28 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

On reflection I agree McAtee isn't as likely to stay as the likes of RR, Dalby, Forino, Sheehan, of course they are nailed on to be a big part of the first team week in week out. But the next level down - Gale, Simons, EE, Christie are all players that are replaceable should we get signings in. Currently they are all needed because we are generally short on numbers and that includes McAtee's position. Who knows what will happen, but as you say he was selected in the squad 23 times last season, despite injury and suspension, and he came on in most games, so SS does rate him even if that's only at L1 level. We have no idea who he rates to make the step up to the championship yet but I suspect he would upgrade as many as he can and McAtee is just one of those.

You really reckon he's brought in EE simons and Gale on long contracts if he didn't think them capable of stepping up... interesting..

Guess nobody at the club thought we'd get promoted when bringing in.

8 minutes ago, Chrisj said:

  44 minutes ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

It is

That is who I was thinking of

1 hour ago, only1swanny said:

You really reckon he's brought in EE simons and Gale on long contracts if he didn't think them capable of stepping up... interesting..

Guess nobody at the club thought we'd get promoted when bringing in.

I guess they didn't know, like the rest of us, we got to the play offs so zero guarantee of promotion. He signed Taylor hoping he'd be good enough for L1. And Apter. Not all signings are made with the season after in mind.

And if SS thinks Simons is good enough for the championship, its surprising he hardly used him in L1.

Taylor came from a higher level of football than lge1 on a free so that was seen by all as a good signing.

Both Gale and Simons have improvement in them just like both Stephenson and Watson this season.

Hard to fault any of those signings....SS hands were tied last summer and had to rebuild and clear the decks and bring in players on a zero net spend.

Apter again was a high end lge1 player at Blackpool it just did not work out here....Davies and Watson certainly were in talks with the club January onwards so would have signed if we had never won promotion.

Our main signings have yet to come in this window......If this Spaniard signs this week it will be seen as top signing. Other main signings will be going on behind the scenes.

Surprised we didn’t see at least one new face today after Schueys comment about ins and outs this week. It certainly sounded as though deals had been done so let’s hope they have now everyone’s back?

1 minute ago, Whitesince63 said:

Surprised we didn’t see at least one new face today after Schueys comment about ins and outs this week. It certainly sounded as though deals had been done so let’s hope they have now everyone’s back?

It's only Monday

2 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

It's only Monday

Really? Maybe that’s the point, not weekend?

On 19/07/2026 at 23:22, Johnnyrotten said:

He signed Taylor hoping he'd be good enough for L1. And Apter. Not all signings are made with the season after in mind.

And if SS thinks Simons is good enough for the championship, its surprising he hardly used him in L1.

He was signed on a 3 year deal to a club that had a publicly stated target target of achieving automatic promotion, so I think the club was expecting him to be much better than L1 standard

18 hours ago, masi 51 said:

Taylor came from a higher level of football than lge1 on a free so that was seen by all as a good signing.

Taylor played at Waterford before moving to St Mirren.

Fair enough if you believe a club that has had Bolton cast off's on its book recently such as Declan John and Dan Nlundulu and former Bolton target Keanu Baccus (who lasted just one season at Mansfield) to be a higher level of football than L1 but I don't think many would agree with you.

I certainly don't.

4 hours ago, Sluffy said:

He was signed on a 3 year deal to a club that had a publicly stated target target of achieving automatic promotion, so I think the club was expecting him to be much better than L1 standard

Taylor played at Waterford before moving to St Mirren.

Fair enough if you believe a club that has had Bolton cast off's on its book recently such as Declan John and Dan Nlundulu and former Bolton target Keanu Baccus (who lasted just one season at Mansfield) to be a higher level of football than L1 but I don't think many would agree with you.

I certainly don't.

4 hours ago, Sluffy said:

He was signed on a 3 year deal to a club that had a publicly stated target target of achieving automatic promotion, so I think the club was expecting him to be much better than L1 standard

Taylor played at Waterford before moving to St Mirren.

