The Falkirk FC Thread

[FFC 1876]

It's basically how the betfred format or whatever it's called now was sold. A means for teams not to worry too much about arranging pre season friendlies as they'd have 3 cup group games first to prepare for the start of the competitive season. Yes we all want to see us win competitive games but for me getting the squad and tactics sorted for the start of the league season takes priority. We have 16 signed players with Keena rumoured to be out so right now we're going into the cup games with a squad of 15.

[RC55 FFC]

The blame for how the league cup is treated is that of the blazers at Hampden. Firstly for how little significance it now has versus 30 years ago & also its current format & timing in mid July. 

Would love to win the league cup but getting out of the seeded format as a lower league club is difficult, even in the championship. Let’s face it, they want the last 8 to be the Prem clubs and no one else. 

[60`s bairn]

5 hours ago, Bainsfordbairn said:

 There's a very, very elderly acquaintance of both of us who I'm sure will be along shortly at least to supply the picture if not confirm my belief. 

 

 

Sorry thought you meant me for a minute, obviously not. Just to be awkward, I`ll post an alternative pic.

[roman_bairn]

The blame for how the league cup is treated is that of the blazers at Hampden. Firstly for how little significance it now has versus 30 years ago & also its current format & timing in mid July. 
Would love to win the league cup but getting out of the seeded format as a lower league club is difficult, even in the championship. Let’s face it, they want the last 8 to be the Prem clubs and no one else. 

Absolutely.
Let’s remember that these group games were deliberately set at the start of the season to replace preseason friendlies.
Hardly any surprise then that the tournament has very little credibility…..

[MS RR]

39 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

Well that’s not strictly true is it?
What is certainly true was that you were spotted on other teams forums taunting them re how many points Falkirk would win the league by under M and M’s stewardship, before it started to go wrong......

Depends when you think it "started to go wrong" (as if it was ever going right), I was calling for M&M to go after the East Fife defeat before the Covid break. You were defending M&M at that stage and remained an avid supporter of them long after it was clear they weren't up to it. So I wouldn't be surprised if you still have a bitter taste in your mouth about the awful way it ended for your Lee and David. 

[Bainsfordbairn]

27 minutes ago, 60`s bairn said:

Sorry thought you meant me for a minute, obviously not. Just to be awkward, I`ll post an alternative pic.

Wow. I never realised that Leahy was the taller of the two, or that both of them towered so far above you. 

Who says the camera never lies? 

[Reggie Perrin]

2 hours ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

Because FFC are seen as the last resort and that goes for loan players as well. Some of the signings we got was only because of 2 - 3 year deals.

 

Look at it from a potential players point of view.

Questionable directors. New manager. Uninspired squad. Hire and fire reputation. Mutinous support with little patience.

Lot better options out there.

 

 

Not the first time you have mentioned that the support have little patience.

Firstly those fans of a COYB spouting tendency (most) are more than patient, they will blindly accept any old shite the club serve up.

Secondly the more demanding element of our support have every right to be impatient with  the failure to rectify the complete shambles our club has become.

[Shadwell Dog]

2 hours ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

Because FFC are seen as the last resort and that goes for loan players as well. Some of the signings we got was only because of 2 - 3 year deals.

 

Look at it from a potential players point of view.

Questionable directors. New manager. Uninspired squad. Hire and fire reputation. Mutinous support with little patience.

Lot better options out there.

 

 

That's nonsense when your talking about clubs like east Fife etc getting better loan players than us recently. Falkirk should be a far more attractive prospect than most of our part time rivals. It's all about having the right contacts so that you actually know about these players. That's where other clubs have been miles ahead of us in recent years and that's shocking especially when your talking about part time teams.

[Shadwell Dog]

2 hours ago, AGPar said:

You keep regurgitating this over and over and over and over again. It never becomes any truer. When a player is considering an offer to sign for a club he'll be primarily looking at the financials, the identity of the manager, the style of play and how he fits into it, how much playing time he believes he will get. That we've emptied a few underperforming diddies from the manager's office, or have been and continue to be a complete embarrassment at boardroom and ownership level, will barely enter their thoughts, if at all. Plenty wouldn't even be able to  name our last two three managers, or who the chairman is. If we're an unattractive proposition for players relative to every other club of similar size in Scotland, it's because every one of them is currently playing at least at Championship level, whilst we're about to enter our third consecutive season flailing about in League 1. This "Hire and Fire" reputation does not come into it.

On the League Cup. If they're treating these matches as friendlies, fine, inform the supporters of this and charge accordingly. We'll have played five, maybe five and half months of competitive football in the past sixteen months. So if they're now writing off a national cup competition, it's because they realise our current squad has gaping holes in it and is light years away from being sufficient, and they're getting the excuses in nice and early. Pathetic attitude. 

Problem with the league cup has always been the issue with trialists. In past seasons they haven't been allowed I'm not sure whether this has changed or not but it would make sense to allow them if these games are to be treated as  competitive pre season games and then prohibit them from the knockout rounds onwards.

[ebobsboy]

4 hours ago, ilostmyself said:

He basically said we're using the League Cup as preseason. Decisions on the trialists next week apparently.

He can use it as a preseason all he wants, but it smacks of a. He doesn't know who he's signing and b. Daft statement to make when it's a competition you want to do well in.  

