The Falkirk FC Thread

[Zing.]

I wasn't in Brondby. Do you think it's ok if I still support Hibs? Would really like the opinion of Andreas on this one. 

[Guest]

Unless Houston can bring in some creativity, drive and goals into the middle of the park now I struggle now to see us getting near the highs of last season. Lennon will bring a tough mentality to Easter Road which will make them more consistent away from home this season.

Early days I just hope Houston gets a bit of the money to bring in at least one other.

[Harry Kinnear]

Unless Houston can bring in some creativity, drive and goals into the middle of the park now I struggle now to see us getting near the highs of last season. Lennon will bring a tough mentality to Easter Road which will make them more consistent away from home this season.

Early days I just hope Houston gets a bit of the money to bring in at least one other.

Thank f**k someone is talking about Falkirk Fc again. The last few pages of this thread was giving me the fear. It was like I was reading it but not believing my old eyes[emoji44]

[Ned Nederlander]

53 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

Unless Houston can bring in some creativity, drive and goals into the middle of the park now I struggle now to see us getting near the highs of last season. Lennon will bring a tough mentality to Easter Road which will make them more consistent away from home this season.

Early days I just hope Houston gets a bit of the money to bring in at least one other.

I agree with BPM.

[Ned Nederlander]

7 hours ago, Andreas Kelevra said:

Yes.If you cannot afford to go 6 months with out a wage - you are a deadbeat. Therefore going to Brondby should be simple to any sane working Hibs fan

I'll give those on a fixed income a pass, because how often can the 5th biggest team in Scotland expect to be in Europe? It really is a surprise when you get there.

Working in Edinburgh you should earning far more than a poor Falkirk fan like me.

 

Only 30% of Hibs season ticket holders are of working age ... the attendance in Brondby was therefore exceptional.

[RC55 FFC]

Only 30% of Hibs season ticket holders are of working age ... the attendance in Brondby was therefore exceptional.

And of that 30% only 5% actually work. Outstanding away support considering.

[RC55 FFC]

I agree with BPM.

Before Vaulks left I actually thought we were stronger than last season.

Houstie has recruited well & we now have good depth to the squad. Craigen will get as many goals as Alston in my opinion.

Vaulks going is a loss though but I do believe we will get a replacement in, likely a loan deal. Rankin is a great addition also and I've yet to see a Utd fan who wished he wasn't still at Tannadice.

[PipoIsABairn]

All the Elgin game showed us was that Houston has set the team up to play with Vaulks in the middle. Now that Vaulks is 100% gone it remains to be seen what he will do. I think trying to play with the same way with a Vaulks shaped hole in midfield won't work, but we have other talented players and he can focus on them and re-shape the team to take advantage. We've been crowbarring our midfielders into odd positions for ages and this might free up some of them to actually play in their preferred position. I'm not happy losing Vaulks but if we can play Taiwo in the middle of the park instead of wide right then that's something at least. Before his injury I thought Taiwo was a class act last season and Craigen looks like he could provide at least some of the drive we lose from Vaulks. Let's not also forget that Sibbald just behind the strikers always looks a hell of a lot better than sitting back in midfield or out on the left. Against Dundee last season we were in the game until he was pushed out wide. 

With regards to re-investing money in the team, where do you think the money that runs the academy comes from? I think it's almost certain that Houston won't invest that rumoured 500k back into a single player or even a couple of players because that's money to pay the wages of the entire youth team for the few years it takes to develop decent young players. As a system it's a gamble but way less of one than taking a punt on one player for a couple of hundred grand. James Collins, how did he work out for you Hibs fans? Kevin O'Hara could well be a fantastic player for us in a few years and Gallagher, Blues, Peggie, Stowe all look decent players. If even one of them goes on to have a cracking season for us before being sold for anything like 500k then the whole thing has paid for itself and we've gotten a season's worth out of a good player. Our cup run to the final was made up of a team that contained Sibbald, Grant, Alston, Biabi, Leahy and others who had played for the development team at various times before nailing down a first team place. Not every team can win the league, get promoted and be at the top table all the time. If we have another season as enjoyable as last year i'll be more than happy regardless of what happens regarding promotion. 

