(Alan Stubbs is...) The Next St Mirren Manager

[Dee Man]

1 hour ago, Ludo*1 said:

Guti is apparently about to get the Real Madrid job.

Cutting his teeth at the Bernabeu before moving to Paisley IMO.

[Enigma]

If Stubbs couldn’t promote that Hibs side why would anybody have any faith in him keeping St Mirren up? I think he’s a very poor choice and we had Hibs number a couple of times under him. Never impressed in our times in the same league.

[Bobby_F]

If, as reported, it's a three year deal, then that's some commitment we are making to him.

The Saints board must have been very impressed with him.

(I'd imagine there will be some kind of relegation clause included?)

[St. Jude]

If Saints sign Malonga I might very well have to consider my season ticket at Easter Road next year tbqh.

 

[ayrshire_nomad]

Been offered to Stubbs, couple of details away from being announced

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[Lebowski]

Stubbs last season at Hibs was mental. We had a few postponements, then 2 replays in the Scottish. Hibs had 1 free midweek from the start of February to the cup final, and that was only because we lost to Falkirk in the playoffs. Hibs had almost caught the **** before that run started, we finished 11 points behind them.

 

Stubbs is miles away from a bad manager. Plays good football, gets a tune out of talented players, and he cares about the club he's employed by. He is also frustrating as f**k because he doesn't adapt to the way other sides play at all. Which is why Hibs struggled against the likes of Falkirk who lumped 10 men behind the ball under him. Hibs dropped points in more games under Lennon than under Stubbs in the championship fwiw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ranaldo Bairn]

39 minutes ago, Lebowski said:

Stubbs last season at Hibs was mental. We had a few postponements, then 2 replays in the Scottish. Hibs had 1 free midweek from the start of February to the cup final, and that was only because we lost to Falkirk in the playoffs. Hibs had almost caught the **** before that run started, we finished 11 points behind them.

 

Stubbs is miles away from a bad manager. Plays good football, gets a tune out of talented players, and he cares about the club he's employed by. He is also frustrating as f**k because he doesn't adapt to the way other sides play at all. Which is why Hibs struggled against the likes of Falkirk who lumped 10 men behind the ball under him. Hibs dropped points in more games under Lennon than under Stubbs in the championship fwiw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*reads this post by Lebowski*

Mmm, some interesting points there, well put by the lad.

*reaches emboldened bit*

Ah. I see. He thinks a side with Baird, Alston, Sibbald, Hippolyte and one of Miller/McHugh/Shepherd is a defensive one. Still absolutely raging at Houston utterly owning Stubbs' Hibs side despite what's happened since. Odd.

[Coventry Saint]

49 minutes ago, Lebowski said:

 

He is also frustrating as f**k because he doesn't adapt to the way other sides play at all. Which is why Hibs struggled against the likes of Falkirk who lumped 10 men behind the ball under him. 

Same was true of Jack Ross. It's positioned, in his case, as 'sticking to his principles', but it saw us take an uncommon number of pumpings for runaway league winners.

[MrDust]

2 hours ago, Bobby_F said:

If, as reported, it's a three year deal, then that's some commitment we are making to him.

The Saints board must have been very impressed with him.

(I'd imagine there will be some kind of relegation clause included?)

Stubbs or St Mirren ?

1 hour ago, Lebowski said:

Stubbs last season at Hibs was mental. We had a few postponements, then 2 replays in the Scottish. Hibs had 1 free midweek from the start of February to the cup final, and that was only because we lost to Falkirk in the playoffs. Hibs had almost caught the **** before that run started, we finished 11 points behind them.

 

Stubbs is miles away from a bad manager. Plays good football, gets a tune out of talented players, and he cares about the club he's employed by. He is also frustrating as f**k because he doesn't adapt to the way other sides play at all. Which is why Hibs struggled against the likes of Falkirk who lumped 10 men behind the ball under him. Hibs dropped points in more games under Lennon than under Stubbs in the championship fwiw.

Falkirk were 10pts or so behind Hibs going into the last 10 games or so. My own take on the downfall of Hibs that season was bringing in Stokes, Cummings was scoring for fun pre to that and went awol after Stokes came in, results back that up and goals scored. Stokes of course turned up against Rangers in the cup final, so all is forgiven like Stubbs for the league

Stubbs will always have that legend status having won the holy grail of the Scottish cup.

