***OFFICIAL SUMMER TRANSFER THREAD***

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

1 minute ago, Mr Elwood P said:

 

Using Liverpool as an example, who is putting pressure on Van Dijk, Robertson, Salah, Mane, Firminho, Allison or Trent Alexander-Arnold? Those players play almost every game when fit. You’ve also got the likes of Matip, Henderson and Fabinho who all played 25+ EPL matches each. Very little in the way of genuine competition, yet they are one of the most exciting teams on the planet and current champions of Europe. Liverpool only added four signings last summer and gained an extra 20+ points. Obviously an altogether different level but it demonstrates how only a few signings can make a huge difference.

They neglected domestic cups as a result and probably cost them the title with the run of draws. It may even cost them energy through this season,  while City are able. 

Strange comparison to make. Championship teams in England are successful by having squads 

[Mr Elwood P]

3 minutes ago, Sir Gio said:

They neglected domestic cups as a result and probably cost them the title with the run of draws. It may even cost them energy through this season,  while City are able. 

Strange comparison to make. Championship teams in England are successful by having squads 

 

Championship teams in England play 46 Championship matches and potentially a set of play off matches at the end of May. City are possibly the only team on the planet with the luxury of competition in every position. Even the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid have 7 or 8 players who play every game they are fit. I think genuine competition at our level would come from having a big squad of half decent players. As soon as you add a couple of Berra, Naismith or Lafferty level of quality it becomes impossible for us to have competition in that position.  

[HEARTS FOREVER]

9 hours ago, Icon of Symmetry said:

 

Yes, but you are making that point by writing good players off as being injured, or the likes, when you've no way of knowing whether that will be the case or not. Naismith was injured twice for long spells last season and he still notched double figures. We've since then added Washington and Walker and we have Keena knocking on the door. It's all just prediction and guess work on both our parts right now, but one of us is taking an optimistic view, and the other a pessimistic one. I think we'll have a fair few goals from midfield and defence next season too in all honesty, with Halkett, Clare, Walker and Haring bagging a few.

Hope your right. Maybe I was being pessimistic after all.

 

Appologies 

[Guest ToqueJambo]

1 hour ago, Sir Gio said:

Nobody said 2 great players for every position. 

Competition for places is what was said,  which means someone capable of putting pressure on the people in possession. 

Personally I don't think we are close. 

For example we don't have a good keeper,  we don't have pressure on Michael Smith,  there is only one left winger and other than Naismith there's no prolific striker. 

Honest assessment of my team. 

We can get and expect better,  but again to emphasise I am not saying this window or next window 

 

The main job of any Hearts manager is to focus on having a good first 11 with at least 2 or 3 reliable back up players. After that it's trying to bring through youngsters, which is why the job Levein is and has been doing is so important. 

 

I can't think of a time when we've ever had players putting pressure on the first choice players in every position, or even in ANY position a lot of the time - certainly going back to the 80s. Squads are bigger now with 3 from 7 subs on the bench instead of 2 from 2, but that doesn't mean our budget is correspondingly bigger to pay for all these good quality reserves. We'll always be a club with mostly youngsters and lower paid players as reserves (I'm including the likes of Burns, Clare and Wighton as youngsters even though we signed them). If you look at past great Hearts teams, they all would have been screwed if they'd had anywhere near the injuries we had last season. 

 

The one thing that is an absolute must-have for any team to put in a challenge to the OF in any season is a relatively injury-free season. We can look back on every season where we've challenged at the top or have finished 2nd or even 3rd, and that's one common denominator. Even challenging for a European spot means having most of your best players available for most of the season.

 

I actually think our squad is as deep as it's ever been.

Edited July 16, 2019 by ToqueJambo

[OTT]

6 minutes ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

The main job of any Hearts manager is to focus on having a good first 11 with at least 2 or 3 reliable back up players. After that it's trying to bring through youngsters, which is why the job Levein is and has been doing is so important. 

