Squad for next Season

[Greacen2000]

Not quite the marquee signing to get excited about that I was hoping for, but I will reserve judgement until I have seen him play a few games for us. 

I can remember him scoring a penalty against us at Cappielow for QoS a couple of seasons ago, but apart from that I don't really know anything about the guy or what sort of player he is.  On the face of it his stats aren't great, but Imrie has shown that he is capable of getting the best out of players previously thought to be duds, so hopefully that will be the case here.

We are definitely in need of other options up front to challenge Muirhead and give us an option coming off the bench, and that's exactly what this signing gives us, so I am happy about that, albeit a bit underwhelmed.

In recent weeks we seem to have been concluding our business in little flurries of activity - with the announcements of new deals for Grimshaw, Gillespie & Crawford all coming within a day of each other, then the same again with the departures of Hynes, McGregor & Jacobs.  Hopefully the same applies here and this is the first of a few announcements on incoming players.

[Madton]

2 hours ago, TRVMP said:

 

Reports from fans of his previous teams suggest this is an optimistic take. With that said, if anyone can get 90 minutes of effort from a player, it's Dougie, so I'm not hugely concerned.

Guessing he won't get many 90 min appearances from us, more than likely replace a nackered Muirhead/New Striker or come on when we are behind to try and salvage something from a game.

Reports not great but he did score more goals (12) for a struggling Queens side than any Morton player last year, and that's with only 18 starts so happy to see what Dougie can do with him.

Hopefully a better forward to follow..

[TRVMP]

7 minutes ago, Madton said:

Guessing he won't get many 90 min appearances from us, more than likely replace a nackered Muirhead/New Striker or come on when we are behind to try and salvage something from a game.

Reports not great but he did score more goals (12) for a struggling Queens side than any Morton player last year, and that's with only 18 starts so happy to see what Dougie can do with him.

Hopefully a better forward to follow..

Yeah, looking on the bright side here, he probably isn't a nailed-on starter (even if Glentoran seem to expect him to be here for minutes.)

Not sure we'll get another forward option, though...

[Mr.Blue]

A bit of a 'meh' signing on the face of it but I'll trust Dougies judgement and give the guy a chance.

[port-ton]

Our squad is already an island of misfit toys with guys with something to prove and not deemed good enough for other clubs around our level and Dougie seems to thrive with those types of players so I'm hopeful he can be a useful addition over the second half of the season. Something tells me he won't be the last attacking signing we make this window either so I'll wait until the end of January before ei judge our window. 

[TaunTon]

Doggies record suggests that the guy is worthy of a shot and if he's willing to apply himself he'll get the benefit of doggies support. Hope he works out and gives muirhead a wee break.

[EanieMeany]

31 minutes ago, TaunTon said:

Doggies record suggests that the guy is worthy of a shot and if he's willing to apply himself he'll get the benefit of doggies support. Hope he works out and gives muirhead a wee break.

Let’s hope he’s not barking up the wrong tree with this signing.

[joebananas]

45 minutes ago, TaunTon said:

Doggies record suggests that the guy is worthy of a shot and if he's willing to apply himself he'll get the benefit of doggies support. Hope he works out and gives muirhead a wee break.

Doggie will be in for a treat if the new boy bags the winner against the Jungle Jim’s. 

[Nornirontons]

A player I've seen a number of times and indeed scored 2 against Ards my local side who are pretty dreadful at the moment earlier in season and I wouldn't say that's something to be getting overly carried away with.

He is a willing runner, pretty quick and in the mould that Imrie is sure to like and much better than Orsie tbf... but if your not playing in a Glentoran side whos season started off quite well but is now in rapid reverse I think most people are right to be thinking it's questionable tbh.  

 

2 Goals in rather after you fashion in first few mins of this. Didn't really have to work for those tbf.... coulda changed his boots and still had time to score em!! Decent finishes all the same.

Edited January 10, 2023 by Nornirontons

[EanieMeany]

3 hours ago, joebananas said:

Doggie will be in for a treat if the new boy bags the winner against the Jungle Jim’s. 

