Summer transfer window 2024

[Maskrey]

20 hours ago, saintgscot said:

May away to Raith. I’ve heard Sinclair going out on loan. But are we still looking for a number 1. None of our keepers have that number so are we going to bring in another.

May will likely pass us on the way up to the Prem while we drop down to the  Champ.  A good move for him to a side which has a better squad than ours.

[Havana Saint]

1 minute ago, Maskrey said:

May will likely pass us on the way up to the Prem while we drop down to the  Champ.  A good move for him to a side which has a better squad than ours.

He's done well to go there.

[cristo]

Sorry, this has completely passed me by. Have we sold May to Raith?  Loan, free? 

[rik2304]

CBs can't defend and midfield can't create or support the defence.

If things don't change then this will be a record breaking relegation. 

[RandomGuy]

7 hours ago, rik2304 said:

CBs can't defend and midfield can't create or support the defence.

If things don't change then this will be a record breaking relegation. 

I'm not sure much can change now?

We've got a squad that's virtually maxed out numbers wise (May leaving opens a space for a 3rd keeper), and he's spent fees on a handful of players too. 

Was expecting the likes of Sanders and McPake to be ones who sit on the bench and make 5-6 starts all season, but so far it looks like they'll double or treble that.

It's just a squad full of back up players and "punts" to make Levein feel clever if they come off. He done the exact same at Hearts and relegated them, so we've no chance.

[Linky]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy said:

I'm not sure much can change now?

We've got a squad that's virtually maxed out numbers wise (May leaving opens a space for a 3rd keeper), and he's spent fees on a handful of players too. 

Was expecting the likes of Sanders and McPake to be ones who sit on the bench and make 5-6 starts all season, but so far it looks like they'll double or treble that.

It's just a squad full of back up players and "punts" to make Levein feel clever if they come off. He done the exact same at Hearts and relegated them, so we've no chance.

Who can we afford (& who would come to us) who isn’t a punt? “Feel clever” or….make some money for the club by selling them on to the raise the playing budget. Do you honestly think he’s choosing Sanders over, say, James Penrice to feel clever? 

[blueheaven]

I'm pretty furious that Levein has been allowed to do this to us TBH. He should have been sacked months ago. Instead, he's been trusted with the summer to rebuild the squad and it's looking very much like he's actually, somehow, managed to make us even worse. The budget's been blown yet again, and we're the ones being asked to pay for it with hiked-up ticket prices.

He's been wasting his time fannying around playing Football Manager with our club's future and looking for project players to boost his own ego, when every fraction of his energy should have been prioritising bringing in 3 or 4 quality players with the right age and the right experience. Build us a settled team that is strong enough and organised to keep us up. Then you can start supplementing it with one or two punts for the future.

• Why sign Rae and then immediately start talking about needing a more experienced goalkeeper? Just prioritise the more experienced goalkeeper.
• Why use up a portion of the budget on Ikpeazu (presumably arriving as a high earner?) when we already had four strikers and other areas of the team were far more important? (He only ever starts one striker anyway!)
• Why hand two year contracts to Sanders and McPake, who by all accounts hadn't stood out at lower levels? Are these two players better than the young fringe players we already had, e.g. Liam Parker and Taylor Steven? It doesn't look that way so far.
• The money spent on new contracts for Cammy MacPherson and in my opinion also Graham Carey, should have gone towards recruiting one good left winger and one good central attacking midfielder. The fact that he still hasn't signed anyone to fill the creative/attacking vacancy in the middle of the park is frankly mind-blowing. It's the number one area we desperately need someone in, especially if Stevie May's going to be bizarrely frozen out again.
• Aaron Essel looks like a really promising player but he's 18 years old, has zero experience of football anywhere in Europe, and is moving here from the other side of the world. Are we seriously pinning our hopes on him playing 90 minutes every single week? He should be someone who's eased gradually into the team, not someone we're building our plans around.
• Spending a transfer fee on the assistant manager's son. Seriously?
• Kyle Cameron is hopefully a good signing and a bit closer to the type we should be going for, but honestly, who knows how he's going to do?
• From what I can see, despite the size of the squad, we still need a goalkeeper, a central defender, a left-back, a left-winger and a central midfielder. Oh, and a manager.

The whole thing's a mess and I actually think Macca had a better summer window, signings-wise, than Levein has. I'd expect all of the above from a first-time manager who doesn't know what he's doing, not a guy who's been managing football teams at all sorts of levels for over 25 years.

 

 

[Linky]

We are where we are. Within budget constraints and the reality of clubs being interested in players, we need to move on:

C Smith, Max, May, Sinclair, Franczak, Ferguson

If we’re going to stick with Levein’s formation, we need at least 2 key signings:

                                                   Signing #1

Wright.            Signing #2.          McClelland.         Cameron.      Raymond

                                       Sprangler.               Essel

                      Kimpioka.                                            Carey

                                                     Sidebeh

That leaves a second string of

                                                     Rae

Keltjens.            Sanders.            Olunfunwa.          Parker.          Carey

                                          Smith.                    MacPherson

                   McPake.                                                     Steven

                                                       Ikpeazu

With Clark & Kirk as extra strikers

[pezza70]

The days of us signing players like Morris, Kernaghan, Scotland, Jenkinson seems like million years ago.