 

I can't think of a time when we've ever had players putting pressure on the first choice players in every position, or even in ANY position a lot of the time - certainly going back to the 80s. Squads are bigger now with 3 from 7 subs on the bench instead of 2 from 2, but that doesn't mean our budget is correspondingly bigger to pay for all these good quality reserves. We'll always be a club with mostly youngsters and lower paid players as reserves (I'm including the likes of Burns, Clare and Wighton as youngsters even though we signed them). If you look at past great Hearts teams, they all would have been screwed if they'd had anywhere near the injuries we had last season. 

 

The one thing that is an absolute must-have for any team to put in a challenge to the OF in any season is a relatively injury-free season. We can look back on every season where we've challenged at the top or have finished 2nd or even 3rd, and that's one common denominator. Even challenging for a European spot means having most of your best players available for most of the season.

 

I actually think our squad is as deep as it's ever been.

 

I think your point about 11 + 2/3 good first team players is important. There needs to be a path to the first team, otherwise whats the point? Having a successful youth development system in theory has the added bonus on being able to employ less journeymen. This then should allow more money to be freed up to sign a higher quality of first team player.

[JackLadd]

Naismith still defo coming? Seems a long delay. 

[Kiwidoug]

We have to score a lot more goals than we have in the last couple of seasons.  Big help if we can avoid mass injuries and suspensions.

[Mr Elwood P]

2 minutes ago, Kiwidoug said:

We have to score a lot more goals than we have in the last couple of seasons.  Big help if we can avoid mass injuries and suspensions.

 

Or concede less ...

[Mr Elwood P]

15 minutes ago, JackLadd said:

Naismith still defo coming? Seems a long delay. 

 

Yeah wondering what the hold up is myself. Definitely haven’t seen anything mentioned on here or in the press.

[Lovecraft]

17 minutes ago, JackLadd said:

Naismith still defo coming? Seems a long delay. 

 He's in the Killie squad for Thursday.

 

 

[Robbo-Jambo]

22 minutes ago, JackLadd said:

Naismith still defo coming? Seems a long delay. 

Nah he can't be arsed

 

Got a new job as a hygeniest in Mrs Naismiths new dental practice in deepest Ayrshire. 

[Pans Jambo]

24 minutes ago, JackLadd said:

Naismith still defo coming? Seems a long delay. 

[steve123]

7 minutes ago, Mr Elwood P said:

 

Yeah wondering what the hold up is myself. Definitely haven’t seen anything mentioned on here or in the press.

Just added to Naismith thread but apparently Craig said tonight deal is done, waiting on him regaining fitness then he will sign !!

[Robbo-Jambo]

Just now, steve123 said:

Just added to Naismith thread but apparently Craig said tonight deal is done, waiting on him regaining fitness then he will sign !!

He can surely still sign if he is unfit. 

 

More to do with the Norwich contract payment surely. 

[steve123]

Just now, Robbo-Jambo said:

He can surely still sign if he is unfit. 

 

More to do with the Norwich contract payment surely. 

Yea would have thought so, however they said on Radio Craig had told them earlier in show it was fitness. I never heard first Levein interview so can't confirm he did say that !!

[bazman]

Levein did say that Naismith would be joining at some point but I don't recall anything about fitness

[Robbo-Jambo]

12 minutes ago, steve123 said:

Yea would have thought so, however they said on Radio Craig had told them earlier in show it was fitness. I never heard first Levein interview so can't confirm he did say that !!

He is signing, that's the main thing 👍

[cosanostra]

Got some more seriously shoddy ITK info if anyone is interested. Same friend told me about Jamie Walker returning and Neil McCann discussing a coaching job. Fair chance it's bollocks but here it is.

Graham Dorrans is one of the 4 that we're looking at and has spoken to the club about a move. Money might be a problem so he'd have to be realistic.

2nd up, Kyle Lafferty has sounded out Hearts about coming back through his agent. This may have been a few weeks ago so looks like nothing came of it. Apparently he'd love a move back to Tynecastle. No idea if CL would be open to it but that's all i heard.

Once again, both could be nonsense so don't put too much faith in them.

 

[PTBCAL]

4 minutes ago, cosanostra said:

Got some more seriously shoddy ITK info if anyone is interested. Same friend told me about Jamie Walker returning and Neil McCann discussing a coaching job. Fair chance it's bollocks but here it is.

