CLYDE FC Season 2017-18 Thread

[cfcuk]

Think we need to read a bit between the lines here. Here is a list of Chapman's signings, who didn't come directly from Annan:
PJ Morrison (loan, Motherwell)
Kyle Bradley (loan, Rangers)
Kieran Duffie (unattached)
Jack Breslin (unattached)
Andy Munro (loan, Forfar)
Mark Burbidge (Clydebank)
Kevin Nicoll (Petershill)
Darren Miller (some amateur rabble)
Mark Lamont (loan, Partick Thistle)
That's not including the various no-hopers that make the numbers up in training. This is not a post defending Chapman at all but we are clearly scrabbling around for dross that no-one else wants, and tallies up with the penny-pinching mantra the Chairman was floating last May (no danger of us keeping Linton/Easton/Peaso/McGovern/McNeil). Apart from  Duffie (who has had injury problems), there is absolutely no pedigree there. There's not a player that any other team in the league would want; even Edinburgh or Cowdenbeath. It's a list from the summer when we signed Ryan Kane and Kris Irvine and only had one news story announcing five or six new players. You can't tell me an experienced League 2 manager wouldn't rather be signing better players than that.
Chapman clearly isn't doing a good enough job. Managers can have an excuse if they don't have a decent goalie or striker; he doesn't have that excuse. The stuff in between those is fully on him. But he's far from the biggest problem. 

Sorry david this is just apologist rhetoric we paid money to Annan for cuhhidy and ramasay who you told us were terrific we have an international centre forward a goalkeeper who you tell us has the best distribution in the league a centre half on loan from a league above a midfielder on loan who the thistle fans told us was a terrific prospect need I go on
Chapman is a football dinosaur no pedigree apart from getting Dumbarton promoted almost 10 years ago
I have no idea if the Clyde midfield are good because the ball is booted over their head Chapman is a problem he stands berating players for 90 mins we now have them arguing amongst themselves

Want to tell you the biggest problem we have is if the board actually think that Chapman is the right man for the job , Innes gave this guy a year contract yes a two year contract
On the strength of what?

[David W]

Just now, cfcuk said:

 

 

Sorry david this is just apologist rhetoric we paid money to Annan for cuhhidy and ramasay who you told us were terrific we have an international centre forward a goalkeeper who you tell us has the best distribution in the league a centre half on loan from a league above a midfielder on loan who the thistle fans told us was a terrific prospect need I go on
Chapman is a football dinosaur no pedigree apart from getting Dumbarton promoted almost 10 years ago
I have no idea if the Clyde midfield are good because the ball is booted over their head Chapman is a problem he stands berating players for 90 mins we now have them arguing amongst themselves

Want to tell you the biggest problem we have is if the board actually think that Chapman is the right man for the job , Innes gave this guy a year contract yes a two year contract
On the strength of what?

 

 

I have no idea how any of that has anything to do with what I said but I'll answer your points.

I think the money for Ramsay/Cuddihy is something people are running with and it's almost irrelevant. It was a development fee. Ramsay was only there for one season. Cuddihy was only there slightly longer because of a loan spell which I'm not sure even counts. The amount of development that Annan did is almost negligible. I'd be astonished if we paid any reasonable sum of cash for them; certainly it should have been more than covered by the under-contract McNeil going to Stirling.  Incidentally, the reason I didn't include any Annan players in my original post is that I assume they weren't on big wages down there, and that they signed for Clyde as they know the manager. Whether they're good signings or not is neither here nor there with reference to the point  I was making.

Munro is on loan from a team who have conceded 26 league goals this season. Yes, he can't get a game for a team with a worse defence than Clyde. Two seasons ago he played regularly for a n Arbroath team  who finished 9th. Last season he played 20 games for Forfar without ever really being first choice.

Lamont a good prospect? There's been plenty of good prospects who turn out to be out of their depth in a real league. However, that is again, totally irrelevant. The point I was making is that he's just another youngster,  one of 20/30 we could probably have signed, and not the sort of player we should have been targeting.

You seem to think, despite sentences like "This is not a post defending Chapman", "Chapman clearly isn't doing a good enough job" and "he doesn't have that excuse", that I'm standing up for Chapman. In case you missed those, I'm not. However, changing the manager will make absolutely no difference with a chairman who doesn't think you need to spend a wee bit of money to get to the top of this league.

[haufdaft]

PJ Morrison (loan, Motherwell)

Kyle Bradley (loan, Rangers)

Andy Munro (loan, Forfar)

Mark Lamont (loan, Partick Thistle)

Only one loan player (Monro) can be considered a potential starter.

Given our chairman's preseason comments about using loans and their potential benefit to the team, I think to have 75% of our loans sitting on the bench is a very poor return. Are we paying loan fees?

Surely, there was better loanees available.

Unless of course, our style of football make the parent clubs reluctant to loan them to Clyde.

