Magic Monkey

What position was he?

I dunno... I refuse to take our friendly results seriously, and I also refuse to judge other teams' for the same reason. Might have just been a total training kickabout for Alloa.

Yeah, agreed - I just think it's the process we have to go through. You might find a total gem who tears it up; or they might all be total jobbers. You'd like to think we've got enough eyes on them now to make sure we don't f**k it right up again. You'd like to think. Fake edit: JM1 said in the speculation thread that Mini Dennis Rodman is already back at the airport, so there's one down!

I get what you're saying, but I can see why we're going down this route to add squad depth. It's a really competitive marketplace and we need to find unpolished gems from lower leagues in the hope they pay off. In an ideal world, we'll have six targets lined up in all the right positions who would be ready to push for a first team place and easily be of a good enough standard to help us finish 8th or higher. Sadly I don't think that's the case. In all honesty, the new league cup format is, I think, putting more pressure on diddy clubs (everyone outside Rangers and Celtic, the Embra clubs and Aberdeen) to get their houses in order at a ridiculously early stage in the summer. My personal belief is that no competitive games should be played while the transfer window is still open - certainly not in the league. The league cup group format makes it nigh-on impossible to reconcile supporters' expectations with the reality of the situation, which is that we ideally need four or five friendly games to look at some trialists for the first two/three matches, and then let the squad take shape. It is what it is, though, and it means we're still scraping that barrel right before our first competitive game. It's madness, in all honesty.

Repost from the speculation thread as I've found "Cossow" - it's Iban Cossou, an Auxerre youth player. https://www.facebook.com/iban.cossou.7 https://www.football365.fr/joueur/cossou-iban-239602.shtml

I ran a few different versions of the spelling, too, in case it was a misprint (Ivan?), but found absolutely hee-haw. Unusual in this day and age. Edit: I've tried again and I think I've found him. I think it is a mis-print, and it's Iban Cossou. This is him on Facebook - does it look like he matches? https://www.facebook.com/iban.cossou.7 https://www.football365.fr/joueur/cossou-iban-239602.shtml

Some of these guys aren't even on the internet so even Flareybob would be stumped.

Don't ask!

Ah, fair enough - I thought that seemed like a bit of a coup! Seems we have a Jamie Walker in our under 20s. Must be him.

There's three on the bench listed at the very bottom of the sheet. They must have run out of room!

Bryan Alceus: https://www.transfermarkt.com/bryan-alceus/profil/spieler/354686 Jamie Walker: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Walker_(footballer) Mickael Gaougaou: https://globalsportsarchive.com/people/soccer/mickael-gaougaou/523139/ Ludwig Francillette: https://allyteams.com/liste-officielle-sportifs-de-haut-niveau/informations-sportif/189260/LUDWIG-FRANCILLETTE Can't find any info on Iban Cossow; Djorkaeff we know about.

It's a good job, he'd have got wet feet.

Yeah, shame he couldn't have given this interview two weeks ago, but I'm sure he had his reasons. Either way, it's a large helping of telt.

Yeah: I re-watched chunks of it again not that long ago, hoping that in the cold light of day I wouldn't be quite so raging, but I still was. Beaton was definitely at it that day.

Yeah, I'd take him back. I feel if the right manager could rein in his 'red card waiting to happen' tendencies, then there'd be a real character there.

Ooft ya f**ker.

Weirdly, the actual article doesn't mention it. I think whoever's written the intro/links has just got themselves confused. Full text:

But the 'worth' is calculated by looking at the rest of the market and drawing a comparison. If we're currently experiencing Scottish football's Neymar moment, then great, the fees will go up, but so will the perceived value of lower-end players. (I'm not arguing, btw, just discussing/developing the metaphor.) In fairness, I've seen someone else saying they've heard we're actually after 500k, which to me seems a reasonable and realistic price tag in the circumstances. Perhaps the £1m talk is just a highball price tag. If the 200k initial bid was true, then it'd make sense to go high and see what they come back with.

😂 Praises us for not selling on the cheap... but also describes the fee as 'whopping', which heavily implies we've over-valued him. It's true, mind: if we've been emboldened by other clubs putting their foot down, then great. The only downside, of course, is that all players become more expensive. It's like celebrating that your house has gone up in value only to discover everyone else's houses have gone up in value too...

He was excellent in those playoffs, mind. Some worldie saves; kept them in it more than once.

I notice nobody is claiming it's only in the Sun and is therefore automatically bollocks, after the whole Kearney fiasco.

So £500k for Hladky, or £300k for Hladky + Heaton?! 😂

We've still got Josh Heaton for two more years - what more do you want?! I do agree with everything you're saying, though.

Point taken about the cliche, and I'd sooner keep him than sell him, but that sort of cash could really improve our wages budget for the next season. What if that cash helped get Isma, Morgan and a genuine 15-goal striker on board? Yes, Hladky (or any good keeper) is vital, but we have never, and never will, be the sort of club that turns down that amount of cash - especially not for a player we got for nothing a few months ago.

Yeah. You'd think the moneyball approach would depend on us not putting such clauses in (or not low-value ones, at least), but this is St Mirren. The other thing is how much of any fee will be due to this slightly seedy-sounding sports company that allegedly lined up the transfer. In any event, getting money for a guy we got for nothing in January will be good business. I reckon (official prediction based on nothing) he'll go for £350k.