Graham Dorrans is one of the 4 that we're looking at and has spoken to the club about a move. Money might be a problem so he'd have to be realistic.

2nd up, Kyle Lafferty has sounded out Hearts about coming back through his agent. This may have been a few weeks ago so looks like nothing came of it. Apparently he'd love a move back to Tynecastle. No idea if CL would be open to it but that's all i heard.

Once again, both could be nonsense so don't put too much faith in them.

 

 

I was told on Tuesday that we are looking at 2 Huns on loan - I wasn’t told names but guessed or hoped Dorrans and Docherty might have been amongst them 

[Jean Louis Valois]

5 minutes ago, cosanostra said:

Got some more seriously shoddy ITK info if anyone is interested. Same friend told me about Jamie Walker returning and Neil McCann discussing a coaching job. Fair chance it's bollocks but here it is.

Graham Dorrans is one of the 4 that we're looking at and has spoken to the club about a move. Money might be a problem so he'd have to be realistic.

2nd up, Kyle Lafferty has sounded out Hearts about coming back through his agent. This may have been a few weeks ago so looks like nothing came of it. Apparently he'd love a move back to Tynecastle. No idea if CL would be open to it but that's all i heard.

Once again, both could be nonsense so don't put too much faith in them.

 

 

Can quite believe both those stories. Dorrans wouldn’t be a bad signing, decent pedigree down south. I bet Lafferty would love to come back, Levein won’t take him though.

[cosanostra]

1 minute ago, PTBCAL said:

 

I was told on Tuesday that we are looking at 2 Huns on loan - I wasn’t told names but guessed or hoped Dorrans and Docherty might have been amongst them 

 

Dorrans and Lafferty apparently.

Guess we'll find out.

[Dodger84]

1 minute ago, cosanostra said:

 

Dorrans and Lafferty apparently.

Guess we'll find out.

Don’t  think we could afford both on permanent deals. Would take Dorrans in a second though. Can’t see them giving us a loan deal though 

[cosanostra]

I think Dorrans is a great player and would be a great signing.

Lafferty would be useful too. Goalscorers seem especially difficult for CL to find. We could do worse.

[Leveins Battalion]

Would take Doherty in a heartbeat.

[Finlay James]

I'd love us to sign Dorrans, some player.

 

Doherty I know less about but as others are raving about him, could be a good signing.

 

Lafferty has had his chance and couldn't wait to get along the M8 last time he was here.  I'd prefer any wages were spent on a quality midfielder i.e. dorrans.

[Alex Kintner]

25 minutes ago, Dodger84 said:

Don’t  think we could afford both on permanent deals. Would take Dorrans in a second though. Can’t see them giving us a loan deal though 

 

Would make perfect sense for Rangers to loan us players imo.

[GorgieRules22]

2 minutes ago, To Be Frank said:

 

Would make perfect sense for Rangers to loan us players imo.

This.

 

Makes us stronger against Celtic and weaker against them.

[Flaps_98]

39 minutes ago, cosanostra said:

 

Dorrans and Lafferty apparently.

Guess we'll find out.

Heard similar to this earlier this week from a Rangers fan I work with who is from through the west. He says the rumour amongst that lot was Laff and Dorrans to Hearts on loan. Personally can't see us being interested in taking Laff, seemed to be hard work to manage first time round and secondly I'm not sure if Levein would think we need him now we have Washington. Dorrans I would take 100% and is of a calibre we definitely need in midfield.

[Bazzas right boot]

17 minutes ago, To Be Frank said:

 

Would make perfect sense for Rangers to loan us players imo.

 

14 minutes ago, GorgieRules22 said:

This.

 

Makes us stronger against Celtic and weaker against them.

 

 

Yip. 

 

Think celtic / Aberdeen with Christie. 

 

 

Left field but I'd look at fording ham as well if possible, if not now, next season. 

[chester copperpot]

1 hour ago, cosanostra said:

Got some more seriously shoddy ITK info if anyone is interested. Same friend told me about Jamie Walker returning and Neil McCann discussing a coaching job. Fair chance it's bollocks but here it is.

