New Players


sideshowbob1974
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I take your point Gary but if we hadn't got those you mentioned on loan we may have signed them outright - and that would be even more disastrous. Loaning them takes out the majority of the risk.

True, but I often wonder when we sign players on loan if there's really any intention of the moves ever becoming permanent. I reckon that, 9 times out of 10, Saints know from the start that the player will go back to his own club at the end of it - whcih effectively ruins it as any sort of trial.

Aren't you raving about Dobbie coming back? People point out all these good performances he had and weren't most of them during a loan spell... from Hibs?

I maintain that Dobbie's a good player and should be here fighting for a starting place, but he can hardly be described as a success at Saints - he was frozen out of Coyle's plans long ago and has spent the bulk of this season on loan with another club. Personally I think Coyle has made a big mistake in handling Dobbie this way, but whatever my opinions are that's the way it's happened.

Besides, even if we do count Dobbie, that's only three loan players we've managed to name who have done anything positive for us. Yet increasingly the club seems to be looking to the loan market - is it just me, or do we seem to go for more and more of these guys every year? Why bother, when the success rate is so low?

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Guys like Lynch maybe didn't have a huge impact but they did a job for us and, like Nips says, at least we could punt him at the end of his contract and weren't lumbered with him for years like we were with Lauchlan and are with Janczyk.

I disagree - Lynch did nothing and you have to look at what the cost was in terms of the development of our own youth players. For example if Lawson hadn't been brought in, Moon (or Scrabble) might have not gone on loan and been given more of a chance. I'm not saying he'd have been any better but at least we'd be trying to progress our players rather than just give 1st team experience to an SPL player who more than likely will be punted by the end of the season (given the lack of chances to break through into the Celtic 1st team).

Of all the loan signings in recent years, only Noble was IMHO the sort who actually made an impact. The likes of Winter, Lynch etc haven't contributed that much to the side and if anything have stifled our own youth policy (although OC's sign-em-when-they're-over-30 policy is contributing just as much :wink: )

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Lynch did nothing

I do remember an amazing challenge from him in a game agaimst Hibs??? The striker got past the last man and was one on one with the keeper, but Lynch managed to slide in after running from the right side, it was a beauty! Anyone else remember? (off topic I know)

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True, but I often wonder when we sign players on loan if there's really any intention of the moves ever becoming permanent. I reckon that, 9 times out of 10, Saints know from the start that the player will go back to his own club at the end of it - whcih effectively ruins it as any sort of trial.

quote]

I'd disagree about 9 times out of 10 - I can remember a few loan deals who we either had intentions of signing or actually did sign - Sampson (thank fug we didnae!), McCann, Dobbie, McGregor, and possibly Lawson. Did we try and keep Stuart Noble? I think I remember Fulham denying him a move to us but maybe I'm making it up?

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I disagree - Lynch did nothing and you have to look at what the cost was in terms of the development of our own youth players. For example if Lawson hadn't been brought in, Moon (or Scrabble) might have not gone on loan and been given more of a chance. I'm not saying he'd have been any better but at least we'd be trying to progress our players rather than just give 1st team experience to an SPL player who more than likely will be punted by the end of the season (given the lack of chances to break through into the Celtic 1st team).

Exactly - my memory of the Lynch situation is that he was increasingly terrible with every match he played in, yet still got a game every week regardless. In situations like that you can't help but be suspicious as to whether the club are somehow tied to some agreement to give him guaranteed first team football - in which case, that's very unhealthy for Saints.

Don't really agree about Noble though - my memory of him was that he wasn't good enough for us either. Where is he now anyway? Now, maybe if you'd brought up Sean Evers... :wink: .

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I'd disagree about 9 times out of 10 - I can remember a few loan deals who we either had intentions of signing or actually did sign - Sampson (thank fug we didnae!), McCann, Dobbie, McGregor, and possibly Lawson. Did we try and keep Stuart Noble? I think I remember Fulham denying him a move to us but maybe I'm making it up?

I forgot about McCann, although in my opinion he wasn't good enough for us either. Plus, I'm not sure that Saints actually tried to sign him when he was on loan here - it was after he'd been released by Celtic and been a bit of a failure down south that he ended up back here. With Lawson - have Saints said they're interested in signing him? I thought it was pretty much accepted that he was off back to Celtic. I've not seen many of his games for Saints, but to be honest from what I have seen he's not good enough for us either.

Having said all of the above, I am going to slightly ruin my own argument by saying that I did think Mark Robertson was an excellent loan signing.

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I think McCluskey is a right winger.

I've seen McCluskey play for Hibs a few times and he's always been really tricky, winning lots of fouls. He's also absolutely tiny (it looks like one of the mascots has infiltrated the pitch) and gets pushed off the ball incredibly easily. Pretty sure Collins would love him to come to us though, as he very rarely gets off the bench at Hibs and it might toughen him up a bit. I'd like to see him come as he could do a lot of damage on the right wing against First Division defenders. In this case I think a loan signing would definitely be worth a go, as he's clearly a talented player and it's obviously an area of the pitch where we have a 'square peg' situation.

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I forgot about McCann, although in my opinion he wasn't good enough for us either. Plus, I'm not sure that Saints actually tried to sign him when he was on loan here - it was after he'd been released by Celtic and been a bit of a failure down south that he ended up back here. With Lawson - have Saints said they're interested in signing him? I thought it was pretty much accepted that he was off back to Celtic. I've not seen many of his games for Saints, but to be honest from what I have seen he's not good enough for us either.

Having said all of the above, I am going to slightly ruin my own argument by saying that I did think Mark Robertson was an excellent loan signing.

Well, yeah, a lot of loan players we've had have not been good enough for us, but thankfully we found that out from the loan spell and didn't sign them outright. :wink: I'm not sure whether we are interested in Lawson or not, that's why I said maybe - but if we dont go for him because we dont think he's good enough then that's fine, at least we know now that he aint good enough.

What I'm trying to say (in a very roundabout way!) is if it wasn't for loan deals maybe we would have signed these players to a contract and would be stuck with them for the duration.

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Not sure of whether he would even consider coming to us but Charlie Miller's being released from Brann Bergen and Cardiff have decided not to offer him terms after his trial

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/cardiff_city/6161369.stm

If we get McInnes, maybe Miller might come as well :? He's only 30 so could still do a good job for us

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