[cfcuk]

I have no idea how any of that has anything to do with what I said but I'll answer your points.
I think the money for Ramsay/Cuddihy is something people are running with and it's almost irrelevant. It was a development fee. Ramsay was only there for one season. Cuddihy was only there slightly longer because of a loan spell which I'm not sure even counts. The amount of development that Annan did is almost negligible. I'd be astonished if we paid any reasonable sum of cash for them; certainly it should have been more than covered by the under-contract McNeil going to Stirling.  Incidentally, the reason I didn't include any Annan players in my original post is that I assume they weren't on big wages down there, and that they signed for Clyde as they know the manager. Whether they're good signings or not is neither here nor there with reference to the point  I was making.
Munro is on loan from a team who have conceded 26 league goals this season. Yes, he can't get a game for a team with a worse defence than Clyde. Two seasons ago he played regularly for a n Arbroath team  who finished 9th. Last season he played 20 games for Forfar without ever really being first choice.
Lamont a good prospect? There's been plenty of good prospects who turn out to be out of their depth in a real league. However, that is again, totally irrelevant. The point I was making is that he's just another youngster,  one of 20/30 we could probably have signed, and not the sort of player we should have been targeting.
You seem to think, despite sentences like "This is not a post defending Chapman", "Chapman clearly isn't doing a good enough job" and "he doesn't have that excuse", that I'm standing up for Chapman. In case you missed those, I'm not. However, changing the manager will make absolutely no difference with a chairman who doesn't think you need to spend a wee bit of money to get to the top of this league.

Usual football crap doesn't matter who the manager is won't change yes it does because there are good managers who get a lot more out off the same set of players

Ps I agree the problem is deeper than Chapman the chairman told us the board and himself weren't pleased with results let's see what they do about it

[David W]

38 minutes ago, cfcuk said:

 

Usual football crap doesn't matter who the manager is won't change yes it does because there are good managers who get a lot more out off the same set of players

Ps I agree the problem is deeper than Chapman the chairman told us the board and himself weren't pleased with results let's see what they do about it

 

Fair enough. Saying changing the manager will make no difference was a mistake on my part 

[South Lanarkshire Jag]

How's Mark Lamont getting on with you guys? 

He's done well enough with us in the Dev League but League Two is a different kettle of fish. 

[Fat Sally]

Reported.

[cfcuk]

How's Mark Lamont getting on with you guys? 
He's done well enough with us in the Dev League but League Two is a different kettle of fish. 

He will probably require lengthy rehab for a sore neck looking up watching the ball sailing high up in the sky from one end of the pitch to the other

On a serious note he hasn't played much don't really know why he was signed don't think he suites the industrial football we play

[BrigtonClyde]

The idea "managers need time",  isn't specific.  To do what?  If it's to win leagues and trophies, that's reasonable. 

But when they've been given an entire summer and at least 3 months' competitive football, they should at least be able to show some level of progression & gradual improvement.  That's the definition of a manager's job and there's loads of examples where that's been achieved.   There were warning signs early with Ferguson & it's the same again with this guy.

Are there better managers out there? Definitely.  But just like any other industry, in football word goes round.  If apparently some players were put off coming to Clyde because of our support, then guaranteed better quality managers are put off coming to Clyde because the club's rotten to its core.   What makes you think the candidate list is always very strong, because they told you? Ever seen any evidence to back that claim?

Combined with the performances and results, yesterday's  interview is pretty damning.  He''s contradicting himself,  placing the blame on the players then stating he trusts them.  He's clutching at straws, the support is somehow responsible. He's again trying to justify the failed long ball approach due to Peterhead's performance.     Yes Jim, ALL systems work against us, yours seldom works FOR us.

If you feel he should be given until January, you'll probably get your wish.  He & Innes have a long standing friendship.  Those charged with making such decisions don't have the calibre to do so, or much of anything else.  So we'll just have to hope for a Lazarus like emergence of ability while waiting to hear the "masterplan" statement from the chairman  who himself has conceded if it's wrong off the park, then this is what happens.  Ball's still in your court Mr Chairman, and it'll need to be a game changer to counter the garbage you're asking people to tolerate.  That's it at 403 now, when you're ready....           

[Karpaty]

We have a chairman who knows very little about running a football club and a manager on a two year contract who has no idea how turn the fortunes of a team who he has built. 

If David Goodwillie's court case goes in his favour in the next few weeks and things don't improve on the pitch then it's going to be a long hard slug out. DG will be snapped up for any amount of change that is offered to us and it gives me the absolute fear to think how bad we will be without him. 

[shawfield shed boy]

Missed yesterday and didnt miss it either...

 

Reports of hoofball not a suprise and one of my reaaons for enjoying my saturday elsewhere...

