Madton

Does anyone know what injury Shaw has? Grimshaw would be brilliant for this team. Competition for Blues,Wilson and Gillespie and can of course cover Ballantyne. If he is available, I really hope we are all over it, even if we need to wait until later in the window. I can see us waiting on an on loan striker too, I'm sure a few options will become available as Premiership clubs complete their squads. Can't remember the last time we went into a campaign with a near complete squad, possibly under the snake! We've started the league poorly for a few seasons now. Confident of a better start this time around. Hats off to the club for having their house in order early.

He was in league 1 with Annan last season. Certainly wouldn't loan him or Bearne out at this stage. We've been crying out for a bit of squad depth for years and it looks like we finally have good options in the forward positions LM-Reynolds, Garrity, AM- Shaw, Lyall RM- Bearne, Moffat, Striker- Davies and New. Some of those players can cover multiple positions too Injures, suspensions and poor form will kick in at some point, I'd keep them all and make them fight for their place in the team.

Possibly not wanted at Dundee since he went out on loan last season. Think he still has a year left.

Going by the calibre of player Dougie is recruiting, I agree.

I'm not comfortable going into the season with Murdoch as our backup keeper. Still young, small and untested. The fact we played an injured Mcdonald for a couple of games over him when Mullen was out says that Dougie knows he's not ready either. Doesnt need to be someone similar to Mullen but at least have a few development/first team games under his belt at a half decent level. Mullen is clear number 1 but has had a couple of injuries during his short career to date, we need a decent backup should it happen again.

DU fan on pandb saying he's heard we are linked with Grimshaw on loan. Would be class to see him back and would mean Ballantyne moving over to the left I'm guessing unless he can play as a CB?

Always felt we lacked competition in the final 3rd last season with Crawford, Muirhead and Oakley regularly playing the full 90 even though they were clearly fecked. Looks like we will have plenty of options from the bench with hopefully still a striker to come in. Hopefully those who didn't buy season tickets are now encouraged enough to do so.

Listened to an interview with Lyall there whilst at Rangers and he also played more centrally with them at times so another player who can play in numerous positions if need be. Airdire fans certainly rate him and were keen for him to come back. 6 players for those front 4 positions now. If we can get a right good number 9 we are looking in good shape, as difficult as that will be. Sounds like another good piece of business from Dougie and certainly seems like we own Airdrie football club. Probably sign McGill and Telfer next.

Been wondering about left back options out there and couldnt think of many, Robson would be a decent option. Championship experience. Corr well liked at Raith and rejected a contract to play more so would be a good addition. Probably have a few offers. Would imagine Scott Brown is aware of him from his time at Celtic. Always liked McInroy, think he'd be a good signing for us and would give us some quality in the middle of the park. Will certainly have a few options you'd imagine. If Partick want him, we've no chance! Telfer had a good season but doubt he'd entertain a move back here( must have something lined up too) and don't think we need Millen anymore unless we move Ballantyne over.

Last season was his first season playing mens football so hopefully he kicks on again next season. Played as a number 10 against us when he scored 2 I'm sure and can play out wide too so can see why Dougie moved for him. Quite pacey too from memory. Played for Celtic in a League Cup Final a couple of years ago so must be a player in there. Will be interesting to see how he does. Every confidence in Dougie getting more out of him that McPake did.

Aye wouldn't judge him on scoring those goals against us, we were all over the place that night. Struggled to cement a regular starting place for Dunfermline, starting just 11 of his 28 league appearances. A very good player at this level would have been starting every week for a poor Pars team.

You'd expect a few to be close purely on the basis of we have a game 2 weeks today and 12 players! Interesting that Dale thinks we will have a better team than last season, hopefully that means we are speaking to a good calibre of player, nae pressure big man! Ballantyne certainly encouraging. Anyone know when we are back for pre-season?

We have a rumour! Cammy Ballantyne has turned down a deal at Airdrie. An Airdrie fan who appears to know something about it suggesting he's coming our way over on PandB.

