The Falkirk FC Thread

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, Bairn in Exile said:

Why? Sheerin was punted early and deservedly so, he was rank rotten.

Rennie came in to "steady the ship" , was poor but was allowed to see out the end of his contract.

McGlynn has come in and been given every opportunity to succeed (by succeed I mean achieve promotion) and has failed. Therefore he deserves to be punted.

In any job, if you don't come up to the required standard you are let go, contract or not. Who knows what objectives and criteria McGlynn was given before he signed on the dotted line?

Besides, football managers all tend to have "a guid conceit o' themselves" so there would be no shortage of managers interested in taking the job to make a name for themself by succeeding where the previous 6 incumbents failed. The board just have to make sure that they get the next appointment right!

It’s not a matter of why they left/were punted/whatever. It’s a matter of perception…a team that has had a dozen (one duo counted os two) managers since June 2009, during which two of them served a total of six of those years, looks a bit unstable. Managers definitely have conceit about their abilities, but rapid turnover suggests to them that the BoD that aren’t willing to allow a manager a decent chance to bed in and create HIS team.

Sucking it up and allowing JMcG his contracted second year saves the team money and shows other candidates future for the job that the “new” BoD can maintain a steady course, even when the popular choice is a radical change. An experienced manager will like that, while an eager young prospect manager might disregard it as a factor. Half the managers in the SPFL are now a year or less in the role, but that doesn’t change a managers desire for multiple years to impose his plan.

[TxRover]

Just now, Harry Kinnear said:

Don’t think our fans would be too enamoured by it but, that aside how has he played for you this season. I’ve only seen Raith a few times on TV this season and I always think McDonald looks totally unfit.

McDonald is a solid Championship keeper, but had a couple of injuries this year that slowed him a wee bit a couple of times, something he avoided the last few year. At League One level, he’d easily be one of the top three keepers in the League and would probably give you a good 30+ games. He can be huge in big games, and would aid in Cup runs quite a bit.

Almost every Raith fan would keep Jamie, but reports from Starks Park after the last match seemed to suggest he was saying goodbye.

[Bairn in Exile]

4 minutes ago, TxRover said:

…a team that has had a dozen (one duo counted os two) managers since June 2009, during which two of them served a total of six of those years, looks a bit unstable.

There you are then. Do your job half decent and we keep you on. If they're useless they have to go.

[TxRover]

8 minutes ago, Bairn in Exile said:

There you are then. Do your job half decent and we keep you on. If they're useless they have to go.

The last half decent job was over 6 years ago…since then it’s 7 or 8 managers…

Edited May 14, 2023 by TxRover

[Harry Kinnear]

4 minutes ago, TxRover said:

McDonald is a solid Championship keeper, but had a couple of injuries this year that slowed him a wee bit a couple of times, something he avoided the last few year. At League One level, he’d easily be one of the top three keepers in the League and would probably give you a good 30+ games. He can be huge in big games, and would aid in Cup runs quite a bit.

Almost every Raith fan would keep Jamie, but reports from Starks Park after the last match seemed to suggest he was saying goodbye.

Thanks for that, I suppose he would definitely be an upgrade on what we currently have and would be a start to addressing the fact that the spine of our team is currently so weak.

Hopefully our fans can see past his couple of gaffs in the 2015 cup final. 

[Bairn in Exile]

1 minute ago, TxRover said:

The last half descent job was over 6 years ago…since then it’s 7 or 8 managers…

Exactly!!! That's why those that followed had to go!

[Harry Kinnear]

Just watched the highlights and the defending for the Airdrie goal is calamitous to say the least with Coll Donaldson to blame, there is no need for him to go for the ball as McKay had it covered.

Going forward if McGlynn is staying he needs to address that pair as they are a couple of nightmares waiting to happen and cost us too many goals.
 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Harry Kinnear

[Springfield]

Thought I’d be in a slighter better place this morning, but listening to McGlynns/Donaldsons interviews again absolutely infuriates me.

McGlynn comes over as a petulant dinosaur who has another years salary towards retirement, who continually tries to play up how we’ve improved, but absolutely no reference to the fact we’ve failed.

Donaldsons interview is very poor, no real apology and merely copies McGlynns script. Almost wimpish.

Thank Fck there’s no football for a few weeks now. We could say that the next few weeks are probably the most critical in shaping our club as there is without question, players that need to be emptied and players brought in better than what is here, ensuring we break the last five years - shat one.

The silence is deafening from the BOD, and confirms they are backing McGlynns improvement pish. 

Interesting few weeks ahead.

