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2 minutes ago, FFC 1876 said:

If you believe that paper they were also close to signing Anthony Stokes earlier on in the summer as well. 

Was on msn news this morning just couldnt find the article from it mind you their source was the daily record anyway

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Stayed in the top flight on the last day of the season, got Europe by default and the Scottish cup highlighted our problems in that we could side pass the ball like no other and not look like scoring. 
Yogi turned the players against the fans in his final season due to a letter that shouldn't have been sent sharing with opinions on said letter was not the opinion of the majority of our fans but all of us suffered. We were left with dad's army highly paid duds, the likes of Bullen and OBrien wages now would cover half our starting 11.
It took 2 seasons to repair the faction between fans and players post Yogi, yes he has been the most successful manager in my time but it wasn't a smooth ride. The general flow was good season followed by bad although his first season was horrific leaving us playing Latapy up front himself was not total football. The first season in top league not winning a home game till the last calendar month. 
 
 
 


The Ochilview season was shite but that was Yogis first attempt at both a pre-season and building a squad together. We absolutely scooshed the league the next season. As limited as our striker options were they first season I don’t recall us playing Latapy as a line striker either.

I’m sorry but ‘general flow was a good season followed by bad’ is simply not true. Our first season up as shite as our home form was the only objective was to stay up which we did by 15 points. This was followed by 2 more fairly successful seasons finishing higher than our budget probably was at the time. His last season (08/09) was definitely disappointing in the league however getting to a Scottish cup final and in doing so qualifying for Europe for the first and only time in our history cast possibly be seen as a failure?

Obviously hindsight is a wonderful thing and most of they signings were a disaster but at the time how many people really thought that? Burton O’Brien was a Championship regular for Sheffield Wednesday and should’ve been a great signing for us. But the real people to blame for the contracts they were sorted to are George Craig and the rest of the board that signed off on it.
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48 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

Right ok. I went to my first game in 1996. Compare every other non-Yogi managed season to that list above and then tell me how much of a failure it was.

"Europe by default" like we won a raffle fs.

I have already said he has been the most successful manager in my time, so why are you pointing out failure ?

It was a rollercoaster with Yogi for me, falling out with x y and z each season and the questioned season, I don't think our budget was massively increased to go to the last game of the season for survival, then be stuck with players over 30 injury prone, done and on thousands of pounds a week.

We are in a fukn mess now usually highlights the good from the past but for as much as Yogi had amazing highs, the lows were also very low.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Shadwell Dog said:

Houston was pretty unlucky and wouldve won us promotion most other periods but had to compete with hearts, hibs and sevco. Let's face it hughes wouldnt have got us promoted in that era either he was fortunate that he had a season where he had the biggest budget and made the most of it.  Who knows how Houston wouldve got on if we'd got promoted.

I'm fairly confident we wouldn't have got promoted with Houston without the big sides in the league regardless. The reason we actually done so well was because we were the underdogs. As soon as there was an ounce of pressure or expectation on us we crumbled. Scottish cup final, play off final, play off semi final etc. Houston was great at setting us up to not lose and thankfully we had a few match winners.

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19 minutes ago, Maverick_- said:

I'm fairly confident we wouldn't have got promoted with Houston without the big sides in the league regardless. The reason we actually done so well was because we were the underdogs. As soon as there was an ounce of pressure or expectation on us we crumbled. Scottish cup final, play off final, play off semi final etc. Houston was great at setting us up to not lose and thankfully we had a few match winners.

Cant agree at all.Over a league season without the big guns we'd have won the league comfortably. The pressure isn't on one game like a cup final or playoff final. Only losing 4 games that entire season was a fantastic achievement.

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1 hour ago, Bantabairn said:

Still regard Yogi as one of our best coaches. We had some really good squads and playing decent entertaining football. Some unbelievable games and many comparable with the Jeffries era. For me his departure was really disappointing for a guy that had given us many years as a player then coach, however it’s clear it wasn’t all one sided. 
Still think the minute he got an open cheque book, the rot started 

Started to believe in his own press too much unfortunately.  Listen to any interview and he's always blaming someone else when things have gone wrong in the past. Never his fault.

