DFC1974

Only 72 days to replace the Jack in our own box. I have every confidence that McPake is prioritising his workload, but we’ve lost 3 extremely good attacking options from this time last year and yet our weakest link for last 2 seasons is still here. I really hope JMcP is looking at goalkeeping options between now and October.

Strangely Hemmings departure reminds me a little of Scott Bain’s. Normally I completely give a f**k when one of our ‘star’ players leaves, but in this instance, like Bain, I’m completely not bothered.

It’s a real shame that it’s come to this for a fellow poster. At the end of the day, signing rumours are one of the key sources of interest/discussion/debate that we all love. Why people should hold others to account for the rumours they want to share really is beyond me.

19 - is it someone Martin (or Martin someone)?

17 joe Mcbride?

The Schenk horror show was probably my first tantrum in about 30 years and the last one since. Although, I still think of it more as the Konrad and McPake horror show more than Schenk. An utterly woeful defensive performance between these two and several wicked deflections, Schenk’s obvious incompetence was exposed much more than it normally should have been. Still didn’t stop me being in a complete cream puff for a few days after though.

Apart from being a completely terrible footballer, the problem Moussa had was living up to the fanfare that McCann generated surrounding his signing. He built him up to be some sort of future hall of fame fans favourite, which only added to the over all comedy of the situation, subsequently putting an unfair expectation on Moussa. His composure in front of goal was mostly ‘Sporting Bloopers’ stuff and belong on a DVD alongside SPL comedy greats like Harald Brattbak and Peter Van Vossen. 110% in effort, maybe, but definitely not McCann’s finest moment.

Mask wearing is a pain in the erse, no doubt about. God knows how many times I’ve totally forgotten to bring one out with me and had to turn back. Someone berating me about it would tip me over the edge. However, to be fair to the bloke and contrary to your argument Cobra, if Inverness is reporting zero new cases then surely the mask is ‘doing it’s bit’ at keeping that number down. To suggest Covid doesn’t ‘exist’ in Inverness is a big shout. Plenty people will soon be traveling back and forth outside of the Covid-free borders of the town who may be unknowingly carrying the virus. The mask is a layer of protection from preventing Inverness from losing its Covid-free status, so I’d have thought it was probably a good thing. Your bloke in the shop maybe just wants to keep things that way. Or maybe he’s just one of those twats that just like to moan about something for the sake of it.

Yeah I wasn’t being serious. It would completely undermine the spirit of teamwork and team cohesion to have one person singled out to be exempt the same sacrifices as everyone else.

Frees up a salary to keep Hemmings wage at 100%

Not that I know anything about insurance but I’m sure this could be strongly debated. I think the first Coronavirus (SARS Cov) case was around in the early 2000s. I think even the variant of the virus was already known but not by the Covid 19 name (as mentioned in this Netflix programme from 2018 https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/my-secret-terrius-netflix-coronavirus-prediction-south-korea-a9429021.html). It just that there was no reported cases or available vaccine - which would arguably make taking out an insurance against such viruses very prudent!!

It could be a combination of factors. We have equally seen proven ‘quality’ players come to Dens and spectacularly flop. I think it was @harry94 who pointed out that a lot of our recruitment has been done en masse (Last 3 managers?) which creates a bit of chaos and has perhaps stifled the true potential of a large number of the signings. We seem to always be replacing entire squads rather than looking at individual areas within a team that could be strengthened and identifying players that are particularly suited to that specific role. The constant focus and turnover of first team players maybe limits opportunity for the youths in some respects. Although McPake has been very proactive with giving youth a chance. However, I think we desperately need some first team squad stability before the youth team can fully prosper and our scouting system can be accurately assessed.

Juan, 2, 3

Eric Sinclair

I think the wording of the newspaper article puts a deliberate hostile spin on things by outing Hemmings and using terms like ‘controversial’ and ‘fighting his corner’ but the reality we don’t know the relationship between Hemmings and Nelms regarding this. Hemmings is completely within his rights to refuse the pay cut and Nelms could have every respect for KH’s decision. I think KH could’ve comfortably walked into a SPL side at the time he chose to come back to us. To drop a wage in addition to dropping a league might just be a ‘favour’ too far at this stage in his career. IMO DFC (and us fans) can’t hold this against him once the season starts if he is still at Dens.