Transfer Deadline Day: Michael O'Halloran signs until 2020

[ascender 352]

The only signings so far have been 6 months.

 

Good I'd much rather that than the usual four year deal, 20K a week on wages for someone who's had one good season for a middling Scottish club and/or is made of glass.

[Maxdazzy 0]

There was a story on HITC that apparently the record ran saying that along with these four players Warburton wants one 'big' signing, someone with a proven track record and experience this window too. But at this time of the year things like this are said every couple of hours so need to wait and see what we get

[craig 5,199]

Totally agree Frankie, I like Kiernan he's been here six months and still finding his feet in Scottish fitbaw. Rangers fans want instant success but those days are gone because the money isn't there anymore to bring in big name signings...

 

Agree with the sentiment.... only thing I would say is that even big name signings don't guarantee instant success.

 

Ours right now is a much more measured approach. After the last 3 years I cant fathom the mentality of some of our fans in terms of wanting to splash the cash. Cash should be spent on the infrastructure first IMHO - revenue streams and cost cutting exercises (scouting comes under this because you can get a better player cheaper if you have the right scouting). Long term value enhancers. Splashing money on players who may or may not make it is a short term attempt to fix a long term problem.

 

Even if it means a few years before we win the league I prefer to secure the future with a proper infrastructure over a "boom and bust" attempt to win the league by throwing money at the problem. You would have thought we had learnt that lesson from the SDM years....

[trublusince1982 243]

15 wins out of 19 in the Scottish Championship along with a few disappointing results indicates to me the players are good enough but still developing under a management team also relatively new to the club. Along the way we've scored 57 goals and only conceded 15 despite our very attacking outlook.

 

Yes, we absolutely need to win this league to achieve promotion and a few new players will certainly help when, as we seen in November and December our form dipped a little. However, I can see the manager sticking by a core of players who have, by and large, performed very well this season so far. I'm certainly excited to see many of the players develop further.

 

With regard to our manager signing lower league English players, well he signed Andre Gray from Luton Town for a nominal fee in 2014 before he was sold to Burnley for £6m in August 2015.

The dip has lasted longer than the high. We played very well Aug and Sept since then we have been poor scraping quite a few wins in the last 15-20 mins against what's mainly semi professional sides. For me that highlights our fitness levels as being the difference not ability. Our possession play is good but as we seen during old firm games during 9 in a row possession means nothing. Hopefully the hibs and Dumbarton games show a return to Aug/Sept performance levels With a more direct style.

 

The return on Gray is fantastic but does not make a rule. Look at the rest of his signings the same cannot be said.

[calscot 0]

If the reports are correct then it seems dB was spot on with his valuation.

However, I hope the fees are hyped up a bit as it seems to me a bit much for players we could get for £60k at the end of the season - unless they can hit the ground running and contribute towards winning the title. I think £250k would be a more comfortable fee for me. But at least it shows the board's willingness to get the cheque book out and back the manager, albeit fairly modestly, but more importantly, seemingly judiciously.

 

While I'm buying into this type of sourcing, I can't help but feel that coming from that level, these kind of players will need some kind of acclimatisation and mentoring before possibly making an impact. Don't know if I'd be confident of them going straight into the team - unless they've been setting EL2 alight.

[craig 5,199]

The dip has lasted longer than the high. We played very well Aug and Sept since then we have been poor scraping quite a few wins in the last 15-20 mins against what's mainly semi professional sides. For me that highlights our fitness levels as being the difference not ability. Our possession play is good but as we seen during old firm games during 9 in a row possession means nothing. Hopefully the hibs and Dumbarton games show a return to Aug/Sept performance levels With a more direct style.

 

The return on Gray is fantastic but does not make a rule. Look at the rest of his signings the same cannot be said.

 

You used results rather than form to cast your assertion on dip earlier. But now that Frankie counters with the full season league results you decide to counter with performances ??? Apples and oranges.

 

The reality is that in terms of results the high has lasted far longer than the dip.

 

We have convincingly beaten our nearest challengers (assuming Hibs win their game in hand) in 2 out of 3 games 6-2 and 4-2 with the latter being closer to7-2 had we finished with 11 players on the pitch. We are still 3 points clear in the table despite the dip in form, we have convincingly outscored every single team in the league and still have conceded as few as anyone else.

 

Sure, our form dipped - and that coincided with teams completely parking the bus with 5 or 6 players on the 18 yard line and another 3 or 4 sat 5-10 yards in front of them. Simply, it took us a little time to come up with ways of getting around that. But by and large the results kept coming, albeit by less than convincing scorelines.

 

Our last two games look like that dip in form may be over (at least we hope so) and, thus, our dip in form sees us come out the other end still top of the table by, effectively, 4 points given our goal difference.