 

[gav-ffc]

58 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

That's nonsense when your talking about clubs like east Fife etc getting better loan players than us recently. Falkirk should be a far more attractive prospect than most of our part time rivals. It's all about having the right contacts so that you actually know about these players. That's where other clubs have been miles ahead of us in recent years and that's shocking especially when your talking about part time teams.

A player going on loan to a part time team means he still trains with his parent club a few times a week but had the league not stopped I would have been disappointed if we hadn’t signed Hamilton on loan from Livi. Sure he was announced going to Arbroath just shortly before the restart was announced.

[Hank von Hell]

8 hours ago, Syd Puddefoot said:

Fair enough, Id agree with some of that, ( Vaulks was watched before being invited up )but point is we've had  Sporting Director in place from January ( which we dont have back then) who remit allegedly is to target players, yet here we are a few weeks before the season starts and we have key positions to be filled and are scrambling about with trialists with unimpressive backgrounds.

Holt works 12 hour days , he's too busy for this.

And those midnight emails don't send themselves.  

[AGPar]

39 minutes ago, gav-ffc said:

A player going on loan to a part time team means he still trains with his parent club a few times a week but had the league not stopped I would have been disappointed if we hadn’t signed Hamilton on loan from Livi. Sure he was announced going to Arbroath just shortly before the restart was announced.

He signed for Arbroath on the 29th January, two and half weeks after League 1 was shut down and long before any restart had been agreed. He originally signed for EF on a season long loan in September and would have seen out the season there had it not been for the interruption. Never the slightest chance that we would have been signing him at any point. He was basically their replacement for Dowds. Hard to work out who got the better of these transactions. Livingston did, however, have within their ranks another attacking player available for loan, one capable of pretty much carrying a team to the title with his goals and assists. But how were we to know that? Not as if two our our management team hadn't been working  with him on a daily basis not too long ago. Just a naïve, inexperienced young kid anyway according to our Sporting Director. And he knows best. 

[Guest Caractacus Potts]

Find the chat about using the League cup games as friendlies totally frustrating. 
 

I never want to see a Falkirk side go out and treat a competitive game as such or effectively give up on the chance to win something. Did we not learn after the Celtic debacle? 
 

Pick what’s your best team and formation for the games and go out to win. I don’t care how the League Cup has been set up, it’s a chance to get to Hampden. If other teams treat it like a friendly then even better but I’ll be annoyed if we do. 

[Bairn in Exile]

Re: the League Cup, I agree with all the previous posters about expecting Falkirk to give 100% in every competitive game that we play.

Normally.

This season I couldn’t give a flying f*ck about the League Cup, getting out of this league is all that matters to me. I just don’t want the distraction of a cup run.

Same when the Scottish Cup comes around. If we are well clear at the top of the league than I would expect in our cup games that we give it a real go. If, however, we are only “in the mix” (yeeuugghh!) then I would quite happily see us not try a leg in these cup games either so that we can concentrate on “getting over the line” (double yeeuugghh).

And we obviously don’t need the prize money that a good cup run could generate ‘cos we’ve knocked back £550k of investment, right?

[Believe The Hype]

11 hours ago, latapythelegend said:

This.

Fucking hate how fans dismiss the league cup as friendlies. We should be looking to win every competitive fixture. I remember how Hartley treated the league cup like friendlies and fans used it as an excuse for what would set the tone for the season.

So we then treat it like Houston did, go in all guns blazing, steamroll the group, giving delusions of grandeur beating other teams who don't give a f**k, think we are the finished product, play our first league game, get totally found out and then spend the next 4 seasons trying to recreate the heady heights and buzz of those league Cup group stage performances?  The whole set up is shite and should completely be used as friendlies for our level, or 'competetive' fixtures that we are happy to try new things given the fact we have to play them a month before the season even begins. 

[Grangemouth Bairn]

11 hours ago, Back Post Misses said:

We are miles off it. No end of blah blah blah announcements about we have done this that and the other will convince me and most others. Just put all your efforts, short term into get the best team on the pitch. We look short in most areas IMO. 

We are getting nowhere near the top of the league again are we mate.

[Rocco]

1 hour ago, Caractacus Potts said:

Find the chat about using the League cup games as friendlies totally frustrating. 
 

I never want to see a Falkirk side go out and treat a competitive game as such or effectively give up on the chance to win something. Did we not learn after the Celtic debacle? 
 

Pick what’s your best team and formation for the games and go out to win. I don’t care how the League Cup has been set up, it’s a chance to get to Hampden. If other teams treat it like a friendly then even better but I’ll be annoyed if we do. 

I would agree with this if we’d retained the same manager from last season and kept the majority of the same squad. The new manager needs game time to see all players as they’re all new to him so he needs to use the league cup to experiment and see what players have to offer

[Bairn in Exile]

12 minutes ago, Rocco said:

I would agree with this if we’d retained the same manager from last season.

Wash your mouth out with soap and water. 

[Guest Caractacus Potts]

1 hour ago, Believe The Hype said:

So we then treat it like Houston did, go in all guns blazing, steamroll the group, giving delusions of grandeur beating other teams who don't give a f**k, think we are the finished product, play our first league game, get totally found out and then spend the next 4 seasons trying to recreate the heady heights and buzz of those league Cup group stage performances?  The whole set up is shite and should completely be used as friendlies for our level, or 'competetive' fixtures that we are happy to try new things given the fact we have to play them a month before the season even begins. 

That’s some take of what’s went wrong the last number of years- we’re in League 2 for the 3rd year because Houston tried to progress in the  League Cup!