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Heilan Rover · Joined: 24 Dec 2018 Posts: 310 Location: Portessie

John and Paul have been very busy on the future transfer market bringing in what they must think are very decent players. My question though is, are we being slightly ahead of ourselves right now?

There is an outside possibility we could be playing in the top league next season.

Now if (and I know it is a very big if) we are in the top league, are the players we have pre signed good enough? Will we still have money and space to buy other, possibly better suited, players?

I'm not suggesting we should simply stand still, but it must be a difficult consideration when buying players now, not knowing which league we will be in next season.

Just a thought.

badpress139 · Joined: 19 May 2015 Posts: 2161 Location: Glenrothes

The ones so far are pre contract signings which effectively mean they are worth nothing in respect of contracts. Come the end of the season the players we have signed on these can actually sign for someone else as they are not contractually our players.

I don't no for certain but I suspect it works both ways, that we can also back out of signing.

It wouldn't be good practice or morally right for either party to back out but it does happen. Did we not sign callum elliot this way after he had signed a pre contract with another team on a pre contract?

scotty · Joined: 12 Jul 2008 Posts: 8723 Location: Almost Dysart.

It as ever will be a balancing act, while I'm sure maybe some signings (Lang) have been made with the Championship in mind I'm fairly certain others would be with the belief they could perform at a higher level.

Signed: Thomson, J Mac, Tumilty, Matthews, Tait, Bene, McKay, Lang, Berra, Keatings, Bow, Mahady, Arnott, Coulson and of course K Mac who's future maybe isn't so clear. I'd reckon maybe 6 of that lot could perform well enough at a higher level.

Unsigned: Vaughan, Musonda, Davo, Hendry, Armstrong, Spencer, Duke, Ugwu, Smith, Mendy & McGurn. 9 first team players and 3 reserves, I think we need to retain 4 or hopefully 5 of the 1st team guys and Davo and Ugwu would not be high on that list. If we can re-sign Vaughan, Armstrong and Spencer to add to the signed list we'd still have a strong (if slightly weakened) nucleus. Replacing Hendry and Musonda will be key if they decide to move on. I'm fairly confident both Duku and Ugwu could be upgraded as we are a more attractive outfit to join now than we were a year ago.
If we were to retain the services of LV, FM, RH, BS, DA and perhaps Duku, then add another 5 quad members to replace outgoing players I think we'd have a team fit to grace the top flight.
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Competitive goals: Poplatnik 11, Zanatta 10, Connolly 10, Ross 7, Vaughan 4, Matthew 3, Spencer 3, Varian 3, Benedictus 2, Tait 2, Tumilty 2, Arnott 1, Dick 1, Gullan 1, Snow 1, Stanton 1, OG 1.

TxRover · Joined: 02 Jun 2018 Posts: 2114 Location: North Texas, USA

Bene is reserve/insurance in the top flight...Bow,Mahady, Coulson and Arnott are development types. Lang and McKay would be minor question marks there, and Thomson is a coach/backup. Everyone else signed would be expected to succeed at the top flight, IMHO.

StarksBarmy · Joined: 03 Apr 2010 Posts: 3576

Being brutally honest, I don’t like our signings but as ever, I’m more than happy to be proved wrong...

Lang, exempt as I really don’t know much about the boy, hopefully a gem.

Keatings? Decent player but not shown anything like the form of 5/6 years ago for ages. Struggling to see where he fits in (especially if promoted) he would be fine as the Dazza in a Dalziel/Brewster partnership but we (and most others) rarely play this way anymore. Is he the guy to fire the goals in during our 1st top flight appearance for ages? Nope.

Berra? Can add something to the team in terms of experience and organisation, would probably be fine playing for a season or two in Championship but last two seasons at Hearts show a player not SPL standard anymore.

Zanatta? Bench warmer for Thistle...Alloa...Ayr.... Is he about to transform into an SPL superstar? No, very unlikely. Guy has ability, but needs to work hard and find a consistency yet seen in his career just to make it in THIS division.

I find these signings pretty bizarre in general as A. We don’t know what level we will be playing next season and B. The current financial situation suggests players in general will be readily more available this pre season.

red zebra · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:50 pm Post subject:

Championship
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Gary Parker · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 2:50 pm Post subject:

I think the signings we've made so far are based on another Championship season first and foremost, but are players that could do a job at the higher level if pushed. Zanatta probably played his best football under McGlynn and if he can get that out of him again, all the better for us. Lang is an unknown quantity, I don't recall him standing out in games we played against Clyde last season but willing to trust the team on this one.

Keatings feels a bit like a Buchanan again to me, someone who constantly scored against us. Hopefully he'll get goals for us next year, he's not a player to play as the loan forward though.

Berra is a bit left field, great coaching option to help the young lads and perhaps the thinking is he's a bit of a Steven Anderson which sees us go to 3 at the back again. We don't have natural width signed up for next season as Armstrong is out of contract and Kennedy will be back at Rangers or farmed out again.

I'd like to see Hendry, Vaughan, Musonda, Spencer and Armstrong signed up again, those lads should be the priority. Vaughan has started to show he's not lost any of the instinct he had prior to his latest setback and deserves another year at least. Hendry and Spencer have found themselves back in last years form which was fantastic for us and long may it continue. Alongside Matthews and Tait, we've got a good central core we should be building on, not rebuilding.

Specky Ginger · Joined: 16 Jun 2012 Posts: 3835 Location: Dysart

Gary Parker · Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 4:06 pm Post subject:

CALDERON · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 1669 Location: Aberdeenshire

No point worrying about this just now. If we have to worry about what players would cut it in the Premiership, that is an excellent problem to have and one which we are a long way away from having.

First aim is to finish in the top 4, then if that is achieved, as high up the top 4 as possible. Anything else at this stage is a bonus.

embow · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2021 2:06 pm Post subject:

As I've said before, with five games to play, never mind all this "whatifery" .
It really is a case of one game at a time, especially when they're against teams all of which have very significant outcomes to play for as well as ourselves.
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