I personally think its a poor appointment but there isn't a lot out there to choose from, like any manager at a club, they should be given that chance to see what he can do, I did so with Lambie/May and it ended how I imagined

[Lebowski]

*reads this post by Lebowski*

Mmm, some interesting points there, well put by the lad.

*reaches emboldened bit*

Ah. I see. He thinks a side with Baird, Alston, Sibbald, Hippolyte and one of Miller/McHugh/Shepherd is a defensive one. Still absolutely raging at Houston utterly owning Stubbs' Hibs side despite what's happened since. Odd.

Well Falkirk were set up defensively against Hibs every time under Houston. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, it was your best way to get results which you did a few times. So did plenty of other clubs, Hibs not beating sides they were better than was exactly why we didn't get promoted the first two seasons.

 

Anyway, completely off topic for this thread so I'll leave it at that.

[Lebowski]

Falkirk were 10pts or so behind Hibs going into the last 10 games or so. My own take on the downfall of Hibs that season was bringing in Stokes, Cummings was scoring for fun pre to that and went awol after Stokes came in, results back that up and goals scored. Stokes of course turned up against Rangers in the cup final, so all is forgiven like Stubbs for the league

Stubbs will always have that legend status having won the holy grail of the Scottish cup.

I personally think its a poor appointment but there isn't a lot out there to choose from, like any manager at a club, they should be given that chance to see what he can do, I did so with Lambie/May and it ended how I imagined

Especially in the second season there were extenuating circumstances. We'd realised there were a lot of games coming up, and an injury to Cummings at that point completely fucks the season. We needed to sign someone. Stokes was available and knew the club etc. Stubbs also got him working, and he never had a complete meltdown in the 6 months he was with us which suggests a certain ability to at least man manage potentially difficult players.

[Ludo*1]

1 hour ago, Lebowski said:

1 hour ago, MrDust said:

Falkirk were 10pts or so behind Hibs going into the last 10 games or so. My own take on the downfall of Hibs that season was bringing in Stokes, Cummings was scoring for fun pre to that and went awol after Stokes came in, results back that up and goals scored. Stokes of course turned up against Rangers in the cup final, so all is forgiven like Stubbs for the league

Stubbs will always have that legend status having won the holy grail of the Scottish cup.

I personally think its a poor appointment but there isn't a lot out there to choose from, like any manager at a club, they should be given that chance to see what he can do, I did so with Lambie/May and it ended how I imagined

 

Especially in the second season there were extenuating circumstances. We'd realised there were a lot of games coming up, and an injury to Cummings at that point completely fucks the season. We needed to sign someone. Stokes was available and knew the club etc. Stubbs also got him working, and he never had a complete meltdown in the 6 months he was with us which suggests a certain ability to at least man manage potentially difficult players.

Honestly, take the Scottish Cup out of the equation. Let's say you got pumped in that final. Put that to one side, would you say Stubbs done well? I know it's hard to put that to the side (I certainly wouldn't if it were Dundee) but all I read is deflection about how well he done for Hibs when the league form was shambolic and despite County being a league above, the budget Hibs had should have seen them win the LC against them as well.

[Lebowski]

Honestly, take the Scottish Cup out of the equation. Let's say you got pumped in that final. Put that to one side, would you say Stubbs done well? I know it's hard to put that to the side (I certainly wouldn't if it were Dundee) but all I read is deflection about how well he done for Hibs when the league form was shambolic and despite County being a league above, the budget Hibs had should have seen them win the LC against them as well.

But the league form wasn't shambolic. He has a ropy start first season, but that was understandable given the shambles Butcher left in his wake. By the time he figured out his best side Hearts were close to uncatchable. Finished 2nd. But lots to be positive about from that.

 

2nd season I've kindae explained already. Dropped a few points over the first half of the season, but the gap to the **** was manageable. Then we literally played every midweek. That tests anyone's squad. Ours was short. I'm not convinced there was much you could do about that other than completely chucking the Scottish Cup which would have been completely unacceptable. Or spending beyond a safe limit of what we could afford.

 

And you can't just ignore the cups either. We still had to play those games. We were a dodgy clearance away from potentially winning 2 cups in a season. If we'd got promoted rather than won the cup that season what difference would that have made to Hibs? We certainly wouldn't have increased our ST sales by the c.50% the Scottish Cup win did.

[Alan Stubbs]

I'll be interested to see how this goes. Stubbs demonstrated some pretty clear cut strengths and weaknesses with us.

Overall his transfer business was excellent with us and we still have him to thank for that now. Quite a few of the guys he had from the start became ridiculously better players under his management too. 