Graham Dorrans is one of the 4 that we're looking at and has spoken to the club about a move. Money might be a problem so he'd have to be realistic.

2nd up, Kyle Lafferty has sounded out Hearts about coming back through his agent. This may have been a few weeks ago so looks like nothing came of it. Apparently he'd love a move back to Tynecastle. No idea if CL would be open to it but that's all i heard.

Once again, both could be nonsense so don't put too much faith in them.

 

 

 

I haven't heard about Dorrans but was told the same about Lafferty a few weeks ago from a coach at Rangers.

 

Shared it with a couple via PM on here but didnt put on the main pages as thought he was maybe pulling my leg. Maybe not though.

[sac]

Some mob in Portugal have paid Sporting Lisbon the £3.6m release clause to take Ryan Gauld. Wtf.

[Irufushi]

6 minutes ago, sac said:

Some mob in Portugal have paid Sporting Lisbon the £3.6m release clause to take Ryan Gauld. Wtf.

 

No they haven’t, it’s a release clause on his new contract with Farense . 👍

[Rudi Hates Hibees]

7 minutes ago, sac said:

Some mob in Portugal have paid Sporting Lisbon the £3.6m release clause to take Ryan Gauld. Wtf.

It was a free transfer and the 3.6m is his release clause from the new contract.

[sac]

5 minutes ago, Irufushi said:

 

No they haven’t, it’s a release clause on his new contract with Farense . 👍

That’s what I said?

[The Treasurer]

1 hour ago, Dodger84 said:

Don’t  think we could afford both on permanent deals. Would take Dorrans in a second though. Can’t see them giving us a loan deal though 

We could if we paid by "sevco terms"

ie £1 down payment and 50p per week for the next 100 years

[Flaps_98]

3 minutes ago, sac said:

That’s what I said?

He's left Sporting LIsbon for free. The new club haven't paid anything for him. Its a clause inserted in his contract with his new club. You said some mob have paid Sporting Lisbon 3.6m. They haven't

[Irufushi]

How hard can it be ? 😂

[Bazzas right boot]

 

In cm

Dorrans on loan. 

Some random from abroad 

 

Out wide

Skinny on loan

 

Naismith signs. 

 

Jobs a good 'un.

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

11 hours ago, Mr Elwood P said:

 

Championship teams in England play 46 Championship matches and potentially a set of play off matches at the end of May. City are possibly the only team on the planet with the luxury of competition in every position. Even the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid have 7 or 8 players who play every game they are fit. I think genuine competition at our level would come from having a big squad of half decent players. As soon as you add a couple of Berra, Naismith or Lafferty level of quality it becomes impossible for us to have competition in that position.  

We established that immediately. You cant put like for like for these guys. You are struggling here.

 

Its about competition, someone able to come in and do a job, even without these players. Jimmy Dunne adequately did that in the short term for Berra, Dikamona did ok for a short spell, this is adding competition and raising standards, even though neither player is like for like.

 

What we are looking for, is 2 for each position, and having a 2nd man capable of not significantly weakening the team, if you think we are there fine, history tells us no. And emphatically from October right through to May

[Selkirkhmfc1874]

Defensive midfielder and we good to go in my opinion because we've got a strong settled squad ! 

Players not even stripped last night.

1. Andy white.

2. John souttar.

3. Peter haring.

4. Steven Naismith.

5. Craig wighton.

6. Ben garuccio.

7. Ryan Edwards.

8. Jamie Brandon.

9. Harry Cochrane.

10. Callumn Morrison.

11. Connor smith.

12. Andy irving.

 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

10 hours ago, bazman said:

Levein did say that Naismith would be joining at some point but I don't recall anything about fitness

Richard Gordon I heard saying last night, that Levein had confirmed Naismith was signing once fit, another line to spin out the next 2 weeks.

 

Got to believe that some of the above info is correct, but I would be concerned if either was Dorrans or Lafferty. Both players who would add to us, is Dorrans fit, and did we get the last drops of Lafferty?

