Summer transfer window 2024

[garydavidson]

2 hours ago, blueheaven said:

Midfielders/wingers

Connor Smith - 2025

Max Kucheriavyi - 2025

Matt Smith - 2025

Alex Ferguson - 2025

Cammy MacPherson - 2025

Sven Sprangler - 2025

Graham Carey - 2025

Drey Wright - 2025

Josh McPake - 2026

Fran Franczak - 2026

Aaron Essel - 2027

While the defence is a bit thin in numbers that isn't so bad as you can add more, this midfield situation just looks an unsustainable mess. 

[blueheaven]

24 minutes ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

I don’t want to go over the whole Bair debacle again but it’s just utter tosh to try and pass it off as he was given loads of chances and was “pish”. I don’t get why anyone would want to paint that picture.

We saw similar treatment of Melamed, then Vertainen, then Bair.

He was clearly not well looked after at the club, both on and off the pitch and that should not just be sweeper under the carpet.

Footballers are attracted to sign for clubs like our because offer them exactly the opposite of that - which incidentally has brought us much success in the past.

Footballers talk, it’s a small world and if we allow the “Bair affair” to go unaddressed then players won’t feel like taking a risk like Mitov etc did?

I don't think the above points contradict each other. He did get loads of chances and he was pish. But he was pish for the reasons you and I and others on here have all said. Saints were crap with him, Motherwell weren't, and so Motherwell have deservedly reaped the benefits of handling a player well and bringing out his potential.

Hopefully lessons have been learned and our days of handling players in this way came to an end when we got rid of Davidson and MacLean.

[Elderslie Saint]

2 hours ago, blueheaven said:

Amid all of this we still haven't signed anyone who is actually going to change the way we get the ball forward and create chances for our strikers (unless we're going to be very optimistic about McPake).

What do people think we still need? For me, we're still lacking:

• A physical, attack-minded central midfielder.
• An additional experienced central defender.
• Ideally a winger, though I've no idea if Levein is actually planning on playing wingers.
• A second option for left-back (so far we've brought in Raymond and lost Robinson, Gallacher and Booth, plus Brown who was able to do a shift in that position in an emergency too).
• Possibly an experienced goalkeeper?

Definitely the first two. Take Essel out of the equation and the midfield is low on physicality again. 

Not to pin too much hope on one guy who has not played for us yet, but if Richards turns out to be the sort of player it sounds like he is, then having that sort of pace in a wide area could make a huge difference. 

I'm encouraged that most of the signings seem to be an attempt to add pace and/or strength to the team which should make us more competitive and, at the very least, less of a pushover.

[rik2304]

2 hours ago, blueheaven said:

Amid all of this we still haven't signed anyone who is actually going to change the way we get the ball forward and create chances for our strikers (unless we're going to be very optimistic about McPake).

What do people think we still need? For me, we're still lacking:

• A physical, attack-minded central midfielder.
• An additional experienced central defender.
• Ideally a winger, though I've no idea if Levein is actually planning on playing wingers.
• A second option for left-back (so far we've brought in Raymond and lost Robinson, Gallacher and Booth, plus Brown who was able to do a shift in that position in an emergency too).
• Possibly an experienced goalkeeper?

That's it for me exactly. 

There's far too much riding on Sanders and McClelland so we need another CB. Olufunwa...who knows but not hopeful. 

Midfield is a disaster area. The Smiths, McPake, MacPherson and Kucheravyi are poor. 

The signings of MacPherson and McPake is actually staggering. An absolute waste of money. There's a lot resting on Sprangler and Essels. Just not convinced at all. Such a big squad with such little quality. 

[Linky]

15 minutes ago, rik2304 said:

That's it for me exactly. 

There's far too much riding on Sanders and McClelland so we need another CB. Olufunwa...who knows but not hopeful. 

Midfield is a disaster area. The Smiths, McPake, MacPherson and Kucheravyi are poor. 

The signings of MacPherson and McPake is actually staggering. An absolute waste of money. There's a lot resting on Sprangler and Essels. Just not convinced at all. Such a big squad with such little quality. 

McPake is a young player, who is on a very low wage and previously had great potential. If he steps up, then great. If not, it's no great loss.

I agree about MacPherson though. It was time for him to move on, although I think he's essentially back up for Smith.

[Cagey]

46 minutes ago, rik2304 said:

That's it for me exactly. 

There's far too much riding on Sanders and McClelland so we need another CB. Olufunwa...who knows but not hopeful. 

Midfield is a disaster area. The Smiths, McPake, MacPherson and Kucheravyi are poor. 

The signings of MacPherson and McPake is actually staggering. An absolute waste of money. There's a lot resting on Sprangler and Essels. Just not convinced at all. Such a big squad with such little quality. 

