The Falkirk FC Thread

[Gaz FFC]

Arbroath home form

W 4 Dunfermline, Morton, ICT and Alloa

D 2 QOS and Partick

L 2 Ayr and Clyde

 

[razamanaz]

What players are on loan until January/end of season? Just wondering if they can free up wages for the transfer window

[ilostmyself]

Looking forward to going to either of these places.

As others have said we will hopefully have done some (minor) surgery on the squad by then that can get the best out of the players Rays lumbered us with.

[AL-FFC]

13 minutes ago, razamanaz said:

What players are on loan until January/end of season? Just wondering if they can free up wages for the transfer window

I think Toshney and Longridge are 2 of them, i would rather we kept those 2 tbh

[ilostmyself]

2 minutes ago, AL-FFC said:

I think Toshney and Longridge are 2 of them, i would rather we kept those 2 tbh

Aye, plus I think Lewis Moore, Robbie Leitch & Gary Miller

[AL-FFC]

Third concert announced for TFS:  Little Mix 

[Stuperman01]

On 24/11/2019 at 08:46, Back Post Misses said:

 

Don’t buy that argument either.

Falkirk has a reputation of blooding kids if they were good enough and if you speak to those involved that attracted kids.

It was a dreadful call and we will regret it for years.

 

As bad a decision as it was at the time and the very poor way it was handled, there is nothing to stop us re-establishing an academy or something similar in the future. When  it gets spoke of it's always as if it's something that's gone for good. This maybe the case under the current regime however if the club ever gets sold perhaps a new owner will look to get an academy up and running again. 

The fact is we are in league 1 at the moment so probably less of a need for it and everything should be put in to at least getting back in to the championship. This academy thing really needs to be put to bed for now. If we ever get rid of the MSG then lets open up discussion about it. 

[AL-FFC]

8 minutes ago, Stuperman01 said:

As bad a decision as it was at the time and the very poor way it was handled, there is nothing to stop us re-establishing an academy or something similar in the future. When  it gets spoke of it's always as if it's something that's gone for good. This maybe the case under the current regime however if the club ever gets sold perhaps a new owner will look to get an academy up and running again. 

The fact is we are in league 1 at the moment so probably less of a need for it and everything should be put in to at least getting back in to the championship. This academy thing really needs to be put to bed for now. If we ever get rid of the MSG then lets open up discussion about it. 

This would be a perfect time for blooding some youngsters into first team football, they could have made a saving in wages on players like Dixon, Durnan and Tidser to name but 3, 2 of them no doubt being higher earners at the club.

[Stuperman01]

18 minutes ago, AL-FFC said:

This would be a perfect time for blooding some youngsters into first team football, they could have made a saving in wages on players like Dixon, Durnan and Tidser to name but 3, 2 of them no doubt being higher earners at the club.

Not in my opinion we need to get out of this league and we have players like the ones you mentioned struggling to find form and fans getting on their backs. Given the situation we are in it wouldn't be good a good environment for blooding youngsters in. Maybe 1/2 to sit in the bench but that's about it. Priority has to be getting out this league and we wouldn't be doing that with a team full of academy players. 

[AL-FFC]

8 minutes ago, Stuperman01 said:

Not in my opinion we need to get out of this league and we have players like the ones you mentioned struggling to find form and fans getting on their backs. Given the situation we are in it wouldn't be good a good environment for blooding youngsters in. Maybe 1/2 to sit in the bench but that's about it. Priority has to be getting out this league and we wouldn't be doing that with a team full of academy players. 

Aye but the thing you need to look at even those those players are off form we dont have much to replace them with or give a chance as mentioned previously, there taking up a budget for a player that can/could do the job especially when that other player could have been a youth with a bit of promise that could be sold on in the future.

[Stuperman01]

2 hours ago, AL-FFC said:

Aye but the thing you need to look at even those those players are off form we dont have much to replace them with or give a chance as mentioned previously, there taking up a budget for a player that can/could do the job especially when that other player could have been a youth with a bit of promise that could be sold on in the future.

I get what you are saying but academy players aren't going to play for free and the cost of running an academy isn't cheap either. Given we have dropped down a league and ultimately dropped revenue then you have to off set all of that. I would rather have the bench we do have than it full of academy youngsters who could make it or not. 

[AL-FFC]

34 minutes ago, Stuperman01 said:

I get what you are saying but academy players aren't going to play for free and the cost of running an academy isn't cheap either. Given we have dropped down a league and ultimately dropped revenue then you have to off set all of that. I would rather have the bench we do have than it full of academy youngsters who could make it or not. 

Given what BPM had posted the running of the academy being 150k and they had pledges to fund it for 3 yrs, aware those young lads wont play for free but when you compare it against the likes to Dixon, Bell and Tidser who i dare say are the higher end of the wages, can any of them say they have lived up to the salary they are getting. Your also forgetting how much the last management team cost us in fines, compensation and sacking that alone could probably have funded the Academy for a year. Dont even get me started on the terminations of contracts for the past 2 seasons for the squads we have had.

[roman_bairn]

Not in my opinion we need to get out of this league and we have players like the ones you mentioned struggling to find form and fans getting on their backs. Given the situation we are in it wouldn't be good a good environment for blooding youngsters in. Maybe 1/2 to sit in the bench but that's about it. Priority has to be getting out this league and we wouldn't be doing that with a team full of academy players. 