I'd worry that his weaknesses will be exposed even more at a (presumably) bottom six team though. His tactical ability left a lot to be desired and it was common to see the same mistakes happen repetitively without being addressed. Lennon's attention to detail and fondness of the football dark arts make Stubbs seem pretty naive in retrospect. 

I could just as easily see Stubbs do a great job somewhere or fail miserably. 

1 hour ago, Ludo*1 said:

Honestly, take the Scottish Cup out of the equation. Let's say you got pumped in that final. Put that to one side, would you say Stubbs done well? I know it's hard to put that to the side (I certainly wouldn't if it were Dundee) but all I read is deflection about how well he done for Hibs when the league form was shambolic and despite County being a league above, the budget Hibs had should have seen them win the LC against them as well.

Even putting any romanticism aside, you still can't disregard the cups and analyse just the league because they didn't happen in isolation. There is absolutely zero chance that Hibs side would've came less than second without the two cup finals. 

Don't get me wrong, it was still unacceptable to finish behind Falkirk and it is true that he would've been deservedly sacked if he'd lost against Rangers. As Lebowski touches on, the notion of taking a decent chunk of our games out of the equation relies on ignoring chaos theory a smidge. The final ended up being an all or nothing game for his reputation with us but ultimately he had more success than any of us expected.

[Coventry Saint]

It's just a pleasure to hear from the man himself, tbh.

[Zing.]

5 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

Honestly, take the Scottish Cup out of the equation. Let's say you got pumped in that final. Put that to one side, would you say Stubbs done well? I know it's hard to put that to the side (I certainly wouldn't if it were Dundee) but all I read is deflection about how well he done for Hibs when the league form was shambolic and despite County being a league above, the budget Hibs had should have seen them win the LC against them as well.

Why would you put the fact that he managed to win the Scottish Cup for a club that hadn’t done so in 114 years to the side?  Seems like a bit of a nonsense suggestion. He’s got his flaws as others have pointed out, but you cant just ignore his achievements. 

[Stu]

What was Stubbs like for bringing youngsters into the team? Ross made us a fair chunk in transfer fees from selling the likes of McAllister, Morgan, Mallan etc and would be good if Stubbs is willing to give youth a chance, although it'll be harder being in the Premiership.

[Fony Titz]

*reads this post by Lebowski*
Mmm, some interesting points there, well put by the lad.
*reaches emboldened bit*
Ah. I see. He thinks a side with Baird, Alston, Sibbald, Hippolyte and one of Miller/McHugh/Shepherd is a defensive one. Still absolutely raging at Houston utterly owning Stubbs' Hibs side despite what's happened since. Odd.

Every c**t knows falkirk are a horrible team to play. Horrible surface, horrible fans, horrible fans (again), horrible getting out the carpark, horrible accents, always got a horrible manager, horrible players who are schooled in horrible anti football tactics, horrible diving, horrible biting just fucking horrible.

Anyone that finds the whole horrible experience of playing horrible Falkirk really horrible is probably ok.

Plus he won't be playing those horrible c***s next season.




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[Zing.]

10 minutes ago, Stu said:

What was Stubbs like for bringing youngsters into the team? Ross made us a fair chunk in transfer fees from selling the likes of McAllister, Morgan, Mallan etc and would be good if Stubbs is willing to give youth a chance, although it'll be harder being in the Premiership.

From what I remember we didn’t give many youngsters a chance but that’s probably because we didn’t have any of great quality. We revamped our youth setup when Stubbs was there and we are beginning to see a couple come through now. 

Stubbs signed very well at Hibs though. Some of his still signings make up the core of our team. He did also sign a couple of shockers right enough. 

[Coventry Saint]

8 minutes ago, Zing. said:

Stubbs signed very well at Hibs though. Some of his still signings make up the core of our team. He did also sign a couple of shockers right enough. 

In fairness, who doesn't?! Even our squad for last season was loaded with some duds. Darryl Duffy, FFS  Of course we won't have your budget, not even your championship budget, but his signing record seems respectable enough to me.

As for the young players, I think it might be a while before we have another crop quite like the 6Ms - McLean, McGinn, McAllister, Mallan, Morgan, Magennis - so it may yet be a moot point. He's got an immediate and significant job to do in terms of bringing in between eight and ten players, so he needs to hit the ground running.

I'm not going to pretend he was one of my top choices, but we're St Mirren, we rarely get what we want. I'm happy enough to get behind him and see how we get on.