Stevie Mallan

[TheCoosTail]

We are supposedly after him according to this, taken from Twitter. http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/dundee/7033921/St-Mirren-ace-Stevie-Mallan-wanted-by-Dundee.html

[Attilio]

Hope there is some substance in this. Very good player imo.

[harry94]

St Johnstone linked recently, and Chick Young was saying on Sportsound that Hartley was watching him midweek V Raith (as well as Saturday as this article says).

I reckon this will be like our John McGinn interest last season and an Aberdeen, Hearts or Hibs will beat us to it. St Mirren has a highly rated academy (and have the bonus of it as the highest rating under the FIFA compo rules) so have demanded decent transfer fees. McGinn was out of contract and went for what was something rumoured between £100-200k (I think St Mirren's demands were £200k initially but they settled for something like £100k basic with add-ons). Although McGinn had played 87 top flight games (compared to Mallan's 25 top flight and 35 second tier games), he's under contract for another two years so I don't imagine St Mirren are that desperate to sell. I reckon that if the boy wants to go, someone bigger will be comfortable with parting with better money than we could offer.

Saying that, though, St Johnstone being interested suggests that there is maybe something to this (like a release clause or St Mirren being more desperate than it seems). I'd say £100k would be our limit and we'd probably have to sacrifice a player or two in the squad and not have the numbers too high.

I don't know much about the player in particular (mainly because he's only been a proper regular for this season) but 11 in 35 seems good for a midfielder. I'm fairly sure he was introduced as a defender and played right back initially and then was spoken of as a defensive midfielder and then a winger and my St Mirren mate a year ago said he thought he'd be a deep midfielder but he's been surprisingly so good in attack. A quick look at their forums suggests that they are crying out for another player to do the dirty work Mallan can't do so wouldn't be expecting much in the way of defensive stuff from him.

Edited 29 March 2016 by harry94

[dun_d_rob]

Cant see how we will be able to sign this boy as under contract until 2018. Think PH perhaps keeping eye on him in case we sell likes of Stewart in summer and then we can perhaps reinvest some of that money.

[Wattie Rojas]

I'd say el baktoui is a more realistic target.

[Sebastiano Nela]

Where's the cash coming for this. He'd command a sizeable fee

[bjs]

He would be a possibility if Stewart leaves. We should be able to command £400/500k plus add ons for Stewart, so its not beyond the realms that we offer say £150/250k plus add ons for a guy who could fill that position and maybe turn into another very good player who could be sold on again in 2/3 years time.

[8utters]

He would be a possibility if Stewart leaves. We should be able to command £400/500k plus add ons for Stewart, so its not beyond the realms that we offer say £150/250k plus add ons for a guy who could fill that position and maybe turn into another very good player who could be sold on again in 2/3 years time.

I agree - it would seem PH is making plans to replace Stewart and we may even have to face the fact that bids will come in for Hemmings too. If we are to lose one or both of them at least this time we will be in a position to replace them with better players than we have in the past if PH is given some of the transfer fees to use.

[Ricky Spanish]

The fact Mallan has a contract til 2018, is only 20 and seems to be rated even better than Kenny McLean and John McGinn by some St Mirren fans suggests they'll command a very decent fee for him. If we are genuinely considering a bid for him, it certainly suggests to me that we are expecting Stewart and/or Hemmings to be sold in the summer, which would fund any such bid for Mallan.

It's good to see that Hartley and the board are looking not only at players available on pre-contracts but also players under contract who'd command a fee. Think this shows the willingness of the board to reinvest a chunk of any transfer fees on signing replacements.

Hopefully we have secret agent White Cafu on the case, selling the club to the laddie 

[JoeCovenant]

I agree - it would seem PH is making plans to replace Stewart and we may even have to face the fact that bids will come in for Hemmings too. If we are to lose one or both of them at least this time we will be in a position to replace them with better players than we have in the past if PH is given some of the transfer fees to use.

Long as he doesn't do a DABs and sell them both at the same time!!!

[dun_d_rob]

Long as he doesn't do a DABs and sell them both at the same time!!!

Hopefully this is the difference between us and them is that  we realise that we will sell players if decent offers come in but we are making sure we identify quality replacements and reinvest some of the money. United's demise is because  that during the time they were selling players for big money, not even a fraction was being re-invested in good replacements any profit was being gobbled up by ST and then he simply increased operating costs further with higher wages on less quality with little or no sell on value.

When you look at some of the players over last couple of years Utd could of signed for free or by paying a small fee for to replace the players sold it makes their demise even more laughable!!

[chomp my root]

Hopefully this is the difference between us and them is that  we realise that we will sell players if decent offers come in but we are making sure we identify quality replacements and reinvest some of the money. United's demise is because  that during the time they were selling players for big money, not even a fraction was being re-invested in good replacements any profit was being gobbled up by ST and then he simply increased operating costs further with higher wages on less quality with little or no sell on value.

When you look at some of the players over last couple of years Utd could of signed for free or by paying a small fee for to replace the players sold it makes their demise even more laughable!!

I'm very much playing Devils advocate but we don't know what clauses were in the DABbies contracts or for that matter our players either. Agents are bugggers for pimping players on their books so hopefully ours are well tied up. 

I think our neighbours did spend quite a bit of the profit on new players and that's why Thompson was in the papers a couple of months back blaming McNamara for all their woes, shame eh ?