Fair enough if you believe a club that has had Bolton cast off's on its book recently such as Declan John and Dan Nlundulu and former Bolton target Keanu Baccus (who lasted just one season at Mansfield) to be a higher level of football than L1 but I don't think many would agree with you.

I certainly don't.

I dont know why we are chasing Kenny he came the same route as Taylor Shamrock then Celtic

I actually did not see John as a cast off. We signed him in lge2 and he did a decent job for us.

It for me is not the route the players are coming from but the man who is both scouting and signing them ie Markham and Harkin

9 hours ago, Whitesince63 said:

Surprised we didn’t see at least one new face today after Schueys comment about ins and outs this week. It certainly sounded as though deals had been done so let’s hope they have now everyone’s back?

3 in this week

7 hours ago, Sluffy said:

He was signed on a 3 year deal to a club that had a publicly stated target target of achieving automatic promotion, so I think the club was expecting him to be much better than L1 standard

Taylor played at Waterford before moving to St Mirren.

Fair enough if you believe a club that has had Bolton cast off's on its book recently such as Declan John and Dan Nlundulu and former Bolton target Keanu Baccus (who lasted just one season at Mansfield) to be a higher level of football than L1 but I don't think many would agree with you.

I certainly don't.

2 hours ago, masi 51 said:

I dont know why we are chasing Kenny he came the same route as Taylor Shamrock then Celtic

I actually did not see John as a cast off. We signed him in lge2 and he did a decent job for us.

It for me is not the route the players are coming from but the man who is both scouting and signing them ie Markham and Harkin

There’s an element of truth in what both of you are saying IMO.

It’s very hard to quantify the quality per se, of both teams and players playing in the SPL.

You can have players who can potentially be champ/prem standard or not even be L2 standard.

So then it comes down to quality scouting… and luck.

Even then there’s the massive unknown aspect which no amount of scouting can eradicate; how do they transition, how do they settle, does their personalities/character fit, will their skills and attributes flourish at a higher level?

No recruitment is ever bullet proof, we’ll win some and lose some.

Let’s hope there’s more Dalby’s and Kenny’s on the horizon as opposed to the Taylor’s and Baccus’

3 hours ago, W.cramp said:

3 in this week

Hopefully because there’s only just over two weeks left before Nob End and so far we’re nowhere near where we need to be. New players will need time to settle in and there’s not much of that left. Considering Fergal was supposed to have a list of targets ready if we were promoted it doesn’t seem much like it. Those we’ve brought in already we would probably have brought in even if we’d stayed in L1 so I’ve yet to see one player targeted for the Championship and times running out.

4 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

Hopefully because there’s only just over two weeks left before Nob End and so far we’re nowhere near where we need to be. New players will need time to settle in and there’s not much of that left. Considering Fergal was supposed to have a list of targets ready if we were promoted it doesn’t seem much like it. Those we’ve brought in already we would probably have brought in even if we’d stayed in L1 so I’ve yet to see one player targeted for the Championship and times running out.

That list will have had players that either

Aren't Interested

Aren't available

Have gone elsewhere

Have unrealistic demands

List of say ten, soon becomes two..

6 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

Those we’ve brought in already we would probably have brought in even if we’d stayed in L1 so I’ve yet to see one player targeted for the Championship

Let’s be honest you’ve no idea about this have you?

How do you know that Davies and Fawemo would have accepted L1 football?

Or any of the other players for that matter.

Yes you can have an opinion and of course some of them may have been targeted either way.

But I’ve heard countless times from FH and SS that we will be targeting Champ quality players/loans towards the end of the window, because that’s just the nature of the situation.

The alternative would be rushing to sign the wrong players just to have them in place for the 8th August.

Your utopian scenario of having everything sorted and in place now just isn’t realistic and you do seem to have the same gripe every summer transfer window 😊

Have a little patience.