[RandomGuy]

1 hour ago, Linky said:

Who can we afford (& who would come to us) who isn’t a punt? “Feel clever” or….make some money for the club by selling them on to the raise the playing budget. Do you honestly think he’s choosing Sanders over, say, James Penrice to feel clever? 

Sanders would be fine as a 4th choice CB IMO.

It's the way he's only really signed these types that's the issue. 

Its like a reverse Davidson. In isolation every individual deal makes sense, and you see the logic in the plan, but you can't fill the team with inexperienced (of our league) young players who haven't shown they're good enough in the past.

[Linky]

46 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

Sanders would be fine as a 4th choice CB IMO.

It's the way he's only really signed these types that's the issue. 

Its like a reverse Davidson. In isolation every individual deal makes sense, and you see the logic in the plan, but you can't fill the team with inexperienced (of our league) young players who haven't shown they're good enough in the past.

Yes, I don’t disagree with that. We’ve gone too far one way to too far the other. But at least this way there is potential to sell players onward, or allow players to be at the club for a decent length of time 

[Saintdunc]

Never mind heading for the Championship we are spiralling towards oblivion, or League 2 as it better known. 

Said it before but no one thought it was that serious. Even Cagey and Random!

Kelty, Stirling, Stenhousemuir and now Alloa. FFS!

[Widge]

1 minute ago, Saintdunc said:

Never mind heading for the Championship we are spiralling towards oblivion, or League 2 as it better known. 

Said it before but no one thought it was that serious. Even Cagey and Random!

Kelty, Stirling, Stenhousemuir and now Alloa. FFS!

No we're not, there's hyperbole and then there's that statement. For crying out loud, we're not very good, we know this, but to get relegated 3 times would take some going and no budget to spend which isn't going to happen at all.

[Kat71]

Sure we’ve done 2 in a row before?

[Northern saint]

I'm all for having faith in the club to turn it around but where is the evidence there is anyone who knows what they are doing.  The number of signings for tomorrow is staggering.  We play today and apart from Cameron, who have we brought in who is nailed on to start.  

We knew we needed to add a spine of quality, four, five players to solidify and take us forward.  It would allow the up-and-coming players from our youth squads to develop and force their way in over the next few years.  

Now the budget is blown and Levein seems to have woken up to the problems he still has not addressed.  Will he improve the coaching to get the best out of the players?  Not seen any sign so far in nine months.  

As the other clubs in the league have built for today, all we can do is hope amongst those he brought in for tomorrow become today's jewels like Yammel, Mainoo did.   

The old adage, "if they're good enough they're old enough" will be Saints motto this year.  I only hope Levein/Kirk show me I'm wrong as nothing I've seen from them so far says "they're good enough!"

[RandomGuy]

1 hour ago, Linky said:

But at least this way there is potential to sell players onward, or allow players to be at the club for a decent length of time 

That's only a good thing if they're actually any good. 

[rik2304]

That's the key. The team had no spine and in more ways than one.

We also have an abundance on whiners rather than leaders. 

[blueheaven]

8 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

That's only a good thing if they're actually any good. 

Also I think players like that will generally only start to shine if they're in a good team that has some consistency and stability. Guys like Jason Kerr, Ali McCann and Stevie May were introduced into teams where 8 or 9 of the other players already knew what they were doing, had proven their worth and could be relied upon to pick up some slack and help to guide the less experienced players through their early games. Who do we have now who's going to do that?

People like Essel, McClelland, Kirk, Steven, even Sanders might potentially thrive if introduced into that sort of situation, but I just don't see how filling so much of a squad with them is going to work. If these guys take a battering in the first few league games of the season (which, let's face it, is a distinct possibility), it really worries me that they're not going to be equipped to respond to that and recover from it.

What we desperately needed this summer was at least three players with physicality, leadership and experience, but Levein just hasn't gone down that route at all.

[Gas Monkey]

10 hours ago, Northern saint said:

I'm all for having faith in the club to turn it around but where is the evidence there is anyone who knows what they are doing.  The number of signings for tomorrow is staggering.  We play today and apart from Cameron, who have we brought in who is nailed on to start.  

We knew we needed to add a spine of quality, four, five players to solidify and take us forward.  It would allow the up-and-coming players from our youth squads to develop and force their way in over the next few years.  

Now the budget is blown and Levein seems to have woken up to the problems he still has not addressed.  Will he improve the coaching to get the best out of the players?  Not seen any sign so far in nine months.  

As the other clubs in the league have built for today, all we can do is hope amongst those he brought in for tomorrow become today's jewels like Yammel, Mainoo did.   

The old adage, "if they're good enough they're old enough" will be Saints motto this year.  I only hope Levein/Kirk show me I'm wrong as nothing I've seen from them so far says "they're good enough!"

