The Falkirk FC Thread

[knee jerk reaction]

Does anyone know how long before Connolly is back from injury? He's such a big miss for us. I've been impressed with dowds since restart, neillson looks a player, deveney didn't look bad and you have to wonder how he hasn't had a chance. I'd look at dropping Alston, Leitch and Hall (was horrendous v Arbroath) Francis has been better but couldn't get worse to be honest. Good chance to kick on now but league really could've been wrapped up by now 

[falkirkthebigclub]

1 hour ago, Shadwell Dog said:

'falkirk fan as a boy' ? So who is it you support now like?

He grew up & became a professional footballer. Most adults aren't passionate fans like us.

37 minutes ago, Bairn in Exile said:

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes. Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.

George Santayana

That would only be relevant if we reopen the academy with the intention of shutting it down again.

 

The worst thread on P&B.

[FFC 1876]

4 minutes ago, knee jerk reaction said:

Does anyone know how long before Connolly is back from injury? He's such a big miss for us. I've been impressed with dowds since restart, neillson looks a player, deveney didn't look bad and you have to wonder how he hasn't had a chance. I'd look at dropping Alston, Leitch and Hall (was horrendous v Arbroath) Francis has been better but couldn't get worse to be honest. Good chance to kick on now but league really could've been wrapped up by now 

If it's still his hamstring you never really know. Just a case of trying to strengthen it as much as possible then feeling it out. In the training video's the falkirk herald put up he was jogging round the park whilst the players were doing their box sessions so he's maybe close.

Edited March 25, 2021 by FFC 1876

[latapythelegend]

The academy issue is getting a bite tiresome now. It happened 2 years ago so move on. The board seem to accepted it was a mistake in hindsight so its better to look forward.

The decision only looks this bad in hindsight - I was at the AGM when Lang and co went into the detail and tried to justify it. You were lucky to see 3 or 4 people question it out of 200 who were in the room - myself included. That very same night, McKinnon got a rapturous applause.

5 months previous to that, hundreds of fans were packing into Elliots, BTW etc to listen to Hartley telling us his new revolutionary plan, most people left those meetings with optimism - myself included. Again, hindsight being key here. 

The academy was already dead by that point since it had been diluted with absolute shite from Stenny and the Shire under the umbrella of FV academy.

[Shadwell Dog]

2 hours ago, latapythelegend said:

The academy issue is getting a bite tiresome now. It happened 2 years ago so move on. The board seem to accepted it was a mistake in hindsight so its better to look forward.

The decision only looks this bad in hindsight - I was at the AGM when Lang and co went into the detail and tried to justify it. You were lucky to see 3 or 4 people question it out of 200 who were in the room - myself included. That very same night, McKinnon got a rapturous applause.

5 months previous to that, hundreds of fans were packing into Elliots, BTW etc to listen to Hartley telling us his new revolutionary plan, most people left those meetings with optimism - myself included. Again, hindsight being key here. 

The academy was already dead by that point since it had been diluted with absolute shite from Stenny and the Shire under the umbrella of FV academy.

Complete rubbish as we can see by the number of academy players that are now playing their trade at other clubs including the one that won us the game the other night. 

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Shadwell Dog

[Shadwell Dog]

2 hours ago, badgerthewitness said:

He grew up & became a professional footballer. Most adults aren't passionate fans like us.

That would only be relevant if we reopen the academy with the intention of shutting it down again.

 

The worst thread on P&B.

6 year ago he was a fan and going to cup finals now he's not. Most people have a football team from birth to death. They don't always follow them avidly but they don't change the team they follow either.

 

[Newbornbairn]

2 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

6 year ago he was a fan and going to cup finals now he's not. Most people have a football team from birth to death. They don't always follow them avidly but they don't change the team they follow either.

 

FFS - he's now a professional football player, he can't go around saying he's a fan of any club because that may limit his employment opportunities.  He's not saying he isn't a fan of Falkirk is he?

