Leaderboard

Still get annoyed when I see that penalty given to Bayern Munich against Alan!!

Porteous loses appeal against red card and given four match ban. Reckon the rest of us should appeal against his ban on account of Hibs having been handed an advantage in the race for fourth

I think it's very relevant. He's designed for a team that has plenty of possession and plenty of movement in and around him (via Hedges and Watkins for example). He's had very little of that this season. For most of our games, I think we'd have faired better with like of Van Veen (who has a better goals per 90 minute average) or even a Callum Hendry type player, who is a lot more of a nuisance. Ramirez is one of these players that is ideal for what we could be (and are in some games) rather than what we are - he's almost aspirational in that regard. I don't think there are many strikers within our budget that could have returned 20 goals this season, and that's really the sort of return you need from a guy like Ramirez in order to make up for the obvious deficiencies you mention (Rooney was similar). You can see with Anderson at Livi, that you don't have to spend a fortune to get a guy that can score goals if given the minutes on the pitch, but that will likely always have a ceiling. I don't think swapping Anderson for Ramirez would have got us any more goals as he wouldn't add anything we don't have with Ramirez, but we'd likely have got a similar return for significantly less money. I think Ramirez with Hedges, Wright and Watkins would have been phenomenal as he would have been on that wavelength, whereas somebody like Van Veen (or Anderson) would have been a step behind. The question is whether we think we can get the signings in the summer that would allow us to play to the level where we get the most out of Ramirez or not. I'm of the opinion that we might struggle. I think Watkins and Besuijen provide a good base, but we'll need at least another two players. More importantly, we also need to get the backup in place to allow us to hack our way through matches when we need to. I completely understood the thinking behined the Jet signing (although it should have been obvious that fitness would be an issue), but we simply can't afford to make the mistake of a guy like that again. If Ramirez was to leave then we should look at two good SPFL strikers instead, that may not quite be at Ramirez' level. Maybe one physical, and one quick like the good old days. I just have my doubts that we can perform the level of recruitment required in the summer to improve in every area of the pitch.