[Marshmallo]

It's always surprised me why we haven't had young players on loan from Swansea as we seem to have a good relationship with them.

Ross Wilson is sitting in a senior position at Southampton as well, give him a phone.

Unless Houston can bring in some creativity, drive and goals into the middle of the park now I struggle now to see us getting near the highs of last season. Lennon will bring a tough mentality to Easter Road which will make them more consistent away from home this season.

Early days I just hope Houston gets a bit of the money to bring in at least one other.

Yeah that's pretty much how I feel, with the caveat that if he isn't getting any more money, he shouldn't have pissed what he had away on Rankin.

[Hughsie]

Not even going to read the last few pages of this thread because it'll doubtless be fucking garbage as usual.

Probably inevitable that Vaulks would be away this summer but still gutted to see it happen. I'm quite happy with the Rankin signing but he's certainly not a like for like replacement for Vaulks by any means.

Hopefully Houstie can pick up someone with similar attributes but I don't think there are many options out there that are better than what we have.

[Shadwell Dog]

1 hour ago, Back Post Misses said:

Unless Houston can bring in some creativity, drive and goals into the middle of the park now I struggle now to see us getting near the highs of last season. Lennon will bring a tough mentality to Easter Road which will make them more consistent away from home this season.

Early days I just hope Houston gets a bit of the money to bring in at least one other.

He should be getting all the cash and that for me is the issue here. Only by doing that can he now improve on  last seasons team.  Hibs sold Allen last summer one of their best players and out of that deal they got mcginn mcgeough and henderson. They didn't give stubbs a few quid to simply bring in one other over the hill plodder so that at the next agm they can say look at how much our bank balance has grown again. That means feck all compared to winning the Scottish cup. We've now been stuck in the championship for what 6/7 seasons and I really can't see us getting out of it any time soon . Can any falkirk fan say that the team we have now would be any closer to beating Kilmarnock over two legs than we were last may?

[fazza24]

The last few pages of this thread have been a fucking car crash!!!!

Falkirk Fans need to get a grip, especially that Andrea guy, fucking loon!!

Anyway, we are going to sign Dwight Yorke so it's fine

[Rugster]

Jesus Christ. Whoever runs One F please get it working again tout de suite. 

[coppola]

35 minutes ago, RC55 FFC said:

 

Before Vaulks left I actually thought we were stronger than last season.

Houstie has recruited well & we now have good depth to the squad. Craigen will get as many goals as Alston in my opinion.

Vaulks going is a loss though but I do believe we will get a replacement in, likely a loan deal. Rankin is a great addition also and I've yet to see a Utd fan who wished he wasn't still at Tannadice.

 

Really?

[Shadwell Dog]

We've got a stronger squad but a weaker first 11 in my opinion. The only new signing that undoubtedly strengthens a position is Gasparotto.  Alston was a better player than Craigen, vaulks was better than rankin, kidd is an able backup for Muirhead, Austin is one for the future but still very raw as is henderson. Our season ticket up take this season will be at best the same as last year even after an excellent last campaign but then we are doing very little to get the fans excited and encouraged to buy them.

[Just a bairn]

34 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

We've got a stronger squad but a weaker first 11 in my opinion. The only new signing that undoubtedly strengthens a position is Gasparotto.  Alston was a better player than Craigen, vaulks was better than rankin, kidd is an able backup for Muirhead, Austin is one for the future but still very raw as is henderson. Our season ticket up take this season will be at best the same as last year even after an excellent last campaign but then we are doing very little to get the fans excited and encouraged to buy them.

Who are these wonderful, exciting players that you suggest exist? And if they're so brilliant, why the f**k would they come to the Scottish championship to play for Falkirk?

[Gollum]

11 minutes ago, Just a bairn said:

Who are these wonderful, exciting players that you suggest exist? And if they're so brilliant, why the f**k would they come to the Scottish championship to play for Falkirk?