[Shadwell Dog]

3 minutes ago, Smikka Smikka Smoodoo said:

FFS - he's now a professional football player, he can't go around saying he's a fan of any club because that may limit his employment opportunities.  He's not saying he isn't a fan of Falkirk is he?

You what. You think Dundee united arent going to want him because he supports Falkirk. What a load of complete tosh. Many footballers support teams they don't play for and noone gives a feck as long as they perform on the park. Everyone and their dug knew Scott brown was a rangers fan but that didn't stop him captaining Celtic.

Edited March 25, 2021 by Shadwell Dog

[Gaz]

3 hours ago, badgerthewitness said:

He grew up & became a professional footballer. Most adults aren't passionate fans like us.

What's this drivel?

[latapythelegend]

13 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

Complete rubbish as we can see by the number of academy players that are now playing their trade at other clubs including the one that won us the game the other night. 

 

He scored a breakaway goal and won us the game - its great for him and I hope he does well for us but come on. We had a few decent prospects coming through which is absolute bare minimum you'd expect from any academy set up.  Apart form one or 2 who went to the OF have we missed out? 

I'm supportive of having an academy set up return but not one full of the hangers on that it became before. 2 or 3 age groups max (a few years apart) where the best we have across multiple ages can be part of the same team for a good amount of time is what we should aspire to. It condenses the quality and will be much more cost effective. I really hope that it the route we go down. The rest can play with mates in the community teams. 

 

[Gaz]

Just now, latapythelegend said:

I'm supportive of having an academy set up return but not one full of the hangers on that it became before. 2 or 3 age groups max (a few years apart) where the best we have across multiple ages can be part of the same team for a good amount of time is what we should aspire to. It condenses the quality and will be much more cost effective. I really hope that it the route we go down. The rest can play with mates in the community teams. 

I said at the time that most of the folk angry at the Academy being closed were mums and dads who couldn't tell their mates their kid played for Falkirk any more.

[Shadwell Dog]

1 minute ago, Gaz said:

I said at the time that most of the folk angry at the Academy being closed were mums and dads who couldn't tell their mates their kid played for Falkirk any more.

Apart from the people trying to keep the bloody thing open by offering to pay for it. It was a terrible decision and that's it. No point in trying to pretend otherwise.

[Shadwell Dog]

3 minutes ago, latapythelegend said:

He scored a breakaway goal and won us the game - its great for him and I hope he does well for us but come on. We had a few decent prospects coming through which is absolute bare minimum you'd expect from any academy set up.  Apart form one or 2 who went to the OF have we missed out? 

I'm supportive of having an academy set up return but not one full of the hangers on that it became before. 2 or 3 age groups max (a few years apart) where the best we have across multiple ages can be part of the same team for a good amount of time is what we should aspire to. It condenses the quality and will be much more cost effective. I really hope that it the route we go down. The rest can play with mates in the community teams. 

 

The under 15s at the time were rated the best in Scotland so the quality wasn't that bad I can assure you.

 

[latapythelegend]

2 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I said at the time that most of the folk angry at the Academy being closed were mums and dads who couldn't tell their mates their kid played for Falkirk any more.

Throughout my youth I played with a decent boys club locally who tended to compete for Scottish Cups and leagues. I had plenty mates who went "pro youth" with teams like Falkirk. Fast forward 14/15 years, these same guys don't even like football anymore and were drawn in by the "pro youth" set up which in turn was a few years of glorified friendlies against other academies. It benefited absolutely nobody. 

I'm a strong believer that the best way for young kids to develop is by finding their level with local boys clubs and sticking with it because the guys running that level have the kids best interests at heart.

If I had a kid at 11 years old who had the chance to play "pro-youth" with a Stenny/Falkirk/Shire or the opportunity to play with a Gairdoch/Syngenta/Steins. It would be the latter until such times as they reach an age where they know the can go in do something in the game, at which point a senior club would come calling at 15/16.

