Tannochsidebear

I’ve long been an advocate of all pre-season friendlies being behind closed doors with no tv cameras. This 45 mins is a great example of why this should be the case. It’s all about building fitness, sharpness, getting players used to each other, and pretty much never provides a spectacle or any sort of value for money for gullible eh sorry passionate supporters. I don’t pay any attention to results in pre-season, I only want to hear that the sharpness is building and no injuries were suffered.

Sorry just read the other thread that has a lot more info on this player. Loans are always a bit of a punt but good luck to the guy, hope he can fit in here and bring something positive to the side.

Is this a B team signing or are we expecting him to be in and around the first team? Where do we think he will play in our side? As with every new signing, I’ve never heard of him! I’m assuming he was nowhere near the Bayern first team, hence why he’s being loaned out.

Even for matters of fact, like offsides, with VAR last season we would be Champions and in the CL groups. For matters of opinion, like fouls in the box, it will still be the likes of Clancy cheating from the VAR room instead of the pitch so no change there.

Saying Goldson is solid is nonsense. Must be 15 goals he cost us last season, including in the Europa final, OF games etc. 1 good season and the rest littered with regular mistakes. Katic has a lot to learn, but is much younger, cheaper, and with greater potential to improve and cut out the errors. Of course he may not kick on and improve but I hope he does. Just like I hope Goldson can recover the form of 20/21 when he certainly was much improved, only to revert to type last season. Just my opinion, I appreciate it is not one shared by SG or a lot of my fellow bears, but that’s what these forums are for.

Katic is a far better defender than Goldson in my opinion, makes far less mistakes, so I have big hopes for him to come back a bit more consistent and injury-free. Obviously Gio hasn't seen him play for us in person, so I would guess he will have to prove to Gio he is better than his other options. I think he can turn into a cracking CH.

Winning the league is a must. A very poor single opponent with a crap manager and without as many points given to them by cheating refs thanks to VAR should be easily overcome. Qualification to CL groups is our primary target, I see it as a 50/50 at the moment depending on the draw and our available players. May need a bit of luck with both. If not, the above becomes more important still, and getting through the Europa groups becomes the minimum. Winning at least one of the domestic cups should be achieved, both would be lovely.

Sounds to me like a manufactured job for a mate. Another £100K or so out the club we cant really afford for very little back. How much do you think the wage bill is now for all the backroom team? My guess would be bigger than the entire playing squad wage budget for each but one of our domestic rivals. You've got to ask if all this is really necessary for a club with our limited income streams?

Why not, we did!

Dont know anything about him, but from the Rangers website it seems he is a forward who doesnt score goals. hmmmm. 35 goals in 180 games over 5 years at that level is no great shakes. 28yo so no resale value. I'm struggling to see what he brings to the party here if i'm honest. Sounds like a squad player as he is not playing in front of Alfie, Colak, Kent with those stats. Can anyone add a bit of context to the stats (which of course dont always give you the true indication), what are his strengths? Is he a centre forward, striker or more a wide forward, second striker, etc? I dont like buying from the English Championship generally, I feel that market is vastly overpriced and even more overrated, although of course there will be a few nuggets in there just needing a break. Hopefully our new man is one of those. One thing I have learned though is to judge the players when the competitive action starts and they are playing for us. Ignore the stats, previous clubs, etc and see for yourself how he fits in and what we can get out of him. Good Luck Tom, welcome to the most critical fanbase in the world!

There is absolutely no evidence the bheasts got anything like that for those players. They are famous for over-inflating the sale price and getting their friendly journos to hyper-inflate the numbers to both appease their own and to try to ensure they get bigger values for other players. The same journos down-play our players values for the opposite reasons. The best example of this was when the sold the Korean player to Cardiff/Swansea or similar and up here they got all the papers to say it was £6.5M and the buying club were forced to say undisclosed fee. The next day that same club bought another player and announced it was for a club record fee of £5M.