[Rhys McCabe Hype Train]

5 hours ago, JinkyBairn said:

Genuinely, what is the point in these Falkirk TV interviews. 
 

Had to switch off the Donaldson interview less than 1 and half minutes. 
 

Pathetic stuff from Falkirk TV.

While 8.5 minutes of McGlynn’s flapping every week has been a highlight of the season, I do wonder why the club allow the media team to let the manager tie himself up in knots for as long a time as they do as it clearly does nothing but antagonise the fan base. And as for the questions that are asked, they’re nearly as bad as the daft bugger’s commentary.

Over the last few years I was always frustrated that we would see a maximum 90 second interview after the match but now I totally understand why. 

[Blame Me]

1 hour ago, Harry Kinnear said:

...

with Coll Donaldson to blame, there is no need for him to go for the ball as McKay had it covered

The exact opposite I'm afraid.

McKay was under the ball and is falling away from it with his jump but ignoring that Coll clearly shouted when the cross came in that he was going to head it - it was clear as day in the KM stand.

McKay didn't have to jump - he caused the collision and is the one squarely to blame. 

Run it back and the throw-in comes from McKay initially doing his usual of shanking a clearance! 

If we're going to waste money on pay-offs I'd rather use it on his contract.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Blame Me

[Dunning1874]

It's already extremely shaky ground for McGlynn to go down the road of "we can only do so much with the budget that we have" while comfortably outspending some Championship clubs, especially if he's going for the argument that he inherited too many under contract players when McPake had that problem to a much greater extent at Dunfermline and could do far less to his squad.

If you're planning to use that as your deflection from a humiliating end to the season though, you should probably avoid giving Aidan Nesbitt another two year deal first. 'We inherited too much shite in this squad, also I'm offering that shite new contracts' isn't going get anyone off his back.

[Aufc]

The reality is that airdrie are better than falkirk but not by a significant margin. If I was a falkirk fan, I think I would be most annoyed at the total lack of pressure you put us under yesterday. Couple of chances yes but never really a sustained level of pressure and went out with a total whimper.
 

First leg was just a shambles from yourselves and after every goal I kept thinking that he would make a change. 

[Blame Me]

16 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

It's already extremely shaky ground for McGlynn to go down the road of "we can only do so much with the budget that we have" while comfortably outspending some Championship clubs, especially if he's going for the argument that he inherited too many under contract players when McPake had that problem to a much greater extent at Dunfermline and could do far less to his squad.

If you're planning to use that as your deflection from a humiliating end to the season though, you should probably avoid giving Aidan Nesbitt another two year deal first. 'We inherited too much shite in this squad, also I'm offering that shite new contracts' isn't going get anyone off his back.

If I wanted to read another "McPake the Messiah" post I'd dip into the Dunfermline thread, thanks 

Comparing a squad who've just came down vs. one who had spent 3 years at this level is not the same.

Both budgets may have been comparable but suggesting that the quality was like-for-like is apples and oranges stuff really.

Likewise, it can also be possible that some players who were already under contract can get new deals as there is no rule that says he has to ship everyone out. You'd be on here berating him for signing a whole new squad, if he achieved the same outcome, had he been able to do so .

He may be circumspect over the closed-season and I hope he learns from this as it's been a chastening experience but fed up of the bad takes and told-you-so's from others right now.

[CapitalDiamond]

21 minutes ago, Aufc said:

The reality is that airdrie are better than falkirk but not by a significant margin. If I was a falkirk fan, I think I would be most annoyed at the total lack of pressure you put us under yesterday. Couple of chances yes but never really a sustained level of pressure and went out with a total whimper.
 

First leg was just a shambles from yourselves and after every goal I kept thinking that he would make a change. 

That’s a bit strong IMO

We didn’t look better at the 3-1 loss at home. Falkirk were flying at that point but looking at the teams’ respective fourth quarters, Airdrie had finished stronger and so you felt we had a real chance in this tie. McCabe seemed to have Falkirk worked out. We haven’t used the long throw all year but McCabe obviously felt it could be deployed here and I think led to 2 goals over the piece.

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by CapitalDiamond

[Diamonds are Forever]

14 minutes ago, Aufc said:

The reality is that airdrie are better than falkirk but not by a significant margin. If I was a falkirk fan, I think I would be most annoyed at the total lack of pressure you put us under yesterday. Couple of chances yes but never really a sustained level of pressure and went out with a total whimper.
 

First leg was just a shambles from yourselves and after every goal I kept thinking that he would make a change. 

 

Obviously the league doesn't lie with who has been better over the course of the season, but if you were able to take our team from the last 2 months and play them from the start of the season I have no doubt we'd have finished ahead of Falkirk, which I think is backed up by the play-off result.

