ascender

I think we miss Fergie when he doesn't play, but he's no longer the sort of player who can win games on his own almost and pull us up when we're struggling. I do think the players around him play better when he's on the park, so maybe that would have made a difference tonight, but I don't think he's the reason why we're out of Europe. Just as during last season he wasn't the main reason we got to the UEFA Cup Final and blew hot & cold for much of the time.

If he was that influential, he'd have stepped up when we were struggling to beat average teams in the SPL during the run-in. And he's certainly not irreplaceable, its just that the management team have done thing to look towards his long-term replacement when its been obvious for 2 or 3 years that he has become injury-prone.

We lack creativity from midfield and I'm not sure Fergie is the sort of player who can unlock defences any more. He can certainly pull the strings in the midfield and make it tick, but we need others in there to complement him and do the stuff he can't.

No, I've gone past angry now and am settling with indifference. Tonight was totally expected tbh.

Its a strange one, because last season Boyd had clearly lost weight and was looking a lot fitter.

Of course its too early to call for his head, but apart from the failure to sign a creative midfielder, many fans seem to be getting frustrated by the fact he's repeating many of the mistakes & bad habits he made during his first tenure. I don't think its one actual thing he's done over the rest of them (see the other threads on here for a list), but I get the feeling that it could turn nasty for him quite quickly from a large section of the support if we don't get off to a good start.

But for some, both he and SDM are above any reproach because they delivered 9 in a row.

I think either would improve our midfield, but both have been linked with us for a while now and I can't help but think if there was any chance of them joining, it would have happened by now.

I just don't understand how we're about to start a new domestic campaign and we're still struggling to find a creative midfielder. I know WS has made his excuses, but we've had this problem since he took over, not just since Ferguson became injured.

I wonder if that'll be the incentive SDM needs to pony up for a creative midfielder now?

From the official site....

"WALTER SMITH has moved to strengthen his squad by signing powerful French-Algerian centre back Madjid Brougherra from Charlton for �£2.5million."

Clicky

There's a story on the Beeb that we've not stepped up our bid, in fact, they've not heard anything more from us.

I'd have been pleased to see Miller and Boyd. Or Miller and Novo. Or Boyd and Velicka. Or Lafferty and Boyd. Or... etc.

JCD and Miller just made no sense.

As for Miller, I'm pleased he got applauded last night when he came off as, by all accounts, he put in a good shift for us. Surely that's a good sign, particularly when so many others aren't performing anywhere near the levels that they should.

Walter made a few statements like that last season when he was being criticised by the fans. I don't think its the sentiment so much as the way he delivers it sometimes which has riled certain fans.

Miller is apparently our best player tonight, so if he continues, he'll have justified the signing. The problem is, why did we spend money on him when we still had JCD on our books?

That's the problem, WS doesn't seem to have signed players to fill the obvious holes in the lineup. Which I guess is why we played the 4-5-1 last season and packed out the midfield.

TBH that team worries me, even with Ferguson fit. I just don't see where the creativity is going to come from and I'm not sure the 4-3-3 is as positive as it looks on paper as you often end up with the two wider strikers getting pulled very wide and leaving one through the middle quite isolated.

I'd much rather see us revert to a 4-4-2 with one holding midfielder, one given license to get forward and two wide players. Up front you give two of our strikers a chance to get to know each other and form a partnership instead of chopping and changing personnel and systems from week to week.

There's a big difference between playing attacking, freeform & creative football and just being creative and creating chances for your forwards. I don't think anyone is expecting us to change our style of football drastically over one close season, but I bet most fans are hoping that WS addresses our massive weakness last season which was a lack of chances being created for our strikers.

I know its a big pressure to bring in young players to an OF first XI and expect them to step up to the mark, but a lot of fans have been clamouring for someone like Dean Furman to be given a chance, so maybe WS will never have a better chance than now to give someone like him a starting place in the next couple of games.

Are we not getting close to the point where maybe Smith has to consider putting a youngster in to the midfield and giving him his chance to show what he can do? There's been a real clamour for someone like Furman to be given his chance, so maybe now's the time to do just that?

I think most fans probably realise we can't spend big, but I think the concern this summer has been that what we have spent has been spent on the wrong positions. I'd have thought a creative midfielder was top of the list above all other signings who'd cost money. We're now in the position where we've spent what appears to be the bulk of our budget on new strikers, possibly the one area where we could have got by this season with the personnel we had.

I love how these things are called secret spying missions and the like. Not very secret really when you send someone like Ally McCoist over and the papers know about it in advance.

Do you think he sticks on a false moustache?

We've been inked with Anderson on and off for a few years now, but I don't see the point. Unless we're signing someone who's as good or has the potential to be as good as Cuellar, I'd rather we stick with who we've got.

Surely there can't be any truth in the Diamond rumour though?

From everything I've read and heard so far, we're lacking creativity and drive in the midfield, which is pretty much what we thought would happen.

But we only got the best out of him when he was played as a striker through the middle. Stick him out on the wings and he just wasn't interested, particularly if the game wasn't going his way.

Putting aside the other issues, where would you play him?

It sounds like he's regretting leaving and trying to engineer a move back. I can't see how it would happen as we have too many strikers already and that's his preferred solution.

Maybe he should have thought about there being more to life than money when he told us where to stick the contract offer.

Boyd if he's still here.

What an unbalanced squad we seem to have at the moment.

The money doesn't even add up though does it? Just when you look at everyone's rough values and what we rejected for Boyd earlier on.

Bizarre.

I just can't believe Cousin is still getting a game for us ahead of all the other strikers after his behaviour last season.

I think we suffered last season by over-achieving in the early part of it. I'd have been delighted last season if we'd pushed Celtic to the wire in the race, won a couple of trophies and had a good run in Europe. But simply because we threw the title away, I'm really gutted by how last season turned out in the end.

There's lots of positives to take from last season though. My only worry is that some of the weaknesses and problem positions in our squad haven't been addressed yet, but hopefully they will be by the time we kick off.

When I saw this I just assumed the recent rumours were true, but it looks like a new injury. Will be interesting to see who we sign, but we're in for a very interesting start to the season in terms of team selection.