ascender

The way Hutton has been playing this year, he's practically a wing-back anyway, so the 3-5-2 immediately becomes possible. But would he and Smith give us enough of an attacking edge from the wings across a whole season?

Then I'd still have the same concerns about the middle of the park and its negative look. We badly need a box-to-box attacking midfielder, who is creative and will also weigh in with goals. Don't ask for much, do I!

I'm happy with Weir being our first choice CB, but I'd rather Ehiogu left. I think he's injury prone, too slow and not very comfortable on the ball. Problem is that there's so much up in the air at the moment that nothing's taking shape for next season, its all guesswork on our parts.

Until Cuellar's name was mentioned, I, and many others, had assumed that Weir and Webster would be the first choice pick next season, with Broadfoot and maybe Svensson being brought in occasionally to try and learn from Weir.

I think Hemdani did a good job when forced to play at CB, but only because he is so comfortable with the ball at his feet and as such, he can play himself out of trouble and make it look very easy. I do think its a waste to play him there, but as I've said before, I think its a waste to play him, Fergie and Thomson in the same midfield.

Who knows what is going to happen with certain players in the squad.

The Cuellar deal is a strange one. Why are we looking at another CB? I know that Weir will be the main man next season, so I'm assuming WS is looking to have maybe 2 other CBs who will then take over the year after. But we've got hunners of them. Not sure why we're going after him when no-one has left Ibrox yet and we've got other priority signings to sort out.

As for Naismith, who knows what's going on, but if we are sticking firm over £250,000 or so, that's a totally false economy IMO. That's only 2 months of Klos' wages FFS, so get the guy signed or remove our offer.

Of course, I'm being very impatient, but its just frustrating at the moment.

That's the problem Gribz. I think we have too many similar central midfield players and not enough width. WS can't play them all without skimping on the wide areas or having them play out of position.

I was the same on transfer deadline day when there was the whole Scott Brown thing going on. Or not. I'm online a lot just now and its doing my head in that there's hardly any news regarding potential signings or, shock horror, an actual signing.

Hopefully its a return to the days of old when WS would identify players and the first we'd know about them is when they were paraded at Ibrox. But unfortunately I think that's wishful thinking.

I guess I'm just desperate to see players arriving as I know we need to sign 6 or so and if we leave it to the last minute, it could all go horribly wrong.

I kinda like it

Does make you wonder what it'll look like when the big guys with the huge beer bellies pour themselves into them next season though.

Good luck to him. I was gutted when he never got a fair go at Ibrox. I thought our defensive problems were over, but I guess he just wasn't rated.

Lol. Sarcasm doesn't do well on the web without smilies!

Yes he did well when played through the middle in Europe, but he just looked so disinterested if things weren't going his way and wouldn't try at all to get in to the game. Was he not holding out for more money or something before he left?

Some people seem to have very short/selective memories about certain players!

Buffel is today being linked with a move to the EPL with Bolton.

Cuellar deal believed to have been struck and will be confirmed next week.

Da Beasley deal to be done shortly.

Still hopeful of landing McCulloch.

Brellier agent says we're in talks.

Nothing on Naismith.

If we're not breaking the bank for him (and there's absolutely no reason to think we are), do people not think he would strengthen our squad? Also, if he does come, we're still going to try and sign Naismith.

Did you guys see how weak our bench was at the end of last season? We had 3 centre halves on it on a few occasions.

Looks like Fowler does want to come. Well, one of his "representatives" does...

Clicky

Is his contract not up this summer or next? Either way, I can see a host of Premiership clubs being in for him and able to pay much more in terms of a fee and wages.

I don't think Fergie underestimates the SPL at all, but Smith might not want to come up here. Besides, I thought it was all wishful thinking that Smith was a Gers fan?

Yet more depressing news then. We do seem to be getting linked with quite a few players who've failed to impress at one or more of their previous clubs. Is this the best we can afford? Its starting to look like it.

Apparently Bain has flown back from the US with the specific task of gettting Naismith signed. And we're still hopeful of signing McCulloch.

Looks like we'd better get our finger out with Naismith.....

If we were under any illusions that he'd wait for us no matter what, his agent seems to dispute that.

Steven Naismith would not turn down a move to Celtic despite supporting Rangers as a youngster, according to his agent.

 

 

The Kilmarnock striker, 20, is attracting interest from both Old Firm clubs although Rangers are the only ones to have made an offer so far.

 

Their £450,000 bid was rejected by the Rugby Park outfit and Celtic have now joined the chase to land one of Scottish football's hottest properties.

 

Reports at the weekend suggested Naismith would spurn the advances of the Scottish champions because he has his heart set on a move to his boyhood heroes.

 

But his agent insists that is not the case, claiming any move would be based on cash and first-team prospects.