Whilst I’m not happy with the current squad, I’m seeing references to ‘budgets blown’ etc………how do we know this? I’m still expecting a couple of decent signings based on Webbs opening statements. I think last night was the end of the road for Steven and C Smith and expect them out on loan very quickly. Last nights starting 11 was a shocker and that was down to CL. I don’t think Webb will tolerate many performances like that so CL under pressure for sure. However the doomsday comments about relegation this year and then two more on the back of that are just ridiculous. We may go down this year but under new ownership I expect to bounce back

[RandomGuy]

20 minutes ago, Gas Monkey said:

Whilst I’m not happy with the current squad, I’m seeing references to ‘budgets blown’ etc………how do we know this? I’m still expecting a couple of decent signings based on Webbs opening statements. I think last night was the end of the road for Steven and C Smith and expect them out on loan very quickly. Last nights starting 11 was a shocker and that was down to CL. I don’t think Webb will tolerate many performances like that so CL under pressure for sure. However the doomsday comments about relegation this year and then two more on the back of that are just ridiculous. We may go down this year but under new ownership I expect to bounce back

Everything, from the manager to the journalists, are suggesting the first team needs players out before any can come in, and that they're relying on getting loan players now.

[Gas Monkey]

20 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

Everything, from the manager to the journalists, are suggesting the first team needs players out before any can come in, and that they're relying on getting loan players now.

We shall see

[MySpazz]

17 hours ago, blueheaven said:

I'm pretty furious that Levein has been allowed to do this to us TBH. He should have been sacked months ago. Instead, he's been trusted with the summer to rebuild the squad and it's looking very much like he's actually, somehow, managed to make us even worse. The budget's been blown yet again, and we're the ones being asked to pay for it with hiked-up ticket prices.

He's been wasting his time fannying around playing Football Manager with our club's future and looking for project players to boost his own ego, when every fraction of his energy should have been prioritising bringing in 3 or 4 quality players with the right age and the right experience. Build us a settled team that is strong enough and organised to keep us up. Then you can start supplementing it with one or two punts for the future.

• Why sign Rae and then immediately start talking about needing a more experienced goalkeeper? Just prioritise the more experienced goalkeeper.
• Why use up a portion of the budget on Ikpeazu (presumably arriving as a high earner?) when we already had four strikers and other areas of the team were far more important? (He only ever starts one striker anyway!)
• Why hand two year contracts to Sanders and McPake, who by all accounts hadn't stood out at lower levels? Are these two players better than the young fringe players we already had, e.g. Liam Parker and Taylor Steven? It doesn't look that way so far.
• The money spent on new contracts for Cammy MacPherson and in my opinion also Graham Carey, should have gone towards recruiting one good left winger and one good central attacking midfielder. The fact that he still hasn't signed anyone to fill the creative/attacking vacancy in the middle of the park is frankly mind-blowing. It's the number one area we desperately need someone in, especially if Stevie May's going to be bizarrely frozen out again.
• Aaron Essel looks like a really promising player but he's 18 years old, has zero experience of football anywhere in Europe, and is moving here from the other side of the world. Are we seriously pinning our hopes on him playing 90 minutes every single week? He should be someone who's eased gradually into the team, not someone we're building our plans around.
• Spending a transfer fee on the assistant manager's son. Seriously?
• Kyle Cameron is hopefully a good signing and a bit closer to the type we should be going for, but honestly, who knows how he's going to do?
• From what I can see, despite the size of the squad, we still need a goalkeeper, a central defender, a left-back, a left-winger and a central midfielder. Oh, and a manager.

The whole thing's a mess and I actually think Macca had a better summer window, signings-wise, than Levein has. I'd expect all of the above from a first-time manager who doesn't know what he's doing, not a guy who's been managing football teams at all sorts of levels for over 25 years.

 

 

All about this one
"Spending a transfer fee on the assistant manager's son. Seriously?"

[RandomGuy]

https://x.com/thecouriersport/status/1816224104682545549

Cammy MacPherson with the, now regular, "it won't happen again and wasn't like us" interview after a bad result.

Genuinely would happily see him punted today. Blames Rae/Keltjens and Essel entirely for the result, acting as the performance was fine from everyone else and those 3 chucked the game.

A total ****ing coward who somehow wore the captains armband for the 2nd half despite being dogshit then hiding all match, topping it up by letting Alloa waste the last few minutes, with the score at 3-2, because he's too immature not to barge into folk desperate to be fouled.

This is the type of character we're needing to dig in and fight all season as part of a collective effort.

Edited July 25, 2024 by RandomGuy

[Muirton Saint]

52 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

Genuinely would happily see him punted today. Blames Rae/Keltjens and Essel entirely for the result, acting as the performance was fine from everyone else and those 3 chucked the game.

I wonder how those players feel when interviews like that get released, especially when it's coming from someone seen as "high up" in the dressing room leadership in ****ing Cammy MacPherson. 

[Melbourne Saint]

Can we please calm down... In 2 months we'll learn where we are and where CL is. I'm sure Mr Webb will be clinical in his decisions