2024/25 Squad and Transfers

[Greacen2000]

1 hour ago, dunning1874 said:

If Partick are loaning Diack out it won't be to another Championship club, and if it was it certainly wouldn't be to us where he'd be sitting on the bench behind Stuparevic. If he goes out on loan he'll be dropping down a division or two in order to start games, any attacking player we bring in is coming in as cover.

I wouldn't necessarily rule it out on that basis.  If the purpose of the loan is to help him develop, he would likely get more time with us than at partick or possibly even airdrie (given Stuparevic has yet to play a full 90 for us and has had a few knocks).  I'm sure that playing in the championship would improve him more than League 2 with East fife (who aren't exactly struggling to score goals so probably wouldn't guarantee him a start either).

I'm sure that if any loan deal to a championship club were to happen, it would prevent him from being able to face partick.  RIghtly or wrongly, they probably don't even see us as rivals to them, so from that perspective any success he has with us could be seen as helping their cause by taking points away from other clubs around them etc.

We are very thin up top and could do with some other options but I am not sure if he fits the bill.  He has looked decent the few times I've seen him but he is very young & lacking in experience.  That said, there aren't exactly an abundance of other names springing to mind. 

I have no idea what his contract situation is but Marc Mcnulty hasn't played much since joining Shamrock Rovers.  Not sure if this is due to injury, form or being out of favour but if fit & available I would be delighted to see us going in for someone like that.  Like i said, I'm not exactly brimming with ideas so Imrie definitely has his work cut out trying to strengthen our attacking options this month

Edited January 9 by Greacen2000

[RossMcC1874]

Diack would be a good signing but you would imagine they wouldn't loan to another Championship side. 

What ever happen to the boy McGill who played for Airdrie I always thought he looked decent didn't think he ever got a club might be a long shot right enough. 

[Ferguson]

Diack’s a good player but I don’t understand who benefits from a 6 month loan at Morton. He’d just be sitting on the bench and making the occasional appearance, as he’s already doing at the same level. He’s not Championship level yet so then we’re left with a backup striker who’s not ready for the league. 

Maybe I’m being naive, but surely there’s got to be someone else that makes more sense.

[SpoonTon]

Patrick loaning out Diack might be purely financial from their point of view - and a Championship club could be their best bet of covering his wages. We're probably lacking an option like him right now and they've maybe got more pressing issues they want to address in their squad. 

A move to Airdrie is probably the one that makes the most sense all round though. 

[Tubes]

He looked a real handful and would be a welcome addition. But I think it would be a big surprise if Partick allowed that to happen though. 

[Jamie_M]

On 1/9/2025 at 12:36 PM, DumfriesTon said:

Apparently us, Airdrie and East Fife are in for Ricco Diack on loan from Partick. Could be rubbish but was from a pretty good source…. I hope it’s nonsense. 

Joins Airdrie on loan.

[dazza]

Alex King is apparently away. 

[RossMcC1874]

12 hours ago, dazza said:

Alex King is apparently away. 

Permanently or on loan? 

Seems to have been injured for months couldn't remember the last time I saw him play. 

His deal is up in the summer and I don't think it's ever really worked for him here, floated about different positions without ever really knowing what his best position is. 

Tons of natural talent and a wand of a left foot but he has been here for 3 years now and never managed to nail down a starting place or be consistently in the team. 

Mind you a handy squad player who can play a few positions, if it is true considering now many Injuries we seems to rack up you would think we might need at least one signing for some depth. I know January has been a tough month particularly with no games which means the budget takes a hit but fingers crossed someone comes in the door. 

[TONofmemories]

Confirmed 

[Jamie_M]

13 hours ago, dazza said:

Alex King is apparently away. 

Confirmed.

[Stevie Aitken's Love Child]

Shame to see him go, he's definitely a talented lad but as alluded to above, he's never really been able to nail down a place in the team, and has moved around positions a fair bit. Hopefully he has something lined up elsewhere as there's definitely a player in there.

[Ferguson]

Showed signs of being a big prospect when he broke through at 16, never really developed beyond that. Shame it never worked out, wish him all the best. 

