ascender

I don't have a problem with us signing players from the SPL, particularly younger Scottish ones. I also don't have a problem with us paying the going rate for these guys as that's the market we're in now.

But like everyone else has said, we need to be supplementing these players with a few special ones, who will cost us more money and who we need to uncover through a decent scouting network unless we are willing to pay silly money on fees and wages again.

Talks have stalled with Miller but we're expected to pick them up again this week. Miller can't be too keen to come back here after all if he's wanting more money.

That's the problem Gribz, unless he's going to drop one or more of his favourites, WS is going to struggle to fit a creative midfielder in to the lineup.

I think if anything Miller coming will mean we're more liable to play him and Boyd up front.

If we sort out our creativity problems in midfield, we should be able to play any of our strikers up front in a pairing and be scoring for fun.

And so Walter's wet dream of fielding 10 centre halves in the outfield position comes a step closer.

It really is the silly season. One minute there's a rumour that the deal's hit a snag, the next is that its been finalised.

Having said that, its strange how this deal has been "nearly completed" for weeks, maybe months now.

I agree with what's been said recently. Even though we're paying over the odds as he's in England, there must be better ways for us to spend money like that if we had a good scouting system in place.

And according to the Record we're willing to listen to any offers for Webster.

Now I know its the Record, but if true, it might back up the rumours which suggested we had agreed to sign Webster when the loan deal was done and so couldn't back out of it now. Or its the Record just taking a flyer and putting 2+2 together to get 5 again.

Real Radio reckon we're after Berra now. Vlad will never sell to us will he?

Regardless, have we not supposedly been interested in Berra and Lee Wallace for some time now? One of those rumours which won't go away?

If successful, when added to our current squad + Webster + Reynolds, is Wattie looking to play centre backs in every position next year?

I think that's an absolute steal of a price for us if he manages to get fit and stay fit. So I'm assuming that the medical staff have faith he just needs to get a good pre-season under his belt, or at the very least he's on some sort of a structured pay as you play deal for the first year?

Why bother?

Cousin will be gone, JCD might also go. If we play two up top then things are looking OK for Boyd, bearing in mind that Novo seems to make more of an impact when playing on the right.

Apparently we're after Velicka for 1M and have offered Gow + cash for Kyle Lafferty.

As for Miller, he's still expected to sign, this time before Monday. Not sure why that one is being dragged out.

And Stoke still want McCulloch.

Make that 4 players and include McGregor.

I agree. While he's not the finished article yet, he does seem to have something special about him and be able to make some stunning saves which not every top drawer keeper can do. I think we'd have to spend a lot to get someone as good as him and as young (relatively speaking) as he is.

I'll try to get my team done today. Main problem when looking at this is that so many of the teams could go either way and storm the tournament or struggle from the outset. I'm thinking Spain, Portugal, Holland etc. Then there's Greece & Croatia with their aging players. Who knows.

Again we're having to pay over the odds because he's playing in England, just as we did for Lee McCulloch.

I don't know about this one, depending on where he plays and how he plays, he could do a job for us. But he's certainly not an exciting signing. Like I said in another posting though, can he be any worse than Cousin & his poor attitude or JCD & his dodgy hamstrings?

BTW, can we change the title of this thread until its a done deal?

Double that 4M for Thomson and you might have a deal.

Interesting times ahead then, Follow Follow will go in to meltdown when the deal goes through.

Get that offer increased Wattie, did you know that....

...Reynolds is no run-of-the-mill footballer. The young defender left school with five A's in his Highers.

Genius sports reporting from the ET as always.

I heard he was a Celtic supporter too, but the Record says it would be a dream move for him, so who knows.

Is this guy good enough to partner Cuellar? I've heard some good things about him but not seen much of him myself.

I guess the other thing to consider is that he's going to have a better attitude than Cousin and be less injury prone than JCD, just going on his career so far.

Quite a few people think its been a done deal for some time and we're just delaying the official signing so that he can be paraded with another signing which will then deflect the backlash a bit.

Now there's a shock, our interest is finally confirmed.

Derby County chairman Adam Pearson has confirmed that the Championship side are in talks with Rangers about the possible transfer of Kenny Miller.

 

The Scotland international moved south from Celtic last summer but is thought to be keen on re-joining the Ibrox club following Derby's relegation.

 

"We've had early discussions with Rangers and talks are on-going," Pearson told BBC Scotland.

 

"But there has been no asking price either set or met."

 

Miller enjoyed mixed fortunes in a previous stint at Ibrox after moving from Hibernian in June 2000 for �£2m.

 

Wolves spent �£3m bringing the striker to Molineux, where he spent five seasons, before Celtic snapped him up on a free transfer in July 2007.

Miller has scored six goals in 30 games for the Pride Park side this season as they dropped out of the Premiership following a miserable campaign.

I don't think there's much between McGregor and Gordon now. AM has closed the gap massively since he started playing for us every week. I always said that Gordon's main advantage was his experience. I'd be happy with either one of them as our number 1, but I'd only let AM go if someone like CG was lined up as a replacement beforehand.

Neither are a complete keeper yet and both have their weaknesses, but AM is massively improved and I really think he's challenging CG for the number one slot.

The McGregor thing just won't go away, its one of those stories which has been around for ages now. 9M is a hell of a lot of money for a keeper who many fans never wanted to be the number 1 and were slating at the start of the season. He's had a turnaround of Hutton-like proportions.

I think his case is slightly different to AH though. You could conceivably build a team around AM, assuming he was happy to stay, with him as our keeper for the next 8 years or so. So maybe taking 9M for him now is even more short sighted than taking it for an outfield player.

I think Alexander has done well as a deputy, but has been prone to the odd rush of blood to the head and he doesn't seem as solid a shot stopper as McGregor. Has he got what it takes to be our new number 1? I'm not so sure, but on the other hand, keepers thrive on confidence and starting as our first choice keeper first season with a settled back 4 in front of him might be just what he needs to raise his game to the next level.

The other thing is, if we got 9M for AM, would WS get any or all of that to reinvest?

heard riise from liverpool is on his way. a done deal apparently

We could never afford his wages surely? I think he'd be a great signing, but just can't see it happening.

Surely out there though, amongst all these multi-millionaire Premiership players, there must be a few who have made more than enough money and would come up here just for a new challenge?

I can't believe there's another club in the running for Cousin. Great stuff. Although if the rumours about the transfer fee are to be believe, then we're only going to be getting 500K or so for him towards a new player.