I can't believe we signed McPherson and McPake. Levein had lots of time to assess both but still signed them.

What must Taylor Steven be thinking , he was loaned out and did well , scored goals and assists but Levein signs McPske who never made it at Rangers and was farmed out to umpteen clubs and never improved. Spent the last few games at Stirling Albion and couldn't shine in a lower league.

UNBELIEVABLE.

[Quarterback]

5 hours ago, rik2304 said:

That's it for me exactly. 

There's far too much riding on Sanders and McClelland so we need another CB. Olufunwa...who knows but not hopeful. 

Midfield is a disaster area. The Smiths, McPake, MacPherson and Kucheravyi are poor. 

The signings of MacPherson and McPake is actually staggering. An absolute waste of money. There's a lot resting on Sprangler and Essels. Just not convinced at all. Such a big squad with such little quality. 

Olufunwa is actually a decent CB. We can actually push forward and defend with pace. Will allow the wingbacks to get forward and not have the space behind them exploited, which kept us on the backfoot last year. I think last year it was always he has pace 'let put him on the wing or RB when he is a CB. Imagine putting the other CBs at wingback, we'd all be moaning. He made a mistake at Rangers but not a shit player, young and needs to play in his position. We'd all be moaning if he went somewhere else and did well in a team with pace. I know I shouldn't but the boy Guehi playing CB for England was only 6'0 but pacey. All depends how you want to play. A lot of teams have moved on from CL's version of defence

[RandomGuy]

I still can't figure our where the budgets being spent?

Budgets apparently higher than last year, we've lost a raft of presumably high earner experienced players, and only really signed presumably low earners due to their previous clubs. 

There should still be a massive chunk of money to spend.

[blueheaven]

1 minute ago, RandomGuy said:

I still can't figure our where the budgets being spent?

Budgets apparently higher than last year, we've lost a raft of presumably high earner experienced players, and only really signed presumably low earners due to their previous clubs. 

There should still be a massive chunk of money to spend.

Can only assume Levein is biding his time for certain targets? He does have a habit of making some unexpected signings, so perhaps there are some on the horizon that have been kept under wraps. But I'd certainly expect there to still be enough in the budget to bring in two or three players at the upper end of our pay scale. And we really do need that.

What bothers me though is that the squad already looks on the verge of being too big, and yet there's so much we still need. Are we going to end up with more frozen out players sitting in the stand being paid to do nothing? To me we still haven't escaped the imbalance of the Davidson era, despite this summer giving us the opportunity to do that at last.

[Ginger Bakers rebel army]

Stan would have set this years budget months ago.

I suspect its Stans budget that is increased not last years but if if is last years then theres loads more to spend.

Whatever budget it is theres more coming in.

[RandomGuy]

10 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

Can only assume Levein is biding his time for certain targets? He does have a habit of making some unexpected signings, so perhaps there are some on the horizon that have been kept under wraps. But I'd certainly expect there to still be enough in the budget to bring in two or three players at the upper end of our pay scale. And we really do need that.

I hope so, as the alternative is he wants a huge squad of cheap punts in the hope it increases the chance of finding gems, I'd guess?

[Cagey]

1 hour ago, Quarterback said:

Olufunwa is actually a decent CB. We can actually push forward and defend with pace. Will allow the wingbacks to get forward and not have the space behind them exploited, which kept us on the backfoot last year. I think last year it was always he has pace 'let put him on the wing or RB when he is a CB. Imagine putting the other CBs at wingback, we'd all be moaning. He made a mistake at Rangers but not a shit player, young and needs to play in his position. We'd all be moaning if he went somewhere else and did well in a team with pace. I know I shouldn't but the boy Guehi playing CB for England was only 6'0 but pacey. All depends how you want to play. A lot of teams have moved on from CL's version of defence

I liked Olufunwa in his few appearances.  Think he will end up like Bair , Melamed etc etc. ie  not getting a decent run in the team to build confidence. 

[Glasgow saintee]

As much as the football was horrible to watch end of last season the gaffer done what he was brought in for. Kept us up. I’m pretty positive with the signings he brought in January and so far in summer. Feel we are 2/3 decent signings away from being a decent team who could play front foot edge of your seat football that we have been crying out for since the double 

[St. Paddy]

7 hours ago, Glasgow saintee said:

. Feel we are 2/3 decent signings away from being a decent team who could play front foot edge of your seat football that we have been crying out for since the double 

You do know who the manager is...?

[rik2304]

We're only about 9-10 signings away from being decent. 

[Saintdunc]

1 hour ago, rik2304 said:

We're only about 9-10 signings away from being a decent Championship side.

Duly amended your post.

