weeyin

My subscription is set up as a yearly recurring payment, so I presume they have plans to run it again this season. It's the same service a lot of other clubs use every year, so I can't see why it won't be business as usual.

If he wasn't registered I would have thought he would have to be listed as trialist in the pre-season, but maybe that's different for pre-contracted players. But no, I haven't heard anything about the situation recently.

Not sure if it's been paid yet, but the FIFA rules say payment must be made within 30 days of the player being registered by his new club.

That's why we are able to sign guys like that. In the hope we can coach them to be better. In Ariyibi's first game he couldn't cross, shoot or take a set piece. By the time he left, his passing and shooting had definitely improved. You can improve the basic skills of a fast winger, but it's near impossible to make a slow player fast.

Well he's no Crawford Baptie, but we'll make do.

Two years, with an option for a third!

Decent youth pedigree in the Netherlands and then the English Nike Academy before signing for Wolves. A Motherwell special that could be great or crash and burn.

All that matters is when a player signs on the dotted line. The rest is just gossip, informed or otherwise.

One of the players (can't remember who) said after the Gretna game that most of the early training had, not unsurprisingly, been focused on running and fitness. The ball work wasn't going to start until later. So hopfeully that will have stepped up this week. Having said that, I've been watching the Copa America the past couple of weeks and there were a similar percentage of poor shots from the best South America has to offer.

Nah, just their own gaffer. Although, to be fair, pre-season interviews are pretty meaningless affairs that can be condensed to "good run out, everyone needs minutes, still looking at targets"

Decent highlights from Darlington's own cameras (and no clip chopping)

I thought Frear was one of the players that had already received and rejected an offer at the end of season.

Isn't the whole point of the "trialist" thing to keep them unnamed?

For any football geeks (like me) who want to read about this, I can highly recommend Jonathan Wilson's book - "Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics"

That instantly qualifies you for an Accies season ticket. Enjoy.

If we go the lone striker path again, we'll either need to find a midfielder who can replace Turnbull's 15 goals or find a striker that can score.

I'm hoping we're a winger short because we are still working on an Ariyibi deal, but that could well be wishful thinking on my part.

His bank based in Lithuania, so no British authority was going to bother investigating. They have enough trouble dealing with UK bank fraud. (And UK football administration with their "fit and proper" rules are quite happy to let crooked money and owners into the game). He was one of those businessmen who was close to the old USSR regime and allowed to buy state business when they were sold off post-dissoultion. So no Russian authorities were going to investigate him. If you believe the stories, the Lithuanian authorities ran an investigation, but I can't imagine they have a high rate of successful prosecutions.

I don't see myself, but I always enjoyed the days when men wore a collar and tie to the match. Brings back some good memories.

It's hard to find rich club owners that haven't hurt their club in the long term. That's where the scaremongering comes from.

Did he not have his biggest successes with Killie in our top league?

The team we played on Tuesday?

I think the reason for the arty stuff is that there isn't any official footage at these games. Just a phone and maybe a go-pro behind the goals. I expect (and hope) once the season kicks off in earnest we'll get back to the better quality vids.

In two words: Mike Ashley.

If you look at our young national squads success at qualifying for tournaments in the last 20 years, it's almost as unimpressive as the senior team. For as long as I've been watching football, there has been good young players in their teens, but we are terrible at developing them as much as other European countries seem able to do. There have been a few more good youngsters come through recently - often as a side effect of teams like ourselves, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee Utd etc. having financial contstraints - but if our history is anything to go by, most of them will have good, but not great careers. The last really successful young Scottish team I remember was the 1982 Andy Roxburgh side that won the U18 Euros back in the early 80s (John Philliben scored in that final, along with Pat Nevin and Gary Mackay). When was the last time Stirling Albion produced a youth international like Philliben? Or Clyde produce a Nevin? This isn't really news though. We all know the Scottish game needs an overhaul from top to bottom. We also know that nobody in power will ever do that while the short term interests of the OF and others are the prevailing mentality. As I said, I don't blame any youngster taking a particular career path. I just see it as a symptom of the underlying issues of our game - not as the cause. It won't stop me watching and enjoying my football across all the SPFL divisions - I just don't hold out much hope of seeing the improvements being made that could raise the overall quality.