steviemay17

I half expect us to sign nobody, CD to think Eetu is this season's Callum Hendry as the panic recall when all other options run out

Have to say I think I'm done until Davidson goes. There's always an interesting debate about how loyal fans should be alongside whether clubs like Saints should be prioritizing entertainment or success, but under this regime we're not going to get either. I thought I was maybe being too harsh on the manager and maybe the players were the issue, so I sat right behind the dugout to see if there was anything worth getting excited about, but just watching CD for most of the game has made it clear why we have the issues that we do. I'll include Macca in this as well as the pair stand and shout at the players all game long, there was not a single act of trying to encourage any kind of attacking play. CD stands and yells at Bair or Murphy over who they should be tracking back every time we don't have the ball (which is 80% of the time) while Macca was just bawling "shape" anytime a player tried to venture forward to press. The common complaint is a lack of energy from the players, but It's clear that they just have no freedom to do anything proactive and are continually on the receiving end of reinforcement about the shape being the priority, so of course they don't break from it. I can also see CD's talk of "flexibility" involves shifting the shape from a back five with a 3 and a 2 in front to a back five with a 2 and then a three in front, that back five will never change. He spent most of the first half trying to move Carey and Murphy into different positions, but they have no pace and we can't string two passes together. The reaction to conceding the goal was telling, there was nothing from the bench, no move to chuck a defender up front to act as a focal point, just total acceptance of the defeat. It's dangerous to get into looking at Tommy Wright's time through rose-tinted glasses, but from memory - he and his side wouldn't let a red card or a setback define the game, they would adapt and give everything to overcome it. Under CD, it's like he's just looking for the easy way out of finding his scapegoat for the day and that's that. Personally I found the Muzz red card embarrassing, especially with the fans singing his name for making such a bone-headed decision and tackle that gives the ref the decision to make. Sure we can blame the ref, but if you give them a decision to make then the blame is with you, not with them for making it. Muzz spent the entire first half complaining to CD and Macca that they were getting overrun, clearly his frustration and lack of discipline led to that red card. Sadly that's far from an isolated incident within the entire squad and points to a complete lack of cohesiveness and responsibility with the "senior" players in the squad who also need to take a proper look at themselves. As for any kind of attacking plan, I can't really see what it was. Macca spent the entire game bollocking Bair for not being strong enough, it's potentially true, but all he really had were high aimless clearances to try and bring under control so not really sure what they wanted from him. He does clearly have some physicality, he reminds me of Matty Willock when he first arrived in that he has a lot of tools but just no idea how to apply them effectively against the opposition. I know we need him to be good, I would say both of these things are true - He's not quite ready or good enough to be our main striker this year, but he's also completely hamstrung by the system he's played in too. I realised after the red card just how disillusioned I am as a fan just now. Once Muzz was sent off we all knew that was it. There were no efforts to win the game, it was just to play for a point - I paid £25 to watch my team essentially set up where the best case scenario was that they would time waste enough that nothing would happen and it would end 0-0. Where is the excitement in this? Who can actually look at this and be proud? I left McD yesterday yet again asking why I come and watch it. I'm 30 now, Saints have been something huge in my life, something to focus on when times are hard and something that I'm proud to be a part of. I love my team, but we have a manager who's sucked every single ounce of joy from what is supposed to be the beautiful game. Saints aren't what we used to be. We rarely played teams off the park, but we made it hard, we fought and we still tried to win games despite a mismatch in resources and often quality. Under CD all we do now is exist, we make up the numbers and just allow other teams to have their way with us, there is no joy or excitement.

From my very brief experience, agents are invaluable if you're a very average player and desperately trying to get a club, there seems to be a lot of work involved with very little reward as they try and hunt down every HOR at lower levels to try and make something happen. I'm guessing that's why they go the other way once they have good players in their portfolio because it's their chance to make money, they'll you can't really blame Clark either if there's 5/6k a week on the table down south, and you can also argue that without an agent the rumoured interest from Stoke/Derby might not be there because he plays for Saints and is pretty unknown down south. I would also say that he really doesn't need an agent for Dundee Utd to be interested, so if it's true about Jmc fucking him over then it's a shame and a move Zander could've engineered himself and gone without the hassle

What is this goal thing you speak of? CD's signings don't do that?

and there's your Doohan link

I'm torn on Carey, pretty sure all he's good for is set-pieces, but it's still something he's competent at when compared to Crawford, and as we set up with no plan to score from open play, it's probably necessary. He'll play the Crawford role perfectly, will be sh*te for 33 game a year, will score 4/5 goals that in theory get us 10 points and CD will want carried around Perth thinking he's a mastermind for keeping us up in the playoffs again

Is Woods actually better than Parrish? I can't see how he upgrades us over Sinclair and Parrish for the group stages of the league cup, would be the ultimate panic move when the window still has weeks to go

The Davidson vs Tommy Wright thing is interesting because that cup double should end any argument, it could also be rose tinted spectacles but I feel like I enjoyed watching TW's teams play more than CD's. Don't get me wrong, we've played some honking stuff in the past and it wasn't exactly Tiki-Taka under Wright, but at least most of the time I got what the plan was. With TW, when he was tactically right he got it really right, and when he got it wrong it was utterly horrific but at least he had tactics, I'm more and more convinced that CD had a system that's been handed down to him by coaches he's worked with and has been bailed out big time and lucky in having talent like Rooney, McCann and Kerr to actually make it work. Davidson has no plan, I'm more convinced than ever that he just drills a basic defensive shape and hopes to get lucky with someone doing something exceptional. Memory might be letting me down here, but I think MOH had a strong game against Dundee as a RWB, so the next home game against Livi all we did was hump 50 yard switches at him thinking that would work, it's such a basic grasp of attacking planning. You could point to the players and other coaches but CD is clearly so stubborn as all he'll talk about after games is the refs and how it's not his tactics that are at fault, so clearly this is all on him. I'm not optimistic ahead of next season, but I mean that more in a purer sense of just having some joy in my life by watching my team. Sure we might stay up again, but I can't see it being something many people enjoy watching and that's the real sickener after being in such a strong position after the double win.

