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No mate, I meant positive reasons for them not being at training

Brad Lyons deal is done. Not sure what the story is with the two Slovakians as apparently neither trained today. Could be many reasons for that, wouldn't read too much into it, unless they've buggered off back home!

The goalkeeper trained with us all week before signing. Lyons trained with us Thurs & Friday. The two Slovakian lads both trained and played in a bounce game yesterday. I believe Gus has also been out to see players in Eastern Europe, as is his remit. I don't think we're signing players blind. There's never any guarantees though, particularly bringing players in from outside of Scotland. Every signing is a risk!

Disappointed that Eck didn't leave on a high after being such an important part of the title winning squad. Interesting move to go part time - assume that was a conscious decision on his part. Wish him well!

I'm not saying this is going to be our team going forward, I'm merely saying as things stand, right now, this is probably our strongest XI. I don't think for a minute that Ferdinand is going to stay, and I'd be staggered if Cammy Smith isn't gone in the next few days. New arrivals will come in and the team will look very different!

Rogers P McGinn Erhahon Ferdinand Baird S McGinn Tansey Hodson Smith Jackson Cooke It's not great but it's a team! Arguably our strongest available line-up considering Magennis and Mullen are injured and Eck is persona non-grata. 8 of those started our last league game (Hammill, Jones and Lyness the exceptions).

The manager has said he wants a first team squad of 21 or 22 and that the number of players coming in will depend on the number going out. If we assume that Heaton being out on loan removes him from the squad (even accepting we will be paying at least some of his wages) As of right now the first team squad consists of; Danny Rogers Jack Baird Ethan Erhahon Adam Eckersley Lee Hodson Anton Ferdinand Paul McGinn Gary MacKenzie Cole Kpekawa Ryan Flynn Jim Kellermann Kyle Magennis Stephen McGinn Cammy MacPherson Greg Tansey Cody Cooke Simeon Jackson Danny Mullen Cammy Smith That's 19 players. You can do the arithmetic yourself. We'll be looking at 2-3 additions at the moment, and hoping that we can move some of the above out the way to make room for more.

The full story of what happened under Stubbs will come out at some point I'm sure. Fitzy could probably write his second novel just on the goings on over the summer!

Well if you make stuff up in your own head that's up to you, but I suggested nothing of the kind.

Sorry, who said he was taking the club to court?

We are running a list on the homepage if you want to refresh your memory!

I'd imagine he needed a solicitor to sign off his compromise agreement?

Your dishing more pish than the sun and the daily ranger. Is that right mate

Salty!

More departures imminent, taking us up to double figures for the month!

If at least some of the players are, as looks likely, coming from outside the UK it makes sense to try and get them in as early as we can but as with every January transfer window it's not quite as easy as it looks to get players in. A team might agree to loan a player out or a let a player leave for example but only if or when they have signed someone they are after first, so we end up in a chain waiting for things to happen that are outwith our control. Similarly agents are all looking for the best deals for their players so they wait and see if they can get better offers elsewhere. It's all part of the game and every club is playing it. We might have to wait for certain players right up to the end of the month and that will mean going into the Cup game on 19th and the Celtic and Hibs league games at the end of the month with a squad that is still work in progress. Rebuilding a squad in January is far from easy. We've still over 3 weeks to go. We all need to be patient, and that includes me too

You could argue that Cammy Smith has played the best football of his career with us, after failing to really set the heather on fire at Aberdeen or on loan at Dundee Utd. Andy Dorman didn't really do an awful lot with his career other than in the purple patch he had with us. Junior Mendes was terrific for us either side of a terrible spell at Dunfermline. It does happen, sometimes

Don't think there's a manager in history who hasn't made a bad signing at some point. Even the great Sir Alex made more than a few blunders in his time. He paid over £3m for Djemba Djemba Lot of aspects go into a player over and above just pure ability. We've had players who were absolutely terrible with us who have left and done well elsewhere and we've also signed players who were fantastic at previous clubs who turned out to be duds for us. Players can also struggle to settle which in turn affects their form. It's not an exact science, although we appear to be using a more statistical approach now in our recruitment than we have done previously to hopefully try and reduce the chance of failure.

Well we have an exits topic, we may as well have an arrivals one Worth noting the transfer business we did in the much acclaimed window of January 2017 and when the players arrived; Craig Storie 03/01 Rory Loy 12/01 Pal Fjelde 12/01 Josh Todd 16/01 Billy O'Brien 19/01 Stelios 20/01 Cammy Smith 26/01 Stephen McGinn 27/01 Adam Eckersely 31/01 Harry Davis 31/01

Yes it's fair to say our budget has been thoroughly squandered to date. The accounts for this year are going to make for horrendous reading. I shudder to think how much of the McGinn money has gone and we have nothing to show for it. With the DoF having been in place for 3 months now and the club making all the noises about how much work has been done, I think we are all entitled to expect a much better standard of recruitment this month.

He'll need to get his chance now as he can't play for anyone else. Strange one on the face of it, not played for Fylde since 8th December so if he is not injured must just have fallen out of favour. Guess he deserves a go under Oran, Jack must have seen something there!

My bad, it's 14 league games they have played. Unless the league table is wrong.

I think regardless of where a player comes from, or what his history is, he deserves a chance to impress. When Craig Samson originally signed for Saints from Ayr Utd there was absolute outrage on these forums about how shite he was. He went on to play a huge part in lifting the League Cup and then the Championship title during his second spell. Sometimes players just fit at a particular club.

They've played 13 games this season and Lyons has started 10 of them, but aye, not a regular pick

I've always been a fud, this is nothing new. Ask yourself this though. If you were looking to employ the services of a solicitor would your first port of call be to randomly ask strangers on twitter for recommendations? He knew exactly what he was doing.