The Falkirk FC Thread

[Numbers_One_To_Eleven]

14 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

14 hours ago, PedroMoutinho said:

We were 2 points off 7th when Hartley came in, having just beat Dunfermline and Morton under Alex Smith in the 2 games prior.
In fact, Inverness who were below us when he came in went on to finish in 5th place, just 2 points off the playoffs.
I’m not saying Hartley did a bad job in his first season but for me he certainly didn’t do anything exceptional imo. 

Dunfermline was challenge cup no?

Yes it was the cup.

See if anyone wants a reminder of results in any given season, just go to this page:

https://bettermeddle.org.uk/archive/byseason/results.php?year2=2018

This is the link for 2017/18 but just go to the archive for any season.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Numbers_One_To_Eleven

[scottsdad]

13 hours ago, The Holiday Song said:

Have absolutely no evidence of this, but often wonder if the board (or whoever was appointing the manager after Yogi) saw May as an almost Guardiola at Barca type, and wanted to keep the role in the Falkirk familiy (whatever the f'ck that would mean)... rather than being cheap. My only real reason for thinking for this is the success Pep had his first year as Barca first team manager, and that was 08/09 so would have been fresh in the board's mind after Yogi left... and George Craig seemed absolutely insane.

From memory, there was some logic given to the appointment. The idea was that as we had a good academy that was producing good players, then the academy coach is the natural choice to take this cohort of players on to bigger and better things.

As Blackadder would say, there was only one tiny flaw in the plan. It was bollocks.

[Gaz]

Retrospectively I can sort of understand the logic of appointing May. However it was obvious after about three weeks that it wasn't working. At that point we should have fired him back to the youth academy (which by various reports is what he wanted anyway) and advertised the job. Not limp on until late in the season.

[Shadwell Dog]

There was absolutely no feckin logic at all in it. The club was perhaps in its most attractive state in its history.  European football, established top flight club, great fan base and facilities. We would've had applicants for the managers post of extremely high calibre that we could only dream of now.  To give the post to your head of youth development who had absolutely zero managerial experiencece what so ever who wasn't even that keen was the act of fantasy of one man on by that stage a huge ego trip. There was no logic to it at all and it ended up costing us not just our top flight status but a first class head of our academy. The same clown went on to almost kill the club by hiding the tax demands from the bod until it was virtually too late and we were facing a winding up order. George Craig started the rot and that should never be forgotten.

[Proudtobeabairn]

What actually happened with the Crunchie Initiative?  Is it not going ahead? 

[Proudtobeabairn]

The "Summer of Hartley" saw us sign a lot of guys from down south, but there were also plenty of signings from up here that i'm sure Harltey himself would have identified and signed (Haber, Mackin, Petravicious, Russell etc). 

Let's not pretend Hartley is a good manager.  He's also an odious wee p***k as many others have pointed out.  

Edited April 27, 2021 by Proudtobeabairn

[Gaz]

Just now, Proudtobeabairn said:

The "Summer of Hartley" saw us sign a lot of guys from down south, but there were also plenty of signings from up here that i'm sure Harltey would have identified and signed (Haber, Mackin, Petravicious, Russell etc). 

Let's not pretend Hartley is a good manager.  He's also an odious wee p***k as many others have pointed out.  

He quite clearly is a good manager though, who inexplicably went absolutely insane over a three-month period with us.

[kiddy]

There was absolutely no feckin logic at all in it. The club was perhaps in its most attractive state in its history.  European football, established top flight club, great fan base and facilities. We would've had applicants for the managers post of extremely high calibre that we could only dream of now.  To give the post to your head of youth development who had absolutely zero managerial experiencece what so ever who wasn't even that keen was the act of fantasy of one man on by that stage a huge ego trip. There was no logic to it at all and it ended up costing us not just our top flight status but a first class head of our academy. The same clown went on to almost kill the club by hiding the tax demands from the bod until it was virtually too late and we were facing a winding up order. George Craig started the rot and that should never be forgotten.

They had avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth, having employed #DadsArmy, & appointed a management team where, if it failed, the ready made replacement was waiting in the wings! The wage/turnover ratio was horrendous & as the previous manager stated "Yer clubs fucked", as he walked out the door!

[Grangemouth Bairn]

22 minutes ago, Gaz said:

He quite clearly is a good manager though, who inexplicably went absolutely insane over a three-month period with us.

Clearly not that well admired though given he’s only employed at Cove due to family connections. Strange if he that’s good then bigger clubs haven’t snapped him up ?

Edited April 27, 2021 by Grangemouth Bairn

[Bairnardo]

He quite clearly is a good manager though, who inexplicably went absolutely insane over a three-month period with us.

He clearly is decent. He also, clearly is an odious wee p***k.

The further into the mire we get though, the more credible it seems that Hartley, though clearly FAR from blameless in what happened, was maybe a smaller part in it that previoudly thought. I mean, at that exact same time the academy was getting binned. Then they made a rip roaring c**t of hiring McKinnon, we went down, they made a c**t of it with M&M rushing in to make them permanent in a total facebook maw move and currently they are fucking off a group of fans trying to do something good for the club, presumably while "Kieran" scrapes around seeing if he can run with the idea but hijack it for an extra few quid (The Kevin McAllister @ Benny Ts stand)

And lets not forget some of them tried to hijack Rawlins/usher Alan Gow in the door.