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1 hour ago, Bantabairn said:

Still regard Yogi as one of our best coaches. We had some really good squads and playing decent entertaining football. Some unbelievable games and many comparable with the Jeffries era. For me his departure was really disappointing for a guy that had given us many years as a player then coach, however it’s clear it wasn’t all one sided. 
Still think the minute he got an open cheque book, the rot started 

Agree with most if this. Spoke to a BOD member in Vaduz who confirmed the story Hughes told M Richie ' Il f**k your club up for years'. With the dads army on big cash, it could be argued that he certainly did, from which we haven't recovered. He's yesterdays man now right enough.

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Agree with most if this. Spoke to a BOD member in Vaduz who confirmed the story Hughes told M Richie ' Il f**k your club up for years'. With the dads army on big cash, it could be argued that he certainly did, from which we haven't recovered. He's yesterdays man now right enough.


I’m sure that same BOD member would tell you were still feeling the affects
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4 hours ago, Shadwell Dog said:

Cant agree at all.Over a league season without the big guns we'd have won the league comfortably. The pressure isn't on one game like a cup final or playoff final. Only losing 4 games that entire season was a fantastic achievement.

From my pov that was fairly obvious. We failed at the final hurdle every time. There's a lot of love for Houston and rightly so. However it can't be argued that ultimately we failed in what we set to achieve.

Edited by Maverick_-
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12 hours ago, Maverick_- said:

From my pov that was fairly obvious. We failed at the final hurdle every time. There's a lot of love for Houston and rightly so. However it can't be argued that ultimately we failed in what we set to achieve.

He overachieved for at least two seasons getting us above teams with huge  budgets compared to ours.  Coming above hibs in the league was a remarkable achievement that shouldn't be overlooked.  That was easily the best side we've had since we came down and wouldve won the league comfortably in any of the seasons before hearts,hibs, sevco and united appeared.

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16 hours ago, Bantabairn said:

Still regard Yogi as one of our best coaches. We had some really good squads and playing decent entertaining football. Some unbelievable games and many comparable with the Jeffries era. For me his departure was really disappointing for a guy that had given us many years as a player then coach, however it’s clear it wasn’t all one sided. 
Still think the minute he got an open cheque book, the rot started 

I largely enjoyed the Hughes era as manager, he did infuriate me at times but we saw some great players at Falkirk. I loved Riera , Stokes, Gow, Latapy , Arfield, Tiago, Aafjes , Lawrie, Uras, Lovell and loads more. 

I have been impressed by stories from ex players on that podcast Walking Down Hope St about Yogi. The most recent being Tam Scobbie , he certainly managed him well and you could never doubt Yogi's commitment. Jeffries said he would be the number one guy he'd have in the trenches next to him.

But he also fell out with players big time.  Wallner being one glaring example.

We should have beaten Rangers in that cup final - only a fluke beat us that day as we played them off the park.

Most footballers are arses , he's no different - but I'd have him down as a Falkirk legend on and off the pitch.      

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17 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

He overachieved for at least two seasons getting us above teams with huge  budgets compared to ours.  Coming above hibs in the league was a remarkable achievement that shouldn't be overlooked.  That was easily the best side we've had since we came down and wouldve won the league comfortably in any of the seasons before hearts,hibs, sevco and united appeared.

Houston lost Alston-Sibbald and Vaulks the best balanced midfield we had in decades. Am hard pushed to come up with 3 players that complimented each other so well in Falkirk team. It was obvious and inevitable a team was breaking up either retiring with other players moving on Loy , Duffie for example.

It was a hard ask and rebuilding the side was a disaster. Whether Houston's heart was not in it with the talk of him leaving at the end of the season or the lack of funds from the board. Well maybe the truth of what happened will come out some day. As a manager in the good times he put a team on the park motivated, skilled with a savvy game plan that never gave up and gave the support some thrilling games ever seen by the support.

I will remember Peter Houston a player that tried no matter how he was playing. Remember one game he was having a stinker and the harder he tried the worse he got. ( we have all done it ) When he got substituted he got a standing ovation. It takes a certain type of player to get that for playing badly.

He should be remembered for these achievements and receive  the appropriate ovation when he comes to a Falkirk game.

 

 

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17 minutes ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

Houston lost Alston-Sibbald and Vaulks the best balanced midfield we had in decades. Am hard pushed to come up with 3 players that complimented each other so well in Falkirk team. It was obvious and inevitable a team was breaking up either retiring with other players moving on Loy , Duffie for example.

