Livingston - all the threads merged

[LIVIFOREVER]

On 01/05/2021 at 21:07, The Wrong Car said:

I'd say a backup keeper, 2 CBs and a LB for competition, a starting striker are needed. If Tiffoney and Hamilton return I think that gives us enough options up front and in the wide positions, but I'd be hesitant to go through another season with a patchwork frontline. 

As much as it's been a disappointing season, I'd disagree that it's the biggest rebuild job. After out first season up we lost our starting keeper, two centre backs, centre mid and striker. 

Surely disappointing periods to the season, but overall it has been a really good season, reaching a cup final and back to back top 6 spots. If that is disappointing for a club of our size, on the budget we're on, then i think you're in for a lot of disappointment from Livi in the top flight.

The fact we put ourselves in the unbelievable position to challenge for 4th place, and be in a cup final, and then it fell by the wayside, yeah i understand how that was disappointing (i'm not being sarcastic), but realistically we were reaching for the stars and almost touched them.

If at the start of the season we were all asked where we'd be at the end of the season, no sane Livi fan would be saying 6th.

 

*edit. i agree with you on it not being a massive rebuild job, there are a good core of players to the team, and some like Stryjek and Kabia will be a lot better for us next season. Looking forward to seeing how Tiffoney and Hamilton do after successful loan spells scoring for fun too.

Edited May 4, 2021 by LIVIFOREVER

[craigkillie]

52 minutes ago, EdinburghLivi said:

Maybe one for @craigkillie. I am not sure if there will be a change this season but I believe there was a deadline in July for submitting UEFA representatives that came up during the Hearts saga.

The July deadline was just for last season because the competitions started in August rather than the usual end of June. I'd guess the deadline will be the end of May this year as usual, but I'd also guess that in most cases clubs will be able to get it sorted out if they do qualify.

[Durnford]

3 hours ago, FreedomFarter said:

@Livi Del Boy Here you go. Away and spam the St Mirren thread now too. More fun for you. https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7057498/st-mirren-refused-licence-europe-3m-scottish-cup-windfall/

Doubt it - he only ever hangs around here like a leftover haddock curry. Neither he of his pseudonyms seem to post on anything football related or in relation to other clubs. 

[LIVIFOREVER]

Remember MCL being the same.

[ATLIS]

3 hours ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

Surely disappointing periods to the season, but overall it has been a really good season, reaching a cup final and back to back top 6 spots. If that is disappointing for a club of our size, on the budget we're on, then i think you're in for a lot of disappointment from Livi in the top flight.

The fact we put ourselves in the unbelievable position to challenge for 4th place, and be in a cup final, and then it fell by the wayside, yeah i understand how that was disappointing (i'm not being sarcastic), but realistically we were reaching for the stars and almost touched them.

If at the start of the season we were all asked where we'd be at the end of the season, no sane Livi fan would be saying 6th.

 

*edit. i agree with you on it not being a massive rebuild job, there are a good core of players to the team, and some like Stryjek and Kabia will be a lot better for us next season. Looking forward to seeing how Tiffoney and Hamilton do after successful loan spells scoring for fun too.

No idea why Livi fans keep mentioning Tiffoney when by current standings he’s away. He hasn’t signed a deal and is out of contract, he won’t be staying 

[Durnford]

55 minutes ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

Remember MCL being the same.

That's going back a bit - Rivals days. You'll be mentioning Jamie's Maw next - funnily enough that was the same person as well.

[Durnford]

18 minutes ago, ATLIS said:

No idea why Livi fans keep mentioning Tiffoney when by current standings he’s away. He hasn’t signed a deal and is out of contract, he won’t be staying 

TBH - if given the choice I would think a permanent move to Partick would probably suit him best; particularly if it included a regular start. Top flight or not; warming the bench is not a career aspiration at his age.

[LIVIFOREVER]

46 minutes ago, ATLIS said:

No idea why Livi fans keep mentioning Tiffoney when by current standings he’s away. He hasn’t signed a deal and is out of contract, he won’t be staying 

I remember you saying the same about Menga.

Prob his best bet signing for Partick though, step up from League One and if he does well there he could be snapped up by a Premiership team, or even help Partick get promoted themselves to play there. A bit like how us dropping down a div helped us win back to back promotions with the same core group of players benefitting from a season in League One.

[Cptn Hooch]

No idea why Livi fans keep mentioning Tiffoney when by current standings he’s away. He hasn’t signed a deal and is out of contract, he won’t be staying 

I'd have him back in a heartbeat. He maybe won't been offered a deal until Martindale knows his budget

[EdinburghLivi]

Tiffoney is better than Poplatnik, that's why we mention him.

[Cptn Hooch]

Tiffoney is better than Poplatnik, that's why we mention him.

Maybe not technically but his style suits us better

[ATLIS]

5 hours ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

I remember you saying the same about Menga.

Prob his best bet signing for Partick though, step up from League One and if he does well there he could be snapped up by a Premiership team, or even help Partick get promoted themselves to play there. A bit like how us dropping down a div helped us win back to back promotions with the same core group of players benefitting from a season in League One.

True  Menga was a basket case though, he was under contract still though. Paid taxes or not  

I think we've just got unlucky with Tiffoney but I honestly don't reckon he's got what it takes at this level yet and wouldn't want us to hang around waiting on him getting up to speed when JH is younger and better right now

[LIVIFOREVER]

4 minutes ago, ATLIS said:

True  Menga was a basket case though, he was under contract still though. Paid taxes or not  

I think we've just got unlucky with Tiffoney but I honestly don't reckon he's got what it takes at this level yet and wouldn't want us to hang around waiting on him getting up to speed when JH is younger and better right now

Hope so, Hamilton looked very similar to Hardie in how he moved and played, would be great if he scores a few for us next season and gets a decent run in the team.

