ascender

So, Elmander and Clement as expected. Will there be enough money in the biscuit tin? Guess we'll know in a weeks time.

I'd still have him, I bet in the SPL he'll score a fair few goals over a season, even if he's not starting every game. If the wage demands weren't too bad, I'd have him, but like others have said, I'd rather we take the long term view and sign youngsters, even if it means not winning the league this season.

That's the impression that I get, that there's 2 or 3M tops to spend, hence why he's holding out for Clement. If the Elmander deal is still on, then he's obviously hoping to get the pair of them for the money left, then supplement them with some Bosmans. Any more money that comes in is a bonus then.

I think you and a few of us mentioned this round about the time we expected AM to be sacked. Was one of Martin Bain's top priorities not to get the wage budget under control, something he did in record time? That aligned with the debt coming down would seem to be DM steadying the ship before he jumps. Would that explain why PLG won't be seeing as much money as we thought, because its being spent to actually pay off debt rather than just moving the debt to another Murray company? One thing a few of us took as a positive of AM's reign, was that financially, the club was looking much more stable now, the best its been in years in fact. I'm still not sure about how things like the JJB deal will pan out, but so far, just going on the sheer amount of store space being dedicated to Gers product, it looks like it can only do us good. I also wonder if one of the reasons DM was so keen to get PLG was because of his reputation and his ability to deliver success on a limited budget and by using young players. If PLG repeats his Lyon success, it would set the club up on the field for many years to come and also do our profile in Europe much good. Whatever way you look at it, it does seem that DM is looking to go. He's definitely not got that excitement and buzz about him that he had when he first came in. I guess its only natural, given his age and the amount of money he's made. I bet he's also a wee bit disappointed that he's not had the European success he so badly wanted. I've not been his biggest fan over the last while, but if everything we've mentioned in this thread pays off, at least he will have left us in a very strong position financially and from a playing point of view. I still believe that he really cares deeply for the club and that probably explains some of his decisions over the years where he's clearly let his heart rule over his head. It really could be exciting times ahead for us though.

I'd take the money. Even with Eck's bizarre tactics, he didn't show much last season to think he'll ever develop into anything special.

I always like this style of strip when we had it before.

Yip, we need to trust PLG's judgement and also realise the days of signing household names are long gone.

Good luck to him in whatever he does, the guy was a legend in his playing days.

Well, FWIW, I've always rated him and I think he would make an excellent squad player for a number of reasons.

The young lad would seem like a no-brainer, N'Diaye is only 24 though, so might be worth a look. Any idea if/when players will start to move on, I'm thinking Andrews, Malcolm, Bernard, Fan Fan etc?

I always thought that one of our previous managers would have made a move for Pressley actually, but its never materialised. As for him and Webster, opinion over the pair really is split right down the middle as to who is the best and if they are actually any good in the first place.

Interesting news, looks like he still thinks we need much more strength in depth than the current squad gives us.

Lol Did you actually see our midfield last season? Before Boab got a run in the team, we couldn't even take a decent corner kick, let alone a free kick. The central midfield was totally anonymous, but he came in, was told to do a simple job and he did it very well. I was never his biggest fan, but he was one of our best players, week in, week out, for the part of the season where he started every game. Certainly put a lot of our other supposedly better players to shame.

I've also heard the same, that Webster makes Pressley and vice versa. I still think he's better than anything we had last season, apart from when J-Rod started to come onto a game latterly. Either way, I can't see why he'd come as the obvious pairing would seem to be J-Rod and Svensson, neither of whom will stay if they're just going to be warming the bench.

How bad was that? I can't believe the pundits thought England played well in the second half. They won thanks to a single free kick. Ecuador were dire, even if they'd been able to cross the ball they'd have won by a few. On the evidence of the 4 games so far, England will get humped by the first good team they come up against unless they sort themselves out.

Does it really matter what formation they play? Surely even Sven can't screw things up enough that they get beaten by Ecuador?

Good luck to Malcolm, he was one of our best players last season until being mysteriously dropped. He's also done well to stick it out at Ibrox considering the stick he got from some sections of the support.

I really rate him too Frankie. I think he's exactly the sort of player we should be going for. He seems to be getting better every year, is fast, plays for the jersey and is also Scottish.

According to the Beeb at least... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/5113138.stm I'd have thought if we were interested in him, we'd have signed him by now tbh.

I thought it was comon knowledge that the guy has wanted to come to us though, even PLG said it in his news conference.

Murray says he made an "attempt" to sign the player some time ago, can't remember when exactly, was it when he ended up going to Inter maybe?

I thought Rae played well at the end of the season there when he came in. Real shame for him as he's been so unlucky with injuries.

From the press conference, it looks like PLG has a few million left to spend unless he generates any more dosh by moving guys on. And yes, he wants to sign Clement, but Lyon are asking for too much just now.

Celtic seem to enjoy signing this sort of player who will cost them a fair amount, but in return only give 1 or 2 seasons to them. Bit weird really.

I'm still really excited about the future under PLG, double training sessions are as good a start as anywhere! I'm also not bothered if he has limited funds to play with as I'm sure he'll spend wisely. But, I am concerned about the apparent lack of major money to spend. Whether he needs it or not, I'd not want us to miss out on any players for the sake of £500,000 or so. Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick, but I thought that when pressure was mounting on DM and he came out with all his news, that a lot of the work was being done to give PLG a decent war-chest to spend on actually spending money on fees for players. Like Clement and Elmander for example. The combined fee for those pair would appear to be £3.5M, which I don't think is a lot of money when you consider their age, potential and what they've achieved so far.