At the start of the season there were games where we had literally 1 or 2 legitimate substitutes, we went through 5 goalies by October, and had a brand new manager who was learning some harsh lessons. It's hard to quantify how many points that cost us but I'd suggest more than 7.

Again, the league is measured over the whole season and you can't just discount sections of it, Falkirk deserved to be ahead of us. However when it comes to the play-offs what matters is how good a team you are in May, not results months previously (as we found to our cost last year) and the play-off games showed that.

As I said in a different thread, that's the big criticism of McGlynn for me, around the turn of the year Falkirk didn't look that far from a title challenge yet seemed to then get worse as the season progressed, culminating in the shambles this week. The players didn't suddenly get worse, so that falls on the management.

[FalkirkBairn2021]

Can't watch the interview(s). 

Really despondent that we're letting McGlynn f**k us for another year. 

Might we win the league next year? It's possible. It will be a shiter of a standard and we could scab being the best of the worst. We'll have a massive budget and wage bill advantage over our peers.

But it will be shite to watch and Barney will have us snoozing regularly with triangles in our own box. 

Seems like this BoD is accepting failure much as the previous ones did. Not good enough.

[Bairn in Exile]

3 minutes ago, FalkirkBairn2021 said:

Seems like this BoD is accepting failure much as the previous ones did. Not good enough.

As a member of FSS, how do I go about asking our representatives on the board what their plans are for the future management of the club? 

[FFC 1876]

6 hours ago, Ryan-FFC said:

I was there. I know how it turned out. I just don’t think we’re in the position of being fussy if we want out this league. Do you have any other suggestions for the gk position? 

Other options may be jay hogarth on loan or the boy airdrie had in goals today Darren Jamieson (which would involve a fee I think) 

I'd be happy with PJ Morrison staying but that doesn't seem likely so Kevin Dabrowski or Aidan Mcadams.

If we sign Jamie Macdonald I'll be fucking raging.

Edited May 14, 2023 by FFC 1876

[bridge of allan bairn]

The strategy of resting players and mucking about with formations in the last few games of the season certainly didn't work in the play offs. We'd have been better playing the guys that were going to play, in the formation we were going to play and making sure everyone knew their roles and responsibilities.

I'm not confident about McGlynn for next season, while we looked decent and I was optimistic before the pars defeat, the last quarter or so of games has been a mitigated disaster, we are going backwards, there are no effectual in-game changes, there is no plan B, we have loads of possession and little end product, we don't have a decent striker, we leak goals and we don't have a confident goalkeeper. The 1 win in 10 against Pars and Airdrie is unforgiveable and concerning. The 60 minute subs every week whatever is happening in the game (again yesterday despite game not going the way it should have) is concerning.

I think it is possible McGlynn could take us up next year, with no Airdrie or Dunfermline in the league, but it will largely depend upon how good Hamilton (if so), Cove and possible QoS are as opposed to what he does.

If he stays, and in terms of next seasons players, I'd be happy to keep Henderson, Morrison, Nesbitt, McCann, McGinn, Yeats, Lawal. I'd also like to keep Max, Rowe and Kennedy albeit loanees. The above would not necessarily be starters ie Nesbitt and Morrison can be hot or cold and McGinn might not have the legs for every game, Yeats might need filtered in.

Players I'd be okay with going are both Goalies, McKay, Donaldson, Mackie, Oliver (don't mind him skill wise but the wage needs to go on an out and out striker), Wright, Burrell, McGuffie, Watson (like him but injuries haven't helped)

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by bridge of allan bairn

[Grangemouth Bairn]

21 minutes ago, FalkirkBairn2021 said:

Can't watch the interview(s). 

Really despondent that we're letting McGlynn f**k us for another year. 

Might we win the league next year? It's possible. It will be a shiter of a standard and we could scab being the best of the worst. We'll have a massive budget and wage bill advantage over our peers.

But it will be shite to watch and Barney will have us snoozing regularly with triangles in our own box. 

Seems like this BoD is accepting failure much as the previous ones did. Not good enough.

I agree with your comments about McGlynn however let’s give the board the opportunity to do the right thing as our season only ended yesterday.

I’d say our board are very passionate about Falkirk but don’t seem to have any more idea about getting us out of league 1 than the last lot did.

If they stick with McGlynn they are inviting pressure on themselves as the majority of the fans don’t want him to be our manager. The last thing we need is the fans turning on the board members (although it worked well for Accies yesterday).

Sadly, if McGinn stays I think Airdrie/Accies and QoS will all be too strong for us next season.