[thruthenight]

The rebuilding job might be tricky:

- Diani hasn't shown anywhere near enough yet, so I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't sign him at all.

- Tiffoney clearly has potential, but we've struggled to get it out of him so perhaps moving on would be the best idea for him, although I'd have no complaints if he stayed. 

- Efe will be away. Probably Lithgow and ATS as well, so we might need to sign another CB as well as Obileye. McMillan will be raging at how little game time he's had this year as well.

- Hamilton deserves his opportunity to be around the squad next year, but there's a tendancy among Livi fans to assume he's a class above where he is. He's a promising young player, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him warm the bench for the first half of next season and go out on loan to QoS in January.

- With JET leaving then we'll be left with Matej and SAL up top, which is nowhere near Premiership quality. 

So yeah, busy summer. Martindale's done it well before, should be fun to see who comes in.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, thruthenight said:

McMillan will be raging at how little game time he's had this year as well.

He's been so unlucky with his lack of playing time. I really hope we don't lose him, he's a quality player.

[LIVIFOREVER]

2 hours ago, thruthenight said:

The rebuilding job might be tricky:

- Diani hasn't shown anywhere near enough yet, so I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't sign him at all.

- Tiffoney clearly has potential, but we've struggled to get it out of him so perhaps moving on would be the best idea for him, although I'd have no complaints if he stayed. 

- Efe will be away. Probably Lithgow and ATS as well, so we might need to sign another CB as well as Obileye. McMillan will be raging at how little game time he's had this year as well.

- Hamilton deserves his opportunity to be around the squad next year, but there's a tendancy among Livi fans to assume he's a class above where he is. He's a promising young player, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him warm the bench for the first half of next season and go out on loan to QoS in January.

- With JET leaving then we'll be left with Matej and SAL up top, which is nowhere near Premiership quality. 

So yeah, busy summer. Martindale's done it well before, should be fun to see who comes in.

Apart from Efe, it isn't really a replacement job for those players, as ATS and Lithgow barely played a league game. And Efe has dropped right out of the starting XI, in fact he is no more than a bench warmer now. But i agree with you, another 2 or 3 wouldn't go amiss in that area. We need players signed that are going to challenge for places in defence, rather than just bench warmers like ATS, and now Efe. Lithgow may be able to do a job though but a lot of people are writing him off, so will have to wait and see. it's been our defence that's let us down the most this season, hoping Obileye will sort that out for us, and along with Guthrie, give us a bit of a goal threat from set pieces.

Diani has had what, 2 brief appearances? Last game i saw him he actually looked pretty good, def has athletic and technical ability about him, would like to see more of him in our final 2 games, but DM will prob be seeing enough in training to assess him. Like most foreign players, it'll take a bit of time to adjust to our game though. 

Poplatnik looks similar to Robbo, and would prob do the same job for us, pressing defenders and running about up top etc, scoring the odd goal, but according to a fella on the Livi Room forum, that seems to know a lot about Poplatnik, he's away at the end of the season too. And Sal doesn't fill me with confidence in being able to make it with us in the top flight. It would be great to get another Dykes, but we've mostly got by, and done well enough, with just having a work horse front man to press defenders and give us an out ball, without scoring many goals, so i'm not overly concerned in that area. Who knows, maybe Hamilton will do the biz for us next season and score 10+ goals, but i don't think we're chucking all our eggs in the one basket, and relying on him doing so.

Saying all that, it's Martindale overthinking tactics against certain opponents that's equally not doing us much good, setting us up to nullify a player to the detriment of our own attack, he needs to learn from that mistake and concentrate a bit more on his own players abilities to win games, rather than just the opposition.

 

[The Wrong Car]

On 04/05/2021 at 13:45, LIVIFOREVER said:

Surely disappointing periods to the season, but overall it has been a really good season, reaching a cup final and back to back top 6 spots. If that is disappointing for a club of our size, on the budget we're on, then i think you're in for a lot of disappointment from Livi in the top flight.

The fact we put ourselves in the unbelievable position to challenge for 4th place, and be in a cup final, and then it fell by the wayside, yeah i understand how that was disappointing (i'm not being sarcastic), but realistically we were reaching for the stars and almost touched them.

If at the start of the season we were all asked where we'd be at the end of the season, no sane Livi fan would be saying 6th.

 

*edit. i agree with you on it not being a massive rebuild job, there are a good core of players to the team, and some like Stryjek and Kabia will be a lot better for us next season. Looking forward to seeing how Tiffoney and Hamilton do after successful loan spells scoring for fun too.

Yeah I'd probably agree - "a disappointing season" may be too strong.

It seems like the sort of season that, with nostalgia, will be judged fondly. Living it, however has been a drag at points, particularly the start and end

Edited May 5, 2021 by The Wrong Car

[EdinburghLivi]

Obileye confirmed.

https://livingstonfc.co.uk/livingston-fc-sign-ayo-obileye-on-pre-contract-agreement/ 

[Rob1885]

Looked good whenever I've seen him, good bit of business imo

[LIVIFOREVER]

From the write up on our OS, he sounds like Gallagher and Halkett rolled into one player, big physical aggressive player, good with the ball at his feet, and will score goals. Here's hoping he'll be as good for us as those two were, exciting prospect for next season anyway, and gives us some much needed physicality in defence.