 

We also aren't taking into account the rich vein of form our challengers have been on. Much as though you may question if our dip has actually come to an end, do we know that they will continue in the form they have been having ? Their results show scrappier victories - Hibs in their last handful of games have relied on very late goals at least 3 times..... Will that luck continue ? So you mention we are scraping results in the last 20 minutes, but Hibs have been scraping them in the last couple of minutes....

 

I disagree that our ability isn't the difference between teams because we aren't scoring late. I think it is blatantly obvious that our ability is far superior to every team in this league - but once teams saw how we were playing, and doing it very well, they went to parking the bus. Or.... to look at a previous season... are you saying that Barcelona getting a late goal to win over there was because of their superior fitness rather than them having better ability than us ? We ALL know that Barcelona were far superior to us in terms of ability.... but when a team parks the bus it can be difficult for even the best of players to create openings when coming up against a brick wall of players all playing about 3 yards from each other.

[craig 5,199]

If the reports are correct then it seems dB was spot on with his valuation.

However, I hope the fees are hyped up a bit as it seems to me a bit much for players we could get for £60k at the end of the season - unless they can hit the ground running and contribute towards winning the title. I think £250k would be a more comfortable fee for me. But at least it shows the board's willingness to get the cheque book out and back the manager, albeit fairly modestly, but more importantly, seemingly judiciously.

 

While I'm buying into this type of sourcing, I can't help but feel that coming from that level, these kind of players will need some kind of acclimatisation and mentoring before possibly making an impact. Don't know if I'd be confident of them going straight into the team - unless they've been setting EL2 alight.

 

They probably got the fees from the same source as dB

 

I agree. I hope we are NOT paying 400k for guys we could secure for 60k at the end of the season. It is a risk regarding promotion, but a small risk IMHO - why ? Because I believe that both us AND Hibs will get promoted - I think both are better than most SPFL teams. But I understand we don't want the risk of play offs again, fair enough.

 

But I just don't think an extra 340k is justified - we have more than enough within the current squad to get automatic promotion.

[Frankie 8,662]

The dip has lasted longer than the high. We played very well Aug and Sept since then we have been poor scraping quite a few wins in the last 15-20 mins against what's mainly semi professional sides. For me that highlights our fitness levels as being the difference not ability. Our possession play is good but as we seen during old firm games during 9 in a row possession means nothing. Hopefully the hibs and Dumbarton games show a return to Aug/Sept performance levels With a more direct style.

 

The return on Gray is fantastic but does not make a rule. Look at the rest of his signings the same cannot be said.

 

To be honest, while a few of your points have obvious merit, I think you're being a bit too hard to please. It's unrealistic not to expect a dip in form with the odd bad result so to say we've been poor since September is a bit of an exaggeration given our results and performances in recent years. Over the course of this season, we've seen a substantial improvement in our play and the overall trend is very positive.

 

Further, of course one good signing doesn't mean the rest will be but it does show it is possible and it's premature to scoff. Generally I think Warburton's transfer record is pretty good and I'm fairly confident in his selections so far.

 

I'm all for realism and certainly want to avoid over-confidence but there's a fair difference between that and being po-faced.

[calscot 0]

A Splashing money on players who may or may not make it is a short term attempt to fix a long term problem.

 

 

While I agree with all your post, I think this part needs a bit of discussion. I agree in this when you splash money on players like a machine gun, but with a sniper paradigm, I think you have to take the gamble on a few marquee signings over a few years, when the budget allows and the right guy becomes available.

 

Most successful sides have a few star players that lift the side to a greater level, who turn defeats into draws, draws into wins and wins into showcases. They all need the piece de resistance, the cherry on top, the icing on the cake.

 

The ones we need most are those that can consistently make a hole in a very packed defence and create a couple of goals.

 

Sometimes these players are home grown and sometimes they are inexpensive discoveries, but more often than not, they take a lot of cash.

 

Even Advocaat felt his star studded side needed enhanced by a £10m world class striker but he showed the danger of getting it wrong by squandering 20% more than the budget on a flop.

 

However, nothing risked, nothing gained; we just have to do the homework thoroughly, resist panic buying, and then just cross our fingers.

It also gives the fans something to get excited about and get the chequebook out for the season ticket renewal.

 

I think Warburton is starting to feel the same, judging by some of his recent comments.

[Maxdazzy 0]

If the reports are correct then it seems dB was spot on with his valuation.

However, I hope the fees are hyped up a bit as it seems to me a bit much for players we could get for £60k at the end of the season - unless they can hit the ground running and contribute towards winning the title. I think £250k would be a more comfortable fee for me. But at least it shows the board's willingness to get the cheque book out and back the manager, albeit fairly modestly, but more importantly, seemingly judiciously.

 

While I'm buying into this type of sourcing, I can't help but feel that coming from that level, these kind of players will need some kind of acclimatisation and mentoring before possibly making an impact. Don't know if I'd be confident of them going straight into the team - unless they've been setting EL2 alight.

 

ach just chuck them in against Cowdenbeath see how they go....that could never go wrong!