Are you seriously saying it’s better to wait until we are in the championship to blood youngsters?

What we lack in the team at the moment is hunger in players to prove themselves.

Having one or two talented youngsters in the team might just provide that, but it might also rub off on the more experienced players to play to their abilities and show why they are here....

[Guest]

Are you seriously saying it’s better to wait until we are in the championship to blood youngsters?
What we lack in the team at the moment is hunger in players to prove themselves.
Having one or two talented youngsters in the team might just provide that, but it might also rub off on the more experienced players to play to their abilities and show why they are here....

Team is crying out for younger legs

[Guest]

I had concerns with the academy at times as it felt like the aim was to create players to be sold rather than improve the Falkirk team, but that was a symptom of running a club with insane overheads that constantly needed to be met.
The last few years though, every move has been short term, and has been pretty disastrous.

[Hank von Hell]

2 hours ago, roman_bairn said:

Are you seriously saying it’s better to wait until we are in the championship to blood youngsters?

What we lack in the team at the moment is hunger in players to prove themselves.

Having one or two talented youngsters in the team might just provide that, but it might also rub off on the more experienced players to play to their abilities and show why they are here....

Also young players generally play with no fear & no respect of reputation.

We seen this in abundance with our Class of 2013.    

[Hank von Hell]

9 hours ago, Bantabairn said:

Great few posts and most accurate to where we are as a club, past two/three years have effectively taken us to the abyss.

The decisions taken were monstrous, by non footballing people which has ripped the heart out the club. Strategy after strategy that has almost taken us to the brink. Sums it up when we are talking about maybe winning against the Arbroaths of this world, and that is said with the highest regard to all those connected with Arbroath. 

Not sure where we are financially, but with the change out of around 50 odd players, my guess is that we are staring into dark waters, don’t want to  think about where we would be without the tremendous support we have given.

Craig Campbell freely admitted he had no experience of running a football club when he came , then was freely allowed to drive us off a cliff.

Monstrous indeed. 

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, roman_bairn said:

Are you seriously saying it’s better to wait until we are in the championship to blood youngsters?

What we lack in the team at the moment is hunger in players to prove themselves.

Having one or two talented youngsters in the team might just provide that, but it might also rub off on the more experienced players to play to their abilities and show why they are here....

Exactly what Raith have taken to doing with their participation in the Fife Elite FA. Two of the three youth on our team are from there, the third came from our U-20, when it folded. Not a perfect model, but it’s bringing some talented youth into the team, without costing the amount running a full academy or full youth teams would. It was easy to argue that it’s us helping other teams too, but with the levels of play all over being pretty well matched, any team can see themselves slipping if there is a mistake made. This way the huge overhead isn’t baked in, and we can share in the pipeline.

The other difference is that it’s NOT trying to monetize youth talent, simply trying to find players for the future, something most SFL teams have in common. Part of the whole MC+JP dance was about developing (I.e. selling) players, and most people said that model sucked. A team needs an identity for fans to grab ahold of, and some local youth talent work great for that.

[AL-FFC]

7 hours ago, TxRover said:

Exactly what Raith have taken to doing with their participation in the Fife Elite FA. Two of the three youth on our team are from there, the third came from our U-20, when it folded. Not a perfect model, but it’s bringing some talented youth into the team, without costing the amount running a full academy or full youth teams would. It was easy to argue that it’s us helping other teams too, but with the levels of play all over being pretty well matched, any team can see themselves slipping if there is a mistake made. This way the huge overhead isn’t baked in, and we can share in the pipeline.

The other difference is that it’s NOT trying to monetize youth talent, simply trying to find players for the future, something most SFL teams have in common. Part of the whole MC+JP dance was about developing (I.e. selling) players, and most people said that model sucked. A team needs an identity for fans to grab ahold of, and some local youth talent work great for that.

The trouble with the MC and JP one was MC business partner was an agent so it would have meant being overloaded with journeymen to give them a platform to play on to get there next move once said player gets next move agent gets a decent fee, player gets decent fee and club get next to hee haw.

The biggest upset of how the closed the academy was the way it was handled i.e. one day it was there next it wasnt. I must admit at the time it seemed a half decent idea of putting the fund to the Project Hartley plan the thing is Hartley himself said he didnt notice or there was little change in the budget.  It is now we are overloaded with journeymen and after watching Friday night it screams out we need some youth in the team and the academy decision was on a par with the statement calling the fan base rascist on the Dennon Lewis farce.

[Stuperman01]

12 hours ago, roman_bairn said:

Are you seriously saying it’s better to wait until we are in the championship to blood youngsters?

What we lack in the team at the moment is hunger in players to prove themselves.

Having one or two talented youngsters in the team might just provide that, but it might also rub off on the more experienced players to play to their abilities and show why they are here....

I am saying we need to get out this league. What we lack or lacked is a leader!!! the players have it in them to stroll this league under the right manager. 

You used the work 'might' they also may not and then have fans constantly on their back particularly due to the recent and historic downfall of the club (I can remember it happening to the likes of sibbald, Kingsley when they first broke on to the scene). People harp on about the academy as if it was producing world class talent year in year out when the fact it wasn't, It took a few years for the ones we sold on to get going.

Anyway the academy is gone and as I said in my original post it was a mistake and poorly handled at the time. We need to move on from this and hopefully when/if the next bid comes in for the club it includes some form of youth development (doesn't have to be an academy).