StuDee

Just an FYI, Rangers v Dundee, League Cup Quarter final, live on Premier Sports, Saturday 5:30. No idea if Braybrooke will start but he didn't in our last game and we lost so decent chance.

Quick update for you all, McCowan was signed by Celtic, so Braybrooke suddenly has a much higher chance of game time. No one else at the club in his mould so he will certainly get his chance.

A depressing lack of them from our own system in recent years - the club was decimated by administrations in 2003 and 2010 and the the youth system among others was a mess. The current owners came in in 2014 and have slowly been transforming everything about the club (see new stadium plans video released a few days ago). Gordon Strachan came in a few years ago to overhaul the youth system and we are now just starting to see the results. Lyall Cameron is the pick of them so far, Scotland u21 and likely moving on to bigger things within the next year. 16 year old Seb Lochhead looks like he’s about to sign for Wolves and 15 year old keeper Ally Graham has interest from all over including Arsenal. Aside from that the best players to play for us previously are probably Glen Kamara at Rennes and notably Owen Beck who we had from Liverpool last season, now at Blackburn. Luke McCowan would fall into this category too having taken him from relative obscurity at Ayr Utd to being linked with a 7 figure bid from Celtic. We’ve been the definition of a yo-yo club for the last few years, so stability was the target last season and we overshot massively, only just missing out on Europe in the last few games. Most people assumed we would fall back a bit this season so survival was still probably the goal, maybe aiming for top 6. So far though we are absolutely flying sitting 4th and including the league cup groups and last 16, have scored 31 in 8 games so far, so considering Hearts, Hibs and Kilmarnock have all had shocking starts, suddenly we are probably hoping Europe. I’m sure that’ll come crashing back to Earth after we play fellow challengers St Mirren who pipped us to the last spot last season.

Anyone getting caps for England youth sides has clearly got something about them. Our manager's record so far with all signings has been tremendous as well, there have only been 1 or 2 that haven't been better than what we've seen previously, so no reason to think Braybrooke will be different. The only concerns really are how long it may take him to get up to speed after a bad injury and not having played at this level really. We have an exceptionally young side already though, full of Scotland, England and France youth players and they're not exactly struggling so hopefully that helps him settle in.

Dundee fan here! As someone said it will be a good mixture of opposition for him to test himself against. There are games we should be on the front foot, derbies that are really blood and thunder (I'd urge you to watch the highlights of the first one this season) and games where we will have to sit in. Part of the problem with the perception of our league is that nearly every televised match is "Insert Diddy Club Here" v Celtic/Rangers and that just makes every other side look terrible. Highlights from our derby draw (Sky) and win over Hearts (Premier Sports) will give you a better idea of standard. There's only one plastic pitch at Kilmarnock. There are no more we can play on in the League Cup so the only others would be in the Scottish Cup. Even then there aren't as many in Scotland as you might expect. It will be interesting to see how much he plays as he's trying to break into the strongest and most settled part of our team. If Luke McCowan joins Celtic or someone else today as rumoured then he may slot into his role without much other competition, but if not then he will have his work cut out to establish himself. His best chance might actually come against Rangers in the cup next month (on Premier) as we will likely play 2 deeper players rather than 1, so he may play alongside Sylla. The view of Scottish football is a little outdated, but probably persists due to the issue with the television choices. We tend to play a mixture of long and short, but always very high intensity with good passing through the middle, so hopefully he slots in well.