New Signings

Be fair to the lad - what he said was pretty witty. Always good to get a wee pop at Bob Crow!


McAllistair isn't good enough for the SPL anyway, has played here before for ICT and didn't do anything. Scoring for fun in the Second Division doesn't make you a great player - Kevin Smith got over 20 goals there but we kept Shala over him!

The bit I find weird is Houston saying that we wont be buying any players which suggests they will all be free. Now obviously I know that we weren't going to invest say £1m back into the squad, but I thought ST would at least allow £200k or so to be used. I know that additional wages will use up some money but as Houston says we will have Goodwillie's wages freed up.

I'm all for getting rid of the debt, but I hope it doesn't come at the expense of the squad. The additions of Rankin, Flood and Mackay-Steven on a free look to be pretty good business so hopefully we can pick up some others but in terms of a centre half we need to make sure we are getting a solid, experienced player and not some journeyman who is out of contract.....

I'm thinking Houston might not get any of the cash to spend, but Thompson will reduce our debt by £2.8m and Houston gets the reduction in interest payments to spend instead, that way it's sustainable.

United get £2 million up front, of which £200k (10%) goes to Goodie, so the debt can be reduced by £1.8 million. The £800k is performance related, so that will come in later, and the sell on clause, well, that will be 3 years away. Goodie will sign a 4 year contract at Blackburn and they will sell him on to a bigger club after 3 years.
There must be less being paid out this year in wages than last year as so many players have left. From this time last year, players to leave include Cads, Sandaza, Conway, Gomis, Bauben, Kova, D. Robertson, Shala, some of them on very good money. I am sure that Flood, Rankin and Severin are all on good money, but I hope there is more in the kitty than just Goodie's wage and the drop in interest payments.
I hope Houston brings in 1 experienced CB, a decent striker (back up to Daly) and a promising young CB.
They will all be free transfers, so that means not from the Scottish leagues!

Who would you get for 200k? I think it will be loan players we go for this season andtherefore paying just a percentage of their wage. Paying £1.8m (£2m less Goodies 10%) of the debt is the only way forward as we have to get to the stage of being a viable business.
All this moaning from PH about the size of the squad is irrelevant as every club bar 3 are in the same boat. The youth players seem to be coming on (except for defense where we have nothing). Goodies wages could bring in a couple but that will be it.
ST should be commended for not being gung ho with the clubs finances.

In another forum somebody had compiled a list of the 123 players that had been released from EPL clubs alone, so I am certain that there are some gems to be had from the free transfer market.

Admittedly, you would struggle to get a good player still under contract for £200k. All I meant was that I thought some of the fee received would be made available if needed for transfers. Like everyone else though- I'm happy that the club is being run sensibly with the long term future safe.

What we dont want to do is drop out the top 4/6, surely houston must get some of the cash although we did play great yesterday our squad still is very small, i think with 2/3 of the right sort of players in we can have another great season. A high league finish and a decent cup run brings in a lot of money itself, there seems to be a good attitude about united last few years they dont let their heads go down and have a winning mentality about them yesterdays performance was very disaplined.

I have heard that James McPake has been linked with a move to us. He was with Livingston then moved on to Coventry. Scottish at least and he is 27 years old. What we do not want is signings like Mihadjuks and Tim Van Der Meulen.

Scottish and Irish as Houston has done relatively well with these so far.

Tim Van Der Meulen always makes me laugh. How Houston ever thought he was a footballer is beyond me. He goes right into the starting eleven of Uniteds Worst Players.