DMAA

Quite encouraging after reading this morning from one of the clickabait websites that Gerrard was jetting out to Russia to watch Kari Arnason Yes, the same 35 year old Arnason who Aberdeen just released after only 16 starts last season and who was in the papers a few days ago saying he’s had enough of British football

Take that back it seems his agent has been tweeting he’s passed a medical in Manchester without mentioning him by name

Being reported by some others now too. I very much doubt the medical bit is true but hopefully the fee being agreed is. Just this morning we were being mocked by another Celtic blog because they had a senior source at the Croatian club rubbishing it. These bloggers really need to give it a rest and Newsnow needs to stop them showing up in the Rangers feed!

It’s less impressive when you see the videos. His goals weren’t impressive, at least 1 was a penalty and the other two I saw were gift wrapped.

I’ve watched a compilation of Sadiq Umar from last season and tbh he looks very average. Good technique, fast and good at linking up but not a goal scorer and not good at heading despite his height.

Never seen the guys play but I’m very much enjoying being linked to 21 year olds with potential. I think we’ve been lacking height too so it’s added bonus that they are huge. Less apprension every time we concede a corner would be welcomed. Here’s hoping this is our new scouts earning their money and unearthing some jewels.

If we sold Fed and Alnwick the absolute worst case scenario would be a long term injury to McGregor and even then we could get an emergency loan easily.

I agree. I hate the idea of a 27 year old on big wages on the bench “just in case” and I don’t buy the idea that “you need competition”. It’s just a waste of money that we can’t afford. Sell Foderingham while his value is high because a season on the bench will majorly deplete it. Give McCrorie the chance to be in a match day squad and step in when and if needed like his brother who excelled when his chance came.

Great to finally see some people leaving. Pena, Alnwick, Dodoo and Miller. 4 down, many more to go. Even Kelly, he’s 22 and if he’s not better than McCrorie then it’s best to be off the books.

If we got with 4-2-3-1 next season Ejaria looks like he would naturally fit into the attacking mid centre role which we missed last season.

Reports are that Liverpool have got him to sign a long term contract with them. Disappointing in that there’s no prospect of signing him when the year is up but very encouraging that they obviously think he’s the real deal. They are probably willing to send him to us both to do Gerrard a favour but also because they want him playing on the front foot rather than fighting any more relegation battles.

Never mind I’ve just seen the latest comment and you’ve literally just explained this

How do you embed them? Mine always show as a link

I agree with you. But I think Barker fits that profile, he’s 21 and has the potential or become a starting player soon. The ideal player to have on the bench imo because players like that aren’t on the wages of your Herreras and your Millers. However I think we need quality not quantity so I’m not sure I’d be spending money on anyone who won’t start.

Very excited about gettting Goldson for £2.75m. Gerrard is spending the money where we need it spent. Barker would be a great option to have on the bench. But I’d had my hopes built up with the talk of Harry Wilson. Wilson walks into the first team but Barker doesn’t. However if we could get him on a permanent deal worth less than 400k he might be worth signing.

It’s great for us. We need him to rebuild his reputation and show that he’s worth spending a few quid on again.

You got that from what I said? Paying Ian Black 8k is the opposite of what I was describing. I mentioned Alves and Barton because the short term approach (in general) has persisted all the way from the 3rd division to last season. I think and hope we’ve turned a corner now. We’re on the same page with this stuff, I think it’s just misinterpretation.

To be fair to the board I think the short term approach they took was largely approved of by our support and still is today. They need absolute success and they need it yesterday. So if that means signing Sandaza, Boyd, Alves, Barton etc then that’s what we’ll do. Signing players primarily with investment and the longer term in mind is not worth the risk. Building a team with 3 years time in mind is unthinkable. The irony is that you’ll often get better results today when you do this, as the likes of Leipzig have discovered and as we have discovered inversely with almost all our expensive veteran signings over the past few years delivering awful value for money.

Fans forums are always a good place to find out about a players and he’s clearly rated very highly by their fans. For me this is the most exciting player we’ve been linked to.

“Gerrard wants this £15m man to help him catch Celtic”

After goal music is awful. But nobody’s is as bad as Celtic’s.

It sounds like we’ve missed a trick there then. We would benefit from having an attacking midfielder for a Far East country in our side, they tend to produce good flair players.

If he’s contracted to 2020 I’d suggest there’s no chance it’s permanent though. I was hoping it would be 2019 because he’d then be a freebie by the end of a loan.

It’s actually quite impressive Keith Jackson put his head above the parapet and broke the media silence on this by actually giving an opinion rather than just reporting it. If it was a conflict of interest involving King there would have been countless opinion pieces and tweets by now calling for resignations all round. Hopefully others will follow now that they’re not alone.

Like most people I would find this an exciting permanent signing but not (immediately) a particularly exciting loan. However its important to remember Gerrard has a 4 year contract and he knows these kids well and will almost certainly be hoping he can make some of them permament after a successful loan. I wonder when Ejaria’s contract expires. A few months ago he was stalling on a signing a deal and there has been no word since on whether he signed it.