Squad for next Season

[Pedrodelawasp]

Can’t say I remember him from our games against ICT. Does he play mainly out wide, seeing as he’s not a prolific goal scorer?

[SpoonTon]

I watched ICT quite a few times last season (against us and on the TV), and I can't say I remember him. Didn't have a clue who he was at first. 

I assume the Hamilton connection has been a factor here. 

[RossMcC1874]

I have heard of him but honestly can't remember him at all. Again I'm just going to trust Dougie's judgement on this one but IMO none of the signings so far other than Waters have been anywhere near the quality I think we would have been looking for.

I know the budget does come into play but surely we should be strengthen the side, none of the signings so far have made us better. 

[port-ton]

5 minutes ago, RossMcC1874 said:

I have heard of him but honestly can't remember him at all. Again I'm just going to trust Dougie's judgement on this one but IMO none of the signings so far other than Waters have been anywhere near the quality I think we would have been looking for.

I know the budget does come into play but surely we should be strengthen the side, none of the signings so far have made us better. 

There's no one that we have brought in so far that is a proven downgrade on their replacement. Mullen, Broadfoot and Boyd could be as good as Schwake, Efe and Miller if not better for all we know. 

Grimmy needs replaced and we won't get in someone as good but he's still replaceable with a competent fullback. 

The squad is still a bit light compared to last season however most of our strength and depth came from signings once the season already started and I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen again. 

 

[SassenachTon]

I've said in another post that I think it's hugely commendable that Morton are exercising financial caution and prudence. A healthy balance sheet means nothing if it's being squittered away as fast as it's coming in. We need to remember that player budget is just one cog in a much bigger machine - a machine which also has to deal with backroom staff wages, ground maintenance, horrific energy costs and so on. And remember there's a potential development on the cards which is going to have to be funded.

I for one have 100% faith in Dougie's multiple-times-proven ability to extract the very best from seemingly ordinary players, and I completely trust his judgement. Sure - it hasn't always worked out, but just remember the state Liam Grimshaw and Robbie Muirhead were in when he took them on. Keep the faith, boys.

 

[ChampTon]

27 minutes ago, port-ton said:

There's no one that we have brought in so far that is a proven downgrade on their replacement. Mullen, Broadfoot and Boyd could be as good as Schwake, Efe and Miller if not better for all we know. 

Grimmy needs replaced and we won't get in someone as good but he's still replaceable with a competent fullback. 

The squad is still a bit light compared to last season however most of our strength and depth came from signings once the season already started and I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen again. 

 

Schwake was part of a promoted Edinburgh team and was in TOTY that season. Mullen had about 6 first team games for a relegated Clyde side.

Efe comes with bags of experience at the very top level, over 50 caps for Nigeria and an AFCON Champion. Broadfoot, regardless of personal choices, was playing for Broomhill last season. 

I don't know enough about Boyd to compare him with Miller but I agree with others in their skepticism over these signings. 

This is Imrie though we have to remember, not some absolute diddy like Gus McPherson et al.

[port-ton]

3 minutes ago, ChampTon said:

Schwake was part of a promoted Edinburgh team and was in TOTY that season. Mullen had about 6 first team games for a relegated Clyde side.

Efe comes with bags of experience at the very top level, over 50 caps for Nigeria and an AFCON Champion. Broadfoot, regardless of personal choices, was playing for Broomhill last season. 

I don't know enough about Boyd to compare him with Miller but I agree with others in their skepticism over these signings. 

This is Imrie though we have to remember, not some absolute diddy like Gus McPherson et al.

Despite those accolades Dougie still clearly didn't fancy Schwake at times throughout the season. 

Similar with Efe and his accolades. They sound impressive but I'd still have Jack Baird ahead of him every day of the week so I'm not too bothered at this stage of how players look on paper, because about 95% of dougie's signings on paper have looked utter dung and the majority of them have been a success. 

Theres every chance the signings could turn out to be worse but they're not at a level of difference between who they're replacing that I'm panicking. 