It was a hard ask and rebuilding the side was a disaster. Whether Houston's heart was not in it with the talk of him leaving at the end of the season or the lack of funds from the board. Well maybe the truth of what happened will come out some day. As a manager in the good times he put a team on the park motivated, skilled with a savvy game plan that never gave up and gave the support some thrilling games ever seen by the support.

I will remember Peter Houston a player that tried no matter how he was playing. Remember one game he was having a stinker and the harder he tried the worse he got. ( we have all done it ) When he got substituted he got a standing ovation. It takes a certain type of player to get that for playing badly.

He should be remembered for these achievements and receive  the appropriate ovation when he comes to a Falkirk game.

 

 

Peter Houston was one of the hardest working players I’ve ever seen pull on the navy blue jersey. 110% commitment.

Well deserving of a standing ovation every time he’s at the stadium.

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Housty was an excellent coach but his signings were quite often abysmal.  Had we had an Alan Gow type role then managing the recruitment process and scouting networks he could have done even better.  Sadly I think had we gone up we'de have quickly been back down with mundane signings from the likes of Hearts, Hibs and Dundee Utd.  Housty had a shelf life and he probably stayed 6 months beyond it in the end. 

Ironically Yogi had the opposite problem - plenty of exciting signings (Wallner, Theobald, Uras etc) but couldn't work out what to do with some of them.  No denying Yogi's sides had some brilliant moments though and was great to see us play football rather than the sort of turgid mince McKinnon was serving up.  

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2 hours ago, Proudtobeabairn said:

Alan Gow type role then managing the recruitment process and scouting networks he could have done even better. 

I remain to be convinced on the Gow agreement.

The majority of cases where the person in charge of recruitment has had links with a player agency has led to a number of expensive wastes of money.
Even Man Utd suffered from this at the end of the Ferguson era. Obviously there are some exceptions like Wolves, but I'm skeptical.

I hope I'm proved wrong and there is no ongoing link to any particular agency. 

I also think M & M have done an excellent job on recruitment. If you had said half-way through last season we'd have signed Morrison, Keena and Alston I'd have laughed at you.

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Houston did a great job with us considering the teams we were up against at the top end of the championship. As others have said take Hibs, Hearts, Rangers out the equation we would have won the title. Where he failed was his try not to lose ethos and his awful recruitment. Looking no further than your own doorstep for players like Rankin, Harris, etc to replace those we lost was a recipe for disaster but some of the blame must lie with the board . His post match interview after the game at Dunfermline was only a matter of time before he was gone. He looked broken and he knew the game was up. Great servant for us though. 

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12 hours ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

Houston lost Alston-Sibbald and Vaulks the best balanced midfield we had in decades. Am hard pushed to come up with 3 players that complimented each other so well in Falkirk team. It was obvious and inevitable a team was breaking up either retiring with other players moving on Loy , Duffie for example.

It was a hard ask and rebuilding the side was a disaster. Whether Houston's heart was not in it with the talk of him leaving at the end of the season or the lack of funds from the board. Well maybe the truth of what happened will come out some day. As a manager in the good times he put a team on the park motivated, skilled with a savvy game plan that never gave up and gave the support some thrilling games ever seen by the support.

I will remember Peter Houston a player that tried no matter how he was playing. Remember one game he was having a stinker and the harder he tried the worse he got. ( we have all done it ) When he got substituted he got a standing ovation. It takes a certain type of player to get that for playing badly.

He should be remembered for these achievements and receive  the appropriate ovation when he comes to a Falkirk game.

 

 

Exactly , I cannot tell you how much I adore Peter Houston - he is undoubtedly another club legend.

How it ended for him at Falkirk can never taint the memories for me.

Forza Houstie ! The Ginger God! 

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I see it didn’t take long for Dundee to fall back into old ways, looks like they’ve got Charlie Adams signed, and not breaking their wage structure, aye. 

In a week where they sacked around 12/13 academy/youth coaches, and tens upon tens of young players, I’m sure there will be a surge with season ticket sales.....

 

How do you think we got Alston before Dundee did?

 

I remember we dumped 100 kids just before Christmas. Closed our Academy and chucked money at duds. Glass houses and all that

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