2010/2011 Season Thread

[Alkaline]

Houston signing a 3 year deal with United is great news. As long as we can avoid our players getting poached to warm the old firms benches I think we can do well next year.

Getting to the group stages of the Europa league would be great for the club, provide some revenue and give the fans a good few away days hopefully.

My worry is that we end up going the same way as Aberdeen by stretching ourselves too far by not having enough squad depth to compete in the league and consolidate 3rd and also cope with the strain of playing numerous games in Europe.

I would much prefer a shorter run in Europe this season but making sure we qualify again next season through consistent league performances (and or another cup run) and just build the team and finances up slowly.

[Captain America]

My worry is that we end up going the same way as Aberdeen by stretching ourselves too far by not having enough squad depth to compete in the league and consolidate 3rd and also cope with the strain of playing numerous games in Europe.

I would much prefer a shorter run in Europe this season but making sure we qualify again next season through consistent league performances (and or another cup run) and just build the team and finances up slowly.

I don't think it would be too bad getting to the group stages, but you're right I would prefer another domestic trophy to a European run.

3rd place should be the primary goal of this season.

[Murrr]

According to Real Radio and a horde of journalists on Twitter, we're in talks to sign Kris Boyd. Not sure how I feel about that.

[waltz]

According to Real Radio and a horde of journalists on Twitter, we're in talks to sign Kris Boyd. Not sure how I feel about that.

Goals. Lots of goals. From a cunt.

[Soda Jerk]

Birmingham have signed Zigic from Valencia. All 6ft 8inches of him.

I should really put a bet on Birmingham to score the most goals from headers next season, before bookies latch on to how fucking massive he is.

[Sam 45]

I wish Newcastle would learn that when we sign players from Rangers, they are never good enough.

[Alphas]

According to Real Radio and a horde of journalists on Twitter, we're in talks to sign Kris Boyd. Not sure how I feel about that.

I'd be interested to see how Boyd would get on in the Premiership. I think he would actually get on quite well. The obvious agruement against him is whether he would cope with the better quality of defenders but give him a ball and a yard of grass and he'll score goals.

[Jeanette]

I'm fed up with all the spectulation of where Kris Boyd is going. If he doesn't stay at Ibrox he'll be in England... any talk of Turkey etc is just stupid. He struggled a couple of seasons ago in the Scottish Cup Final when it was roasting so he's hardly going to manage Turkey.

If he is going to go, which I think he probably will, I'd prefer it was Newcastle. I don't know why.

[Scorge]

First round of the Diddy Cup* drawn tomorrow, followed by the League Cup on Friday. Ideally, a couple of home ties against some third division cannon fodder would be quite nice.....

* unless we win it, then it's a valued piece of silverware.

[Guest idol_wild]

Kris Boyd would be an epic failure at Newcastle. He's not English Premier League material. There aren't enough facets to his game for that level. SPL is Boyd's level, and quite why he feels he can cut it at a higher level when he can barely run is quite beyond me.

[Soda Jerk]

I'd like to see him give it a go. There's something I quite like about Boyd even though he's a dirty hun. Does that make me a bad man? I especially liked his biker-tache phase. More thugs in Football. Less namby pampy nancyboys.

[Guest idol_wild]

I'd like to see him give it a go. There's something I quite like about Boyd even though he's a dirty hun. Does that make me a bad man? I especially liked his biker-tache phase. More thugs in Football. Less namby pampy nancyboys.

It makes you a very filthy man indeed.

[Murrr]

I worry about Boyd's all-round contribution and general fitness levels, as well as the fact that he's played in the SPL for the entirety of his career. Saying that, he's scored an absolute fuckload of goals over the years and has a real predatory instinct, which is something we've been lacking for about 3-4 years. I'd be wiling to take a chance on him: he'd be signing on a free transfer, so it's relatively low-risk, and I think he'd benefit from playing alongside a workhorse like Carroll too. Besides, who else could we sign that would do a better job? I'd prefer Steven Fletcher or Nicky Maynard, but they're going to cost money that we probably don't even have.

[Lemonade]

Kris Boyd would be an epic failure at Newcastle. He's not English Premier League material. There aren't enough facets to his game for that level. SPL is Boyd's level, and quite why he feels he can cut it at a higher level when he can barely run is quite beyond me.

I don't think that's quite fair, he may be an utter cunt, but his goalscoring record can't be called into question. He's only 26 and he's the top SPL goalscorer of all time. Anyone who can score 164 goals in 297 starts (thanks, Wikipedia) is quite entitled to look for a move to a better league IMO. Plus 7 goals in 16 games for Scotland, proives he can score at a higher level.

[Murrr]

I don't think that's quite fair, he may be an utter cunt, but his goalscoring record can't be called into question. He's only 26 and he's the top SPL goalscorer of all time. Anyone who can score in 164 goals in 297 starts (thanks, Wikipedia) is quite entitled to look for a move to a better league IMO. Plus 7 goals in 16 games for Scotland, proives he can score at a higher level.

How long will it take before someone comes out with the completely meaningless "aye, but he never scores against Celtic or in Europe" blurb?

