David

Not at all. As I said, Heneghan and McHugh seem like exactly the kind of players we should be signing. Seemingly with potential, and in their early 20's which means they could do the business here for a few years before being sold at profit. Tait at 26 years old seems like a journeyman to be honest, and I've not really seen anything from him since he arrived (and I know it's still early doors) to suggest he's anything other than that. Craig Clay is another one. Mid 20's, and has bounced around the lower English leagues from club to club over the years. Blyth doesn't look like the kind of striker who's going to push McDonald or Moult for a starting position, so why not have young Moore on the bench with limited game time rather than sign someone else and put him out on loan again? Personally, I'd have been looking to shift Luke Watt into that right back position rather than sign a 26-year-old journeyman, and with the addition of McHugh to our midfield we now have Lasley, Cadden, Thomas & McHugh with the likes of Ross McLean waiting on the fringes for their shot. But we go and sign Clay (on a two-year deal!), who looks like a journeyman, and offer a trial to a 24-year-old who's played a handful of first-team games in ten seasons as a pro in Lee Lucas. With the cash we've spent on the wages for Tait, Clay, Blyth and possibly on Lucas we could have brought in one or two players of a slightly higher quality I'd hope, maybe guys who look to have a higher chance of being sold on at profit. I'd have kept Moore, and looked to sign a younger right-back with more potential to challenge with Watt and one quality midfielder rather than put money out on Tait, Clay, Byth and Lucas. Who knows though, maybe these guys will turn the corner with us and become something special? I guess time will tell.

Then let's hope that the signings we've made don't go the same way as those from last season for the most part. We need to be looking for quality and sell-on potential as a priority, with our own youth players filling the gaps, with a few experienced heads (we're not lacking in those for sure!) thrown in as well.

If we're honest we'll never win anything with our current approach anyway, so what difference does it make? I think we should be investing what little money we have in bringing in one or two young players who look like good prospects rather than a scattergun approach of sorts, where we're signing guys who are over 25 and have bounced around numerous clubs over the years. Aye, definitely. I could be very wrong on my assessment, and I did say it was early doors, but I just don't think this current system is going to work.

Obviously it's early doors, but I get the distinct impression that the majority of our new signings will turn out to be nothing more than average at best, with most of them eventually moving on without making much of an impression here. A bit like last season. I've said it before, but I thought we were supposed to be concentrating on bringing through players we've developed or lads that we've signed at a young age? Of the guys we've brought in I can understand the signing of a 22 year old in Ben Heneghan & Carl McHugh who seems like a good young prospect, but the likes of Tait, Clay and Blyth seem like signings who aren't really making much sense. Is Blyth really that much better than Craig Moore? When we send young players away on loan we always hear about how it's to give them game time and allow them to prove themselves, don't we? Didn't Moore play something like 25 games and score 14 goals or something for Ayr? What more can the guy do to prove himself? He goes away and plays regularly whilst scoring goals and gets sent on loan again? I'd rather we employed a system where rather than bringing in guys in their mid 20's and older from the lower leagues of England we instead concentrated on bringing in one or two really good prospects who the manager deems first-team ready, and also concentrate on picking up exciting young prospects in their early & mid-teens that we can put into the youth system for a few years before drafting them into the senior side. This policy of signing the players we have this summer and last season isn't going to work in the long term I don't think.

Well, I suspected we'd get hammered and we did. It didn't help matters that McGhee set us up to defend, which usually ends in one way unfortunately.

Let's make sure it is, eh? This taxi chat is getting tedious, and it's clogging up the thread. If anyone else wants to discuss it then maybe best to do so via PM.

They not improved now they brought in Toure? I've not seen them on the telly yet, but reports are that Ambrose is a memory and Toure is shoring things up? I hope i'm wrong, of course.

I can see us losing this one quite handily to be honest. A shame that it looks as though our league cup run is coming to an end so soon.

The contrast is startling to be honest. No warnings or repercussions for either club.

This is his fourth move since leaving us mate, I very much doubt it.

Game over. I'm not sure why, but that performance doesn't really get me excited for the new season.

This Rangers mob are pish. We should be 2 or 3 up by now.

Chalmers? Fucking hell. It's a new season, a fresh start and all that I guess. Hopefully he surprises us all.

I never knew that. What did he say was the reason behind him not going?

Did he actually say that?

Despite him being able to come away relatively unscathed, I hold that honour for "sir" David Murray. That cunt cheated his way to a number of titles and fucked over the rest of us in the process, so I'm gonna say he's worse than some tobacco-chewing twat with anger issues.

The options up top look pretty decent now, and it'll be interesting to see if Moore has it in him to push for a starting slot. If not, hopefully he's a useful option from the bench.

mate, I'd happily staple my head to the living room carpet if stopped you moaning like fuck.

So, two games this weekend then. Anyone heard anything about what kind of lineups we can expect over the two days?

Not quite the tooth fairy, but we're going to see a bit more money from the end of next season I think from a new TV deal. The shortfall was always going to be from now until that point, and any money we bring in from the Pearson move, possibly the Leitch move and the Ben Hall move will help to bridge that gap and will allow us to extend the contracts we've extended, as well as bring back McDonald (surprised he would want to come back right enough, considering we "reneged" on his contract) and sign the players we've signed. Everything seems to be ticking along reasonably well though from what I've seen, so I'm not sure why you're losing your shit on a regular basis.

He'll make more money in India most likely, and we're getting a fee for him. Given how the coming years finances have been described we're probably just happy to get something in the bank.

This the same Ben Heneghan who was supposedly drawing interest from the likes of Blackburn, Hull, Burnley & Brighton earlier this year? Not too shabby a piece of business.

So, after all the retweets and suchlike did any of our out of contract players actually attend that out of contract players thing in Airdrie or wherever it was?

We can only really go on our own experiences, and as someone who's experienced how fans are treated in US sports stadiums and also in Scottish football stadiums, I know where I feel I was treated better.

I'm not talking about the pricing, i'm talking about the general experience. I've also been on holiday in the US and been to sporting events. The way you're treated is miles apart from how you're treated at a Scottish football game. In fact, the way you're treated at a football game in Spain, for example, is miles apart from how you're treated here. Sometimes I actually wonder if the people running our game are deliberately trying to turn fans off to it.