Not that anyone cares but I'm one of the ones who didn't renew, I don't expect us to win every week but I was naively hoping we might occasionally set up to try and score goals and maybe even win the odd game, but it's simply the most soul destroying set of games I've ever sat through, I was genuinely coming away from games absolutely miserable. Can't imagine I'm alone in that

Also seems Celtic are going to sign Siegrist... Scott Bain ?

So how long before we make no notable new signings but start peddling the "like a new signing" return of Kane and Wotherspoon?

Hey, let's not forget we have Eetu to come back, and CD will spend November saying he might be the answer to get us our first win of the season once he's "up to speed"

Weirdly if we still had TW in charge I'd be more optimistic with these as the types of signings he would get the best out of and who would do a job, but CD has shown he accidentally stumbled upon a system with players who performed at an exceptional level to hide the deficiencies (Rooney, Kerr and McCann) TW's teams were always built with an ethos of being hard to beat, solid at the back but they also had some kind of focal point and plan in attack, with a talisman like Swanson/MOH/May who had enough quality to win enough games to keep us fairly comfortable. CD has shown no ability to set up a team to win games, we have no plan when we have the ball and it shows, the players off the ball make no movement because their primary focus is being in the position to return to shape when we lose it, and it gives the guy on the ball zero options and we've been completely figured out. Considine is a decent enough defender who is left footed so can replace McCart, I imagine he's also perfectly able to shin 50 yard cross balls out of play and then throw his hands around so that's the replacement there, but neither he nor Gordon have pace, and if the RCB is expected to push forward and overlap we are going to be exposed to f*ck, or more likely, the LWB and a defender will have to sit back and cover and we will be even more predictable than ever. I always liked Wright and he's a decent enough squad player, but he's likely being tasked to replace the most irreplaceable St Johnstone player of my lifetime in Rooney. Unless we somehow can find some quality players who are capable of winning a game on their own then we're f*cked because the manager doesn't set us up to win games and he doesn't make subs within games to go for wins either, and it's hard to really point at any of his signings and call them an overwhelming success so limited confidence in that.

That makes sense. If he's the same guy I'm thinking of I'm sure I saw him play with BSC Glasgow in the Lowland league 2/3 years ago and he did look pretty impressive but was also bollocking a team of adults into position when he was 17/18 so hopefully we only need someone to be competent for a season, he goes on loan and does enough to come back and take over

Surely Sinclair is now at an age where he's developed as much as he's going to just with youth games and training, so needs to either start for us or go on loan to help bring him on further.

Hector Ingram might actually be a worse signing than the summer when TW spent his entire time moaning that we had a tiny squad and he couldn't sign anyone before signing Max Johnstone to be the 3rd choice keeper

Still can't believe we really gave Crawford a deal until 2024. From memory, was that agreed way before the January window because he scored a goal or two and then had to be quietly announced because it was clearly a honking piece of business that we couldn't go back on?

They somehow have completely different issues but will end up offering much the same output Wright is more switched on as a player and probably applies himself better but doesn't have the pace or stamina to go for 90, MOH needs a few seconds to react to anything so his pace is usually nullified by his own lack of anticipation unless he's up against and absolute haddie Would rather have neither tbh but can still see Wright happening

I'm pretty sure Random had some stats that Drey Wright was honking in terms of his actual output in terms of goals and assists, but I still don't completely hate it as a signing if he's not on a big wage and expecting a major role. Can play RWB or on either wing if we go back to that, also from memory he has the annoying trait that CD loves in Ali Crawford as well, he does always try to keep running and will track his man/ do as he's told in the pressing game, unfortunately he's not fit enough and doesn't have a turn of pace to then attack properly when we turned the ball over, but we don't actually set up with any coherent plan to attack or control a game so he'll fit perfectly

There's a chance his goals keep us up while also being one of the most unliked and frustrating players I can remember at Saints. Being largely wasteful is more easily forgiven if he keeps scoring winners though

Hibs getting Brandon Barker, Drey's big return is still on

I'm guessing it's mainly agents using our desperation to give the illusion of interest to force other teams (who can pay higher wages) into action and that's why it's getting into the media

A pretty needless comparison this, but seeing that Mahon has barely scored in his career made me think about Kevin James because I was convinced he was getting close to double figures each season for us Obviously he wasn't, but his scoring rate of about 1 in 6 is similar to Chris Kane over his career for us and Stevie May if you take out "that" season which was about 8 years ago Really hope Ciftci can get some goals

Interesting with the Mahon signing as he appears to be a right footed CB. Surely this means McCart is off now if we're paying over 100k for a player who might not be a starter if McCart-Gordon- Cleary are all fit, so it makes no sense otherwise

I remember some Michael Gardyne rumours in the summer, he's been released by Inverness..... Surely not?