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Superb "if your granny had baws" argument from Shadwell. You've got to admire the effort.

As for McIntyre, we had steady improvement year on year. We were in some mess when Kenny left and he steadied the ship and got us into the top flight. Falkirk and Rovers fans can cry about money all they want but at least he achieved something. You have the second biggest budget in the league this season and only just won your first match.

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Just now, Bairnardo said:

So if its Hartley, do we think hes likely to have thrashed out a budget for January prior to taking the job? I would imagine that would form part of any agreement to take a job?

I think a lot may depend on how much of it Houston has blown already, bearing in mind our budget was reduced this season and he brought in McGhee for a fee and Balatoni when the boards hand was forced. It may be the case Hartley will have to move players out first if he gets the job. 

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9 minutes ago, ebobsboy said:

I think a lot may depend on how much of it Houston has blown already, bearing in mind our budget was reduced this season and he brought in McGhee for a fee and Balatoni when the boards hand was forced. It may be the case Hartley will have to move players out first if he gets the job. 

Hartley will probably punt everyone in the squad anyways. It's what he's done at Alloa and Dundee.

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Just now, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

Get ready for a load of lightweight midget midfielders.

We already have a few of them. The only one with a bit of dig is Taiwo. He will inherit half a team of centrehalves and virtually no fullbacks. 

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25 minutes ago, Poet of the Macabre said:

Superb "if your granny had baws" argument from Shadwell. You've got to admire the effort.

As for McIntyre, we had steady improvement year on year. We were in some mess when Kenny left and he steadied the ship and got us into the top flight. Falkirk and Rovers fans can cry about money all they want but at least he achieved something. You have the second biggest budget in the league this season and only just won your first match.

We are Rangers attitude.... 

Was it 13 league losses his first, 12 his second ... That's progress

We won't risk our club having the 2nd biggest budget..... 

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2 minutes ago, MrDust said:

We are Rangers attitude.... 

Was it 13 league losses his first, 12 his second ... That's progress

We won't risk our club having the 2nd biggest budget..... 

Stephen Kenny managed to double the wage budget in his short period of taking us from Premier to First Division strugglers. McIntyre had to weed out the cliques and slash the budget. Instead of picking up high earning cast offs from big teams he was picking up Second Division players. Money-wise we were already holed below the waterline but lots of Pars fans respect what he did for us (building an attractive team from players picked up from lower leagues after taking over a total mess of a squad in his first managerial role).  

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I reckon Hartley will do well for you guys. The big issue he had with us was that, when he had us up and stable, he massively overinvested himself with long term deals in the aim of stability and got his biggest signings (Vincent & Williams) badly wrong for what they were worth.

When he got us up, he was pretty pragmatic and initially made quite a few astute signings that other top flight teams wouldn't go for due to some sort of baggage and we ended up actually playing some really nice stuff at times and finishing 6th in his first full season. The cup ties throughout his term were appalling but we were always grinding out the points in the league campaign which is obviously important for middle of the road teams and not unappreciated given our status of just being up.

I suspect though that he knows your players very well (having Loy and Harris, showing considerable interest in Austin) and has a good understanding of the level. He may not improve on his faults and become this brilliant long-term manager that you're hoping for but I'd probably say he's the best bet of the 'known' names being discussed. You're probably looking for a manager at a decent time as I think him or McIntyre could do a job.

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36 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Hartley will probably punt everyone in the squad anyways. It's what he's done at Alloa and Dundee.

Out of curiosity how different was the 15/16 Dundee side to the one he got Top 6/promotion with. Although last season was clearly when the wheels came right off, it seemed to me (as an outsider) that the warning signs were there in 15/16 and the whole relegating United at Dens thing seemed to paper over a lot of cracks. There was a run of 1 win in 11 (the win was against us) and then there was another run with 1 win in 8 or something. Which given he had Stewart and Hemmings in the side along with Bain getting his hype seemed like he was slightly underperforming especially with the number of draws.

When you look at the insane number of players he signed it seemed to me that he just began to lose a lot of focus the longer he went in the job. Was his budget increased around then?

I can see Hartley being a really good fit for Falkirk tbh. The opportunity to get a side promoted and back into the Premiership seems like it'd do much more for him after the Dundee job than simply taking a job like Killie and keeping them safe season on season.

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5 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Out of curiosity how different was the 15/16 Dundee side to the one he got Top 6/promotion with. Although last season was clearly when the wheels came right off, it seemed to me (as an outsider) that the warning signs were there in 15/16 and the whole relegating United at Dens thing seemed to paper over a lot of cracks. There was a run of 1 win in 11 (the win was against us) and then there was another run with 1 win in 8 or something. Which given he had Stewart and Hemmings in the side along with Bain getting his hype seemed like he was slightly underperforming especially with the number of draws.

When you look at the insane number of players he signed it seemed to me that he just began to lose a lot of focus the longer he went in the job. Was his budget increased around then?

I can see Hartley being a really good fit for Falkirk tbh. The opportunity to get a side promoted and back into the Premiership seems like it'd do much more for him after the Dundee job than simply taking a job like Killie and keeping them safe season on season.

No one left apart from Kerr & Wighton who would have been considered youths.

I think he probably had a steady increase in budget along the way. When he lost guys like McAlister, Davo and McBride who didn't fit his style and he was looking for a way to get rid of, we actually found out that those guys were decent enough squad players and weren't improved upon or even replaced.

There was an underlying issue in the squad with the midfield not being strong enough (pretty much no defensive midfielder apart from Kevin Thomson was ever signed by him) and it really just come out to hurt us when we lost the firing power up front (Harkins also being a big part in addition to the two you mentioned). One or two imposing midfielders and he might have survived. Guys like Vincent, Low, Ross etc maybe aren't bad footballers in isolation but we were just so filled with guys who weren't built to play in a deeper role. McGowan was the only sort of guy who we would have seen as a natural fit to play as a ball winner last year and even he is actually a wee attacker who has been moved back.

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53 minutes ago, MrDust said:

We are Rangers attitude.... 

Was it 13 league losses his first, 12 his second ... That's progress

We won't risk our club having the 2nd biggest budget..... 

We finished 3rd, 3rd and 1st in his three full seasons at this level. We went 51 pts, 58pts and then 70 in the title-winning season. Not sure what you count as progress if that doesn't make the cut? 

As for your second point, Falkirk's massive dip in marketing spend and their sheer desperation to agree sponsorship deals with anyone who comes through the front door will tell you exactly how well you're doing financially. The panic sacking of Houston isn't a good look either, especially when they could have waited until the end of the season and got rid of him for free.

Could be a grim summer next year if you guys don't turn things around quickly. Wish you all the best; was awful when we went through similar.

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