15 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

Hopefully because there’s only just over two weeks left before Nob End and so far we’re nowhere near where we need to be. New players will need time to settle in and there’s not much of that left. Considering Fergal was supposed to have a list of targets ready if we were promoted it doesn’t seem much like it. Those we’ve brought in already we would probably have brought in even if we’d stayed in L1 so I’ve yet to see one player targeted for the Championship and times running out.

You had me checking my diary then! 3 weeks and 4 days before PNE.

Transfer window shuts 6 weeks today (when we play at Sheff U so that will be a fun evening as deadline is 11pm).

5 hours ago, masi 51 said:

I dont know why we are chasing Kenny he came the same route as Taylor Shamrock then Celtic

I actually did not see John as a cast off. We signed him in lge2 and he did a decent job for us.

It for me is not the route the players are coming from but the man who is both scouting and signing them ie Markham and Harkin

Bollocks mate.

Celtic are a higher level than we are.

St Mirren are not.

We all know that.

Even you.

Markham/Evatt signed some good players for us and some bad.

Harkin/Schumacher the same, with Taylor (on a 3 year contract) not being one their proudest moments.

They've just signed two other left sided defenders, they rate Conway obviously, so it's pretty clear Taylor is looking to be shown the door.

They got it wrong with Taylor, they are now fixing that.

So We binned off Tutu and are Keeping Christie? Lads legs clearly had gone last season against League one opponents 🤔

41 minutes ago, Sluffy said:

Bollocks mate.

Celtic are a higher level than we are.

St Mirren are not.

We all know that.

Even you.

Markham/Evatt signed some good players for us and some bad.

Harkin/Schumacher the same, with Taylor (on a 3 year contract) not being one their proudest moments.

They've just signed two other left sided defenders, they rate Conway obviously, so it's pretty clear Taylor is looking to be shown the door.

They got it wrong with Taylor, they are now fixing that.

You are contradicting yourself

6 minutes ago, deeane Koontz said:

So We binned off Tutu and are Keeping Christie? Lads legs clearly had gone last season against League one opponents 🤔

We didn't 'bin-off' Tutu.

He had another offer and took it. That was his right. He performed well in that time ... credit to him.

Christie, agreed, if he consumes a squad place we can give a good new player he should step down. I suspect he's looking to move into coaching.

I reckon we did bin off Tutu, mainly because of his big gob brother leaking team news on Instagram.

9 minutes ago, deeane Koontz said:

So We binned off Tutu and are Keeping Christie? Lads legs clearly had gone last season against League one opponents 🤔

Christie activated a one year option so SS had no choice but to keep him. We have to have one who is A better than TuTu and B less injury prone......Seems SS was not fully convinced on Stephenson as we have no back up bar a player clearly who is out of his league in the Championship.....Stephenson will be first choice r/b and it seems now if we can get this Spaniard winger in he can cover at r/b....Doubt Christie will start a game in the league but is ok for a 20min cameo

35 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

We didn't 'bin-off' Tutu.

He's a free agent, he was binned.

3 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

You had me checking my diary then! 3 weeks and 4 days before PNE.

Transfer window shuts 6 weeks today (when we play at Sheff U so that will be a fun evening as deadline is 11pm).

My apologies it’s Wednesday on the 8th not Nob End so yes an extra week and whilst I don’t expect us to have a full squad until the window finishes I’d still expect the majority in and up to speed with each other. Patience is clearly a virtue I don’t possess! 🤪

59 minutes ago, DLH said:

He's a free agent, he was binned.

He was at the end of his contract & in the window where he was permitted, he negotiated a contract with a new club.

We didn't get the opportunity to bin him, he'd agreed to leave. Why is this complicated ?

It happens. We've got players that way, we've lost some.

47 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

My apologies it’s Wednesday on the 8th not Nob End so yes an extra week and whilst I don’t expect us to have a full squad until the window finishes I’d still expect the majority in and up to speed with each other. Patience is clearly a virtue I don’t possess! 🤪

W63, in that time you'll have spotted 20 or so quite splendid new options ... mostly from South Yorkshire ranging from children to virtually retired, from free to £12m players. It's what you do.