[Beast Boy]

19 minutes ago, Olly Lee's left boot said:

Out wide

Skinny on loan

 

[Selkirkhmfc1874]

20 minutes ago, Olly Lee's left boot said:

 

In cm

Dorrans on loan. 

Some random from abroad 

 

Out wide

Skinny on loan

 

Naismith signs. 

 

Jobs a good 'un.

Don't need skinny in my opinion , Jake mulraney , dario zanatta, callumn Morrison and Anthony mcdonald good enough quality and committed 

[Cruyff Turn]

22 minutes ago, Olly Lee's left boot said:

 

In cm

Dorrans on loan. 

Some random from abroad 

 

Out wide

Skinny on loan

 

Naismith signs. 

 

Jobs a good 'un.

Why Dorrans? He’s done nothing bar sit on a treatment table for the last 6 years.

[Mr Elwood P]

8 minutes ago, Sir Gio said:

We established that immediately. You cant put like for like for these guys. You are struggling here.

 

Its about competition, someone able to come in and do a job, even without these players. Jimmy Dunne adequately did that in the short term for Berra, Dikamona did ok for a short spell, this is adding competition and raising standards, even though neither player is like for like.

 

What we are looking for, is 2 for each position, and having a 2nd man capable of not significantly weakening the team, if you think we are there fine, history tells us no. And emphatically from October right through to May

 

I actually agree on the two for every position but for me it should be one experienced player with an academy understudy. That’s the only way we can progress the club is to let the academy thrive. Left back could be the perfect set up with White and Hickey. Up front Keena has Naismith and Washington to work with. Zanatta, McDonald and Morrison can all learn from Walker. 

[Bazzas right boot]

3 minutes ago, Selkirkhmfc1874 said:

Don't need skinny in my opinion , Jake mulraney , dario zanatta, callumn Morrison and Anthony mcdonald good enough quality and committed 

 

He'd be an extra option,  it as you say, maybe a bit greedy. 

 

The jury is still out on the guys above as well over a league season, only Mulraney has shown consistency imo. 

[Bazzas right boot]

2 minutes ago, Cruyff Turn said:

Why Dorrans? He’s done nothing bar sit on a treatment table for the last 6 years.

 

 

Could have a point, a quality cm. 

 

Adam? 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

11 hours ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

The main job of any Hearts manager is to focus on having a good first 11 with at least 2 or 3 reliable back up players. After that it's trying to bring through youngsters, which is why the job Levein is and has been doing is so important. 

 

I can't think of a time when we've ever had players putting pressure on the first choice players in every position, or even in ANY position a lot of the time - certainly going back to the 80s. Squads are bigger now with 3 from 7 subs on the bench instead of 2 from 2, but that doesn't mean our budget is correspondingly bigger to pay for all these good quality reserves. We'll always be a club with mostly youngsters and lower paid players as reserves (I'm including the likes of Burns, Clare and Wighton as youngsters even though we signed them). If you look at past great Hearts teams, they all would have been screwed if they'd had anywhere near the injuries we had last season. 

 

The one thing that is an absolute must-have for any team to put in a challenge to the OF in any season is a relatively injury-free season. We can look back on every season where we've challenged at the top or have finished 2nd or even 3rd, and that's one common denominator. Even challenging for a European spot means having most of your best players available for most of the season.

 

I actually think our squad is as deep as it's ever been.

Its big not deep. Last night was the first game we had won in quite a while. We go back to Aberdeen in March, for the last win against top level opposition, and that followed directly a defeat at Hamilton.

 

I don't want to be negative, but we need to be realistic, we have a big squad but the players who are on the fringes consistently did not deliver last season.

[Selkirkhmfc1874]

3 minutes ago, Olly Lee's left boot said:

 

He'd be an extra option,  it as you say, maybe a bit greedy. 

 

The jury is still out on the guys above as well over a league season, only Mulraney has shown consistency imo. 

It's only early and we've only played couple championship clubs but biggest positive for me in those games has been the kids coming through the academy aswell as the positive formation we've played ! Really hope we continue to play the kids and also continue to have right go at teams 

[Howdy Doody Jambo]

Levein's problem will be keeping all the squad happy and motivated as it's looking like we have more than enough player's as it is without adding