[John369]

Rumour has it that Alexander King left Morton on mutual consent after his habit of kegging Dougie Imrie during training got out of hand. Apparently, King would sneak up behind Dougie and pull his shorts down in front of the players, and while it started as a joke, it soon became a bit too much. The players were laughing, but Dougie wasn’t impressed, feeling it hurt his image as the boss. Eventually, Dougie had enough and told King, ‘It’s got to stop.’ After a disciplinary meeting, they both agreed it was time for King to move on.

[Greacen2000]

very disappointing news.  I know he has had some injuries but I would rather have a fit King in the team than Lyall, and he has also shown in the past that he is capable of covering other positions.

Best wishes to him - hopefully we will start to see some new faces appear soon.

 

[irnbru]

Looked really good in spells of games but drifted in and out of them most times he played.

Would have been good to keep as cover but don't think he really done enough to pushing for a starting place this season, and I don't think I've even seen anyone shouting for this, so probably makes sense since his contract is up in the summer anyway.

Hopefully we can bring in someone else now. 

[dunning1874]

King's not long turned 20, this is far too early to be letting him go despite his loan to League Two not going that well last season. His versatility maybe worked against him to an extent in contributing to rarely appearing in the same position two games running, and having to play at full back which clearly isn't his position, but on the rare occasion he played this season he did well.

I think having questions about whether he's going to develop into a good Championship player are fair enough, but even accounting for being injured currently he shouldn't have been near the top of the list for players to be released in the current squad.

In his last appearance pre-injury, and only league start in midfield this season, he got an assist at Raith. Prior to that he'd come on as a sub against Ayr and did more in 20 minutes in that deep lying role beside Wilson than Lyall had offered in that position in 2 months - if he hadn't gotten injured I'd have had him starting ahead of Lyall in central midfield, even accounting for Lyall also improving since we've had Blues in there. Despite it clearly not being his position, he performed competently at both right back and left back while we only have two full backs in the squad.

If it was necessary to move more players out to be able to bring one in, there's a glaring and extremely rotund hole in the decision to release King in the shape of Niall McGinn. He's 37, he's only here on loan and crucially King is already a considerably better player than him in every position McGinn can allegedly play.

There's also Ali Crawford to consider, who did for the most part play well when he was in the starting XI earlier in the season so I'm not opposed to keeping him considered on his own merits, but he's also an injury prone 33 year old who has already missed over two months of the season through injury, and is out of contract this month so could have been let go at no cost to the club, while we've presumably had to pay up some of King's contract. Keeping Crawford might be fine in isolation but if you've a direct choice between him and a more versatile 20 year old, King every time for me.

We have absolutely no shortage of attacking players and could let one go without ever finding ourselves short - the only area of the park McGinn & Crawford can play, meaning we could let McGinn go without even bringing a replacement in and be no worse off for it. King could fill in further back where we're desperately short on bodies. The only way this could make sense is if King is going to be out injured for the rest of the season, but even then this is hard to justify if McGinn still gets to steal a wage for the rest of the season.

[SpoonTon]

Last time we saw King at Cappielow, he had a belter of a sub appearance against Ayr. You could clearly see the talent there (more than we've seen from Lyall). But for whatever reason, Imrie hasn't been able to mould that talent into a player he can rely on. 

Sometimes that's just on the player himself, sometimes the manager has to take some responsibility. 

[Alibi]

Ridiculous decision. When King got game time he generally improved the team. Not surprised if he asked to be released, because Dougie didn’t seem to rate him. There are half a dozen players I would bin before King. Ffs we still have Mcginn & Reynolds.

[Tubes]

Poor decision. All the best to Alexander in the future. Has a potential wand of a left foot on him not seen since the days of Ross Forbes, minus towing the caravan so I had hoped to see more of him for us. 

Absolutely convinced if he plays instead of Lyall we would look miles better but I don’t think Imrie has ever fancied him at all so the writing has been on the wall.

[Mr.Blue]

Going to give the benefit to Dougie and trust him on this one. He very rarely gets these decisions wrong. Cue the wailing about youth and Dougie's vendetta against our academy.

2 hours ago, Tubes said:

Poor decision. All the best to Alexander in the future. Has a potential wand of a left foot on him not seen since the days of Ross Forbes, minus towing the caravan so I had hoped to see more of him for us. 

Absolutely convinced if he plays instead of Lyall we would look miles better but I don’t think Imrie has ever fancied him at all so the writing has been on the wall.

Robbie Muirhead?