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If he isn't going to play there yet, it would be more trouble (and expense) than it's worth to arrange the correct business visa to fly over, sign a contract and fly back.

If nothing else, he'll be a fine addition to the long list of "Players Whose Names Our Fans Can't Spell"

We get a mention in an article in The Guardian today about the pros and cons of shirt sponsorship, gambling companies and iconic shirts of the past.

While I'm no big fan of the MLS it's certainly no worse than going to play for a mid-table League One side these days. And it's certainly easier to make a move like that when you're young and have no ties than when you're older and married with kids (much more complicated than a move to pre-Brexit EU countries). If he was planning on seeing out his entire career there, it would be a different story. Not sure I'd really want to go and live in Ohio, right enough. Columbus is an OK city, but there's not much else round those parts.

I think Ariyibi must have left him a DVD of his set piece technique. Semple's set pieces are usually OK, but I expect he'll be more a fringe player this season.

His average in the SPL is about 7 goals a season. He might be a decent target man, but not prolific scorer in our league. I'm hoping we are bringing in another player under the radar that is more of a 15 goals a season kind of striker.

What about teams (like Celtic) that bring in players (like Lewis Morgan) and then loan them out (first back to the selling club and then to Sunderland)? Or Liverpool, that loan out a player to Rangers to let them avoid paying a fee? Clubs do this all the time - the only difference here is the US connection where they are trying to make out they are Category 3 or 4 clubs. I'd also still like to hear how Columbus benefit from this. It seems a lot of hassle if all Oxford do is split the difference in the 2 potential fees, and they'd be crazy to do it for nothing. Plus it still feels like one of those situations where the tax man taxes Oxford on the value of the benefit they receive rather than on the cost of the deal. Anyway, I'll let the smart lawyers figure this one out. We might end up with a "Cadden" the same way we ended up with a "Bosman".

We got Porter for free, though, because it was cross border when, at the time, a move to an English team would have netted a transfer fee. Still legal though - and until proved otherwise, Oxford's move is legal too.

And Porter, I think. Cadden is a poster boy for our academy and we should be pointing that out has often as possible. 115 first team appearances. 12 Scotland U21 caps and 2 Senior caps plus the cup finals. And still only 22 years old. Instead, we get the usual "he's not that good" patter soon to be followed by the "why do we never get as much money for our youngsters" patter, without a hint of irony.

He doesn't really fall under the "someone we can improve and sell on" category.

Arsenal are famous for not chucking money around - but if they could have had Tierney for £3.5 million before preventative knee surgery, I'm pretty sure they would have taken him. But that is why I said we need to agree to disagree. Anyway, it's all moot as I fully expect DT to be in Celtic Hoops by the end of the season,

On a slightly different note, I thought it was massively unfair when Celtic signed Lewis Morgan in January and loaned him back to St Mirren where he was instrumental in securing their promotion. Seemed like St Mirren played the system there too (in a different, but significantly advantageous way). That barely raised an eyebrow in most quarters, so I'm not hopeful the Scottish authorities will back us in this one.

If Hastie gets loaned out to Falkirk for the season, nobody would bat an eyelid. It's the MLS component that makes this complicated, as they only started training compensation this year and tend to operate outside of FIFA rules when it comes to player transfers etc. So I suspect any legal battles will need to go all the way to the top, and likely take a while.

Their argument will be that lots of teams staving off administration use loans instead of transfers to bring in players. I have no dobut they believe they are trying to pull a fast one, but it's also difficult to prove and might be a test case for the FIFA compensation rules. I still don't see how Columbus benefit from it, though. (Unless there is some weird salary cap/roster rule working in their favour that I'm not aware of - which is quite possible)

You sound like someone that's just been rubber eared.

The MLS season usually starts in early March. If he is planning to play in that, he'll need to leave Oxford early or play without a break until October/November 2020. I agree none of this is Cadden's fault, though. Oxford may or may not be trying to bend the rules, and it's up to the authorities (and possibly the tax man) to decide if this is a legit agreement.

Remember the first half of last season when people on here were calling Gorrin a waste of a shirt and another example of Robinson's ineptitude in the transfer market?

We'll need to agree to disagree on that one. Carroll had scored 6 goals in his previous 3 EPL seasons combined before joining West Ham, and a grand total of 20 EPL goals in his 7 season EPL career. That proved to be a good predictor of his goal scoring form and his injury record. After West Ham forked out the £15 million, he played another 6 seasons for them scoring 26 goals total (never reaching double figures in any season and only making more than 20 apperances in 1 out of those 6).

You just lost sight of him in the long grass.

The same West Ham who willingly paid £15million for Carroll, yes. And they paid that 15 million knowing Carroll had picked up an injury playing for them on loan. An injury that kept him out the side for 6 months after they coughed up that transfer fee.

Just Ross County and ourselves that have won 3 out of 3 so far, so can't be too disappointed with the current form.

I suspect Sloth was brought in to play that role, but difficult to tell until we see him get some decent playing time.

Nope. Now ask me a difficult one

I knew it reminded of another kit. That's the one.

I hate audio-only commentaries. Hartley makes it 2 - 0.