The Falkirk FC Thread

[MrDust]

4 hours ago, latapythelegend said:

Worth noting however that they came through a decade ago. The 3/4 years before closure the best we got was Kevin O'Hara, Scott Shepherd and Camreon Blues!

The death of the academy was when it become the Forth Valley academy. 

You have to give youth a chance to sink or swim, as much as I love Houstie he never gave it a chance unless his hand was forced....see Biabi and Gallagher.

Sibbald, Arfield, Fulton, Kingsley etc had mistakes in them at the start and came back from that and made careers in the game, the rest fell out or plying there trade lower down. 

The three academy players sold that Houston gave chances toward were lucky if they had 30 or so starts between the 3 of them. 

[ShaggerG]

5 hours ago, Shadwell Dog said:

You say that yet a number of players from that academy are now plying their trade every week at clubs higher up the leagues than us.  Blues seems to be doing a decent job by all accounts at Morton too. I'd rather we'd had him in recent seasons than some of the dross we've had . The problem for me was that we started selling on players younger and younger which is always going to leave you with a whole in the production line at some point.

Which accounts are these then? I haven't looked at any Morton threads for a while admittedly however, any time I've seen Blues name mentioned, their fans seem to suggest that he's completely shit!

[ShaggerG]

3 hours ago, CrunchiesRightBoot said:

Just having an academy is the big difference to me, at least there is potential to sell, or bring in to the first team. You are always going to have good years and bad. was always the chance of a fluke, like the Connor McGrandles money

Hopefully I'm not reading this properly as you seem to be suggesting that McGrandles wasn't great? For me he was the 'best' player to come through the academy.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Caractacus Potts said:

Think McGlynn is a smart signing by the board. If it doesn’t work out then we can’t say it was a risky move as he’s the exact type of manager we need right now. Going to be a hard season but look forward to seeing what signings he brings in and hopefully seeing a bit of consistency with results. 

Absolutely this. It’s sane and logical appointment aimed at getting a team/squad together to get FFC back into the Championship……hopefully in one season, but absolutely in two. Thereafter, who knows?
A friend made quite an insightful comment that in all of the years following the Bairns, he can’t remember ever being worried about us facing a side managed by McGlynn, but he too totally gets why it is the right appointment at this time.

I had to admit that thinking about it, I felt pretty much the same. Thing is, I doubt if any RR side led by him was backed to the extent that FFC managers have been……but then again, the budgets that bettered him in the first couple of seasons in L1 would have been tiny compared to his.

Here’s hoping that finally we have someone capable of getting us punching at our own weight. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing. It’s going to be an interesting summer.

[ShaggerG]

McGlynn strikes me as a sort of 'Billy Lamont' kind of signing, for those of you who remember him. Safe but unspectacular. I expect us to do well enough without pulling up too many trees!

[Grangemouth Bairn]

13 minutes ago, ShaggerG said:

McGlynn strikes me as a sort of 'Billy Lamont' kind of signing, for those of you who remember him. Safe but unspectacular. I expect us to do well enough without pulling up too many trees!

Can’t wait for him to lead us to the Premier League like Billy did then.

[TxRover]

2 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

Can’t wait for him to lead us to the Premier League like Billy did then.

I expect he’ll top out at possibly Championship playoffs, but right the ship for your next manager in a few years.

[Ranaldo Bairn]

19 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

Can’t wait for him to lead us to the Premier League like Billy did then.

That season was daft. We only won like a quarter of our home games.

[kiddy]

 

5 Years ago today. The intervening period has been a complete clusterfcuk.

[FFC 1876]

1 hour ago, ShaggerG said:

Hopefully I'm not reading this properly as you seem to be suggesting that McGrandles wasn't great? For me he was the 'best' player to come through the academy.

Just very unlucky with the injury he sustained at us as he was captaining the Norwich U23's before his loan to us. He's in that Lincoln team every week and I saw reports the other day linking him with a return to Scotland with Aberdeen, as I think he's out of contract this summer. 

