steelboy

he's only brought in 6 players on more than 6 month contracts and 3 of them have been his ex bradford players. when you consider how many players there are out there compared to how many guys who played in his awful bradford team are available it suggests he's not casting the net very wide. mccall seems like a good guy and probably has a rose tinted view of players he feels have worked hard for him in the past. we needed a centre mid in the summer and we didn't get one? were there no players in that position available? obviously there were but we choose to use the little money we have to sign ramsden who hasn't looked any great shakes in the matches he has played and can't even get in the team just now. it looks a hell of a lot like mccall didn't think we need a centre mid or we need a defender he just wanted to sign ramsden because he likes him as a person. when you look at the team we are putting on the park then you look at the bench and see two guys in their 30s sitting their contributing fuck all but no doubt eating up decent wages it's hard to say we are making the most of our resources. our lack of a decent midfielder is already hurting us and will only become a bigger problem when the weather gets bad and lasley gets suspended or injured. looking at his transfer business this summer i'd say mccall has been extremely negligent putting his mate ahead of the interest of the club.

it's mental to be hung up on mccall's record against rangers when we hadn't beat them at ibrox for 14 years before he turned up or at fir park for 8 years. his signings and tactics are a different matter though. not signing a replacement for jenno is his capital crime imo. jobs for the boys in the form of rambo and omar means we are going to be struggling in the middle of the park all season. we've got the well society meeting coming up soon so all grievances can be aired there.

the team i'd like to see randolph hateley hutchinson page hammell law lasley carswell murphy higdon mchugh if humphrey is playing it's a sign mccall has winged it since he took over.

The tactics were the same as the last two games. Pish but not because we are playing rangers. A toiling kerr at right back. Hateley at cm. Humphrey man marking their left back. No left mid. Nicky mccall in a free role. Jobs for the bradford boys on the bench. Anyone else think mccall is a bit thick?

Chris humphrey is the most heartless, talentless shitebag ever to play for the well. The sooner the clown is gone from fir park the better.

Aye right. Most of them had more scars on their coupon than teeth in their mouth. Craigneuk's finest by the looks of them.

On the train into town just now. There's a bunch of mutants singing 'well well fuck yer well'. I hope we destroy these scumbags.

a curry and four pints. testing out the booze ban on the train home.

only 23,000 tickets sold for the home end of this apparently. we'll be lucky to make £100k out this if that's the case. hopefully the semi and the final will be moneyspinners

i'd start ojamma, higdon, murphy and humphrey but playing someone at left mid might be too radical a tactic for mccall these days. hateley back to right back and las and law in centre mid. if it was good enough for the panathinakos game it's good enough for this one.

we had 13 points from 7 games last season as well. the difference is last season we had played both the old firm in the first 7 matches.

better opposition? i don't think there will much of an inferiority complex against barry mckay and lewis mcleod. our last 6 games against sfl teams have a combined score of 21-0 in our favour. rangers have already lost 9 goals to sfl teams this season.

rangers sounded brutal on the radio today. if we play our game we should boss them and their defence is good for giving up a goal or two. think back to how bad clyde and queens park were last season, that's the level of team rangers are toiling against. i'm not going to be suicidal if lose though, the ticket money alone means that the league cup has been good for us this season. we've had worse results than losing this game, there is no point getting overly fixated on one game when we have plenty to do in the league. i see some of the usual drama queens talking about walking away from the club if we don't win this game at the rate we're going there will be guys threatening to walk if it rains on a saturday.

the team were superb in valencia. every player that started done us proud and considering their inexperience it was a good result. if humphrey had stuck away the sitter at the end we would have got a well deserved draw. randolph kerr page cummins angol carswell lasley hetherington murphy ojamma higdon up against a solid la liga team.

just watched the end of the game there. if cummins knocked it back to randy rather than playing a daft ball to humphrey then we would have seen it out. higdon deciding to defend from our penalty spot didn't help either, hutchy should be sorting it out on the pitch rather than in his post match interview. mccall didn't impress me much again today. another game with no one at left mid followed by the lack of subs was a joke. how hard is it to stick carswell and ramsden on to see it out? humphrey could have came off at any point, kerr was terrified of getting a second booking and hateley was knackered. add today to mccall's catalogue of substitution nightmares. he was talking us up more than i've ever heard him before on the radio after the game so i suspect he knows that the blame sits with him. on the plus side we looked good going forward. las and hammell looked to be back on form, hutchy and cummins were excellent, higdon was impressive and henrik showed a few glimpses of what he is capable of. we still need to iron out the midfield, you can't have las, hateley and law all standing within 20 yards of each other while humphrey holds hands with their left back every week, set piece goals are handy but we can do more from open play if we get the balance right. the old firm games will take of themselves and then united, hearts and hibs will be the test. we've had a good start considering our european commitments but when you look at our fixtures and the fact we've played a game more than united and celtic i'd be gutted if weren't top just now. we had 22 points from our opening round of fixtures last season, with rangers being out the league i'd be disappointed if we don't at least match that.

Good performance from the players. Shite from mccall

The pittodrie bar is open and serving pints of peroni. The sun is out as well. Good start to the day

Almost in aberdeen. Anyone know where u can get a pint at 11 on a sunday morning?

just about to leave the house to head north. we better not get beat

i think this will be a big test for us. aberdeen haven't been scoring many goals but they are solid at the back and big osbourne in the middle of the park will a problem for us if he is playing. kerr had a nightmare last week so hateley should be back at right back. we had nothing on the left hand side of the park last week so i'd stick murphy at left mid and law back in the centre (he's going to play there wherever he starts) and henrik and higdon up top.

AVB has a resume including 4 trophies in one season and unbeaten league season. 6 months at chelsea doesn't cancel that out. mccall did a much worse job at bradford than avb did at chelsea.

all these guys have had some relative success early in their careers in england pauyl jewell got bradford into the epl and kept them up and took wigan from league one to the epl, kept them up for two years and reached a cup final. seriously? had plenty of success before things went tits during his last 15 months in brum. holloway got a promotion with qpr and megson got wba to the epl twice. promotions with reading and west ham and an fa cup final. mccall's record in england is terrible compared to these guys. bradford were massive faves for promotion and ended up mid table in league 2.

not at all. it's an opportunity to bring in some fresh faces, we'll be in a strong position next summer when it comes to the free agent market. there haven't been any quotes about players leaving but common sense says they will. when was the last time we extended the contract of anyone who had decent options down south? more money and a new challenge will be too big a temptation.

our first bit of contract business should be getting cummins tied up long term.