A few months ago I was talking to an ex pro from Scotland, now a talent scout. He was saying there is loads of talent in the lower leagues up there, that dont go on. He was arguing that their prem clubs would rather take on experienced overseas players, from the lesser euro leagues, than try to develop lads from their pyramid. Thinks they often see bigger sell ons. He might have been a bit bitter of course. On the other hand Ross Stewart perhaps is a point in case. One thing for us is I always think we do well with Scottish lads. We have an affinity I think for each other. I have a few Scottish mates and they say I am just a Scotsman with his brains bashed out. I think we do have similar ethics. Allan Johnston under Reidy was one of my favourite players for us. He was a skillful bugger who would be worth millions today. And Chisholm is a player I will always have in my Sunderland side. Loads of other good Scots been great for us as well. Interestingly (or maybe I am dull) we had a player called Porteous play for us in the 1890s. A sign he is coming I say.
From a corner! Something we have not done all season. Will we reach a century of none scoring corners?
He's just had another shot getting into the box. We definitely need to improve the attacking threat from set pieces.
There is lots of talent here and your mate is spot on. They will always go for players from the lower leagues in england or a big name player rather than giving younger scottish players a chance. Recently a few scottish lads have started to go to italy to italy to play and have done well. Ive lived in scotland for over 30 yrs and feel scottish since ive been here since i was 4. The league isnt the best technically or tactically but the workrate and physicality of the players is really good. I dont think we will sign porteous but i would like us too. Theres a young lad called connor barron from aberdeen who is another to keep an eye on plus lewis neilson from hearts are 2 i like for the future
This Porteous lad sounds decent. If he is, A loan to Hibs of either Ba or Matete could be part of a deal with Lee Johnson. We would get a good player and one (or even both) of ours would get some valuable play time and come back improved.
If there are limits on the wage budget, I'd rather Ross Stewart gets a new contract, even if it means we leave January with the same squad we have (or even having lost Pritchard).
Sounds about right. I know many will disagree. It's from Pete O'Rourke who is normally on the money for us https://www.footballinsider247.com/...-will-seal-ross-stewart-deal-as-contact-made/
It's not an accurate valuation as far as most of us are concerned, but I think that this price tag must have been agreed with the Ross Ness Monster (not too high as to be 'out of reach'), who might want to go to Rangers 'cos he thinks that he'll have more exposure in that league, giving him a better chance of playing for Scotland
It wouldn't be an accurate valuation if he had 3 years left on his contract and played 50 championship games. I'd be surprised if anybody went to £10m for him. We know it would be a good signing but its a hell of a risk on a relatively unproven player at the top level.
Can't see anybody paying it. I'd imagine the majority of people would laugh their heads off at a £10m valuation on a player who's scored only a few goals this season and had one good season in League One. To be clear - that's not my view. Just if you look black and white. It's not like he's THAT young either. His injury has kinda screwed that up. Because half a season on the trajectory he's been on in his actual games and you could argue his value would be £15m not £10m. But right now I doubt anyone would go for £10m, when they know that they could wait until the summer, see how he does the rest of this year and likely be even cheaper than he is now, even if he has a great end of season.
Double it. Sorry but we shouldn't be selling him for 10m. There's a good chance had he stayed fit he'd be leading the goalscoring charts at the moment. It's not just that though, it's his all round game, his defensive qualities in our own box defending set pieces etc are priceless. He's like Ivan Toney in that respect. Some folk will say he can be replaced but sorry gems like him don't grow on trees and come along once in a blue moon, the last was Kevin Phillips and that was what, 25 years ago?
