Kmcalpin

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?

A very good player for us and who'll forget his achievements on Helicopter Sunday. In my time probably only Willie Pettigrew and Bobby Graham surpassed his overall efforts as a striker.

Not surprised at Mackin and Ferguson being released. Mackin failed to make the breakthrough and despite having the physique for the Premiership he was never really used as a sub or even made the bench too often. David Ferguson stepped in a few times in emergencies but always struggled. To be fair though he was frequently played out of position. I see there's no official mention of the contracted players we want to move on.

He's quoted a saying in the press that he wants to stay its now time to back that up by signing a new deal.

No surprises in that rumoured list. There might well be a few young lads also leaving.

Not 100% sure about that. Yes transfers are mixture of successes and failures but hopefully we get more right than wrong. At our level we're not going to pick up anyone that no-one else has noticed. Other clubs will be competing or will know about our targets. Players like Bowman and Clay will have been well known to the likes of Inverness, Hamilton, Partick, Kilmarnock and so on. At this level we can compete financially. Occasionally our manager will say player X, a right back, looks as if he might be a good squad player for us, however my main target is a Player Y, a central defender, and I'll pay more for him. We'll offer Player X say £900 pw basic. St Johnstone identify their main priority as a right back and offer Player X £1,000 pw. So Player X ends up in Perth. That doesn't mean to say we can't compete financially with St Johnstone; just that we preferred to invest more cash elsewhere in the squad.

A wee bit unfair. This term is becoming increasingly common and is usually always at the request of the buying club.

The boss has said that he wants or needs to engage in some wheeling and dealing, so that suggests that he want to move on some of those who are under contract ie Clay, Blyth and Bowman does it not? If thats not the case he may be referring to the likes of Hammell, McManus, Tait, and Heneghan. Time will tell. I think he'll have seen most of the squad in action at some point with the exception of Tait and will have had an opportunity to assess them.

Yes, you're right, but the authorities could still ask some of the same questions though ie stewarding ratios.

Interesting but a difficult comparison to make. Robinson has not had the opportunity to bring in his own players McGhee did, and also the mix of home & away games was not the same.

Am I right in thinking that Inverness fans invaded the pitch after the final whistle? if so, presumably the authorities will be investigating.

To quote Del Superwell from another thread "(Stephen Robinson) I met with the board on Friday to discuss my budget for next year. We have 13 contracted players and I’ll be trying to wheel and deal.” I think thats exactly who he's talking about. As regards the players who are out of contract he doesn't need to wheel and deal about them. That also applies to players who he's targeted to bring in. So by elimination it must apply to those who are still contracted but he doesn't want. It may also apply to Hammell. Up until recently I've not been overly impressed by Stephen Robinson, but he has kept us up and thats no mean feat. Like Well Well, I like the cut of his jib from today's comments.

I suspect many times and these are but 2 examples. 1978-79: 86 goals conceded in 36 games. 1982-83: 73 goals from 36 games.