasley, if at all, purely about a coaching role; certainly not a playing one (edit just saw your reply and agree if he has the coaching skills then yes but not just because of the Jobs for the Boys culture). I agree with some others in that I don't fancy O'Halloran on a loan deal. Robbo now has his chance to build his own team, so why start that clean slate off with a loan deal?