Should that happen, a good few clubs will likely be wondering how much is that Doggie in the transfer window. No chance of him getting the bag should we lose though, at least.

[TONofmemories]

9 hours ago, TaunTon said:

Doggies record suggests that the guy is worthy of a shot and if he's willing to apply himself he'll get the benefit of doggies support. Hope he works out and gives muirhead a wee break.

Aye, well said. Hopefully doggie let's him off the leash and he scores for fun. That'd be a right treat.

[Jamie_M]

David Martindale confirming what we pretty much already knew - Morton asked Livi to take Kabia back because we were bringing someone else in. Kabia told his future lies away from Livi.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/irish-youngster-set-livingston-exit-28926885

Also talks about the 'informal partnership' Livi have with us and Arbroath (and now QOS).

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/livingston-boss-set-explore-queen-28919551

[Jamie_M]

 

 

[Mr.Blue]

4 hours ago, Jamie_M said:

David Martindale confirming what we pretty much already knew - Morton asked Livi to take Kabia back because we were bringing someone else in. Kabia told his future lies away from Livi.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/irish-youngster-set-livingston-exit-28926885

Also talks about the 'informal partnership' Livi have with us and Arbroath (and now QOS).

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/livingston-boss-set-explore-queen-28919551

Wonder if the incoming player was Roy or another

[Cet Homme Charmant]

On 1/9/2023 at 10:17 PM, dunning1874 said:

Other fixtures between Scottish and Irish sides in recent years have included Elgin 2-0 Bray Wanderers, Sligo 1-2 Falkirk, Airdrie 3-2 Bohemians and Stenhousemuir 3-2 Waterford.

Their best sides could make a fight of surviving in the Championship, but most of them would be relegation fodder in League One and I'd expect Morton (along with everyone else in the Championship other than Hamilton) to win that league at a canter. Motherwell having probably the worst result of their history doesn't change that.

Would I be right in thinking all the results you quoted are from the Challenge Cup (or whatever it's called nowadays)? If so, like some Championship clubs (including us), I suspect the LoI teams don't take competition too seriously and use it as an opportunity to give fringe players a run out (didn't Bohemians pull out the completion half way through a couple of years ago because they couldn't be arsed putting a team together?). I could be wrong, but wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. And didn't a LoI team make the group stage of the Europa League a couple of season's ago (can't remember which one)? Hard to imaging a Championship club would get through the qualification rounds, were they were given the opportunity.

I'm not suggesting for a minute that the LoI is a strong league, I agree it's probably pretty shite, but I do believe most teams in it could compete in the Championship.

[TRVMP]

28 minutes ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

Would I be right in thinking all the results you quoted are from the Challenge Cup (or whatever it's called nowadays)? If so, like some Championship clubs (including us), I suspect the LoI teams don't take competition too seriously and use it as an opportunity to give fringe players a run out (didn't Bohemians pull out the completion half way through a couple of years ago because they couldn't be arsed putting a team together?). I could be wrong, but wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. And didn't a LoI team make the group stage of the Europa League a couple of season's ago (can't remember which one)? Hard to imaging a Championship club would get through the qualification rounds, were they were given the opportunity.

I'm not suggesting for a minute that the LoI is a strong league, I agree it's probably pretty shite, but I do believe most teams in it could compete in the Championship.

And Motherwell were still in pre-season while Sligo were halfway through their campaign. We can bring all kinds of mitigation to bear on both sides; in the absence of regular competition between the two we can just look at the kind of player who flourishes in each one. Guys who can barely get a game in Scotland are literally top scorers over in the LoI. This has been true for ages: Gary Twigg was a good third tier player and a middling second tier player in Scotland; Michael O'Neill took him over to Shamrock Rovers and he was basically Messi over there, something like 0.66 goals a game and a bunch of individual awards. 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

22 minutes ago, TRVMP said:

And Motherwell were still in pre-season while Sligo were halfway through their campaign. We can bring all kinds of mitigation to bear on both sides; in the absence of regular competition between the two we can just look at the kind of player who flourishes in each one. Guys who can barely get a game in Scotland are literally top scorers over in the LoI. This has been true for ages: Gary Twigg was a good third tier player and a middling second tier player in Scotland; Michael O'Neill took him over to Shamrock Rovers and he was basically Messi over there, something like 0.66 goals a game and a bunch of individual awards. 

