The next three games are huge and will be an indicator of the type of season we can expect.

There are a couple of angles to recent results and the reaction
 
-  after four years in the championship it was likely there would be a spell of poor performances and results 

- the pandemic has lead to a very unique situation in football where finances are almost impossible to predict, due to the lack of gate money for an unknown amount of time, the lack of signings is kind of understandable

- fans not being at games could be a factor. e.g if punters had spent time and money travelling down from Dundee to Kilmarnock, to watch a 4-0 shambles, they would be raging. Watching it on TV at home or just checking scores  online makes it easier to just disengage 

It's worth remembering that Shankland has barely featured so far. Now we have a run of games where we are at least competing on a level playing field, let's see where we are at by the end of the first batch of games.

The Ogrens ambitions have been very clear since day one. The only way to make money is to be successful, be competitive for trophies and have good players that others want to buy. That bodes well for us but won’t happen over night.

To me that remains unchanged in the long term. It doesn’t mean the circumstances of this season has taken a bit of knife to those plans even temporarily.

COVID, like it or not, has completely thrown the planned budget. There’s no point chasing players if we aren’t sure whether we can sustainably afford them.

Also, I would say it looked like Shankland was off before his injury festered on for longer than anticipated. So our plans at one point were probably to replace him, now it might be too complement him. The point is we don’t know but what we do know, is there has been months and months of uncertainty with no end in sight.

I’m glad we’re not just getting any old bodies in the door and I’m glad we’re not throwing money at players - both strategies have failed horrendously for us recently.

We do need improvements in soon though. I don’t think there are too many individuals that are miles off the pace for this league but we need an injection of quality to make the others around them better.

I think patience is key for us this year. We were never going to compete with teams that can spend 5 + million on a player when our entire squad probably wouldn't cost that. I imagine every team would want to sign 3 or 4 first team ready players that could come in and improve the team but in our case it has to done with the intention of not hindering the development of the young players we have coming through .I think Aberdeen and Hibs have done their spending for the season and if Nisbett was anything to go by most players given the opportunity would prefer to go an established Premiership side. We have a new manager who has had to assess the players whilst not being able to play a full strength team and maybe not being able to set the team up the way he would like due to injuries. I'm sure most people would admit so far he has improved the team and now we have the upcoming fixtures that give us a chance to secure some points.

Tek wrote:

Morphman wrote:

Some good points.

I feel we've hit a real rough patch, the last 3 performances have been very disappointing but realistically only the Killie game was a real shock. All IF's and buts, but if Connolly hadn't made a noel hunt of it in the first game of the season we'd be sitting 3 points behind Celtic right now having played the leagues top teams, except maybe Aberdeen.

Although we play Aberdeen in October, I'd say our run of fixtures right up until we play Rangers again in December is a run of games that we can and SHOULD win the vast majority, including league Cup fixtures.

I agree that some first team ready players coming in would help hugely, a creative CM, a Striker and perhaps another Winger could catapult us right up the table.
I think a lot of our fans are keeping the 'just stay up' mentality as ultimately we currently have half a championship squad, and there seems to be a huge question (on forums and social media) around whether we have the cash to bring in the players necessary.

I think we do, and I feel that recent results could be a bit of a wake up call for getting deals done. With that said, I'd rather wait to get in bodies from England, assuming that's what Mellon will be targeting, than have the usual YouTube signings and merry go round shite players that usually wash up on these shores.

I think we absolutely are ambitious, and we will show it in the coming weeks.

I assumed he would try and sign players from England too mate.

So i was surprised with our pursuit of Safranko. A player he obviously has no knowledge of.
 

 
I would suggest that Asghar knows plenty about Šafranko and when it became clear that his club wanted him out on loan we jumped at what we thought would be a signing at a decent cost compared to waiting an indefinite period for other targets. Norwood just for example, though realistically he's never coming.

You can argue about how good Šafranko would be in this league but prior to being shafted out wide by Neilson he was great for us and done a role we desperately need right now.

I don't think it was purely smoke and mirrors, but possibly we've jumped the gun (again) with it being leaked to Scott Burns only to have the deal blow up in our face when Sepsi asked for the big loan fee.

Just my opinion, I of course have no evidence of this. I'm not an 'in the know' punter sadly 

Last edited by Morphman (13/9/2020 4:49 pm)