[latapythelegend]

9 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

The under 15s at the time were rated the best in Scotland so the quality wasn't that bad I can assure you.

 

They may have been, I have absolutely no idea what they were like 2/3 years ago. If that was the case then why wasn't there a firmer case for maintaining it? When it was closed, any justification for keeping it going wasn't voiced strongly enough. If your average fan knew how good the next crop of players were then their would've been stronger objections. 

[Gaz]

7 minutes ago, latapythelegend said:

Throughout my youth I played with a decent boys club locally who tended to compete for Scottish Cups and leagues.

Gairdoch?

[Shadwell Dog]

5 minutes ago, latapythelegend said:

They may have been, I have absolutely no idea what they were like 2/3 years ago. If that was the case then why wasn't there a firmer case for maintaining it? When it was closed, any justification for keeping it going wasn't voiced strongly enough. If your average fan knew how good the next crop of players were then their would've been stronger objections. 

Not voiced more than people wanting to put their own cash in to keep it going?  Most of your average fans bought the complete crap spouted by lang and Campbell that's the problem. If more of them had gone to Stirling and seen the set up and standard out there then there would be been far more opposition. The problem is we had started punting players before they even got a game in the first team which meant they were leaving earlier and earlier and the result was a barren spell for a couple of years. That would have rectified itself as the next batch came through and even during the barren spell we were still making cash from add ons and transfer percentages. Campbell had to justify his wages so came up with this idea and wouldn't let it go no matter how ridiculous it was.

Edited March 25, 2021 by Shadwell Dog

[Sarcastic Bairn]

3 minutes ago, latapythelegend said:

Throughout my youth I played with a decent boys club locally who tended to compete for Scottish Cups and leagues. I had plenty mates who went "pro youth" with teams like Falkirk. Fast forward 14/15 years, these same guys don't even like football anymore and were drawn in by the "pro youth" set up which in turn was a few years of glorified friendlies against other academies. It benefited absolutely nobody. 

I'm a strong believer that the best way for young kids to develop is by finding their level with local boys clubs and sticking with it because the guys running that level have the kids best interests at heart.

If I had a kid at 11 years old who had the chance to play "pro-youth" with a Stenny/Falkirk/Shire or the opportunity to play with a Gairdoch/Syngenta/Steins. It would be the latter until such times as they reach an age where they know the can go in do something in the game, at which point a senior club would come calling at 15/16.

I'm not totally disagreeing with you on the way forward and your experience, however the decision was awful and heralded as such at the time and not only from mums and dads.

The fact that we were told it was because of money issues/value, and then when that was offered to be covered it was shot down, tells you about how the place was being run and the lies being spouted to fans.

Absolutely ridiculous leadership.

 

 

[Newbornbairn]

36 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

You what. You think Dundee united arent going to want him because he supports Falkirk. What a load of complete tosh. Many footballers support teams they don't play for and noone gives a feck as long as they perform on the park. Everyone and their dug knew Scott brown was a rangers fan but that didn't stop him captaining Celtic.

Do you think Dulux would be impressed at an employee saying "I'm a big Johnstone's fan"? 

 

Footballers, those with half a brain, keep their allegiances to themselves. It's a job. 

[Shadwell Dog]

8 minutes ago, Smikka Smikka Smoodoo said:

Do you think Dulux would be impressed at an employee saying "I'm a big Johnstone's fan"? 

 

Footballers, those with half a brain, keep their allegiances to themselves. It's a job. 

What's paint got to do with it. Numerous players are spotted watching their teams when they aren't playing it doesn't mean they are suddenly sacked. Dundee united fans won't give a flying feck if he supports Falkirk if he's doing the business on the park.  Anyone that thinks there team has 11 fans in it is aff their nut. I mean I'm sure Cardiff city fans are in uproar every time will vaulks does a video to support Falkirk. It's just we never hear about it.

Edited March 25, 2021 by Shadwell Dog