 

His representative Andrew McCormick told the Scottish Sun: "There hasn't been an offer from Celtic so far but there is definite interest.

 

"Steven does not want to go down south at this stage because of his family and that only leaves two clubs to choose from.

 

"So far, only one of them has made an offer.

 

"People think he would choose Rangers over Celtic because he supported them as a boy but that's not the case.

 

"Those days have gone and, if both make offers, then he would have a tough decision on his hands.

 

"If it comes down to Rangers and Celtic and they make matching offers, it will be a footballing decision."

Sionko is still here. How many years have we lacked a pair of decent wingers? Its another area of our team that we just can't seem to get sorted out and its a sad indictment on the state of our squad that Novo has been our best wide player last season.

McGregor will be our number one, so there won't be any surprises there, we'll end up signing someone like Langfield or Smith for cover.

Maybe someone can shed some light on the situations with Buffel, Sionko, Sebo, Novo, Burke, Svensson, Papac. Thats a fair number of players to have doubts over.

Out of that list I'd have thought Novo is the safest player to stay. There's been ongoing rumours about Burke leaving, but as he's only recently signed a new deal, I'd have thought he'll be staying and given another chance to get his act together.

As for the rest, I'm unsure about Buffel, but the others could leave if we get money for them. No point hanging on to players who aren't going to get a chance under WS.

Looking at our squad, we really need to sign another 6 or 7 players to compete seriously for the SPL next season. Its still very early in the close season with a lot of players still on holiday, but it is worrying that we haven't signed anyone yet.

I'm also very concerned about the lack of funds. Its starting to look like DM has lost all interest in the playing side of the club and doesn't matter if we're now fighting for second place every season. I think Killie were right to go public with our shameful offer for Naismith and unless things improve, it could be a miserable close season for us.

Not much happening today although I see that Celtic have had a bid (4M or so) for Frei turned down.

Rangers have opened talks with PSV Eindhoven over the transfer of winger DaMarcus Beasley. (Mail on Sunday)

 

Kilmarnock striker Steven Naismith will hold out for a transfer to Rangers, despite Bristol City and Sunderland prepared to outbid the Glasgow club. (Mail on Sunday)

 

Celtic will deliver a £2m take-it-or-leave-it offer to Kilmarnock for Steven Naismith this week. (News of the World)

Apparently they saw a DVD of his last OF performance and have made note of it. Of course, it could be agent talk designed to get him a new and improved deal?

How cynical of me.

Looks like Damarcus Beasley might be our first signing. Apparently he's spoken with Reyna about Ibrox and got a glowing report and his agent is admitting there's interest.

The latest one from a few different people on FF, which is quite amusing so I thought I'd post it....

Craig Moore.

Its a great idea and I think we should be doing all we can to get guys like that involved somewhere. Also, I think there's a place at Ibrox for Souness in some sort of role, not quite sure what, but I sometimes think we need his no-nonsense attitude around the place.

Bain's track record as far as DM goes is superb. His main job was to sort out the wage budget and he did it in record time which I think got him promoted. All he's doing is carrying out DM's orders, so while I don't like the way he does business, the problem isn't really with him.

Thing is though, spending maybe over the odds, or the market rate as it is known in the football world, isn't a problem if you minimise the risk. The problem is that DM seems to have gone from one extreme to the other. None of us want to go back to the days where he risks the future of the club by overspending on transfer fees and wages, but we now seem to be in an era where he wants to spend as little as possible on fees.

Which just isn't possible. Especially when you're competing with a club who do seem willing to pay the going rate for players at the moment. Celtic seem keen to use their CL revenue to strengthen their squad while also strengthening their brand image abroad. Like it or not, they seem to be way ahead of us off the park and if they continue to add to their squad, I fear the title will be written off again. There's no point matching Celtic 4 times a season if we don't have a strong enough squad to get results against the other teams across the year.

DM could prove me wrong, but I'm really worried for the immediate future of the club. This downsizing has lasted much longer than anyone thought and without a serious cash investment, we are in danger of finishing second in the SPL for the foreseeable future. How can there be so little money to spend on fees for players given how much has been cut from the wage bill and recouped in transfers?

If DM really does care about the club as much as he says, he'll spend the summer making serious funds available to WS, or actively try to sell the club to people who want to see us doing well on and off the pitch.

A few of us have been saying that the next few months are maybe the most important for our club in the last 25 years or so, but I'm starting to think that even that was an underestimation of just how grim things are for us, both on and off the pitch.

The Beeb reported the same thing.

I wonder if this summer will be a watershed with the majority of the support. Suppose we miss out on Naismith, make no "significant" signings which involve cash investment while Celtic continue to strengthen their squad... Surely fans will wake up and realise that DM is running our club in to the ground?