Of course we could put counter arguments back and forward all day long, but a player moving to another league and excelling could be down to a number of reasons. Look how Dougie has transformed some players since taking over as an example, so simply playing in another system with a different manager could improve a player. 

Again, I'm not bigging up the LoI, but I just don't think it's quite as shite as you're making out. You're basically saying it's about League 1 standard (I think?), and I disagree. Do you seriously think a League 1 club could make it through to the qualifying rounds of the Europa League to reach the group stage, if they were given the opportunity? Our Premiership teams struggle to achieve that.

[TRVMP]

2 hours ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

Of course we could put counter arguments back and forward all day long, but a player moving to another league and excelling could be down to a number of reasons. Look how Dougie has transformed some players since taking over as an example, so simply playing in another system with a different manager could improve a player. 

Again, I'm not bigging up the LoI, but I just don't think it's quite as shite as you're making out. You're basically saying it's about League 1 standard (I think?), and I disagree. Do you seriously think a League 1 club could make it through to the qualifying rounds of the Europa League to reach the group stage, if they were given the opportunity? Our Premiership teams struggle to achieve that.

I didn't personally say that it was League One in quality, someone else said that. I believe that over the course of a 36-game season Morton would win that league and the likes of QP would probably win it unbeaten.

As for qualifying for a group stage...

... first of all fair play to Dundalk, against the odds they pulled off a win on penalties in a single-legged tie in Tiraspol against a Sheriff outfit who surely have far more dosh than them. That's an excellent result.

But they otherwise beat an Andorran and a Faroese team; pretty much what you'd expect. It really couldn't have been a better draw for them. In other words, they very narrowly edged past hot favorites in one game (a great achievement, sure) but otherwise played against two microstate teams.

They entered as champions, if you recall, dropping down from the CL. The Scottish teams who finish 3rd and 4th in our league of course don't have that luxury and will have to fight through from the first qualifying round more often than not. That same year that Dundalk got the group stage, Motherwell entered a round earlier and beat a Northern Irish team, then a different Northern Irish team, then got skelped by some Israeli mob - pretty much what you'd expect. Aberdeen only got narrowly beaten by Sporting Lisbon. Rangers had to play Galatasaray (and beat them), Celtic had Sarajevo (and beat them) in the final rounds. In the Champions path, Dundalk got literally the easiest tie that was possible. Any other game, they'd have probably lost, with the possible exception of the Armenian outfit:

That's an absolute joke of a "path" compared to the runners-up path that any non-OF team would have to navigate (which is of course the point; UEFA want to see teams from smaller countries represented in the EL and the ConfL rather than just the dregs of the major leagues):

Any single team in that list would have put seven or eight past Dundalk without breaking a sweat, with no exaggeration.

Again, Dundalk beat who were put in front of them and should be commended for that, but let's not act like they're any good. One decent result in Moldova does not a good team make. As such, I stand by my assessment that the absolute cream of the crop in the LoI would maybe challenge for the Championship playoffs but the vast majority of them would be nowhere near the required standard for our second tier.

[Toby]

9 hours ago, TRVMP said:

I didn't personally say that it was League One in quality, someone else said that. I believe that over the course of a 36-game season Morton would win that league and the likes of QP would probably win it unbeaten.

As for qualifying for a group stage...

... first of all fair play to Dundalk, against the odds they pulled off a win on penalties in a single-legged tie in Tiraspol against a Sheriff outfit who surely have far more dosh than them. That's an excellent result.

But they otherwise beat an Andorran and a Faroese team; pretty much what you'd expect. It really couldn't have been a better draw for them. In other words, they very narrowly edged past hot favorites in one game (a great achievement, sure) but otherwise played against two microstate teams.