We've no idea what goes on behind the scenes. Could be a whole host of reasons why hes moving on- personality clash, work ethic, couldn't agree terms on a new deal or maybe just maybe Dougie has identified someone he believes is better at the job. Agree with SpoonTon as well, he worked with good keepers, can he really claim he made them better, I'm not so sure. Jack Hamilton had been in Scotland squads, Schwake had been out on loan and impressed at Annan and was highly thought of at Livvy and Mullen looked the part almost instantly. I'm not sure we know for sure he's been fantastic and successful etc, he may well have, but we only see him doing his work for 20-30 mins on a Sat. We need to trust that the manager knows what he's doing, he works with his staff and players every day and knows their strengths, weaknesses and personalities a hell of a lot more than us. Good luck to the guy, hope he find something.

Think we will absolutely see another striker coming in. We knew Davies was coming in and still offered Oakley and Muirhead deals so Dougie will definitely want another forward IMO. Davies looks like he can play as number 10 so he might take the Crawford role potentially depending on if we can find another Oakley. Lost 5 attacking players and brought in 2 so I'm full expecting a couple more. We need a couple of headline signings to kick us on, get fans back on board and shift more season tickets. Raith did it last year and their season tickets and average crowd doubled from the year before. Looks like Ayr are giving it a go this year too.

He's prob signed and we are waiting for some actual exciting news to publish alongside it to limit the damage!

What was each teams budget last season then?? I'd put money on Airdire being less and of course Arbroath.

I'd like to think we offered close to £1000 a week to George. Our player of the year, match winner, increased budget etc so surely not far off 4 figures to try keep him at the club. If Ayr are offering in the region of £1500 then good luck to Oakley, its a no brainer for him.

Fuck right off if that happens...

How do you know we didn't? I'm thinking we probably did offer them new deals but the players wanted to wait until the Summer. We secured Mullen and Wilson, I'd imagine we spoke to others too.

Aye agreed. If we are interested in an east coast based player but so are Raith,Pars, Falkirk etc, we've next to no chance of getting them. These guys will be settled and won't fancy relocating or doing an horrendous daily commute to the Port if they can avoid it. They'll be cases when it does happen, Jamie McDonald prime example but he probably didn't have an another option when we came calling. I hear Cammy Blues has bought a house close to the Falkirk Stadium, can walk to it apparently, wonder if there is anything in that. 100 mile daily round trip sounds painful during rush hour. Would imagine players who leave the likes of Motherwell, Kilmarnock, Livvy and St Mirren are more realistic for us as well as good out of contract players at Thistle, Airdire, QP and Ayr. We've had our fair share of ex Motherwell and Killie players over recent years, wouldn't be surprised if we pick up some more this summer!

I'm the opposite. I quite like the idea of a clean slate. The squad has been around for a couple of years now and hasn't been good enough. It gives us the chance to start afresh and with an increased budget available, hopefully we can attract better players than the ones who leave.

Are Partick not fan owned now? Hopefully they now need to live within their means like we do.

Yeah was about to say the same thing. I think we will have a competitive budget to compete next season. On course to make ~250k profit so I'm sure Dougie will be getting a chunk of that and Dalrada seem really bought in, Brian Bonar seemed very impressed when he was over for the cup game so hopefully he pumps similar amounts in next season, if not more. Be interesting to see what happens with Queens Park. Will Haughey continue to bankroll them to the same level? Not convinced. Inverness appear fucked and hopefully get relegated. No doubt Partick, Falkirk, Raith and Dunfermline will have bigger budgets but the league should be a cracker next year. Just hope Ross County don't come down and buy the league again.

I think even if we made every adult a tenner and every kid free on Sat like Raith did last night, we'd still struggle to get more than a few hundred extra. When I think of 3500 home fans against Motherwell and then around 1800 against Airdire, I struggle to think of a reason why 1700 never came on Saturday.