[Jamie_M]

32 minutes ago, ChampTon said:

Efe comes with bags of experience at the very top level, over 50 caps for Nigeria and an AFCON Champion. Broadfoot, regardless of personal choices, was playing for Broomhill last season.

Why are you cherry picking the best of Efe's resume and lining it up against the worst of Broadfoot's?

[ChampTon]

2 minutes ago, Jamie_M said:

Why are you cherry picking the best of Efe's resume and lining it up against the worst of Broadfoot's?

Fair enough. 

50 caps for Nigeria and a continental trophy Vs 4 caps for Scotland and a UEFA Cup final.

[TRVMP]

Efe had a great career and performed with distinction at the AFCON but let's not act like playing full back for Nigeria is some massive achievement. Their defence was complete garbage back then and included players from their joke domestic league and Israel and places like that. Even at Scotland's lowest ebbs we had nowhere near that level of calamitous rubbish in our squad. If Efe was Scottish he'd have got maybe 10-15 caps, mostly off the bench, because Hutton would have been ahead of him out wide and Weir, Caldwell, McManus, Hanley, and probably some others as well (even Martin?) ahead of him in the middle. 

He'd have been ahead of Broadfoot for sure but let's not act like it would have been by miles. 

[dunning1874]

Boyd is firmly in the category of a signing you'd be unimpressed with if we we were making it under any other manager, but the same was true of Jai Quitongo, Grant Gillespie and Jack Baird, while Blues and Muirhead are also in the transformed by Imrie category. He has a track record of turning players like this into competent or better Championship performers, and the few who haven't worked out are comfortably outnumbered by those who have. Boyd's background is also considerably better than Ally Roy, while Calvin Miller was (and arguably still is) unproven in the Championship too.

He's clearly not much of a goalscorer looking at his track record but that's not all he's there to do, and while we don't want to go down the Hopkin route of stockpiling multiple anywhere across the front three James Wallace types, that versatility is still going to be useful. We were never likely to add both a third choice centre forward and another wide option, so having someone who can actually do both and maybe allow us to keep Muirhead central in the absence of Quitongo or McGrattan/give us an alternative through the middle to Oakley & Muirhead that isn't moving Quitongo inside is very welcome. He can genuinely compete for a place in both areas rather than being a body to fill out the squad like Roy was. I'd be surprised if that isn't us done for attacking players now.

[LargsTON]

Efe was by and large rotten for us and no more than a gimmick after an initial decent few games.  His performance at Celtic was atrocious.  Let's not pretend otherwise.

[dunning1874]

If we're doing Broadfoot v Ambrose comparisons, we could look back just over a year ago to Ambrose being viewed as a laughing stock in a shambolic defence who got a daft red card in the playoff second leg on the way to being relegated to League One, while Broadfoot was a mainstay in the side which made it to the promotion playoff final.

[SpoonTon]

14 minutes ago, LargsTON said:

Efe was by and large rotten for us and no more than a gimmick after an initial decent few games.  His performance at Celtic was atrocious.  Let's not pretend otherwise.

Efe had a disaster at Celtic park but was otherwise mostly fine, including coming off the bench and steadying the play from the back to help us come back and win against Cove.

The point was that he wasn't really required in the second half of the season and hardly played. He only made three appearances after the Celtic match, and had been pretty helpful at the back up until that point. Broadfoot seems like a reasonable replacement for that role. 

[Alibi]

Regarding budget, if it’s not being increased to allow for inflation currently in excess of 10%, it’s effectively a significant reduction.

[Brian Skelton]

1 hour ago, Alibi said:

Regarding budget, if it’s not being increased to allow for inflation currently in excess of 10%, it’s effectively a significant reduction.

I wonder who is funding Airdrie as Imrie says that they have a bigger budget than we have.

[Greacen2000]

4 hours ago, Alibi said:

Regarding budget, if it’s not being increased to allow for inflation currently in excess of 10%, it’s effectively a significant reduction.

One of the issues contributing to the cost of living crisis is the fact that wage increases are lagging well behind the rate of inflation so I’m not sure I would agree with you here.  