 

[Linky]

I just wonder whether the budget has been staggered. So, Levein has been allowed to spend a small amount of it on lower paid players to get us through the cup round, and the 2 or 3 players on larger wages won't come until the league season begins because this will save us a few thousand in wages.

Wonder if a similar thing happened last season, which is why we had all the younger cheaper players signed first and then the bigger earners later on.

[Thundercat]

10 hours ago, Glasgow saintee said:

As much as the football was horrible to watch end of last season the gaffer done what he was brought in for. Kept us up. I’m pretty positive with the signings he brought in January and so far in summer. Feel we are 2/3 decent signings away from being a decent team who could play front foot edge of your seat football that we have been crying out for since the double 

And then the premiership starts. 5 at the back. Couple of losses and it’s imploding. Carey first to lose his rag😂. 
Hopefully Cameron will steady the ship. Last year got a bit out of hand

[slf]

43 minutes ago, Thundercat said:

And then the premiership starts. 5 at the back. Couple of losses and it’s imploding. Carey first to lose his rag😂. 
Hopefully Cameron will steady the ship. Last year got a bit out of hand

Such a negative sour pus 

keep away fae me

do yer imploding elsewhere 

 

[Cagey]

A lot of discussion on P&B about Steven being loaned out again. If that happens we have seen the last of Taylor Steven. It took a lot of persuasion to get him to sign a year long contract, if he goes out on loan and is a success will he sign another contract and if he is not a success then he won't be back anyway.

I think the signing of McPake , who is poor shows that Levein doesn't rate Steven.

[RandomGuy]

1 hour ago, Linky said:

I just wonder whether the budget has been staggered. So, Levein has been allowed to spend a small amount of it on lower paid players to get us through the cup round, and the 2 or 3 players on larger wages won't come until the league season begins because this will save us a few thousand in wages.

Wonder if a similar thing happened last season, which is why we had all the younger cheaper players signed first and then the bigger earners later on.

We couldn't afford to wait a month for good players, any ones we'll want will have other offers.

[Linky]

25 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

We couldn't afford to wait a month for good players, any ones we'll want will have other offers.

I'm not saying I agree with this, I just wonder if that's what is happening, and happened last season too

[Gekko]

2 hours ago, Linky said:

I just wonder whether the budget has been staggered. So, Levein has been allowed to spend a small amount of it on lower paid players to get us through the cup round, and the 2 or 3 players on larger wages won't come until the league season begins because this will save us a few thousand in wages.

Wonder if a similar thing happened last season, which is why we had all the younger cheaper players signed first and then the bigger earners later on.

The players we'd regard as big signings, will currently be biding their time, waiting to find out what the best offers they'll get will be.

Then near the end of the window, if we're either the best, or only offer on the table, then they'll sign.

This isn't a problem only for us, most other clubs our size will be facing the same challenge as well.

It wasn't so much of a problem back when we had a settled squad and only needed two or three in, but when we're rebuilding each year, it causes problems for the start of the season.

We also don't get into a decent flow until around October time. Again, other teams have this problem too.

I'd imagine that we won't have any idea what the final squad for the season will be like, until the window shuts.

[Northern saint]

I'd hope the new owner has learned from his time with Cambridge that investment is better earlier than later.  We have been slow out the blocks for the last few years.  We need a positive start to build confidence as we have so many new players.  

The question we all have is who among the many players we have will step up as I don't see further signings given the number of players.  We seldom agree on players but at the end of the day it is up to the manager and coaches to build a team.  

For me, I can't make a case Rae v Sinclair.  I liked what I've seen of Sinclair prior to his injury.  An imposing stature, good reflexes.  The friendlies neither had anything to do.  

I think we're best with four at the back.  Keltjins and I presume Raymond would be the full backs.  I'd have Olfunwa and Cameron.  Olfunwa has pace, carries the ball forward like Jason Kerr dd and that ability creates opportunities in midfield for those players to go forward into space.  

Esson by all accounts may be our Mainoo.  Alongside Sprangler   Potentially Matt Smith from when he first came to play the passes and support.  Steven, Benji and Adama.  

We haven't seen Francez, Clark yet.  Ferguson looked tidy but can he step up?  Mylechreest, McCrystal?  

The three group games give them a chance to stake a place.  

[double deluxe]

3 hours ago, Cagey said:

A lot of discussion on P&B about Steven being loaned out again. If that happens we have seen the last of Taylor Steven. It took a lot of persuasion to get him to sign a year long contract, if he goes out on loan and is a success will he sign another contract and if he is not a success then he won't be back anyway.

I think the signing of McPake , who is poor shows that Levein doesn't rate Steven.

Just as well he signed a two year contract then