Terrific player who was hard as nails for his actual build. Used to run rings round players at youth levels.

Edited May 6, 2022 by FFC 1876

[kiddy]

Just now, Ranaldo Bairn said:

That season was daft. We only won like a quarter of our home games.

The loan signing of Willie Irvine almost single handedly stopped them from being promoted!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, ShaggerG said:

McGlynn strikes me as a sort of 'Billy Lamont' kind of signing, for those of you who remember him. Safe but unspectacular. I expect us to do well enough without pulling up too many trees!

He strikes me as a good bit better than him. 
His style of play will be way better than the dull negative stuff Lamont’s team served up.

 

[Barga Bairn]

5 hours ago, CrunchiesRightBoot said:

Just having an academy is the big difference to me, at least there is potential to sell, or bring in to the first team. You are always going to have good years and bad. was always the chance of a fluke, like the Connor McGrandles money

I think it's also worth remembering that arguably our best players were academy graduates for a number of years, whether they were sold or not. Alston, Sibbald, Kingsley, McGrandles, Wallace, Fulton were all standouts for us, and players like Duffy and Murdoch were better than their replacements. Our last big sale, Gallagher, showed plenty of skill and potential. Liverpool are no mugs

Despite many problems the team was worth following for the young guys alone...they were our guys, not some players who had already failed elsewhere, or even worse, were other clubs players getting some experience.

In skill and pace many of our youngsters were miles ahead of the garbage which came after them. Can we get our coach's back?

It takes years to form a decent academy, we did it and it was thrown away, with many of the fans in agreement that we should get rid of it and concentrate all our resources on procurement.

Look where that got us. Get an academy or youth set up started again, like a proper bloody fitba club, and I'll come back.

[GeordieBairn]

3 hours ago, Chinatoon Bairn said:

Heard a rumour or two

do tell x

[FFC 1876]

3 minutes ago, GeordieBairn said:

do tell x

Aye cumoan, we'll no tell Hope Street w****r.

[ebobsboy]

What's the chances of Benedictus being the first signing I wonder? 

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, Barga Bairn said:

I think it's also worth remembering that arguably our best players were academy graduates for a number of years, whether they were sold or not. Alston, Sibbald, Kingsley, McGrandles, Wallace, Fulton were all standouts for us, and players like Duffy and Murdoch were better than their replacements. Our last big sale, Gallagher, showed plenty of skill and potential. Liverpool are no mugs

Despite many problems the team was worth following for the young guys alone...they were our guys, not some players who had already failed elsewhere, or even worse, were other clubs players getting some experience.

In skill and pace many of our youngsters were miles ahead of the garbage which came after them. Can we get our coach's back?

It takes years to form a decent academy, we did it and it was thrown away, with many of the fans in agreement that we should get rid of it and concentrate all our resources on procurement.

Look where that got us. Get an academy or youth set up started again, like a proper bloody fitba club, and I'll come back.

It was started again last summer

[FFC 1876]

I like the look of Owen Moxon in the middle of the park for Annan, given he was in contention for the league 2 player of the year I doubt I'm the only one.

[The Laddie Gastineau]

2 hours ago, FFC 1876 said:

Just very unlucky with the injury he sustained at us as he was captaining the Norwich U23's before his loan to us. He's in that Lincoln team every week and I saw reports the other day linking him with a return to Scotland with Aberdeen, as I think he's out of contract this summer. 

Terrific player who was hard as nails for his actual build. Used to run rings round players at youth levels.

Some of the tackles he won were unbelievable, so strong. Great engine, great passer. The current Lincoln City captain. Far too good for the Dandies. 

[The Laddie Gastineau]

1 hour ago, Back Post Misses said:

He strikes me as a good bit better than him. 
His style of play will be way better than the dull negative stuff Lamont’s team served up.

 

Billy Lamont, first manager of course, to lead us into the Premier League. Bit of respect, big man.