Thank f**k someone follows that line of thought! Just registered purely to comment on the madness that this thread brings up regularly. Not an Ex-OneF-poster btw, been reading here for a few months now to catch up on news.

This myth that a fantastic signing would improve our season ticket sales is highly doubtful. We're not in the market for Messi and I don't see half of Polmont scrambling for a ticket to see even a top signing like Gary Mackay-Steven.

On that note, I think theres been a severe overreaction to GMS and Henderson on the last couple of pages. Would they sign? Almost certainly not, but are they wildly unattainable and laugh us off the phone? Probably not. Henderson has played in this division just last year, so logical step would be a loan to lower Premiership team. GMS will also have better offers than one from us.

So who are people seeing that would drastically improve us? A loan from England? A lower league scottish player? A lower league (league one or lower) english player for a 100.000? The latter would probably be the best way of creating value for a future sale..

Whether we like it or not, the times that "big teams" are in this league are almost up so we might as well use it to attract players whilst the Championship has a better than usual status. We need to be out of this league before Hibs and Dundee Utd have deserted it.

PS: Would love to chuck "a few hundred thousand" at Faissal just to take the piss.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Gollum

[bairnabeau]

Really sad to see Vaulks go like the rest of us and the Rankin signing looks lazy but I do wonder if we're likely to see a rotation of him and Kerr throughout the season.

Houstie seems to like an older head in the middle of the park and with Kerr another year older he's unlikely to be able to play the majority of games and be effective so Rankin presumably carries out the same role?

I also agree another signing would be nice to see. In an ideal world they would be a quick wide player that can operate on both wings to compete with Hippolyte, but I just can't see that happening sadly

[Bairney The Dinosaur]

I don't like the idea of Houston being seen as a lazy manager (cause he's not, obviously) but you couldn't get more lazy than Rankin. It's telling that most fans seen this scenario when Rankin started training with the team.

I have slight hope that Rankin isn't Vaulks replacement as when I was first told about the Rotherham move the same guy mentioned a midfielder from Sweden. Hopefully not a recommendation from Billy Reid.

[ANEWHOPE]

All the Elgin game showed us was that Houston has set the team up to play with Vaulks in the middle. Now that Vaulks is 100% gone it remains to be seen what he will do. I think trying to play with the same way with a Vaulks shaped hole in midfield won't work, but we have other talented players and he can focus on them and re-shape the team to take advantage. We've been crowbarring our midfielders into odd positions for ages and this might free up some of them to actually play in their preferred position. I'm not happy losing Vaulks but if we can play Taiwo in the middle of the park instead of wide right then that's something at least. Before his injury I thought Taiwo was a class act last season and Craigen looks like he could provide at least some of the drive we lose from Vaulks. Let's not also forget that Sibbald just behind the strikers always looks a hell of a lot better than sitting back in midfield or out on the left. Against Dundee last season we were in the game until he was pushed out wide. 

With regards to re-investing money in the team, where do you think the money that runs the academy comes from? I think it's almost certain that Houston won't invest that rumoured 500k back into a single player or even a couple of players because that's money to pay the wages of the entire youth team for the few years it takes to develop decent young players. As a system it's a gamble but way less of one than taking a punt on one player for a couple of hundred grand. James Collins, how did he work out for you Hibs fans? Kevin O'Hara could well be a fantastic player for us in a few years and Gallagher, Blues, Peggie, Stowe all look decent players. If even one of them goes on to have a cracking season for us before being sold for anything like 500k then the whole thing has paid for itself and we've gotten a season's worth out of a good player. Our cup run to the final was made up of a team that contained Sibbald, Grant, Alston, Biabi, Leahy and others who had played for the development team at various times before nailing down a first team place. Not every team can win the league, get promoted and be at the top table all the time. If we have another season as enjoyable as last year i'll be more than happy regardless of what happens regarding promotion. 

I only joined a few days ago & after recent contributions I thought what the hell have I done. But this an excellent summary. Worth sifting thru the other stuff! [emoji122]