The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Striker signings send out message
Dundee and Dundee United appear to have made outstanding signings in their striking departments, which make it even more likely that the Championship title will come down to a straight scrap between the two city clubs.
James McPake’s capture of Kane Hemmings is an inspired move. A huge success at Dens first time around, Hemmings is a savvy, smart, strong, frontman who can rumble up defenders and bring team-mates into play.
With Danny Johnson a natural goalscorer proving his worth with two well-executed penalties at Dunfermline last weekend, Dundee look to have a deadly dangerous front pairing who look like their automatic first team picks.
United’s acquisition of Lawrence Shankland was an instant success as he scored all four goals in a scintillating league debut performance in the 4-1 defeat of Inverness last Saturday.
Paired with youngster Louis Appere, who provided an inspired foil for the former Ayr hit man, United appear to have discovered a deadly duo to lead their line.
A combination of strength on the ball, strong running, and precision delivery from the youngster who played junior football last season, allied to Shankland’s ability to find space and execute his goals with calm and clinical authority, sends a seriously threatening signal to opposition defenders.
Goals win games, and both sides look to have signed strikers capable of delivering them regularly
Saints’ balancing act
St Johnstone fans are unhappier than I’ve heard them in years.
Raging at the Stevie May saga, after the local hero seemed set to sign, only for the deal to fall over terms apparently agreed, McDiarmid Park regulars are up in arms with much of their anger directed at chairman Steve Brown.
Saints have been cannier than most in running a tight ship and it’s understandable that the club want to maintain a financially sensible model.
Football, though, is an entertainment and results based industry, and, if fans feel they are getting neither, the danger is that they will desert the stands.
Saints have few enough fans turning up regularly to risk a revolt by those who have kept the faith to date.
St Johnstone have long been a model of stability; maintaining that requires a fine balancing act between prudence and parsimony.
Money talks
Six English Premier League clubs have spent more than £100 million in this transfer window with Manchester United in pole position at just over £150 million.
Arsenal’s fee of £25 million for Celtic’s Kieran Tierney shows that the English game at the top level exists in a parallel universe to our top flight.
It also proves that money talks, when a player who is a self-confessed Hoops man and who many predicted would stay at Celtic for life, is unable to resist quadrupling his wages to £80,000 a week, thus securing his financial future.
There are signs in the lower divisions in England that many clubs there are living well beyond their means and that some may be heading for serious financial trouble, but the top tier of the English game remains rich and resilient, and predictions of imminent collapse are wide of
the mark.