They entered as champions, if you recall, dropping down from the CL. The Scottish teams who finish 3rd and 4th in our league of course don't have that luxury and will have to fight through from the first qualifying round more often than not. That same year that Dundalk got the group stage, Motherwell entered a round earlier and beat a Northern Irish team, then a different Northern Irish team, then got skelped by some Israeli mob - pretty much what you'd expect. Aberdeen only got narrowly beaten by Sporting Lisbon. Rangers had to play Galatasaray (and beat them), Celtic had Sarajevo (and beat them) in the final rounds. In the Champions path, Dundalk got literally the easiest tie that was possible. Any other game, they'd have probably lost, with the possible exception of the Armenian outfit:

That's an absolute joke of a "path" compared to the runners-up path that any non-OF team would have to navigate (which is of course the point; UEFA want to see teams from smaller countries represented in the EL and the ConfL rather than just the dregs of the major leagues):

Any single team in that list would have put seven or eight past Dundalk without breaking a sweat, with no exaggeration.

Again, Dundalk beat who were put in front of them and should be commended for that, but let's not act like they're any good. One decent result in Moldova does not a good team make. As such, I stand by my assessment that the absolute cream of the crop in the LoI would maybe challenge for the Championship playoffs but the vast majority of them would be nowhere near the required standard for our second tier.

CSKA Sofia scraped past St. Pats 2-1 on aggregate in the Conference League this season after losing 1-0 in Bulgaria to them. I get that they might catch some teams cold by starting their European campaigns in mid season, but saying that shite like CSKA Sofia would obliterate a decent LOI team is wide of the mark imo.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

10 hours ago, TRVMP said:

I didn't personally say that it was League One in quality, someone else said that. I believe that over the course of a 36-game season Morton would win that league and the likes of QP would probably win it unbeaten.

As for qualifying for a group stage...

... first of all fair play to Dundalk, against the odds they pulled off a win on penalties in a single-legged tie in Tiraspol against a Sheriff outfit who surely have far more dosh than them. That's an excellent result.

But they otherwise beat an Andorran and a Faroese team; pretty much what you'd expect. It really couldn't have been a better draw for them. In other words, they very narrowly edged past hot favorites in one game (a great achievement, sure) but otherwise played against two microstate teams.

They entered as champions, if you recall, dropping down from the CL. The Scottish teams who finish 3rd and 4th in our league of course don't have that luxury and will have to fight through from the first qualifying round more often than not. That same year that Dundalk got the group stage, Motherwell entered a round earlier and beat a Northern Irish team, then a different Northern Irish team, then got skelped by some Israeli mob - pretty much what you'd expect. Aberdeen only got narrowly beaten by Sporting Lisbon. Rangers had to play Galatasaray (and beat them), Celtic had Sarajevo (and beat them) in the final rounds. In the Champions path, Dundalk got literally the easiest tie that was possible. Any other game, they'd have probably lost, with the possible exception of the Armenian outfit:

That's an absolute joke of a "path" compared to the runners-up path that any non-OF team would have to navigate (which is of course the point; UEFA want to see teams from smaller countries represented in the EL and the ConfL rather than just the dregs of the major leagues):

Any single team in that list would have put seven or eight past Dundalk without breaking a sweat, with no exaggeration.

Again, Dundalk beat who were put in front of them and should be commended for that, but let's not act like they're any good. One decent result in Moldova does not a good team make. As such, I stand by my assessment that the absolute cream of the crop in the LoI would maybe challenge for the Championship playoffs but the vast majority of them would be nowhere near the required standard for our second tier.

You only mentioned Dundalk making the Europa League Group stages in 2020, but Shamrock Rovers (2011) and Dundalk again (2016) also made it. Actually, LoI teams have had quite a few good results in Europe over the years, beating teams like Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hadjuk Split, Gothenburg and Partisan, and drawing with Deportivo la Coruna, AZ Alkmaar, PSG and Dynamo Kyiv.... 

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/league-ireland-clubs-wildest-european-27618065

In fact, outside Rangers and Celtic, I suspect they may have a better European record than our Premiership teams in the last 20 years or so. I can't be arsed checking to confirm, but if not, they can't be far behind.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Cet Homme Charmant