 

Listening to audio isnt good indeed. One half he says he doesnt tell players to play it long but in 2nd half of same clip he mentions peterhead changed their style to playing it long which he feels works at our level & admitted himself at fans interview that getting the ball to DGW to get him 1on1...

 

Lot of panic setting in it sounds but not a lot of football the way we want to watch,Maybe he feels some players dont have the ability but its his team...

 

All n All Quite strange and only a matter of time before we end up non league unless some immediate changes

 

 

 

[The Clyde Man]

Saddens me to read far majority of posts slagging players, manager and board but it is well deserved.

I chose weeks ago to go to the pub rather than be miserable on Saturday afternoons.
Still miss being there watching MY team but until the board grow some balls it will stay that way.

DG will be off in January for sure and possibly they think the cash will help but I doubt it very much.
The cash they lose from the many fans like me who now give the games a body swerve should be uppermost in their minds.

Can't believe how far we have fallen in the game over the last hellish years.

[SouthLanarkshireWhite]

1 hour ago, The Clyde Man said:

Saddens me to read far majority of posts slagging players, manager and board but it is well deserved.

I chose weeks ago to go to the pub rather than be miserable on Saturday afternoons.
Still miss being there watching MY team but until the board grow some balls it will stay that way.

DG will be off in January for sure and possibly they think the cash will help but I doubt it very much.
The cash they lose from the many fans like me who now give the games a body swerve should be uppermost in their minds.

Can't believe how far we have fallen in the game over the last hellish years.

I did hope the change at the top would provide some momentum. It hasn't. 

Those who are Board members may be Clyde fans doing their best but after several years of decline, almost to the point of it being irrecoverable, it is clear this model is not working. Unless you can find very effective and very well connected Clyde fans to turn this around then I can't see any improvement. 

We've dug a very deep hole and are currently still digging. Time to lift our eyes and look in another direction.

 

As for the manager I would go begging to Craig Brown and ask him to bring someone younger in with him to see us to the end of the season. It can't be any worse.

[haufdaft]

Won two league matches out of nine.

Lost the lead in innumerable matches.

Draws at home to Edinburgh City and Cowdenbeath.

Dreadful to watch football (especially at home)

No player that was signed by the present manager looks "good". This includes players that fees were paid.

Reliance on one player to do it all. In fact, our entire tactics are based around this.

Solution? Fans need to be nicer.

[Replays]

2 minutes ago, haufdaft said:

Draws at home to Edinburgh City and Cowdenbeath.

I completely agree with your post but sadly, we weren’t even that good. 

[Clyde soccer trendy]

Serious question here.

What are the CIC going to do about the current shambolic mess?

[the bigger picture]

It's funny how fans see things differently. Nichol seems to get berated yet anytime I have bothered to attend, he has been in my opinion the only midfielder or defender who actually has contributed anything to the team productivity wise and in attitude. 

If we had another 9 like him we wouldn't be getting humped every week. 

JC brought nearly the entire Annan team with him....you don't just become bad overnight, there is something rotten at the core of the club. Not defending the management but we have had more managers than hot dinners recently in the last few seasons and the inconcistency still continues ?

As for crowds dwindling, well some regulars have returned who boycotted the Alexander regime but the fact we are still sh*t and the seemingly lack of direction from the Board, does anyone actually know where the club will be playing ground wise in the coming years, has meant that those who suffered the last couple of seasons are now chucking it!

They need to give the support a vision, an end goal and maybe they will continue attending or come back, but at the same time in the short term you have to get someone one who can put out a team who makes you proud to support the Bully Wee.

Sadly both are lacking and I will continue to pick and choose when I attend. 

 

[haufdaft]

I completely agree with your post but sadly, we weren’t even that good. [emoji20]

Christ, I'm now having flashbacks. Dreadful flashbacks

[GYSPY ARMY]

I did hope the change at the top would provide some momentum. It hasn't. 
Those who are Board members may be Clyde fans doing their best but after several years of decline, almost to the point of it being irrecoverable, it is clear this model is not working. Unless you can find very effective and very well connected Clyde fans to turn this around then I can't see any improvement. 
We've dug a very deep hole and are currently still digging. Time to lift our eyes and look in another direction.
 
As for the manager I would go begging to Craig Brown and ask him to bring someone younger in with him to see us to the end of the season. It can't be any worse.

Contracted to Aberdeen unfortunately

[Clyde01]

Securing a player of Goodwillie's calibre should have been the break that makes a difference at this level. Unfortunately the rest of our team and management are so shite that we are wasting that advantage. It's just a thoroughly depressing and typically Clyde set of circumstances.

Haven't bothered listening to Chapmans post match comments cause he is a clown but if he is blaming fans now he can GTF. Try watching that shite for a decade and see if you want to sit there silently accepting it Mr Chapman.

He should be actively discouraging players shelling it up the park to nobody. How hard would it be to say 'do that again McNiff and you will be sitting beside me' for example.