Agree with most here in that £10M for a player with one year left is about max for a Scottish club to get. The fact we can get a percentage of any sell-on may well see us earn more in a couple of years as Southampton have a good record of doing that themselves. Feel sorry for Aribo that this is the club he is going to, utter dross and a certain bottom half club fighting relegation. From Europa final and the atmosphere of those Euro nights at Ibrox to sleepy hollow and regular pumpings with nobody even noticing. I wish him all the very best and I hope his manager finds the right slot and system to get the best out of him. Thanks for some special performances Joe, and of course for that goal in Seville that looked for a short time like making you a legend.

great shout, id love that.

Much like "them" and 1967, does anyone lese feel it a little overdone? While it is the highlight of our history, must we bang on about it so often? A new film, a new range of merch, another celebration dinner. I was at the 25th anniversary dinner, the 30th, 35th, etc but at some point surely we say enough now and move on. I reckon I am very much in the minority here but I have seen and heard enough about Barcelona '72 to last a lifetime. I have just turned 51 myself so all my life I have had this retold and retold. It would have been one of the massive bonuses for me if we had managed to beat Frankfurt, that we could finally have consigned all the '72 stuff to history for good. I truly believe our achievement in getting to the finals in '08 and '22 were far harder and far greater achievements than winning 5 ties against fellow cup-winners. That is of course debatable, and the ultimate aim is to win and of course we came up short on both these ocassions.

How can we buy a player from Russia? Are there not embargoes on sending money from the UK to Russia?

Not as disappointing as seeing the same player make the same mistakes game after game after game after game.......

Souttar would have played last night if he was still a Hearts player. that Clarke perseveres with Hanley, quite simply the worst CH I have ever seen play for Scotland, when far better options are available, is worthy of sacking. The defeat last night was very much Clarke's fault.

Well deserved, and makes up for last season's ridiculous decision! His numbers over the season, the improvement in his defending, and the massive strides he has taken in his leadership qualities, not to mention the crucial opening goal in 4 successive home European knockout rounds (will never be matched I dont think), and his top scorer in the Europa achievement meant it would be rather absurd if he didnt win our POTY. The fact he wasnt even mentioned in the national players or writers awards just shows them up to be the fools and bigots we all know to be true. One Goldson balls-up away from a statue and eternal legendary status at our club.

On the contrary, great sentiments and although I don’t rate him, he is a total professional who handled his final year really well OFF the park. I’m not buying his quote completely as his agent has been working for 6 months to get him a EPL club, but none clearly fancy him so he stays with us. The 20/21 form will do fine, the 18/19, 19/20 and 21/22 form, no thanks.

Spot on. So far this summer we’ve signed a very injury prone CH, re-signed a midfield veteran who is long done, and now re-signed our most error-strewn defender. To say I’m far from impressed at Wilsons work this window is understating it, coming hard on the heels of the Jan window that was also a failure.

Nope, absolutely gutted at this news. One good season in 4, one big mistake in every game in the other 3 years. Can only hope now that the contract is signed that he can find the form and consistency of 20/21 season. We could definitely have got better for the money I feel. He will always be remembered for the guy who fell asleep and cost us a European trophy.

I'm also in the not too bothered about Scotland national team much these days, but I hope we qualify for the World Cup and if we have to beat Ukraine as a result, then f**k them! I have some sympathy for the innocent people whose homes have been destroyed or been forced to flee in the face of a powerful nutter's ego trip, but that sympathy doesnt for one second extend to the football team, most of whom are millionaire professionals who left Ukraine years ago and only go back for international meet ups. The condescending claptrap in the media is nauseating.

Cant believe we have given Davis another year. He hasnt contributed much at all this season, goes away for internationals and needs a rest when he comes back, and his position is well covered already. This prevents progression from the young players desperate for a chance to break through. At least I would imagine (hope) he is on reduced terms so likely to be a cheap experienced option. I thought this was an easy one to let go and use the salary budget better by bringing in someone else.

One down, plenty to go. Shame for Itten, I thought there was a player there, but a wee bit unlucky not to get a run when he was in form to see if he could compliment Alfie but probably better he moves on. If we have recouped our money on him (which we definitely should have or someone isnt doing their job properly) then we can reinvest it in someone that may fit in better.

Yes but apart from that! Striker (even a played-out-of-position one) scores goal = job done.