ascender

Its not the idea of the formation itself which worries me, but the lack of attacking options with Thomson, Hemdani and Fergie in the middle. Also, what's Webster like, is he a pacy CH, as I think we'd need someone fast to cover for the other pair.

I think it'll depend on who stays and who goes in the summer. WS might be tempted to try and pick up some more of these SPL guys if he doesn't have that much cash to spend. Having said that, maybe he'll be able to recoup some money on the likes of Sionko, Sebo and Papac. It could be a very busy close season for us on the transfer market.

The rumour was that there was a clause in the Riordan deal which meant Hibs got more cash if he played x number of games within the first 12 months of him leaving. Of course, this never happened and it was mentioned that this was why they wouldn't deal with Celtic when they wanted to buy Thomson. Did they not bid as much as us, if not more for KT? As for Brown, his continued good form seems to have now drawn the interest of a couple of Premiership clubs.

Yeah, I'd heard that the deal was a certainty, but its all rumours at the moment and the ones about him joining Celtic seem to be growing recently.

Bit worried by the continual suggestions that Celtic want to sign Brown and are ready to outbid us. I think he could make a real difference to our midfield, so i hope we don't lose out on him. Problem with Celtic is that after the CL, I think they could easily spend 8/9M on a couple of players to further strengthen their squad.

Another amazing performance from Man Yoo, but the writing was on the wall for Everton from the start. Even at 2-0 up they were a bit lucky as there was a few chances for Man Yoo which they missed. What was the Everton keeper doing though? 99 times out of 100 he'd have taken that cross ball with ease. And as for Neville, I don't know why he was trying to scoop the ball away with the outside of his right foot. He could have just taken a wild swing at it with his left and cleared it. If Man Yoo can strengthen their squad a bit in the summer, they could be unstoppable next season.

Totally agree Cammy, but the Prso's of this world are very few and far between. Also don't forget that we signed Prso when he was past his best. For every player like him, there's probably 3 or 4 out there who won't show his level of commitment or have his class. McCarthy is a steal, but I bet he's on wages that we simply couldn't afford anymore and I can't imagine a player like him wanting to come to the SPL. That for me is pretty depressing, that 9 out of 10 players in Europe would rather play for any team in the Premiership than come to a club where you could win trophies and have regular European footy. Its all about the money. Scottish football's stock has been rising though, particularly in terms of the young players coming through now, so that's why guys like Thomson are worth 2M or so. He won't be on silly wages and if he improves even a bit with us, we'd probably get our money back. I think you're right in principle though, just signing the best other players from the SPL maybe isn't a recipe for success. WS has shown what can be done with the current group of players, but he needs a stronger squad and I'm still not convinced some of these guys will produce the goods over a season. But I do think that we're better off spending some of our money on guys like Naismith to improve the squad. However, we still need to supplement them with a few players who are established in Europe and who have a proven track record. I honestly don't know where

Still a cop out though isn't it? i thought Wimbledon were handed a huge points deduction for the same thing?

I think the figures are wrong for Naismith, but I do think we'll get him and that at sensible money, he's a good signing. I can see the argument against signing some of the better players in the SPL, but at the moment, I don't think we have any other choice? I know that sounds defeatist, but honestly, even if DM digs deep this summer, there's no way WS would have enough money to sign all the players he wants to, let alone needs to. I could be wrong, but I'm assuming that instead of spending money on unproven foreign players, WS is looking to bolster the squad with Scottish lads who he knows well and knows can cope with life in the SPL. That will then leave any money from DM to spend on players who already command a fee (like Brown) or for 2 or 3 players from elsewhere who will cost money. I think its maybe a case of having to step back a bit before going forward, but I don't think we'll be stepping back to the point where we're struggling to finish 2nd. We will challenge Celtic next season and if there's progress in how the team is playing, with investment in the next couple of windows, then I'd be happy with a comfortable 2nd place. I said that under PLG at the start, I'd take a 2nd place finish if we were making progress on the pitch and I think WS deserves the same chance as he's inherited a right mess.

First priority should be the SPL. I understand that people want to make progress in Europe, but we really need to sort out our domestic form first. It looks like WS is well on the way to doing that, but I think we're going to need to be patient about Europe for another season. I know that we can get the results in Europe, but really, for the last two seasons we've done well in Europe despite being pretty awful domestically and not that great in the Euro matches either. Also, we've had people moaning their tits off about overpaid, past-it, foreign imports for years. Give the lads a chance! Buy Scottish! Etc. Now we seem to be doing that and the Scottish players tend to be the first ones a lot of Bears lay in to, when they badly need our support. Its also hard to judge how players from other SPL clubs will adjust to playing for one of the OF, but again, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and see how they play for us. Look at how bad we've been for the last 3 or 4 years, despite Helicopter Sunday, we've been pretty rank rotten. So can things get any worse on the pitch? I really hope not, but I still think that with the mess our squad is in, WS is going to need another 3 or 4 transfer windows to get the squad he wants. And even then, that's only if DM stumps up the cash.