Too many peolle have come and gone through years of utter catastrophe for the MSG and their stooges, the one constant, not to be at fault for the state of it. Hartley is a smaller part of where we are than it might initally seem IMO

[Marshmallo]

43 minutes ago, Proudtobeabairn said:

The "Summer of Hartley" saw us sign a lot of guys from down south, but there were also plenty of signings from up here that i'm sure Harltey himself would have identified and signed (Haber, Mackin, Petravicious, Russell etc). 

I am 100% not going to defend Hartley, but I got the impression he saw the players from down South in training, completely panicked and had to sign whoever was left from the Scottish leagues to try and put something together (Russell, Mackin, Haber, Froxylias).

[The Moonster]

37 minutes ago, Gaz said:

He quite clearly is a good manager though, who inexplicably went absolutely insane over a three-month period with us.

He's a decent manager but I don't think he's a long term answer. At Alloa they were well backed when he took them through the leagues, and other gaffers have been able to keep them in the Championship where he hilariously failed, quitting in a rage after Dumbarton humped his team 5-1.  It was failing apart and he left to try and save his reputation (and it worked). He done well at Dundee for 2 seasons before it again fell apart and he left. Done reasonably well in his first season with you guys then that nonsense happened. He's at Cove now and getting plaudits, but I think there needs to be some recognition that Cove's budget won't be a kick in the arse away from the full time sides in this division, it's not like he's overachieving right now. 

[Guest]

58 minutes ago, Proudtobeabairn said:

What actually happened with the Crunchie Initiative?  Is it not going ahead? 

Whether it goes ahead or not has and always will be up to the club. The Crunchie Initiative have stuck to their end of the bargain but in the year it’s been running there has been no formal agreement or public commitment from the club for the stand to be renamed. 

[Shadwell Dog]

2 minutes ago, Van_damage said:

Whether it goes ahead or not has and always will be up to the club. The Crunchie Initiative have stuck to their end of the bargain but in the year it’s been running there has been no formal agreement or public commitment from the club for the stand to be renamed. 

And yet you still get clowns on the Facebook page trying to back the bod on the whole thing. It's really no surprise we're fecked as a club.

 

[Gaz]

7 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

And yet you still get clowns on the Facebook page trying to back the bod on the whole thing. It's really no surprise we're fecked as a club.

MAYBE IF FOLK JUST SUPPORTED THE TEAM WE WOULD BE BETTER COYB

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Van_damage said:

Whether it goes ahead or not has and always will be up to the club. The Crunchie Initiative have stuck to their end of the bargain but in the year it’s been running there has been no formal agreement or public commitment from the club for the stand to be renamed. 

It does seem to be that the BoD enjoy a bit of self harm.  A group of supporters put in endless voluntary hours to plan the work and raise the funds only to be met with radio silence from our latest BoD.  If board members haven’t been crawling over one another to champion this, then for me, it paints a pretty bleak picture of how they intend running the club in the broader sense.

[Ranaldo Bairn]

50 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

And yet you still get clowns on the Facebook page trying to back the bod on the whole thing. It's really no surprise we're fecked as a club.

 

Me reading that FB page irl

 

[Reggie Perrin]

1 hour ago, Gaz said:

MAYBE IF FOLK JUST SUPPORTED THE TEAM WE WOULD BE BETTER COYB

Leave the trolling to the outsiders please!

 

 

 

 

 

COYB my arse!

[PedroMoutinho]

2 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

The further into the mire we get though, the more credible it seems that Hartley, though clearly FAR from blameless in what happened, was maybe a smaller part in it that previoudly thought. 

Not for me- the decision to sign a team of unseen youngsters on the advice of a ‘scout’ acting as an agent for many of them was Hartley’s and Hartley’s alone. That is the ultimate reason we are where we are now.

Yes, there’s an argument the board should have stepped in to stop it but I can only imagine the abuse they’d have got for preventing a popular manager signing the Chelsea under 23 captain and players from the Brighton and Watford academies.

Most managers would have walked if they were told a board made up of people like Martin Ritchie, Doug Henderson and Lex Miller were going to be approving or rejecting signings based on what they adjudged their ability to be.

[Bairnardo]

Not for me- the decision to sign a team of unseen youngsters on the advice of a ‘scout’ acting as an agent for many of them was Hartley’s and Hartley’s alone. That is the ultimate reason we are where we are now.
Yes, there’s an argument the board should have stepped in to stop it but I can only imagine the abuse they’d have got for preventing a popular manager signing the Chelsea under 23 captain and players from the Brighton and Watford academies.
Most managers would have walked if they were told a board made up of people like Martin Ritchie, Doug Henderson and Lex Miller were going to be approving or rejecting signings based on what they adjudged their ability to be.

Honestly, I am in no place to be absolving Hartley of anything. All I am saying is he came from, and moved into jobs where he had did/is doing ok or even well. Then theres us shoehorned in the middle where "he" employed this utterly wild, barely heard of approach to squad building, against a backdrop of Craig Campbell at al torpedoing an academy and chatting shit about fucking Brentford.

The longer we are a fucking farce, whilst Hartley returns to being a middling/decent Scottosh football manager who doesnt pursue a left field recruitment strategy, leaves me wondering just whose fucking idea it was and just how on board with it the various parties were.

Hartlet got what he deserved. Emptied from the club, but many others didnt, and here we are. Still utterly fucking rancid, still in league next season barring a miracle. What does that suggest......