Leaderboard

I'll be a little disappointed if we do too in some ways. Scales signing has led us to this position. It does make letting Turner go seem a bit strange now too, with the suggestion that it was to make way for Hancock. Turner at least looked ready to challenge for that position, if we're saying that Hancock needs another year (which is fair enough) then surely Turner would have been the cheap option that solved the problem? It looks like we're on to the hit or miss signings now with this Coulson loon. We'll likely be paying a good wage for another centre half to sit on the bench. I'm not going to blame Goodwin for the above of course, the overhaul in the summer was massive. Inevitably there will be poor signings in there, and so we'll likely see even more late signings to make up for those. I can't see anything other than a big squad this season with an expensive bench and zero opportunity for youth to come through (sound familiar McInnes?). Personally, I'd like us to be patient and not do too much business between now and January and have a good look at what we've got. The comparative success in the league cup has, unfortunately, covered over the fact that this should very much be a season of transition, working towards a more balanced squad and towards the club's long term strategies. If we get more and more signings (especially permanent ones), I can see us building a bit of a mess for the coming years. Maybe loans (like Coulson) from here would be fine.

He may be shite, but it's left footed shite which is better than Bates shite....perhaps? Even if Dunne is mediocre, trading Bates for Dunne in a sense really helps us as Stewart and Scales are our referred central pairing anyway, and we have the back up leftie. But if Dunne is any good it certainly allows Scales to play left back, gives competition at the back which is healthy, and keeps McCrorie in the middle of the park. Really gives us options while Bates does not. Would also clearly allow MacKenzie or Hancock to go out on loan, most likely the latter as they both don't need to play very limited mins. Yes, I am stating the obvious, but hope this occurs.

Because having right footed players playing there last season (McCrorie and Bates) didn't work. It was one of the big issues that led to Glass being a failure. Another one was McCrorie not being in midfield. You named seven players. Two have played LCB and struggled. Two have never played a top team game at CB. One can't play on Sunday. One is rumoured to be leaving. One should be midfield. Two need to be going out on loan. One is injury prone. I'll be disappointed if we don't sign another defender.

Kind of felt we might catch up with the OF a bit with the money we took in for Cosgrove, McKenna, Ramsey and Ferguson but they have made a helluva lot from their own inflated sales of Patterson and Bassey and their UEFA cup money. Hopefully the European runs for both are short and sweet this season.