He's another squad player and one for the future as far as I'm concerned.

What do people think of Fletcher? I know he generally gets criticism, but do you think its because he's playing alongside so many great individual players or is he really just no better than average? I'm wondering how he'd get on at another club where he was starting every game.

Rooney's goal was special. He hit it so quick and with so much power that the keeper was never going to get near it. At first I thought he'd messed up as he had a chance to play someone in on the other side of the pitch.

Clyde are also saying that Lennon is leaving in the summer, so here's hoping they're right on at least one of those stories.

Does he play as a striker, someone had mentioned he can also play as an attacking left midfielder?

At the moment, our squad is looking very, very thin (unless you count the Monster munchers like Boyd obviously) in terms of numbers at least. We need to sign 6 players at least and that's without us letting anyone go. Now I know that WS has obviously made his mind up about some as they've just not featured in matchday squads, but we could be losing the following: Rae, Klos, N'Diaye, Sionko, Svennsson, Papac, Sebo & Buffel. We've signed a couple of squad players, but still, unless WS gets significant funds, we could be in for another very long season.

PL was after much more money than we offered. I don't think we want players like that, especially given he would often be the last off the pitch to applaud the support, regardless of whether he had actually broken in to sweat or not for the previous 90. I just didn't buy it from him, sorry.

I thought he did a job in that OF game, but that's different from playing well. I thought he was told by WS to go out and unsettle the Celtic players, especially the centre halves. Get stuck in about them and actually give them a game which is something they've not had from us probably since Amoruso left. He did that well, but he was treading a very fine line between that and getting a straight red card. That's exactly my point Juffrey, usually when we sign a player who takes time to settle, he will show us some glimpses that he is the real deal. I've seen nothing from Sebo that thinks there's more to come. On the other hand, I do appreciate that it can't have been easy for the lad considering he was playing in a team which wasn't creating many chances and without a settled strike pairing. But I think its time to cut our losses and let him move on.

Dudek would be a no-brainer, but there's no way he'd come here to be number 2, so it depends how much WS rates Mcgregor. As for PL, is this the same guy people are thinking about as the one I remember would often make Boyd look like a tremendous workhorse, not to mention how disinterested he looked when things weren't going his way.

Nah, me neither. Apart from all the madness that's been going on there, there's not many Scots lads left in the first team at the moment, whereas its the complete opposite with us. I can't see Celtic going for him as their squad is looking pretty full just now, so hopefully we can get him signed up. Another promising young Scot to add to the ranks.

Novo has done surprisingly well this season and shown that workrate and commitment can make a huge difference. I'd keep him as a squad player, but unfortunately he lacks the composure which would make him a great winger or striker. He has contributed infinitely more to us than Sebo has and I know who I'd be looking to sell in the summer.

I think he'd be a good signing. Jambos would hate us even more though as they reckon their bid for him is a done deal.

I'd have had James or Friedel (how did Liverpool let him go btw?) in goal. I'm assuming guys like Terry and Cech might have made it if not for injury. Can't really argue with some of the Man Yoo picks though as they've been stunning at times. Giggs just keeps getting better and better. Some turn around for Ronaldo though after being the most hated man in England at the start of the season.

Only thing about Sebo is that apart from showing he's fast and in the OF game that he can more than hold his own against big centre halves, he's not really done anything. No little flashes of what he could do given a run in the team for example. I think its 50/50 as to whether he'll be here for next season. If we can get money for him then I think we'll take it.

Maybe somewhere in between though. I still think he deserves a chance to improve with better players around him, but I also think he needs to work a bit harder on his fitness. I seem to be in the minority on that one, but he seems to be carrying a wee bit of extra weight and is puffing from the outset in games, he never looks that comfortable. He still scores a lot of goals though and people will pay for that talent alone. But I agree, he does need to get his finger out or he could be out on his ear. Beggars can't be choosers and I think we'd be mad to chuck him out just now when we don't have anyone else who's scoring enough goals. We don't even need to have someone in to score 30 or so a season, if we could get 2/3 strikers scoring 15 or so each and a midfielder to weigh in with a good few, we could easily let Boyd go.