mcdowell76

It was the bank who forced the BoD to accept Motherwell's bid due to the dire financial position we had gotten into by that stage. I suppose Bone could have said noto Gardner though....

I love these pointless debates! I can't see how not starting Loy would be a reason for sacking the manager. Loy had no pedigree at that point so how could folk possibly know if was any good? He'd spent the previous season on loan at Dunfermline in the division below us. He was on the bench for most of that season and only made 18 appearances, scoring 3 goals. It wasn't until 3 years later that he eventually hit the jackpot and regularly scored goals. However, it was again in the lower division. He's had only 1 season of relative top flight success in his career and he's now 29, scoring 9 league goals in 15/16 with Dundee. He was out of favour last season clearly however. And St. Mirren had strikers like Higdon, Dargo, Mehmet and even used Dorman up front with some success late on that season. Not to mention that we finished in a league position that we hadn't beaten in a quarter of a century, reached our first League Cup final in over 40 years and inflicted our biggest league defeat on Celtic in over 100 years!

In the late 60s and again in the early 80s, Scottish football was ranked in the top 3 in Europe. Our clubs reached the latter stages of European competition and won them on occasion and reached finals. They beat the biggest and best clubs in Europe. There was virtually no live TV league games, ground capacities were much larger and prices were much cheaper. Yet attendances were lower than they are today....

Getting us to, what was then, only our second ever appearance in the League Cup Final in our entire history is actually a success.

but saints were a top flight club back then the fact that we are talking about Loy signing for a lower league club actually proves that gus didnt f*** up....

Didn't realise that you sat near Drew....

dont quite agree with that he had a long history of injuries and the reason he ended up at ICT is because he was a free agent at the time and no-one else would take a chance on him it seemed that he'd gotten over his injuries at ICT just our luck that he got injured again the minute he joined us!

What happened subsequently is irrelevant. What you said was "Half decent striker whose best years are long gone" And the comparison was with Buchanan. Buchanan's best spell was 2007-2011 with Partick Thistle. That was 6 years ago. Buchanan is now 32 and he was playing in a division below us last season. His best days quite clearly are long gone. When we signed Craig Dargo he's just enjoyed 2 of the best 3 seasons in his career. He was one of the leading scorers in our own division and he was 29. His best days were hardly "long gone". As BTB says, Dargo got injured in pre season and didn't make his debut until December. On top of that, he was playing for an ultra defensive Gus Macpherson side! My worry when we signed Dargo was not whether his best days were long gone, it was whether he would stay fit and not get injured!

Okay, we signed him after his best ever 2 season spell. Those 2 seasons producing 2 of his best ever 3 seasons goal tallys. Hardly the scenario you were painting.

He did... Gavin Reilly!

We signed Dargo after his best ever year...

The fact he scored a couple of penalties doesn't mean he is a reliable penalty taker though. He may have missed 10.... He was also facing lesser quality goalkeepers.... The fact that Kirkpatrick can score from midfield doesn't mean he would be a good striker. Completely different! Spence's record does look half decent though. However, just looking at league goals and excluding penalties (he scored 4 penalties out of 9 league goals in 13/14 for example), his record isn't that great. His best seasons have been the past 2 but they have been at a lower level. Last season in particular with a promotion winning side. Despite that great season, he hasn't managed to win a move to the Championship. We'll need to agree to disagree. I think if Reilly can bag 12 to 14 league goals for us next season then we'll be not far from a promotion play off spot at least.

Not necessarily. I don't know how many he missed....

Only 16 of those goals were in the league proper though (not including play off) and at least 2 were penalties. His record was 174 minutes per goal in the league last season compared with Ross Stewart whose record was 151 minutes per goal - with a lesser side. Indeed, Jordan Kirkpatrick's record was 188 minutes per goal and he was playing in midfield and he didn't take the penalties.

Not so sure I agree. Reilly has scored goals consistently when playing. Reilly's championship record from 2013-15 was 66 appearances with 27 goals. Loy's record was 60 appearances and 29 goals. 20 of Loy's goals came in in the 13/14 season when Falkirk ran Dundee & Hamilton close for the title. Reilly scored his goals more consistently over the 2 season and, as I mentioned earlier, was 4th top scorer in 14/15 when Hearts, The Rang*rs and Hibs were in the league. Yes, Loy has played and scored at a higher level but then Reilly still managed 28 Premiership appearances with Hearts and scored 4 goals despite most of the appearances coming from the bench. IMO, if given a choice, I'd rather take the 24 year old who will still believe he has a chance of earning a big pay day if he can produce the goods this season than a 29 year old. Of course, would take both if possible....

while it would be good if we signed Loy, i would say that Reilly IS a proven goalscorer

Aye, 5 strikers seems a bit much. As someone else mentions, maybe Smith is going to play in midfield, maybe Sutton is offfski. Seems certain that he intends playing 2 up front then if Loy signs.

Hearts are in the Premiership. They are the 3rd biggest club in the land. The fact that he didn't make it there doesn't mean that he can't do a job for us. Hearts got shot of John Sutton as well... As for Dunfermline, he spent most of last season on the bench. He got injured early on and when he came back, they had signed Nicky Clark, one of the top scorers in the league. He didn't get back in. He's already proven over the course of 2 seasons that he can deliver at this level. He's only 24 so its not as if he's an old pro on the way down.

Gavin Reilly's last season as a regular starter was 2 years ago for Queen of the South. He scored 13 league goals in 30 starts as a 21 year old in a league that contained The Rangers, Hearts & Hibs. He was the 4th highest scorer in the league that season. He scored more goals than any of the strikers who played for champions Hearts or The Rangers. Even 13 goals last season in a considerably weaker Championship would have made you the 4th highest scorer in the league. He scored 12 league goals the season before that. This isn't even a case of potential. Gavin Reilly has PROVEN that he is capable of being one of the top scorers in this league in played regularly.

She couldn't care less about the EU. That is just an excuse. They go on about how leaving the EU will ruin the economy and cost jobs. Why? Because we will be putting up barriers to trade that don't exist at the moment? Well surely leaving the UK would be even worse? The support for the SNP is down to racism. Pure and simple.

Folk talking about May resigning. And they are correct, so she should. But worth remembering that she won 42% of the UK vote, up from 36% in 2015, the highest Tory vote share since Thatcher in 1979. Sturgeon won 37% of the Scottish vote, down from 50% in 2015. If May should go then Sturgeon needs to go as well. The collapse of the SNP is down to her decision to call for a second referendum. She miscalculated big time.

Reilly is a proven scorer at this level. He's just spent a season on the bench at Dunfermline. I can't imagine he's signed for us on the basis that he'll be on the bench again. I would have thought he was here to partner Smith in attack with Sutton & Stewart providing the competition and back up. I can't see us signing a 5th striker in Loy.

I think any rational person would interpret your post below as you saying he is a bad player.

That's the most sensible post you've ever made.

Don't Celtic play in the Champions League? Premium Bonds!