On a national level, wage growth in the past year is around 6.5% but this is across all industries & sectors.  Without any data to hand it’s impossible to say for sure, but I would not be at all surprised if the average salary for a player at our level had remained flat for several years or even decreased a bit.

If anything, the rate of inflation is just as likely to be a factor in us (and possibly other clubs) being more prudent with their player budget due to other overheads spiralling.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Greacen2000

[DreamOakTree]

Not sure if saying these signings are not massive downgrades is what we need to hear. Surely to improve our promotion chances from last season it’s definite upgrades we need. It’s quite concerning that we’re using up a wage on some of these signings that can’t be used to bring in better options. Talking of which, did the midget gem play last night?

[Greacen2000]

1 hour ago, DreamOakTree said:

Not sure if saying these signings are not massive downgrades is what we need to hear. Surely to improve our promotion chances from last season it’s definite upgrades we need. It’s quite concerning that we’re using up a wage on some of these signings that can’t be used to bring in better options. Talking of which, did the midget gem play last night?

Without knowing how much of our budget the signings so far have used up, and who the gaffer ends up bringing in with what remains, its difficult to know at this stage.  As others have mentioned, we started last season with a very light squad, and added to it after the season had got underway.  Yes this is a risky strategy, but if it gives us a chance of signing players we might not otherwise have been able to get (or getting them for a bit less money) then I am fine with playing a waiting game.

It's also worth noting that Dundee, Cove & Hamilton have been replaced by Dundee Utd, Dunfermline & Airdrie - all of whom I expect will be spending considerably more on wages than the clubs whose places they have taken.  This coupled with Raith spending big does change the complexion of the league somewhat this season.

Realistically we have at best currently got the 5th or 6th highest budget in the division (possibly much lower).  With the likes of Raith, Inverness, Dundee Utd, Queens Park & possibly even Dunfermline & even Airdrie outspending us, we could massively up our budget but still end up missing out on a playoff place anyway.  This won't be the case every season so with this in mind, I am ok with us being cautious and maybe doing a bit of wheeling and dealing like we did last season.   

Hopefully some of the bigger spending clubs will fail (like Partick & Inverness have) and end up in financial strife - living within our means while maintaining & gradually building on a core of a good squad means that when the opportunity arises, we will hopefully be in a good place to take advantage.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Greacen2000

[DreamOakTree]

26 minutes ago, Greacen2000 said:

Without knowing how much of our budget the signings so far have used up, and who the gaffer ends up bringing in with what remains, its difficult to know at this stage.  As others have mentioned, we started last season with a very light squad, and added to it after the season had got underway.  Yes this is a risky strategy, but if it gives us a chance of signing players we might not otherwise have been able to get (or getting them for a bit less money) then I am fine with playing a waiting game.

It's also worth noting that Dundee, Cove & Hamilton have been replaced by Dundee Utd, Dunfermline & Airdrie - all of whom I expect will be spending considerably more on wages than the clubs whose places they have taken.  This coupled with Raith spending big does change the complexion of the league somewhat this season.

Realistically we have at best currently got the 5th or 6th highest budget in the division (possibly much lower).  With the likes of Raith, Inverness, Dundee Utd, Queens Park & possibly even Dunfermline & even Airdrie outspending us, we could massively up our budget but still end up missing out on a playoff place anyway.  This won't be the case every season so with this in mind, I am ok with us being cautious and maybe doing a bit of wheeling and dealing like we did last season.   

Hopefully some of the bigger spending clubs will fail (like Partick & Inverness have) and end up in financial strife - living within our means while maintaining & gradually building on a core of a good squad means that when the opportunity arises, we will hopefully be in a good place to take advantage.

Most of what you say seems fair enough, although I’m not sure we’re being patient and playing a waiting game if we’re signing the likes of Broadfoot and Boyd now, which must in some way restrict who we could afford later. Perhaps this may explain Dougie’s strategy:
https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/sport/23630474.dougie-imrie-warns-morton-may-rely-young-players/