Reid out, Dickson in Ghana squad Well, the minority that have been bemoaning Andy Reid and his captaincy will get their wish. The little Irishman will miss the Christmas period and the bulk (no pun intended) of January due to a knee injury. To me this is the worst possible news. Yes, we are probably over reliant on him, and yes he does eat a lot of pies, but he has been the heartbeat of our side in so many games this season and is our 2nd leading goalscorer.

So that is our 2nd leading goalscorer and our leading goalscorer injured plus doubts over Ambrose and Powell to contend with. Our sizeable and deepish looking pre-season squad is currently looking a lot slimmer than, er Andy Reid.

The problem with Reid is that we have no obvious replacement. Alex Song, still a member of Arsenal's baby squad but not the first team is whispered to be coming back to us, according to Wyn Grant. Otherwise Racon maybe given a chance, I would be okay with that but the team without Reidy gives me a horrible sense of deja-vu.

Upfront Pards will have to decide between playing both Varney and McCleod or just one of them with five in midfield. At least we get Mills and Sam back Saturday.

Richard Murray today said that there "won't be a big spending spree in January," but suggested there will be some ins and outs plus some loan activity.

One player who will add to our current squad is Chris Dickson, who returns on Friday from his loan spell at Gillingham. In fact it has been a whirlwind 12 months for the striker, who today was chosen alongside Michael Essien in the preliminary Ghana squad for the African Nations. Congratulat....oh hang on, that's not good is it? Let's hope he doesn't make the cut!  ¶ 19:59