TopCat

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/5442714/dunfermline-athletic-post-huge-1-7m-losses-but-move-to-reassure-fans-over-park-bench-ownership-and-debt/ Nearly £2.7m lost over 2 years and nothing to show for it except 3 managers, a cup run and a fat Victor Wanyama.

Alloa were being presented as a backroom model for us to aspire to not that long ago. QP losing close to the equivalent of our entire playing budget (plus Dunfermline wasting even more), only to finish a whopping 13 points behind our mediocre 12-12-12 league performance is very pleasing.

Another in the mould of Gillespie/Quitongo/Muirhead/Wilson etc whose career took a bit of a dip but the talent is clearly there. Having another player who can pick a pass won't do us any harm at all.

Are we clear relegation candidates with Stenny, a skint Queens Park, Inverness and an ageing Arbroath side in the league? We're obviously cutting our cloth this season after wasting a lot of money but I'd say the league looks weaker overall.

I'd much rather have a 1 or 2 good wingers in the squad as an option, rather than having to sign 4 or 5 mediocrities to build a 'system' around. A 4-1-4-1 (or similar) Duffyball approach is a better way to get the most out of limited resources.

Really good to see the commitment to a sensible approach for the Estrella funding. Our ageing stadium will send us to the seaside leagues eventually if it isn't addressed.

Aye, the longer we fart about at the bottom of this league, the more I'm inclined towards a sort of Arbroath+ model. Keep the budget the same, but have a mix of full time, part-time and Estrella-led loans from outside the UK.

No chance. He's here to give us 2 keepers in pre-season. Murray might have made mistakes but he hasn't signed a league 2 substitute with a view to making him 1st choice.

The list of proven, upper-championship/bottom 6 standard players we've signed at the peak of their careers over the last 25 years is very, very small. Even when Rae was flinging his overdraft around in the 3rd tier, we couldn't attract many. Finding rough diamonds and coaching better players out of the "dregs" has to be a huge part of how we operate as one of the smallest full-time clubs in the pyramid.

The Cammy Blues of last season wouldn't be a dramatic loss for us. He's shown himself to be a very effective box to box player in previous years but we rarely play like that.

Not if we bin a load of useless sanddancers and use the budget space generated to sign fewer, better quality players.

If we do (again, this is unlikely) sign all 15 players on this list, we'll need at least 4 players in Brophy's wage bracket to have a go at a playoff spot and ensure this lot are mostly backup. i.e. a new 1st choice CB, 1st choice winger, 1st choice attacking midfielder/second striker. Plus two goalkeepers and some loan deals. A big ask.

I'd be very surprised if we go with a squad of more than 20 this season. Last season's was a bloated mess and actually made us worse on the park.

Apart from Wilson, there's no real standout great (or really terrible) players being offered deals. All 8 signing up would place far too much weight on incoming quality signings, but that seems an unlikely scenario.

I'm happy for Mr Duncan to continue to bleat to the tele as much as he likes, so long as his involvement with the club doesn't extend beyond paying in at the gate.