[Shaki]

How long will it take before someone comes out with the completely meaningless "aye, but he never scores against Celtic or in Europe" blurb?

You did it, at 14:13

[Guest idol_wild]

I don't think that's quite fair, he may be an utter cunt, but his goalscoring record can't be called into question. He's only 26 and he's the top SPL goalscorer of all time. Anyone who can score 164 goals in 297 starts (thanks, Wikipedia) is quite entitled to look for a move to a better league IMO. Plus 7 goals in 16 games for Scotland, proives he can score at a higher level.

So he's scored just over 1 goal every 2 games on average in the SPL? Personally, I think that's the minimum a good centre forward in Scotland should be achieving. Sure, the vast majority fail, but that's usually down to them being proper horse, in the grand scheme of things.

Kris Boyd is an excellent example of an SPL poacher, but I truly believe he'll fail miserably at a higher level. Especially the English Premier League. He's very good at positioning himself and kicking the ball into the back of the net. That works for some strikers in the SPL. I can't see it working for a team like Newcastle, where his lack of wit and mobility will see him seriously suffer.

He'd be up against faster, stronger and more intelligent defenders in a more advanced league.

[Soda Jerk]

I think Boyd would fair quite well at a more dominant club. A team that controls possession, and creates the most chances... Pretty much like where he's at now. I don't think he could be the player he is now by feeding off scraps from poor, rash delivery or having to create a chance from nothing. I don't think there's much chance of a title contending side signing him, unless he goes abroad to a lesser league, or just stays where he is.

[Guest Gladstone]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Kris Boyd gets unfair criticism in my opinion. He's good at being in the right place at the right time and sticking the ball in the net. You can't teach that shit. He's nowhere near as lazy as he's made out to be - he does sometimes chase back and can be seen outside the box, holding the play up and involving others but the fact is he's better utilised in the box because that's where he does the damage. If you've got Kenny Miller covering every square inch of the field, you need Boyd in the box to take the chances.

Another good point in Boyd's favour is the number of goals Kenny Miller has bagged over the past couple of seasons. Everyone in football knows Miller is fucking pish but alongside Boyd he's got a decent number of goals to his name. I haven't analysed his goals but I'm guessing that Boyd has played a reasonable part in this, be it good movement off the ball to create space, good link up play, knock downs etc.

If Boyd gets a move to the Premiership I think he'll do very well. He'll simply have to work hard in training and on the pitch to maintain a place in any team down there, but I think he will and it will benefit him greatly. I'm all for it - it gets him the fuck away from Ibrox and therefore not scoring goals for them and it will make him a better player, which is good for Scotland.

As for not scoring in the bigger games, that is a black mark to his name really but he scores so many goals that he can be forgiven. If he's against Premiership opposition every week, he'll soon find the knack for scoring against them.

[Soda Jerk]

Ronaldo never scored against Chelsea in the league. What a waste of 12million.

[Scorge]

North/East Draw

Dunfermline Athletic -v- Arbroath

Peterhead -v- Montrose

Stirling Albion -v- Falkirk

Elgin City -v- Ross County

Raith Rovers -v- Cowdenbeath

Dundee -v- Alloa Athletic

East Fife -v- Brechin City

Bye: Forfar Athletic

South/West Draw

Partick Thistle -v- Clyde

Queen of the South -v- Albion Rovers

Dumbarton -v- Morton

Airdrie United -v- Ayr United

Stranraer -v- East Stirlingshire

Stenhousemuir -v- Annan Athletic

Queen's Park -v- Livingston

Bye: Berwick Rangers

Oh yes, lovely start!

[RossP]

Interesting matches for Elgin and Montrose.

Might pretend to be an Elgin City fan that weekend

After reading 3 different stories on who goes into tomorrow's League Cup draw... I still don't know if we are in it!! Some say all 30 SFL clubs in the 2009/2010 season go into the first round, others say that we get a bye into the 2nd round bevause we finished top of the 1st Division/are into the SPL now.

[Scorge]

I reckon you're not: the 30 SFL teams from this year get knocked down to 15, then all the SPL clubs that aren't in Europe go into the hat (plus 7 = 22, knocked down to 11), then the OF, Arabs, Hibees, and Murderwell = 16.

Who's the maths teacher here again?

[RossP]

Who's the maths teacher here again?

Not me! I'm full-time Support For Learning now (ironically starting the job days after ICT leave the SFL)

Bah, I'm still not sure. I'll wait till tomorrow to see.

Would rather like an away match to Arbroath, so the ICT fans can welcome club legend Paul Sheerin into his new job.

[RossP]

Morinho the new Real Manager (it's been known for yonks now, but the official confirmation is on it's way)

Brilliant picture on bbc.co.uk/football

In other news I've been planning my summer football games

MATCHES

* Sat 17th July: [friendly] Forres -V- ICT

* Wed 21st July: [friendly] Elgin -V- ICT (U19/Youth)

* Sat 31st July: ICT -V- Queens Park - CIS League Cup Rd 1

* Saturday 7th August - [friendly] ICT -V- a European team (no name released yet)

* Wed 11th August Sweden v. Scotland in Stockholm.